Happy birthday, Ryan Drese
by Adam J. Morris on Apr 5, 2011 12:00 PM CDT
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PrintHappy birthday to Ryan Drese, who turns 35 today.
Drese came over to Texas as part of the infamous Travis Hafner trade, when John Hart sent Hafner and Aaron Myette to the Indians in exchange for Drese and Einar Diaz. Hart had already decided that the Rangers weren't going to re-sign Pudge Rodriguez, or even offer him arbitration (meaning the Rangers didn't get a draft pick when Pudge left), and so he decided Texas had to go get an experienced catcher to take his place.
The choice was Diaz, who flopped with Texas, while Hafner blossomed in Cleveland.
In 2004, though, the trade looked like it might work out. The teams had swapped talented but enigmatic righthanded pitchers with the Myette/Drese flip, and Drese broke out big time in 2004, putting up a 4.20 ERA (good for a 120 ERA+) in 207 2/3 innings. Hart, of course, then portrayed the Hafner trade as not being about getting Diaz, but about landing Drese, because the Rangers needed pitching so bad.
Drese and Kenny Rogers, along with a stellar bullpen, carried the 2004 Texas team to a surprising 89 win season, and Drese was rewarded after the season was over with a two year contract extension.
Things fell apart for Drese after that, however. Drese was awful to start off the 2005 season, walking more than he struck out while posting an ERA north of 6. The Rangers finally decided to try to run him through waivers and send him to AAA to work on his problems, but he was claimed by the Washington Nationals, thus ending Drese's stint in Texas. Drese ended up having shoulder problems, which pretty much cost him his career.
Two of the four pitchers most similar to Drese through age 30 (his last year in the majors) are Colby Lewis and Rob Bell.
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Got to be
Top 12 at least.
Raise your hand if you're an albino.
by Jorbert Jorgenson on Apr 5, 2011 1:58 PM CDT up reply actions
is this serious?
please say it is…
"Sometimes you just want to sit back and watch somebody throw 100." - Jeff Passan on Neftali Feliz
"Baseball's all that's real" - JB
No. It was Barajas.
Buck told the media stuff like that happens 50 times a year.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
"Don't become the '82 Milwaukee Brewers."
"You want false modesty? F that."
On a Showalter-ran team
it does
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
"I am one of the biggest Texas Ranger fans out there but I'm also one of the smartest. Deal with it."
-The Outlaw
This will be sad
when it ends up happening in Baltimore. As much as I know they will not keep cruising along this way, it would be nice to see some Oriole action trumping Yankee/Red Sox action.
Raise your hand if you're an albino.
by Jorbert Jorgenson on Apr 5, 2011 2:00 PM CDT up reply actions
I was unhappy with that trade when it happened
…but I remember thinking that Drese was a bigger deal to me than Diaz was. I thought he had something, and I guess he did. For one season.
Or was that Franky chair throw year?
or was this all the same year?
Rogers / cameraman happened in 2005, the same year as the Drese / Barajas tilt.
That team was all kinds of dysfunctional.
Hicks said “Fuck you” to the payroll and put the financial flexibility in his pocket instead of adding to an 89-73 team and a 6000 fan bump in attendance. Tex said he’d go to the OF if Delgado came here but we lost out to the Marlins.
Hicks made the Rogers negotiations public in January and then questioned his desire to pitch against the Angels (“Kenny is a good businessman”) after Rogers had broken a finger (knuckle, bone in his hand?) when he tossed around the water cooler after getting pulled from a game.
Rogers finally blew a gasket on the camera man.
That team got off to a good start….maybe 30-20 and made it seem like the 89-73 record was not a fluke.
I think they became distracted and ultimately dysfunctional.
Hicks also went on The Ticket and said the Rangers that year were “very, very profitable.”
I went to the dark side shortly thereafter, never to fully come back until that glorious morning in February 2008.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
"Don't become the '82 Milwaukee Brewers."
"You want false modesty? F that."
Oh...
I thought the Rangers ended up collapsing due to the Texas heat?
Raise your hand if you're an albino.
by Jorbert Jorgenson on Apr 5, 2011 2:01 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Not to nit-pick...
But no way in hell you had “fully come back” by Feb 2008.
The Texas Rangers have been synonymous with explosive firepower ever since they emptied 130 rounds into Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934. - Alyssa Milano
"fully come back" may have not been the right description but it was a heckuva olive branch.
That morning is when I thought things finally had a legitimate chance to get better.
When did I come fully back? Hard to say exactly because I’m not the normal fan.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
"Don't become the '82 Milwaukee Brewers."
"You want false modesty? F that."
Fair enough..
The Texas Rangers have been synonymous with explosive firepower ever since they emptied 130 rounds into Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934. - Alyssa Milano
That's an understatement
Hobson, did you see that?
Yes.
She stole that tie! It's the perfect crime. Girls don't wear ties; although some do. It's not a perfect crime, but it's a good crime.
Yes. If she murdered the tie it would be the perfect crime.
Incidentally
Rogers did this badass thing during the Drese/Barajas fracas where he calmly walks over to the dugout camera and stands with his back to it so that he could block it. Total veteran move but also foreshadowed his love for the media
I could be completely wrong
I don’t think video exists of this anymore but I definitely remember it happening and people commenting about it (probably ESPN boards).
I seem to recall Colby and Ryan also sharing the trait of never getting enough run support.
The difference, of course, being that Colby possesses the ability to miss bats when he needs to, the lack of which was Drese’s downfall.
I remember when I thought that Drese was going to be good purely based off his ERA.
That was back in the day when all I paid attention to was wins and ERA. A much simpler time, when most of us were seeking any optimism we could possibly find about the Rangers. Hunter and Feldman are our Dreses now.
Ryan Drese never had Feldman's 2009 BABIP.
Ever been in a boardroom, or a gang fight? Ever save a life? Ever won a court case against the odds? Ever held a dying buddy in your arms?.- jackanape on "perspective," 11/8/2010.
That surprised me the first time I looked at it.
He was actually legitimately good in ‘04. Didn’t strike people out, but he didn’t walk them much and kept the ball on the ground.
I'm sure I have others, but this is probably my biggest case of irrational player love
I was so pissed that we got rid of him, especially since he was a proven Angels killer. And the way we lost him was pretty awful too since it sounded like the only reason he was passed through waivers was because nobody thought he would get claimed. Seemed like FO ineptitude. And I was also pissed that he seemed to have lost out in his fight with Barajas (I was hoping this lead to Barajas getting traded).
More irrational player love: Botts (but lots of people on this board were with me on this) and Lou Frazier (so fast, also did not look like a baseball player).
I thought he was basically Chris Davis
minus the power.
ite-Bay e-May, itches-Bay.
by AfterSchoolSpecial on Apr 5, 2011 5:56 PM CDT up reply actions
I remember when he beat the Angels as a nat shortly after we traded him
and the story was the players were watching in the clubhouse and rueig the day we got rid of him.
And then he was never heard from again.
Didn't Hindman say that MLB (or somebody) was on to Drese after 2004 and that they
told him to quit doctoring baseballs? As soon as he had to go legit he started to suck, was cut by the Rangers and then ended up getting hurt.
Think that’s the right story, apologize if untrue.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
"Don't become the '82 Milwaukee Brewers."
"You want false modesty? F that."
I didn't ever recall hearing that..
But I don’t recall a lot of things anymore….
The Texas Rangers have been synonymous with explosive firepower ever since they emptied 130 rounds into Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934. - Alyssa Milano
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