How Landen Roupp became an SF Giants pitching prospect to watch

Landen Roupp turned heads in the SF Giants farm system in 2022. Roupp chatted with our own Marc Delucchi about his breakout season.

The SF Giants 2021 draft class turned in some excellent performances in 2022. Vaun Brown came out of nowhere to have one of the best minor-league seasons in the 21st century. But Brown was not the only unheralded member of the class to make some noise in his first pro season. Right-handed pitcher Landen Roupp, who the Giants drafted in the 12th round out of UNC Wilmington, had a breakout season of his own.

Roupp spoke with Giants Baseball Insider about his journey to pro baseball earlier this offseason. Roupp spoke on the phone from North Carolina as he geared up for deer hunting season.

Roupp had a promising debut after signing in 2021, recording 14 strikeouts and just 1 walk with a 2.25 ERA in 8 innings pitched between Rookie Ball and Single-A. But he was a starter for four years in college. It's quite common for older college pitchers to dominate the lower minors before struggling against better competition.

In 2022, Roupp struggled with knee problems during spring training, which led the Giants to assign him back to Single-A San Jose. The San Jose Giants had a crowded pitching staff and Roupp was forced to start the season as a long reliever.

Roupp credited San Jose Giants pitching coach Dan Runzler for helping him unlock his potential. "He told me, 'Your stuff is good, you just need to throw it,'" Roupp said. "That helped me a lot."

With his knee healthy, Roupp quickly proved he needed another challenge. Roupp posted a 2.59 ERA in 48.2 innings at San Jose (14 appearances) and amassed 69 strikeouts. A promotion to High-A Eugene did nothing to slow him down. Roupp was even more dominant, recording a 1.67 ERA across 32.1 innings (7 starts) with 52 strikeouts and 9 walks.

Then, Roupp became the first member of the Giants 2021 draft class to reach Double-A when he was promoted to the Richmond Flying Squirrels. While the righty was not as dominant in the upper minors, he remained quite effective. Roupp averaged more than five innings per start and amassed 31 strikeouts (11 walks) in 26.1 innings pitched with a 3.76 ERA.

"I wasn't a huge prospect out of high school," Roupp told GBI. The Red Sox were the only team that reached out to him during his high school career. So when he arrived in Wilmington, he knew what he needed to do. He needed to throw harder.

His fastball sat in the upper 80s, occasionally reaching 90 mph early in his collegiate tenure. But over time, he began sitting from 89-91 mph with the ability to reach the mid-90s from time to time.

Roupp was a mainstay in UNC-Wilmington's rotation from 2018-2021, improving each season. His curveball has always been his best pitch, but Roupp's ability to mix and match his arsenal for strikes alongside improved velocity started to get the attention of scouts.

RHP Landen Roupp (23Y, 2021 12th round pick) has a good looking curveball. Video from his San Jose debut: pic.twitter.com/Qoc2ssYUiX

— GPT (@giantsprospects) September 20, 2021

"One game, in particular, my sophomore year, I was throwing against George Kirby," Roupp recalled. "I ended up going 8.1 innings with 11 strikeouts. I just had all my stuff working, and there were probably 25 scouts at that game."

Heading into his junior year, Roupp met with several teams and seemed on a trajectory to be drafted at some point on Day 2. However, the COVID-19 pandemic cut the college season short and MLB condensed the draft to just five rounds. Roupp still thought he would be selected at some point, noting that the Tigers and Yankees had both shown a lot of interest. But 160 picks came and went without Roupp hearing his name called.

So, Roupp returned to Wilmington for one more season and won the conference Pitcher of the Year Award. With a 20-round draft in 2021, Roupp was on the verge of achieving a lifelong dream.

Roupp spoke with scouts throughout the season and met with more than a dozen teams over the pre-draft process. Yet, it was the Giants, a team he had not met with before the draft, that selected him with the 356th overall pick.

"It was a complete and total surprise," Roupp said. "It's kinda crazy, I had a dream my sophomore year I got drafted by the Giants, but I had only talked to them like once."

Now, more than a year later, Roupp has made the Giants look smart for drafting him. While he remains far away from achieving his ultimate goal, he still looks back on his first full season with pride.

"It was awesome," he said. "It takes all the work I put in for it. Just being able to throw the baseball and help the team."

His fastball picked up velocity once he got onto a professional training regimen and has refined both his slider and curveball into potential above-average MLB pitches. This offseason, Roupp will be traveling back to Arizona before spring training to set himself up for 2023. He's hoping to add another pitch to his arsenal and is currently playing with a cutter, which would be of particular use against left-handed pitching.

"Ever since I was young, me and my brother would throw baseballs in the yard," Roupp said. "That's where I found my love for the game. I don't wake up and go to sleep without thinking about baseball."

After a standout campaign in 2022, Landen Roupp is no longer under the radar. With plenty of exciting prospects in the Giants organization, there's a case to be made that the 12th-round pick out of UNC-Wilmington is the favorite to be the first member of the SF Giants 2021 draft class to reach the majors. That's quite the meteoric rise for an unheralded high school prospect.