SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Even as a cattail-skinny high school pitcher in Chesapeake, Va., “Fast Eddie” Butler possessed self-assurance that he would get to The Show.

The freckled-face, big-eared bright boy looked like Opie and threw like Nolan Ryan. On the neighbor’s 200-acre farm, he would knock a tomato can off a fence post from 60 feet, 6 inches. He was a starter on three straight state championship teams. When Eddie was a baby, his dad, Tim, played World Series tapes to lull him to sleep. At 17, the wunderkind was going and throwing at 90 miles an hour.

The Chicago Cubs were fascinated, or baffled, enough in 2009 to consider drafting the 6-foot-2, 145-pound missile launcher.

“I wanted a $400,000 bonus,” Butler says.

Not so fast, Eddie.

The Cubs balked, and the Texas Rangers selected Butler in the 35th round — the 1,054th pick.

“They offered me a $1,000 bonus.”

Butler paused for a self-effacing grin.

“I think I overvalued myself.”

So, instead of accepting the modest sum, Butler went off to college to gain knowledge, experience and weight. He turned down scholarships from major powers to play in the baseball backwoods at Radford University.

“Uh,” I said to Butler, “I thought that was an all-girls school.”

“It used to be.”

The small college in southwest Virginia attracted “Southern gentlewomen” until admitting men in the 1970s. The Radford Highlanders were prominent nationally … in women’s softball.

Butler became nationally prominent in baseball … and, after his junior year, was drafted in the compensatory first round — 46th overall — by the Rockies in 2012.

He received a $1 million bonus and was no longer undervalued.

In two seasons on a mercurial rise in the minors, Butler compiled a 16-6 record and a miserly 1.91 earned run average.

Now 22 and weighing 180, Butler is the franchise’s No. 2-rated prospect (behind the 2013 No. 1 choice, Jon Gray) and competing in big-league camp.

Kid Rock is anticipated to be a starter in The Show sometime this season — on opening day, if he has his way.

“I hope to pitch so well, they have to keep me (with the Rox),” he said over the weekend at Talking Stick.

Rockies pitching coach Jim Wright says: “I haven’t seen much of Butler yet, but I can tell he’s a power pitcher with a hard, late sinker that will serve him well in Colorado’s altitude.

“And he certainly doesn’t lack for confidence.”

Butler doesn’t lack, either, for the two-seam sinker, a four-seam fastball that reached triple digits last season, a superb changeup and a tantalizing slider. Plus, he talks and throws like “Nuke” LaLoosh out of “Bull Durham.”

In 2012, he was 7-1 (2.13 ERA) with Grand Junction. Last year he started at Asheville (5-1, 1.66), was quickly promoted to Modesto, then to Tulsa, where he gave up only two runs in six starts (0.65). He didn’t permit a hit in one inning of work at The Futures all-star game.

In the Rockies’ intrasquad game Thursday, Butler allowed one run, Gray none in their short stints.

Butler says that not long ago, though, “I was a punk.

“I tried to strike out everybody. I’d get 10 strikeouts in five innings, but I was wasted. I had to learn to throw to contact.”

Yet, in 217 innings of pro ball, he has recorded 198 K’s with 65 walks and 45 earned runs.

“I’m working more on location, moving the ball outside to in, improving my two-seamer.”

Butler was Radford’s all-time leader in victories (22) and the Big South Conference’s pitcher of the year. The “CSI” junkie majored in criminal justice and aspires to earn an engineering degree, manufacture firearms for the military and race monster trucks, but he really wants to “pitch for a long time.”

The Cubs lament their decision not to give Butler $400,000.

The Rockies do not regret that last year they turned down several deals from clubs seeking Butler.

Rather, the Rox salivate over a potential rotation in 2015 that would include Butler, Gray, Brett Anderson, Jhoulys Chacin and Juan Nicasio or Tyler Chatwood. The six range in age from 22 to 27.

For Butler, starting for the Rockies “will be a bigger stage, and I’ll be nervous. But I can’t wait to face major-league hitters and fly to road games in an airplane. Those 14-hour trips in a bus without air conditioning get old.”

Eddie always has been on the cooler, faster track.

Woody Paige: woody@woodypaige.com or twitter.com/woodypaige