WHEATFIELD — Kankakee Valley’s ace pitcher for the past four years, Alex Barr, has been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft by the Athletics.
The 2025 Northwest Crossroads Conference Pitcher of the Year, Barr — who is one of three high school players from Indiana picked among the draft’s 615 players — was the 350th pick in the 12th round.
The Indiana University recruit is the first KVHS player to drafted by a MLB club.
A hard-throwing left-hander, Barr was considered one of the top pitchers in the state in 2025 after posting a .57 earned run average in eight starts. He struck out 76 batters over 36 2/3 innings and allowed just three earned runs all season.
A 6-foot-2, 200-pound four-year starter, Barr is considered the state’s second best left-handed pitcher by perfectgame.org and 26th best lefty in the nation.
He was also a force at the plate, hitting .452 with 11 extra-base hits and 25 runs batted in.
The Athletics are still known as the Oakland Athletics, though they currently play in Sacramento, California, and will again in 2026 and 2027. They are expected to move into a new stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the 2028 season.
Another Indiana pitching prospect, Lake Central’s Josh Flores, was the 125th pick by the Milwaukee Brewers after posting a 7-0 record with a 2.76 ERA for the Indians in the spring.
A member of Lake Central’s 2024 state championship team, the right-hander struck out 70 batters in 38 innings of work.
Flores committed to playing for the University of Kentucky last summer, but could join former Lake Central teammates Griffin Tobias and Josh Adamczewski in the Brewer’s organization.
The other Indiana high school player selected in the draft was Evansville Memorial pitcher Matthew Fisher. He was the 221st overall pick in the seventh round by the Philadelphia Phillies last Monday.