Poor Poor Rick Ankiel. In 2000 to me there was no pitcher easier to root for than Rick Ankiel. He was my favorite pitcher in the big leagues. Young, fireballin, sweet friggin socks, he was the man. And then as everyone knows he went Chuck Knoblauch on everyone and not only could not throw strikes but couldn't throw the ball anywhere near the plate. Since then he toiled in the minors for a few years trying to put back together his ability to throw strikes until eventually after an assortment of injuries and the continuance of his control problems he decided to switch to the outfield in 2005. Well that didn't get off to a superb start after a half of season in 05 when he played relatively well in the low minors and in 06 when he had season ending knee surgery in May 2006. So coming into this year Ankiel was in limbo, he was given a Spring training spot with basically no chance of making the roster and was eventually sent down to AAA where he has remained for the season. And guess what he's absolutely raking for the AAA Memphis Redbirds:
AVG Rs H HR Rbi OBP SLG OPS
.282 38 60 19 52 .317 .606 .923
He's actually leading the Pacific Coast League in Homers, is fifth in the league in Rbi and has been named to the AAA All-Star team, so the callup is imminent right? Especially with Jim Edmonds just landing on the 15 day DL right? Well, apparently not. The problem is the Cardinals don't want to bring him up on a trial basis because they are out of options on him. Meaning if they bring him up and they decided the want to send him back down he goes on the Waiver Wire, so basically now he's getting boned because he made the roster a bunch of times during his pitching years and the Cards are afraid to lose him. Ouch. Rick Ankiel you certainly have not had the charmed baseball life.
Here's a depressing Ankiel glory days video...
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