Pitcher Turned Thumper

Name: Ryan Klesko

Card Company: Topps

Year: 2003

Team: San Diego Padres

Bats/Throws: L

Ht: 6'3

Ryan Klesko was a big boy at 6'3 220 lbs. he had your typical power hitter build. However, would you believe that he originally started out as a pitcher? That's right the man they called "Thumper" started out as a high school pitcher with a big-time fastball. However, he developed elbow problems and instead of sticking with pitching he became a 1B/OF prospect in the Atlanta Braves farm system in 1989.

Klesko got called up by the Braves both during the 92' and 93' season but never got to play regularly until 1994. Bobby Cox the Braves Manager primarily used him in a platoon role against right handed pitchers early in his career. That didn't stop him however from putting up impressive stats as a platoon player. In his 1995 season with the Braves he hit 23 HR's in 329 AB's leaving him only 5 dingers shy of being in the top 10 in the NL that year. Just to illustrate just how impressive that is, Reggie Sanders (#10 in HR's in '95) hit 28 HR's in 484 AB's. Meaning that Klesko put up comparable power numbers to an everyday player while he was stuck in a platoon. Who knows what he could've done had Bobby Cox let him play more regularly than he did.

Fun fact Ryan Klesko hit a home run in 3 straight games in the 1995 World Series. Unfortunately, the Braves only won one of those games, but they did end up winning the series in 6 games over the Cleveland Indians.

Top: Game 3

Middle: Game 4

Bottom Game 5

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He would go on to play 4 more years with the Braves before eventually getting traded to the Padres in 1999. In his first 4 seasons with the Padres he hit 106 HR's. He made the NL All-Star Team as a 1B in 2001 finishing the year with a respectable stat line of (.284 BA) (.384 OBP) (30 HR) (113 RBI). However, his game started to fall off after the 2003 season only managing to hit 9 HR's in 2004 after hitting at least 20 HR's in 8 of his previous 9 seasons.

He would retire on 2007 as a member of the Giants bringing an end to a 16-year career. His career stat line is (.279 BA) (.370 OBP) (278 HR) (987 RBI) (1564 Hits). Overall Klesko had a solid career and carved out a nice little niche for himself in the MLB. And to think his bat and career could've been wasted had he stuck to pitching.

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