A's Brad Ziegler a zero no more

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August 14, 9:58 PM

by David Bush, S.F. Baseball Examiner

 

 

Brad Ziegler                                      AP Photo

 Brad Ziegler might be the most interesting story in major league baseball. And very few people know anything about it.

   The A’s right hander, who seemed on track to being a career minor leaguer, is suddenly mentioned in the same stat with Christy Mathewson, who didn’t get into the Hall of Fame right away. They had to build it first.  

   Ziegeler, 29, will never approach Mathewson’s dazzling numbers built over a 17-year career early in the 20^th century. But he has matched one of the Giant right-hander’s less prominent but equally impressive achievements. Ziegler, who joined the A’s May 30, shut out the Rays in the eighth inning Thursday, meaning he opened his career with 39 straight scoreless innings.  Mathewson went 39 straight shutout innings as a rookie in 1901.

   The all-time record for consecutive scoreless innings by a rookie is 41, held by Grover Cleveland Alexander, another Cooperstown resident. Ziegler will not get that one. He was touched for a run in the ninth on Thursday, B.J. Upton’s double scoring Akinori Iwamura from first. The Coliseum crowd, unlike most of the country, was aware of Ziegler’s achievement and acknowledged its end with enthusiastic applause.

   “I didn't think about the streak until I started walking back on the mound," Ziegler said. "The first thought that popped in my head was, 'I can't believe that just happened with a runner on first,' but I guess the good thing it wasn't a cheap one. A whole bunch of things fell at once and so that way there's no pressure from this point on."

    After the game, a 7-6 12-inning defeat, the A’s 17^th in their last 20 games, he was appropriately deferential. “To be mentioned in the same breath with those guys is awesome,’’ he said of the Hall of Famers. “But they did for a long career and I’ve been doing it for 2 ½ months.’’

   But numbers are only part of Ziegler’s remarkable story. The most impressive fact about him might be that he is in big leagues at all. He was drafted in the 20^th round by the Phils in 2003. Although his numbers were decent in his partial minor league season that year, he was released the following spring. The A’s signed him in June and sent him to Class A Modesto where he became a starter. He was hit on the head by a line drive in the California League playoffs and was hospitalized for several days.

  He spent most of 2005 in Class A Stockton, getting bumped to Double-A Midland. The next season he was in Midland for the major part of the year, arriving in Triple A Sacramento to make four starts.

   The 2007 season, his fifth in professional baseball, was when the big changes happened. The A’s made him a reliever and changed his delivery from an orthodox overhand to pronounced sidearm. The results were amazing. The pitches he flung to the plate became unhittable, as he posted a 1.1.4 ERA in 15 games at Midland and a 2.96 while going 8-3 in Sacramento.

   But the big leagues would have to wait a little bit longer. This spring the A’s oversold themselves on the strength of the major league bullpen and underestimated Ziegler’s abilities as they sent him back to Sacramento. With injuries and poor performance perhaps forcing their hand, they finally brought Ziegler up this May. He has even displaced Huston Street as the closer, at least part time.

   Unfortunately he is doing it for a team that has become irrelevant nationally. Although the A’s stayed within reasonable distance of the division lead the first half of the season, they dropped out quickly as the second half began. They haven’t been a factor for more than a month. Most of their games haven’t ended by the time the Eastern half of the country goes to bed, and even the most ardent baseball fan can’t be bothered to look for the results while having breakfast. The New York Times finally took notice of Ziegler with a small story this week, but most national publications have pretty much ignored him.

    If Ziegler were doing this for the Yankees, he would have been on David Letterman by now, but he barely makes the Channel 2 News.   

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