Roth: Blue Jays’ lefty knuckleballer took the longest road back to the big leagues
From David Roth at Deadspin on May 21, 2019:
On Saturday, in his first big league start since September 2008, Ryan Feierabend threw the first complete game of his career. It was less triumphant than it sounds. Feiereabend threw four full innings in a game that wound up getting called in the fifth due to rain, allowing four runs on seven hits, a walk, and a homer; it was complete enough by the official standard to tie him for the American League lead, with one. It was the 33-year-old’s first big league decision in 11 years, both were losses.
There’s no real reason why you would or should know who Ryan Feierabend is, or why even the most ardent of Seattle Mariners fans would remember him better than any of the many other pitching prospects that broke or busted or burnt up on reentry with the organization over the last couple decades. Feierabend was the team’s third-round pick in 2003, which wound up being a typically unproductive draft for the team. Adam Jones, the team’s first pick at 37th overall, went on to become a star and a franchise icon—in Baltimore, where he was sent along with a few of the team’s other top prospects in a deal that brought back the scorched remains of Erik Bedard’s left arm. Besides Feiereabend and Jones, only three of the 50 players that Seattle picked that year ever reached the majors.
Read the full article here: https://deadspin.com/torontos-lefty-knuckleballer-took-the-longest-road-back-1834881739?rev=1558460189115
Originally published: May 21, 2019. Last Updated: May 21, 2019.