Daily Journal Baseball Player of the Year: Menlo-Atherton’s George Zaharias

Zaharias — despite admittedly not yet reaching his full potential in his first season since returning from elbow surgery in December 2021 — emerged to be named PAL Bay Division Pitcher of the Year.

“I still think I have a long ways to go,” Zaharias said. “There were a bunch of moments where I felt like I wasn’t where I should have been if I didn’t get hurt. … There were a lot of moments where, if I had an extra year and a half of training, it would have been helpful.”

Even though a limited pitch count at the start of the season hindered his overall workload, Zaharias was still the top baseball player in San Mateo County, earning him another honor — Daily Journal Baseball Player of the Year.

When Paroubeck took over the M-A baseball program this year, he knew he had something special on his hands in Zaharias. At 6-4, 200 pounds, the big right-hander is a physical specimen, one that is going to look right at home in a Texas Longhorns uniform, having committed to play at University of Texas as a sophomore.

Paroubeck knows the recruiting circuit through and through, even though he bypassed college out of Serra in 2013 when he was selected in the second round of the MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres. So, when Zaharias began regaining his form, highlighted by a breakout performance March 24, working six innings to combine with Phillips on a perfect game against Half Moon Bay, Paroubeck was already in awe of the kid’s stuff.

“It was: ‘Woah! This is something different. This is not something you’re ever going to see again,’” Paroubeck said. “So, it was just really fun to see.”

Zaharias is critical of his 3.07 ERA. While not terrible, it was inflated by several bad outings, including his first two brief stints of the year, giving up five runs in 4 1/3 innings.

“Normally, I don’t really care about ERA as much, just because there’s a lot of other areas and causes that go into it,” Zaharias said. “But I normally care about strikeouts and number of innings pitched, and stuff like that.”

The right-hander’s strikeout numbers speak for themselves — 95 strikeouts in 45 1/3 innings pitched, ranking sixth in the Central Coast Section and tops throughout the entire PAL.

Zaharias’ stuff is legit. With a fastball that touches 93 mph, it has an average spin rate of 2,324 RPMs, and a max of 2,413 RPMs. He drops nearly 15 mph on his curveball, an eye-popping variation, with a vertical break of -15.0 and a horizontal break of -12.2. These current examples of modern metrics are consistent with how he was throwing earlier this year in returning from the arm injury.

“It was actually pretty early,” Zaharias said. “A lot of the times we come back from injury, things can change ... but the metrics, I retained them pretty well for most of my pitches.”

Armed with the early insight of his overall arm strength, Zaharias entered his senior year with plenty of confidence. Despite working throughout the first month of the season on a limited pitch count, he found other ways to impress Paroubeck. The two began running together at an early point of the season. And by “running,” we’re not talking friendly jogs around the track, but 100-yard wind sprints, 10 at a time.

“And after the first few, he just kind of smoked me,” Paroubeck said. “I was like: ‘Damn! This kid is a special athlete.’”

Still, Paroubeck and M-A pitching coach Zac Grotz were careful with their promising right-hander. Not only was he returning from injury, the 2023 season was only really his second full year pitching in organized baseball. Not only did he miss pitching his junior year due to injury, his freshman year was lost to the COVID pandemic. And prior to that, he underwent two knee surgeries in middle school, one on each knee, to repair the broken tips of his femur bones.

Coming from a basketball family, Zaharias exceled on the court growing up. Having just recovered from knee injuries entering high school made him rethink his path in athletics.

“I would say it was one of the driving factors just because my dad played college basketball and baseball, and was always basketball first, and that was always mine first too,” Zaharias said. “But I always loved baseball too, so I was comfortable switching to baseball.”

Choosing baseball has suited him well.

“He kind of has that aura about him,” Paroubeck said. “Just a tall, strong, talented kid. A natural leader and he has that: ‘Oh, shoot! There’s George!’ He kind of has that factor to him.”

Now, Zaharias is joining a line of M-A baseball players to advance to the NCAA Division I ranks in recent years. Tommy Eisenstat, a 2021 graduate of M-A, is currently at Gonzaga University, while M-A grad Max Coupe will be joining him at the Washington campus next season as a transfer from Skyline College. John Quinlan and Nate Baxter, also 2021 M-A grads, are in the Ivy League, playing at Cornell and Harvard, respectively.

Now, Zaharias leaves his own legacy at M-A, one he hopes will see continued success in the years to come.

“I think what I did to help the team and a program in the future is just set a precedent of how hard we have to work,” Zaharias said. “It’s important being a leader and making sure everyone is doing the work together … just making sure everyone does everything they can to become the best that they can be. … It was a great experience being a leader for this team.”