Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies
of the Year in 1994, today we examine former Angels/Indians/Diamondbacks/Royals
pitcher Brian Anderson.
Anderson was drafted in the first round (third overall pick
behind Alex Rodriguez and Darren Dreifort) in the 1993 major league draft by
the California Angels out
After the draft, Anderson was assigned to AA Midland, where
in two games, he went 0-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 10 2/3 innings, giving up 16 hits
(including two home runs), four earned runs, and nine strikeouts with no
walks. Obviously, the 21 year old
Anderson was ready to promote to AAA Vancouver.
There, also in two games, he was 0-1 with a 12.38 ERA in eight innings,
giving up 13 hits (including two more home runs), 11 earned runs, and two
strikeouts with six walks. Sounds ready
for the majors to me!
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| I'm no Roberto Alomar. |
Anderson made his major league debut on September 10th,
1993, in an Angels 10-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Usually you can find SOMETHING interesting
that happened in a game, but this one, not so much. The Blue Jays did score six in the bottom of
the third, but on four singles, a double, and a walk. Joe Carter hit a two run shot in the bottom
of the sixth. Oh, this was the game
where Jim Edmonds got his first career hit, a pinch-hit double.
Other than that, you saw the Angels’ Phil
Leftwich last only three innings, giving up all six runs to the Blue Jays in
the third. Tim Salmon and J.T. Snow for
the Angels, and Rickey Henderson and John Olerud for the Blue Jays all went
hitless on the day. And then there was
Anderson, who finished off the day for Angels, tossing two innings where he
would give up two hits and a run with two strikeouts. Both of those strikeouts came from pinch
hitters Domingo Cedeno (pinch hitting for Roberto Alomar) and Willie Canate
(pinch hitting for Joe Carter). I hope
Anderson sent Cito Gaston at least a thank you card.
Overall, in four appearances in September 1993, Anderson
would not have a decision, throwing 11 1/3 innings, allowing 11 hits, five
runs, and striking out four while walking two.
Anderson would start the 1994 season on the roster as the
fifth starter in the Angels rotation, which included Chuck Finley, Mark
Langston, Phil Leftwich and Joe Magrane.
In Anderson’s first start of the season, he pitched into the ninth
inning in a 4-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. He got Kevin Seitzer to ground out in the top
of the ninth before he allowed a Turner Ward single and Tom Brunansky
double. Joe Grahe came in to get the
save, earning Anderson his first career victory.
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| Duuuude... I just, like, SAVED you. |
Anderson’s next start, again against the Blue Jays, was a
fun one. He went six innings, giving up three
runs (two earned) while striking out four and walking two. He left the Angels with a 6-3 lead. The Angels’ Scott Lewis came in and threw a
perfect seventh inning, but ran into trouble after an error in the eighth. Lewis allowed three runs to score, but only
one earned. He, Bob Patterson and Mike
Butcher allowed a total of five runs to score, so it was now 8-6 Blue
Jays. The Angels couldn’t answer in the
bottom of the eighth.
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| It was the best of times; it was the worst of times, eh? |
Butcher would trot out to start the top of the ninth, but
after allowing singles to Devon White and Roberto Alomar, followed by a two run
single by Paul Molitor, he was relieved by Bill Sampen. Sampen would get Joe Carter to fly out before
allowing a John Olerud single, followed by a three run shot by Carlos
Delgado. Another five spot by the Blue
Jays made it 13-6. This is when everyone
at Anaheim Stadium left, except for a handful of people who had nothing else
better to do, and the travelling Toronto fans eager to watch the end of such a
great comeback victory. Until the Angels
put up SEVEN RUNS in the bottom of the ninth to tie it. Ultimately, the Angels Craig Lefferts got the
win, and the Blue Jays Scott Brow got the loss when Damion Easley singled in
Tim Salmon in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving the Angels the 14-13 victory. Anyway, back to Anderson.
Anderson had two more quality starts in April, earning
victories and going eight or more innings in both. Overall in four April starts, he went 3-0
with a 2.61 ERA in 31 innings, giving up 10 runs (nine earned) while striking
out 14 and walking nine.
May would not be so kind to Anderson. It appears as if he caught the injury bug, as
in two starts, he went 0-1 with a 22.09 ERA in 3 1/3 innings, allowing nine
runs while striking out two and walking one.
He wouldn’t pitch in the majors for another month. He did get a couple of rehab starts at A+
Lake Elsinore, where he went 0-1 with a 3.00 ERA in 12 innings, giving up four
runs while striking out nine and not walking a batter.
He returned to the Angels on June 7th, and only
lasted 2 2/3 innings, giving up four earned runs while striking out one and
walking four in an Angels 8-6 loss to the Minnesota Twins. His next two starts were good, earning wins
and going seven or more innings in both.
His record on June 17th was 5-1, which was pretty much the
high water mark of the season. We’ll get
to this a little later. Overall in June,
in five starts he went 2-2 with a 7.11 ERA in 25 1/3 innings, giving up 20 runs
and striking out 11 while also walking 11.
I’m not sure Anderson was ever quite right in 1994 after his
injury. In his last start in June, and
first start in July, he only combined for 3 2/3 innings, and he gave up 10 runs
(nine earned). Overall for July, he went
2-2 with a 5.93 ERA in 27 1/3 innings, giving up 20 runs (18 earned) while
striking out 13 and walking six.
Anderson looked pretty good in his two starts in early
August to end the season. In those two
starts, he didn’t have a decision, but he had an ERA of 1.88 in 14 1/3 innings,
giving up four runs (three earned) while striking out seven and walking none.
For the season, Anderson went 7-5 with a 5.22 ERA in 101 2/3
innings, giving up 63 runs (59 earned) while striking out 47 and walking
27. Rookie of the Year voters must have
remembered the first half of his season.
Anderson made 18 starts in 1994. In his first nine starts, he was 5-1, and the
Angels went 7-2. He received 7.33 runs a
game in run support, which was slightly better than the 6.44 runs per game that
the Angels allowed. In his other nine starts,
he was 2-4, and the angels went 2-7. He
only received 5.00 runs per game in run support, and the Angels allowed 8.57
runs per game. Actually, to break it
down even more, the Angels scored 13 and 14 runs respectively in Anderson’s two
second half victories. In the other
seven losses, they only scored 2.57 runs per game – never more than three in
any one game.
In 1995, his last season with the Angels, he would go 6-8,
with 17 starts covering close to 100 innings.
His home runs allowed jumped from 13 the previous year to 24, in roughly
the same number of innings.
Before the 1996 season, Anderson was traded to the Cleveland
Indians for Jason Grimsley and Pep Harris.
In his two years in Cleveland, he went 7-3 in 17 spot starts as he
shuffled back and forth between Cleveland and AAA Buffalo. Still, the Indians left him unprotected, and
the Diamondbacks picked him as the second pick in the expansion draft.
In five seasons with the Diamondbacks, he went 41-42 across
160 appearances (129 starts) with 410 strikeouts and 153 walks. He also gave up 143 home runs, including a
league leading 39 in 1998. After the
2002 season, Anderson was released, and shortly thereafter, he was signed by
the Indians.
In 2003, Anderson’s second time around with the Indians
wasn’t as smooth. He went 9-10 in 24
starts, despite a 3.71 ERA. On August 25th,
he was traded with a player to be named later to the Kansas City Royals for
Trey Dyson, Kieran Mattison and cash. In
Kansas City, he had a bit of a renaissance, going 5-1 with a 3.99 ERA in seven
starts.
He would resign with the Royals for two more years, but in
between the start of the 2004 season and early May 2005, he went 7-14 with a
5.81 ERA in 32 starts. His last major
league game was on May 8th, 2005, when he threw a two inning start
in a Royals 10-8 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
Overall for his career, Anderson was 82-83 with a 4.74 ERA,
striking out 723 while walking 337. He
had 12 complete games with four shutouts and one save. He went to the World Series twice, losing
with the Indians to the Marlins in 1997, and winning with the Diamondbacks over
the Yankees in 2001. He hit one career
home run. On August 4th,
1999, he took the Giants’ Mark Gardner deep in the second inning of a
Diamondbacks 8-4 victory. Gardner was in
relief of Giants’ STARTER Joe Nathan, who only lasted one inning after giving
up five runs in the bottom of the first. |
| Now what do we do? |
Anderson never lived up to his draft pick, but there’s
nothing wrong with being a decent back-end-of-the-starting-rotation
starter. I mean, the Astros have four or
five of those every year!
Next week’s look back at the 1994 Rookie of the Year voting
focuses on former Padres/Blue Jays/Reds pitcher Joey Hamilton.
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