Major League Baseball

Can't-miss kids often do

Published Aug. 27, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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The Nationals resisted the temptation to promote him directly to the big leagues. They were even second-guessed by some for not moving him up quicker than they did. And then, back on June 8, Strasburg got the call to make his major-league debut.

Strasburg debut: It's David Clyde done the right way read the headline in the Dallas Morning News, where the memory of David Clyde survives 37 years after the high school left-hander was, as those with the Texas Rangers at the time admit, sacrificed to save a franchise.

For all the TLC that Strasburg was given, however, today he is awaiting reconstructive surgery on his right elbow, which in the baseball vernacular translates to Tommy John surgery.

More than that, it once again reinforces what baseball people have said forever: The act of throwing a baseball is abnormal, which makes it hazardous to the health of one’s arm. For all the biomechanics and workout routines and nutritional programs that have been devised, even phenoms can hit a dead end on the road to stardom.

They can be high-stress hard throwers like a Strasburg or a mechanically perfect Mark Prior, whose smoothness conjured up comparisons to Tom Seaver. They can come from college, like Strasburg, Prior, Darren Dreifort and Andrew Miller, or high school like a David Clyde and Lew Krause Jr.

DAVID CLYDE

Clyde is the poster boy for what can go wrong with a can’t-miss pitching prospect. A Texas high school pitching legend, he was18-0 his senior year at Houston’s Westchester High School, allowing three earned runs in 148 innings during the 1973 season.

The Rangers, in the first year after their move from Washington, D.C., used the first pick in that June draft, gave him what at the time was a draft-record $125,00 signing bonus, and brought him straight to the big leagues in hopes of boosting an attendance that was the second lowest in baseball.

Clyde’s debut provided the Rangers with the first sellout in franchise history and his six starts at Arlington Stadium the remainder of that season averaged 27,000. The Rangers' 75 other home games averaged around 6,000.

The price, however, was steep. Clyde was 4-8 with a 5.01 ERA in 18 starts for the Rangers that first year, finally wound up in the minor leagues in 1975, and by the age of 26 had suffered a career-ending arm injury that all parties involved agree most likely stemmed from his accelerated arrival in the big leagues, where he wasn’t ready for the lifestyle, much less the level of ability on the playing field.

TODD VAN POPPEL

Van Poppel came along 17 years after Clyde, in 1990, but also carried the Texas high school wunderkind label. During his days at Arlington Martin High School he was called a future Nolan Ryan, and scouts raved about his mid-90s fastball, the hard,over-the-top curveball and a lanky body that was projected to be less vulnerable to injury.

Atlanta had the first pick in the draft that year and Bobby Cox, the Braves' general manager at the time, passed on Van Poppel because of questions about signability, and opted to take a Florida schoolboy shortstop named Larry "Chipper" Jones.

Van Poppel, with agent Scott Boras handling negotiations, slipped to Oakland with the 14th selection in the draft. The A’s, looking to make an impact on their pitching depth in that draft, also selected pitchers Don Peters, Dan Zancanaro and Kirk Dressendorfer among the top 36 picks. Only Van Poppel and Dressendorfer ever made it to the big leagues.

Dressendorfer arrived from the University of Texas as damaged goods. Van Poppel was healthy but became a victim of becoming the first high school player in draft history to sign a big-league contract. Because of the big-league contract, however, Van Poppel was immediately put on the big-league roster, and so after his fourth pro season, the A’s had used all four options sending him to the minor leagues and he had to stay in the big leagues, even if he wasn’t ready, or the A’s would lose him on waivers.

He wasn’t ready. Injuries had interrupted his development in the minor leagues, and so the A’s tried to hide him in long-relief roles. Van Poppel never had the chance to reach his projected potential, although he bounced around, spending parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues. He pitched for the A’s, Detroit, Texas, Pittsburgh, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, compiling a 40-52 record and 5.58 ERA.

DARREN DREIFORT

Dreifort has undergone 22 surgeries since signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as the second player taken in the 1993 draft. He was the player that Seattle decided to pass on when the Mariners opted to make Alex Rodriguez the No. 1 pick overall.

The medical record says all that needs to be said about the right-hander, who was the NCAA Player of the Year at Wichita State in 1993, and made his professional debut in the big leagues with the Dodgers in 1994. After going 0-5 with a 6.21 ERA in 27 games that first year, he missed the 1995 season with injuries, worked out of the bullpen in 1996 and 1997, and showed some potential as a starter the next three years, going a combined 33-34.

That got the Dodgers to make another major investment in him. A free agent after the 2000 season, Dreifort was being wooed by the Colorado Rockies, prompting the Dodgers to outbid them, giving Dreifort a five-year, $55 million deal. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2001, and wound up making only 86 appearances, and working only 259 2/3 innings, in which he was 9-15 with a 4.53 ERA during the five-year term of that deal.

ANDREW MILLER

When he came out of the University of North Carolina, the lanky Miller was compared to Randy Johnson. Historians, however, won’t remember him that way. With the word out that he wanted a big-league contract to sign, Miller, who was the consensus best player in the 2006 draft, slipped to Detroit with the No. 6 pick, and received a $9 million big-league package.

Miller is back in the big leagues, and last weekend marked his return with Florida by allowing one run on three hits and three walks in five innings against Houston. But it has not been a quick trip to success He has compiled a ledger of 7-16 with a 4.00 ERA in 50 minor-league games (45 starts) spread over five years and has a big-league resume of 14-21 with a 5.43 ERA.

Considered the foundation of the Tigers' future rotation when he first signed, Miller was a part of the package of players the Tigers sent to Florida in the Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis trade.

He did make his big-league debut on Aug. 30, 2006, just 26 days after signing his original contract and after only five innings of pro experience at the class A level. And he has spent parts of five years in the big leagues, but has pitched a total of only 266 2/3 innings over that stretch.

LEW KRAUSE JR.

Krause was a pre-draft bonus baby. Signed by his father, Lew Krause Sr., a former pitcher for the Philadelphia A’s, to a $125,000 bonus for the Kansas City A’s in 1961, he went immediately to the big leagues and had people raving.

He pitched a six-hit shutout against the expansion Los Angeles Angels in his debut. He gave up three runs in seven innings against Boston in his next start, and is one of only three pitchers since 1920 to work at least seven innings and allow three or fewer runners in each of his first two starts. Mike Norris did it with Oakland in 1975, and Jeremy Hellickson did it with Tampa Bay this year.

Krause did wind up appearing in 321 big-league games, 167 of them starts, including drawing the assignment in the first game ever for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970 (a 12-0 loss to the Angels). He, however, was only 68-91 with a 4.00 ERA, well below the expectations that came with the fanfare over his signing.

The quick trip to the big leagues was a challenge for Krause, who was accused of enjoying the lifestyle too much for his own good as he bounced from the Royals to the Brewers to Boston to St. Louis and finally Atlanta. He was even suspended by A’s owner Charlie Finley in August  1967 for ``rowdyism and conduct unbecoming a major-league player.’’
 

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