Stephen Drew
From BR Bullpen
Stephen Oris Drew
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 195 lb.
- School Florida State University
- High School Lowndes County High School
- Debut July 15, 2006
- Born March 16, 1983 in Valdosta, GA USA
[edit] Biographical Information
The brother of Tim Drew and J.D. Drew, shortstop Stephen Drew was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the 2004 amateur draft. He made his big league debut with Arizona two years later, hitting .316 and slugging .517.
He was a second-team College All-American in 2002, a third-team College All-American in 2003, and a second-team College All-American in 2004. At his first stop in the minors in 2005, he hit .427 in 19 games in an independent league. In Single A the same year, he hit .389 and was brought up to Double A briefly. The next season he spent 83 games in the PCL, hitting 13 home runs at age 23 before being brought up to the majors. Baseball America rated him the top prospect in the PCL that year. He made the league All-Star team at shortstop. In his first taste of major league action in 2006, he played 59 games with an excellent batting line of .316/.357/.517, hitting 7 triples during his short stint.
Drew was the Diamondbacks' starting shortstop from the time he played his first major league game, and in his first full season in 2007, he was among the team leaders in spite of his lack of big league experience as Arizona captured the NL West title. He played 150 games and while he hit only .238, he showed good power with 28 doubles and 12 homers, drew 60 walks and stole 9 bases without being caught once. He started all 7 of Arizona's postseason games, going 7 for 14 with a double, a triple and 2 homers as they swept the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS. He was 5 for 17 in the 2007 NLCS, but without an extra-base hit or RBI, and Arizona was swept in four games by the Colorado Rockies.
On September 1, 2008 he, along with Adrian Beltre of the Seattle Mariners, hit for the cycle, the first time since 1920 and only the second time in Major League history that two players hit for the cycle on the same day. The duo that accomplished this the previous time was Bobby Veach and George Burns. Stephen had a very good season that year, playing 150 games with a batting line of .291/.333/.502. He slugged 44 doubles, 11 triples and 21 homers, scored 91 runs and drove in 67. He was still quite good in his next two seasons, but still took a slight step back when he had been expected to earn a spot as one of the league's premier young players. In 2009, his batting average fell to .261, and his homers to 12, although he did hit 29 doubles and 12 triples in 135 games, missing some time to a hamstring strain early in the year. In 2010, he was back to playing 151 games, hit .278/.352/.458, with 83 runs, 33 doubles, 12 triples and 15 homers. His OPS+ was a career-high 113.
Drew broke his ankle sliding at home plate in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 20, 2011. In his 6th season with the D-Backs, he was hitting .252/.317/.396 in 86 games, but the injury put an end to his season, Ironically, Brewers CF Carlos Gomez suffered a serious injury on the very next play, breaking his collarbone while diving to catch a fly ball off the bat of Ryan Roberts. The D-Backs used reserve Willie Bloomquist and veteran John McDonald, acquired in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays, to play short for the remainder of the season and into the postseason. However, the injury was serious enough that heading into the 2012 season, Arizona still did not have a fixed date for Drew's return to action and was planning to continue using Bloomquist and McDonald when the new season began.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- 20-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2008)
