You gotta feel sorry for St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel. He started out his major league career as a pitcher, and a very promising pitcher at that.
Here's his back-story:
Ankiel was drafted in the second round in 1997 and appeared on the verge of becoming one of baseball's best young left-handers when he went 11-7 with a 3.50 ERA and 194 strikeouts in 2000, his rookie season. He earned the start in Game 1 of the playoffs against the Atlanta Braves.
In one painful afternoon, things fell apart.
Pitching with a big lead in the third inning, Ankiel walked four of eight hitters and threw a record five wild pitches, some bouncing off the backstop. In another playoff game that season against the Mets, he threw four more wild pitches in a brief appearance.
He never recovered, going 1-2 in 2002 while trying to work through the wildness. After that, he pitched 10 more innings in the major leagues.
In the spring of 2005, Ankiel threw three strikes among 23 pitches at a spring training scrimmage against Cardinals hitters and decided to walk away from pitching and turn his attention to the outfield. He hit .250 with two homers and nine RBI in his only full season in the major leagues.
He showed promise, with a combined 21 home runs and 75 RBI in 85 games for Class-A Quad Cities and Double-A Springfield in 2005.
But then he hurt his knee in spring training, and wasn't able to play in a single game. On May 26th, he had knee surgery.
I hate to see a guy with so much potential and willingness to put in so much hard work have to go through something like this. :(
