Adam Loewen: The Next Rick Ankiel?

[FRENCHREDSOX]

Ohhh, by meltdown I thought you meant when he quit pitching altogether in 2005. I see.

One thing Ankiel had going for him was that he was a great athlete as well. Look at how proficient he's gotten in center field already. Is Loewen athletic at all? At least enough to play the outfield somewhere?

Loewen was a "power" 1B at Chipola JC - so D wasn't his strong suit - also, unlike Ankiel,who being a NL pitcher,he hasn't batted at all since 5+ years,so the rust will exactly be that rust....

For every Ankiel there are 50+ failures in the move from P to position THIS late in their career (I mean he will need at least 2/3 years to catch up & that means a 27 year old 1B at AA in 2010 )

[dickay]

WOW...I was going to post that I wouldn't want to be the next 'ankiel' but then I saw he has 22 HR's this year???? Maybe it's the northeast bias, but where have I been? He's snuck up on me...amazing.

[jcbarr]

Just about every player that I have ever seen played some position in high school at the very least. John Maine was a SS for many years before he became a full time pitcher.

[Wassit3]

Yeah, Ankiel had more of a track record than Loewen. I don't see Loewen surfacing as much, but we'll see.

and an HGH supplier

[HoustonGM]

For every Ankiel there are 50+ failures in the move from P to position THIS late in their career

There are?

As far as I knew, very few players even attempt to make the change from pitcher to position player.

[gRYFYN1]

There are?

As far as I knew, very few players even attempt to make the change from pitcher to position player.

True few if any players make this kind of transition this late in thier career. Most of these guys that are drafted at on position and wind up a pithcer or vice versa often happen right out of high school or in the 1st year or two of ball.

Then again your talking highschool, where most guys that pitched were superior athletes and played in the field also, and were great hitters leading to being drafted. ( although its becoming more of a rarity now that players try to over specialize)

[Rongar]

Well at least he is attempting to do something. Gotta give the guy credit for that. It's nice to see that he isn't just giving up all together.

Well, no, of course not...he is a Canadian, after all...

[Mage]

Trevor Hoffman started as a shortstop. Wakefield was a first baseman. Rafael Betancourt, I think, was a shortstop as well.

I can think of one other rather successful conversion from pitching to playing the outfield...

Joe Nathan was a shortstop in the Giants Organization.