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CHARLESTON, SC - With the Major League Baseball playoffs starting on
Wednesday, one does not have to look far to see the impact of former Charleston ballplayers in
this year's World Series quest. In
all, 19 players from six of the eight playoff teams called the Holy City home at some point during their
professional careers.
Among the
players involved are pitchers Chad Gaudin, Ivan Nova, David Robertson and Phil
Hughes, infielder Eduardo Nunez and outfielder Brett Gardner (who played for the
College of
Charleston) from the New
York Yankees, the RiverDogs current parent club. Others include pitchers James Shields,
Andy Sonnanstine and Dan Wheeler, infielder Reid Brignac and outfielders Rocco
Baldelli, Carl Crawford, and B.J. Upton from the Tampa Bay Rays, outfielder
Delmon Young and pitcher Carl Pavano from the Minnesota Twins, outfielder Josh
Hamilton and infielder Jorge Cantu from the Texas Rangers, pitcher Mike Dunn
from the Atlanta Braves and infielder Aubrey Huff from the San Francisco Giants
Gaudin
called the Lowcountry home when the organization was still an affiliate of the
then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2002.
The 5-11 right-hander appeared in 26 games (17 starts) for the RiverDogs
and registered a 4-6 record with an impressive 2.26 ERA. A native of Louisiana, Gaudin made his major league debut in 2003 with
Tampa
Bay and has a 35-39 overall
record in eight major league seasons.
Hughes
had all the pedigree out of Foothill
High School in Santa Ana, Cal. when the Yankees selected him in the
first round of the 2004 Draft. In
'05, Hughes notched an amazing 7-1 record for the RiverDogs with a 1.97 ERA in
12 starts and was named to the South Atlantic League Midseason All-Star
Team. Hughes found himself making
13 starts for the Yankees in '07, but a plague of injuries saw him briefly
return to Charleston in '08, recording a 2-0 record in
two relief appearances. As a member
of the Yankees rotation in 2010, Hughes has posted a career-best 18-8 record
with a 4.19 ERA in earning his first All-Star selection.
Nova cut
his teeth in the Yankees system beginning in 2006 in the Gulf Coast League, and
earned a promotion to the RiverDogs in 2007, where the Dominican native
registered a 6-8 record and a 4.98 ERA over 21 starts. The 6-4 right-hander came
into his own in 2010 in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre with an eye-opening 12-3
mark and a 2.86 ERA which not only earned him All-Star honors, but a call-up to
the Yankees, where in 10 games (seven starts), Nova boasts a 1-2 record with a
4.50 ERA.
Robertson, a former All-SEC performer at the University of Alabama, dominated the minors beginning in 2007, when
he was named to the SAL Midseason All-Star team after fashioning a 5-2 record
and a 0.77 ERA in 24 appearances with Charleston, through 2008 on the heels of a 4-0
record in 21 relief appearances for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre. The 5-11
righty has been steady out of the Yankees bullpen in parts of the last three
seasons, with a 10-6 record and a 3.99 ERA in 134 relief outings.
Nunez,
who joined Robertson on the 2007 SAL All-Star Team, played 181 games with the
RiverDogs from 2006-07, hitting a combined .232 with 36 stolen bases. The
Dominican native was twice invited to Yankees Spring Training as a non-roster
invitee, but did not truly make a splash until 2009, when he raked at a .322
clip for Double-A Trenton. Nunez began the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes
Barre before tasting Major League Baseball for the first time in the second
half, hitting a solid .280 in 30 games with one home run, seven RBI and five
stolen bases.
Although
Brett Gardner never wore a RiverDogs uniform, he still left an indelible mark on
the College of
Charleston Cougars as a
two-time all-Southern Conference selection and a third-team All-American in
2005, when his .447 average ranked third in the nation and his 122 hits tied for
the most in the country. The Holly
Hill, S.C. native was the Yankees third round selection in '05 and was quickly
noticed due to his speed. Gardner
has played in 300 games for the Yankees over the last three years, hitting .268
with 31 doubles, 15 triples, eight home runs, 86 RBI and 86 stolen bases, which
includes a career-high 47 thefts in 2010.
Gardner
has the distinction of scoring the final run in the history of the old Yankee
Stadium.
Shields,
a 16th round pick in 2000 by Tampa Bay,
earned a mid-season promotion to Charleston in 2001, pitching well with a 4-5
mark and a 2.65 ERA in 10 starts. The California native debuted at Tropicana Field
in 2006 and has notched double-digit wins each of the last four campaigns. A
right-hander, Shields is 56-51 career with a 4.25 ERA.
Sonnanstine channeled an 11-4 record during his final year at Kent St. in 2004 to
a brief stint with the RiverDogs at the tail end of the SAL season, going 2-0
with an invisible 0.59 ERA in eight appearances. The Ohio native poked his
head into the majors in 2007 and enjoyed a 13-9 record in 2008 with a 4.38
ERA.
Wheeler
actually began his professional career as a starter upon being drafted by
Tampa
Bay in the 34th
round of the 1996 Draft. In 1998, the 20-year-old Wheeler started a career-best
29 games for the RiverDogs, finishing with a 12-14 record and a 4.43 ERA. The
6-3 righty enjoyed brief stints with Tampa Bay from 1999-2001, but split the
next seasons with Atlanta, the New York Mets and Houston before returning to the
Rays in 2007 as one of the steadiest middle relievers in baseball. A native of
Rhode Island,
Wheeler has a 3.89 career ERA in 466 appearances.
Baldelli
was a first round pick of the Rays in the 2000 Draft and spent the 2001 campaign
in Charleston, hitting .249 in 113 games with 23 doubles, eight home runs, 55
RBI and 25 stolen bases. The
Rhode Island native played his first five
professional seasons with Tampa
Bay before signing with Boston as a free agent
January '09. After initially announcing his retirement in 2010, Baldelli made a
late-season comeback with Tampa Bay, working his way from Class-A
Charlotte in the Florida State League back to the majors.
Brignac
was nabbed by the Rays in the second round of the 2004 Draft as a High School
All-American out of Louisiana. His SAL career spanned only three
games for the RiverDogs, going 7-for-14 with five RBI and three runs scored.
That proved to be a snapshot of how much promise Brignac had, as the shortstop
was called up in 2008, but did not become a regular until 2010, hitting .256 in
113 games with eight home runs and 45 RBI.
Largely
regarded as one of the fastest players in baseball, Crawford was a second round
pick by Tampa
Bay in 1999. Crawford had
an excellent all-around season with Charleston in 2000, hitting .301 with six home
runs and 57 RBI over 135 games. The Texas native also pegged 11 triples, tied for
second in the SAL and RiverDogs single-season history, and stole 55 bases, which
ranked third in the SAL. Crawford earned a promotion to the majors in 2002 and
has not looked back, hitting. 296 in nine seasons with 409 stolen bases, the
most in franchise history.
Upton,
the second overall selection in the 2002 Draft, wasted no time in etching his
place in RiverDogs history. His 2003 campaign consisted of a .302 average, 22
doubles, six triples, seven home runs, 46 RBI, 38 steals to tie for fourth in
the SAL and a .394 on-base percentage, the third-best clip in the league. At
season's end, Upton was named to the SAL Postseason All-Star
squad and the league's Most Outstanding Major League Prospect. The Virginia native has
played with the Rays since 2004 and has stolen at least 40 bases in each of the
last three seasons.
Young
spent the 2004 season with the Charleston RiverDogs and enjoyed one of the best
seasons in the history of professional baseball in the Holy City. The former No. 1 overall
selection by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2003 First-Year Player Draft, Young hit
.322 in 131 games, which ranks him second all-time in Charleston professional
baseball history. The Camarillo, CA
native also set a single-season record with 116 RBI, tied a single-season record
with 25 home runs, and was named the South Atlantic League's Most Outstanding
Major League Prospect. Delmon made his Major League debut with Tampa Bay in the 2006 season, appearing in 30
games with three home runs and 10 RBI. In 2007, he played in all 162 games
for the Rays, hitting .288 with 13 home runs and 93 RBI. Young was traded
to the Minnesota Twins as part of a six-player deal that involved former
RiverDog Jason Pridie, before the start of the 2008 season.
After missing a majority of the 2007 season due to injury, Carl Pavano
joined the RiverDogs along with Phil Hughes, making just two rehab starts before
his departure. A World Series champion with the Florida Marlins in 2003, the 6-5
right-hander was originally drafted by the Red Sox in 1994, but was traded to
Montreal in 1997
in a deal that included Pedro Martinez. While Pavano has missed parts of five
seasons due to a litany of injuries, the New Britain, Conn. native has found success when healthy,
notching a 97-89 career record over 12 MLB seasons.
Cantu laced up his cleats with the RiverDogs in 2000, raking at a .301
clip in 46 games. The Mexican infielder played for Tampa Bay in 2004 and busted out in a big way in
2005 with a .286 average, 28 home runs and a career-best 117 RBI. Since 2007,
Cantu has played for Cincinnati, Florida and the Rangers.
Hamilton,
who was lauded as one of the finest high school players in the history of
North Carolina, became the first overall pick
in the 1999 Draft by Tampa Bay. He spent time with the RiverDogs in
2000 and 2001 and not only earned SAL co-MVP honors but was also tabbed by USA
Today as its Minor League Player of the Year. Although drug and alcohol
addiction cost Hamilton over three years of
baseball, he resurrected his career with Cincinnati in 2007 and caught fire after a trade to
Texas in 2008,
hitting .304 with 32 home runs and 130 RBI to earn his first All-Star selection.
The 2010 season has seen Hamilton lead the league with an incredible
.359 average while adding 32 bombs and 100 RBI in leading the Rangers to an AL
West title.
Dunn
began his career as an outfielder for the Gulf Coast League Yankees in 2005
after being drafted in '04. The
former College of Southern Nevada standout made a full transition to the mound
in '07 and blossomed into one of the RiverDogs best starting pitchers having
posted a 12-5 record with a 3.42 ERA in 27 starts. Dunn pitched four games for the Yankees
in late 2009 before being shipped to Atlanta during the offseason. In 25 games with
the Braves, the southpaw is 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA.
Huff was
selected in the fifth round of the 1998 Draft by Tampa Bay out
of the University
of Miami and crushed SAL
pitching out of the gate with a .321 average in 69 games while clubbing 13 home
runs with 54 RBI. Two years later, Huff found himself in the majors where he has
comfortably stayed for 11 seasons with five different teams (Tampa, Houston, Baltimore, Detroit, San
Francisco). The southpaw stick has had a bounce-back year
with the Giants, hitting .290 with 26 home runs and 86 RBI while playing in 157
games.
-RIVERDOGS-
