Rick Ankiel

Richard Alexander Ankiel,

(pronounced /ˈæŋkiːl/; born July 19, 1979) is an outfielder in Major League Baseball for the Atlanta Braves. He bats and throws left-handed.

Ankiel was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals through the 2009 season. He was a pitcher until 2004, when he switched to the outfield after he was no longer effective. After honing his skills as a hitter and fielder in the minor league system, he was called up to the Cardinals on August 9 and made his major league debut as an outfielder in right field against the San Diego Padres in St. Louis. As a Cardinal, Ankiel hit 47 home runs as an outfielder and 2 as a pitcher. After a mediocre 2009 season in which he hit just .231 with 11 home runs in 122 games, Ankiel became a free agent.

Early career

Rick attended Port St. Lucie High School in Florida, where he went 11–1 with a 0.47 ERA during his senior season, striking out 162 batters in 74.0 innings pitched, and was named the High School Player of the Year by USA Today in 1997. He was also a 1st Team High School All-American pitcher.

Ankiel signed with the Cardinals out of high school for a $2.5 million signing bonus, the fifth-highest ever given to an amateur player. In 1998, he was Carolina League All-Star starting pitcher, Baseball America's first team Minor League All-Star starting pitcher, voted the best pitching prospect in both the Carolina and Midwest leagues, and was Cardinals Minor League Player of the Year. That year he led all minor league pitchers in strikeouts, with 222.

In 1999, he was named the Minor League Player of the Year by both USA Today and Baseball America. He was also Texas League All-Star pitcher, Double-A All-Star starting pitcher, Cardinals Minor League Player of the Year, and Baseball America 1st team Minor League All-Star starting pitcher.

Major league career

Ankiel debuted in 1999 in Montreal, against the Expos. He pitched his first full season in 2000 at the age of 20 (second youngest in the league), posting an 11–7 record, a 3.50 ERA (tenth in the league), and 194 strikeouts (seventh in the league) in 30 games started. Ankiel threw a 94- to 97-mph fastball, a heavy sinker, and a fall-off-the-table curveball that was his main strikeout pitch. He struck out batters at a rate of 9.98 strikeouts per nine innings (second in the National League only to Randy Johnson), and allowed only 7.05 hits per nine innings (second only to Chan Ho Park). He came in second (to the Atlanta Braves' Rafael Furcal) in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Downfall as a pitcher

The Cardinals won the National League Central Division championship in 2000. Injuries to other pitchers left Ankiel and Darryl Kile as the only fully healthy starters left on the Cardinals roster. Tony La Russa chose Ankiel to start Game 1 of the National League Division Series against veteran pitcher Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves. To shield Ankiel from media pressure, La Russa had Kile answer questions to the media as if he were starting Game 1, and afterwards informed the media that Ankiel was starting.

Game 1 started well for Ankiel, who did not allow a run through the first two innings. In the third inning, after a walk and a foul-out, Ankiel lost control; he allowed 4 runs on 2 hits, 4 and throwing 5 wild pitches before being removed with two outs. Here is the play-by-play from that inning:

Greg Maddux walks on four pitches.

Rafael Furcal fouls out to first baseman Will Clark.

Andruw Jones at bat: two wild pitches (on 0-1 and 2-1) advance Maddux to second and then third. A. Jones walks on five pitches.

Chipper Jones at bat: a third wild pitch (on 2-2) advances A. Jones to second. C. Jones strikes out looking.

Andrés Galarraga walks on a full count. Ball four is the fourth wild pitch of the inning, scoring Maddux and advancing A. Jones to third.

Brian Jordan singled to center. A. Jones scores, Galarraga to second.

Reggie Sanders at bat: a fifth wild pitch (on 1-1) advances Galarraga to third and Jordan to second. Sanders walks on five pitches.

Walt Weiss singled to center. Galarraga and Jones score. On the throw home by Ray Lankford, Sanders to second.

Mike James pitching. Javy López popped out to second baseman Fernando Viña.

Ankiel's line for that inning: 8 batters faced, 35 pitches, 4 earned runs, 2 hits, 4 walks, 5 wild pitches. The Cardinals did win the game 7-5, with James picking up the win.

Ankiel shrugged off the event, joking that he was the first pitcher to throw five wild pitches in an inning since Bert Cunningham of the Players League in 1890.

But in his next start, in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, Ankiel was removed in the first inning after throwing 20 pitches, five of which went past catcher Eli Marrero (only two were official wild pitches, as no runners were on base for the others), and the first of which sailed over the head of Mets' hitter Timo Perez. Ankiel appeared again in the seventh inning of Game 5 facing four hitters, walking two, and throwing two more wild pitches. The Cardinals lost the series four games to one to the Mets.

The source of Ankiel's problems were unknown, and his loss of control has been compared to that of Steve Blass, who also became unable to consistently throw strikes for unknown reasons. A section of a book about Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa, Three Nights in August, details Ankiel's rise to the big leagues and loss of control as a pitcher in 2000-01. LaRussa has stated that putting Ankiel into Game 1 of the 2000 NLDS was "a decision that perhaps haunts him more than any he has ever made."

Aftermath

Rick Ankiel in the minor leagues playing for the Swing of the Quad Cities

Ankiel returned to the majors in 2001 but again had issues controlling his pitches, walking 25 batters and throwing five wild pitches in 24 innings, and was sent down to AAA. Here his problems became dramatic. In 4.1 innings, Ankiel walked 17 batters and threw 12 wild pitches, accumulating an ERA of 20.77. He was sent all the way down to the Rookie League Johnson City Cardinals, where he was successful as both a starting pitcher and a part-time designated hitter (sporting a .638 slugging percentage with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs in 105 at bats). He was voted Rookie Level Player of the Year, Appalachian League All-Star left-handed pitcher, Rookie League All-Star starting pitcher, Appalachian League Pitcher of the Year, and Appalachian League All-Star designated hitter.

In 2002, Ankiel sat out the season with a left elbow sprain, and was not cleared to throw until December. He returned to the minors in 2003, posting a 6.20 ERA in 10 starts before undergoing season-ending ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) for his left elbow in July. In 54.1 innings, he walked 49 batters and threw 10 wild pitches.

Ankiel returned to the majors in September 2004, posting a 5.40 ERA in five relief appearances. Ankiel's control problems appeared to be gone, as he walked just one while striking out nine in ten innings. In the minors, he walked only two batters in 23.2 innings, while striking out 23. However, on March 9, 2005, after a successful winter pitching in the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League, Ankiel announced that he was switching to the outfield,after a spring training game in which he threw only three strikes out of 20 pitches. He slugged .514 in single A, and .515 in double A, with 5 outfield assists in 55 games.

2006 season

In 2006, Ankiel was invited to spring training with the major league squad as an outfielder. He had a slim chance to make the team as a reserve player. His fielding impressed scouts and managers, and he had shown flashes of power hitting in the minor leagues. However, he injured his left knee before the season started, and had season-ending surgery on May 26, 2006.

2007 season

Ankiel was invited to the Cardinals' 2007 spring training. In mid-March, manager LaRussa said Ankiel didn't figure into the mix at the big-league level and needed to play regularly at Class AAA Memphis as he continued his conversion from pitching. "It isn't because he isn't capable," he said. "(But) unless you can guarantee that he would get 400 or 500 at-bats, it would be a bad move for him and for us."

On Memorial Day May 28, 2007, Ankiel hit two home runs in Round Rock, Texas against the Round Rock Express. He also hit an RBI double and made an over-the-shoulder catch in deep center field that saved two runs. Ankiel was named a starting outfielder for the 2007 Triple-A All-Star Game. Through August 8, he had 32 home runs, 89 RBIs and was hitting .267, including a three-home run performance on June 16 at Iowa. He was the home run leader in the Pacific Coast League, and tied for second in RBIs at the time of his callup. Defensively, Ankiel had seven errors in 95 games.

Return to the majors

On August 9, 2007, the Cardinals promoted Ankiel  from the AAA Memphis Redbirds after a roster spot was vacated by Scott Spiezio's departure. Ankiel batted second and played right field. In his first at bat, he received a prolonged standing ovation from the St. Louis crowd. During the seventh inning, he hit a three-run home run off Doug Brocail to right field to help the Cardinals defeat the San Diego Padres, 5–0. It was his first home run in the majors since April 2000 (as a pitcher), and made him the first player since Clint Hartung (1947) to hit his first major league home run as a pitcher and then hit a home run as a position player. The player before Hartung who accomplished this was Babe Ruth. After the game, manager Tony La Russa said that his only happier moment as a Cardinal was when they won the 2006 World Series.Two days later, against the Dodgers on August 11, Ankiel drew three standing ovations. He had three hits, including two home runs and three RBIs and made a spectacular catch in right field.

Ankiel's comeback prompted syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer to write on August 17, 2007: "His return after seven years—if only three days long—is the stuff of legend. Made even more perfect by the timing: Just two days after Barry Bonds sets a synthetic home run record in San Francisco, the Natural returns to St. Louis."

Ankiel hit the first grand slam, at St. Louis against left-handed Eddie Guardado of the Cincinnati Reds on August 31, 2007 with the team trailing 4–3, for a 8–5 win that broke a tie with Red Schoendienst for LaRussa for most wins by a Cardinals manager. In a home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 6, he recorded his second two-home run game of the season with a 3-for-4, 7 RBI effort, along with an over-the-shoulder catch in deep right field. He had two curtain calls in this game. On September 23, Ankiel had his first walk-off hit, a two-run triple to win the last Sunday Night Baseball game of the season against the Astros 4–3.

One negative factor in Ankiel's performance was his strikeout rate; he struck out 41 times in just 172 at-bats in 2007. He finished the year with a .285 batting average, 11 home runs, 39 RBIs, a .328 on-base percentage, .535 slugging percentage and an .863 OPS in 47 games, and 172 at-bats. The Cardinals, who had won division titles from 2004–2006 and the 2006 World Series, finished 2007 with a 78–84 record and missed the playoffs.

Following the 2007 season, Ankiel admitted to using HGH, but said he was following doctor's orders. HGH was not banned by Major League Baseball until 2005.Major League Baseball concluded that there was insufficient evidence of any wrongdoing by Ankiel.

2008 season

Ankiel helped the Cardinals defeat the Colorado Rockies on May 6 by recording two outfield assists and a home run to propel St. Louis to a 6 to 5 victory. Ankiel, on both assists, threw the ball from deep center field to Troy Glaus at third. He finished 2008 with a .264 batting average, 25 home runs, and 71 runs batted in.[11]

2009 season

During a May 4th game against the Phillies, Ankiel collided with the outfield wall, and was carted off the field. The injury was reported as whiplash, and Ankiel was placed on the disabled list on May 7. He was re-activated on May 24th against the Kansas City Royals. Ankiel finished the season with 11 home runs, 38 RBIs, and a .231 batting average.

2010 season

In January 2010, Ankiel signed a 1 year $3.25 million contract with the Kansas City Royals.
Ankiel began the season as the Royal's starting center fielder, but was placed on the disabled list in early May with a strained right quadriceps after playing sparingly since April 24th. He was re-activated on July 23rd, and replaced an injured David DeJesus midway through the game in center field.

On July 31, 2010, Ankiel was traded to the Braves along with Kyle Farnsworth for Jesse Chavez, Gregor Blanco, and Tim Collins. 

Personal

Ankiel is a native of Fort Pierce, Florida. He makes his off-season home in Jupiter, Florida with wife, Lory.

(source:wikipedia)