1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown – Ryan Klesko

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former Braves and Padres first baseman/outfielder Ryan Klesko.

Klesko was drafted in the fifth round of the 1989 Major League draft by the Atlanta Braves out of Westminster High School in Westminster, CA.  He is the only Lion to ever make it to the majors.  A handful of fellow fifth rounders made the majors, including J.T. Snow, Alan Embree and Dave Staton.

Upon signing with the Braves, they assigned Klesko to rookie ball GCL Braves.  In just 17 games, he hit .404 with five doubles, four triples, a home run, 16 RBIs and four stolen bases, with six walks and six strikeouts.  That earned him a promotion to A ball Sumter, where he would finish out the season.  In 25 games, he hit .289 with six doubles, a home run, 12 RBIs and a stolen base, with 11 walks and 14 strikeouts.

In 1990, Klesko would return to Sumter to open the season.  Still over two years younger than the average player for the league, he hit .368 with 15 doubles, a triple, 10 home runs, 38 RBIs and 13 stolen bases, with 31 walks and 30 strikeouts.  As the year before, OPSing over 1.000 will earn you a promotion, so he was called up to A+ Durham.  As he finished out the season, he hit .274 with 16 doubles, a triple, seven home runs, 47 RBIs and 10 stolen bases, with 32 walks and 53 strikeouts.

For the 1991 season, Klesko would be promoted to AA Greenville ranked the number three prospect in all of baseball.  There, he would hit .291 with 22 doubles, three triples, 14 home runs, 67 RBIs, and 14 stolen bases (with 17 caught stealing), with 75 walks and 60 strikeouts.

1992 saw another promotion for Klesko, still ranked the eighth best prospect in baseball, as he started the season at AAA Richmond.  A full five years younger than league average, his numbers took a dip.  On the season, he hit .251 with 22 doubles, two triples, 17 home runs, 59 RBIs and three stolen bases, with 41 walks and 72 strikeouts.  Even though his numbers didn’t stack up to where they had been in the past, the Braves wanted to see what he could do in the big show.  He was called up on September 12^th.  In his first game, he struck out as a pinch hitter against Doug Jones in the eighth inning of a 9-3 win over the Houston Astros.  Other than his first career RBI on October 1^st, which was an RBI groundout, there was nothing to highlight in his first 13 games in the majors.  He would go 0-14 with an RBI and five strikeouts.

After the poor showing at the end of the previous season in the majors, Klesko returned to Richmond for 1993.  With a little more experience under his belt, his numbers improved.  He hit .274 with 14 doubles, two triples, 22 home runs, 74 RBIs and four stolen bases, with 47 walks and 69 strikeouts.  Up until this season, he had always been a first baseman in the minors.  While he still played there the majority of the season, he did play 18 games in the outfield, committing three errors in 24 chances for a .875 fielding percentage.  But along with those three errors came three assists.  Why would the Braves convert their stud first base prospect to the outfield?  In 1992, the Braves primarily relied on Sid Bream at first base.  He hit .261 with 10 home runs.  They also had Bream at first to start 1993, where he hit .260 with nine home runs.  But the Braves didn’t shift Klesko to the outfield because of Bream’s consistency, they did it because on July 18^th, THE CRIME DOG showed up in Atlanta.  The Braves quickly went into “Plan B” mode, gave Klesko 18 games in the outfield, and said “good enough!”.

Actually, now that I dug into it a little further, Klesko actually started the 1993 season in Atlanta.  He was there all the way through May 15^th, when he was sent back down.  At that point, he was hitting .273 with a home run, an RBI, two walks and three strikeouts.  In those 14 games, he only had 13 plate appearances.  His first career hit was off of Bryan Harvey as a pinch hitter in a 4-3 loss to the Florida Marlins on April 22^nd.  His first career home run was off Tim Wakefield, as he tied the game at two leading off the bottom of the ninth, but the Pittsburgh Pirates scored four unearned runs in the top of the 11^th to win 6-2 on April 27^th.

Rookie, yes.
Prospect, no.

When Klesko returned to Atlanta on September 11^th, he would hit .500 with a double, a home run, four RBIs, a walk and a strikeout in his final eight games.  His second career home run on September 15^th would also be memorable, as he cut the lead to 6-4 with a pinch hit, two run shot off of Johnny Ruffin, knocking him out of the game.  After Jeff Reardon allowed a double by Otis Nixon and single by Jeff Blauser, Rob Dibble came in and promptly served up a game winning three run home run to Ron Gant, as the Braves won 7-6 against the Cincinnati Reds.  Between the parts of two seasons, Klesko hit .353 with a double, two home runs and five RBIs, with three walks and four strikeouts.

Klesko returned to the Braves for good for the 1994 season.  He opened the month of April on an absolute tear, going 9-16 in his first four games, good for a .563 average.  He also hit a home run in each of his first two games.  Overall for the month, he hit .345 with two doubles, a triple, six home runs and 15 RBIs, with eight walks and 13 strikeouts.  Highlights of the month include a 4-4 effort on April 6^th, and a 3-4 effort with a double, home run, and four runs scored in a 19-5 win over the Cubs on April 15^th.

Klesko would cool off a bit in May.  He only had three multi-hit games on his way to hitting .227 with four doubles, a triple, a home run and three RBIs, with three walks and 15 strikeouts.  The only real highlight that month was his lone home run, a solo shot in a 11-4 loss to the New York Mets on May 14^th.

June would be a much better month for Klesko.  He started out with a five game hit streak to open the month.  He would only go hitless in five games in the month, and only three of those games were starts.  For the month, he hit .421 with five doubles, a triple, eight home runs and 17 RBIs, with four walks and five strikeouts.  There were several high points for the month, including four home runs in the final four games of the month, including his first two home run game in a 9-8 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on June 26^th.

As good as June was, July was plain awful for Klesko.  Overall, he hit .132 with two doubles, two home runs, 11 RBIs and his first career stolen base, with six walks and 11 strikeouts.  He only had two hits in his last 26 at bats for the month after July 20^th.  Though his season average was still .306 at that point in time, the slump took it all the way down to .281.

As the season drew to a close, things didn’t get much better for Klesko.  In the final eight games, he hit .214 with one RBI, five walks and four strikeouts.

On his way to the third place finish in the 1994 NL Rookie of the Year voting, Klesko hit .278 with 13 doubles, three triples, 17 home runs, 47 RBIs and a stolen base, with 26 walks and 48 strikeouts.  In his new home in left field, he committed six errors (the most in the NL) in 74 games, which equaled a .921 fielding percentage.

Klesko emerges from the bottom
of the pile, finally able to breathe again.

Klesko would take another step forward in 1995.  He wasn’t quite right to start the season, only hitting .091 on five games into the season on May 2^nd.  When he came back from the DL on May 18^th, he steadily improved his numbers.  This included a 4-5 effort with two home runs, including his first career grand slam, with six RBIs in a 17-3 win over the Chicago Cubs on June 6^th.  In 22 games in June, he only went hitless in six games, and had multiple hits in 10 of them, hitting .435 for the month with seven home runs and 22 RBIs.  His average would get as high as .359 on July 21^st, before hitting .266 the rest of the way.  For the season, he set career highs in average (.310), slugging (.608) and OPS (1.004).  To go along with those stats, he added 25 doubles, two triples, 23 home runs, 70 RBIs and five stolen bases, with 47 walks and 72 strikeouts.  On defense, he again led the league in errors in left field, this time with seven, equaling a fielding percentage of .942.  He would get his first taste of post season play, along with his only World Series ring that fall.  He went 7-15 (.467) against the Rockies, 0-7 against the Reds, and 5-16 (.313) with three home runs in the World Series against the Indians.

In 1996, Klesko solidified himself as an offensive force in a dangerous Braves lineup that featured five players with 20 or more home runs – Klesko, McGriff, Javy Lopez, Chipper Jones, and Marquis Grissom.  Klesko would be named NL Player of the Week for the first week of the season, when he hit .526 with three home runs and six RBIs.  He hit two home runs on July 14^th and August 28^th, and he hit grand slams on May 27^th and July 27^th.  Overall, he hit .282 with 21 doubles, four triples, a career high 34 home runs, 93 RBIs and six stolen bases, with 68 walks and 129 strikeouts.  His defense continued to improve, this time only committing five errors in 144 games, good for a .975 fielding percentage.  The Braves would again make it to the World Series, but for the postseason, Klesko would only hit .176.

Klesko would spend three more seasons in Atlanta, where he hit a combined .277 with 80 doubles, nine triples, 63 home runs, 234 RBIs and 14 stolen bases, with 157 walks and 265 strikeouts.  He would again lead the league in errors in left field with six in 1997, but in 1998, he only committed one, and added nine assists, on his way to a .994 fielding percentage.  The Braves made the playoffs each year, with another World Series appearance in 1999.  This would be where Klesko would have his last at bat as a Brave, a popout to second base in the top of the ninth off of Mariano Rivera.  One batter later, Keith Lockhart would fly out to left field, and the Yankees would win their third World Series in four years.  On December 22^nd, the Braves traded Klesko, Bret Boone and Jason Shiell to the San Diego Padres for Wally Joyner, Reggie Sanders and Quilvio Veras.

Y2KLESKO!!!

I’m pretty sure if I was in marketing for the Padres, I would have termed the year 2000 as Y2KLESKO.  Y2K wasn’t anything extreme, and neither was Klesko, so it would have made sense.  Overall, he hit .283 with 33 doubles, two triples, 26 home runs, 92 RBIs and 23 stolen bases (he only had 26 in the previous eight seasons).  For the first time in his career, he had more walks than strikeouts – 91 vs. 81.  He was NL Player of the Week for the week of July 23^rd, when he hit .419 with two home runs and 11 RBIs.  Playing almost exclusively at first base, he only made nine errors all season, good for a .992 fielding percentage.  The Padres did not make the playoffs, finishing 76-86, the only team with a losing record in a very good NL West.

While Klesko had many solid seasons in his career, one could argue that 2001 was his best.  It was the only season where he made the All Star team.  For the season, he hit .286 with 34 doubles, six triples, 30 home runs, a career high 113 RBIs and 23 stolen bases, with 88 walks and 89 strikeouts.  For the third and last time in his career, he was named NL player of the week, this time for the week of September 2^nd when he hit .517 with five home runs and 11 RBIs.  Spending all of his time at first base, he made 11 errors, which was still good for a .991 fielding percentage.

Over the next five years, all with the Padres, Klesko hit a combined .275 with 109 doubles, four triples, 77 home runs, 288 RBIs and 14 stolen bases, with 291 walks and 316 strikeouts.  He had shoulder surgery before the 2006 season, which caused him to miss all but six games that season, his last in San Diego.

Granted free agency after the 2006 season, he signed with the San Francisco Giants for 2007.  For the season, he hit .260 with 27 doubles, three triples, six home runs, 44 RBIs and five stolen bases, with 46 walks and 68 strikeouts.  He only committed three errors in 100 games at first base, equaling a .996 fielding percentage.  His last career home run occurred on August 13^th, a grand slam off of Shane Youman in a 10-3 win over the Pirates.  His last game was on September 27^th, when he went 0-3 with three strikeouts in a 6-4 loss to the Padres.

For his career, Klesko hit .279 with 343 doubles, 33 triples, 278 home runs, 987 RBIs and 91 stolen bases, with 817 walks and 1077 RBIs.  He added a .236 average and 10 home runs in the post season.  Splitting time between first base and the outfield, his career fielding percentage was .989.  Although he never really led the league in anything, he’s still listed on career leader lists, although very far down – 99^th in career slugging at .500, 165^th in career home runs, 167^th in career intentional walks with 84, etc.

While Klesko certainly wasn’t a Hall of Fame player (and writers agreed as he failed to garner a single vote in his first time on the ballot in 2013), he was certainly an integral part of the powerhouse Braves in the 1990s.

We’re getting close to the top folks!  Next week, we look back at all around crazy dude Manny Ramirez.