Born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, the left-hander was drafted by the Yankees in the 22nd round of the 1990 Rule 4 draft. He worked his way up through the minors and became a part of the Yankee rotation in 1995. He was 12-9 that year and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting. The next year he won 21 games, a career high he would also reach in 2003.
He became not an ace, but a quality inning-eater, a solid member of the rotation as a #2 or #3 starter and a consistent winner. He left New York after 2003 to spend three years with Houston. After that, though, he finished his career with four more seasons in New York. His career was not on of spectacular performance. It was more of an exercise in consistency and hard work. He even put in another season's worth of work in the postseason, with a 19-10 record in 42 starts.
Pettitte earned 146.89 ratings points.
Pettitte's stats: 240-138 record, 3.88 ERA, 2251 strikeouts. posted by Shawn Weaver at 1:51 PM
Number 168: Gary Sheffield.
He's one of the greatest hitters of our time. He was the 6th overall pick in the 1986 draft, famous at the time as the nephew of star pitcher Doc Gooden. He was in the majors with Milwaukee in 1988, playing 24 games as a shortstop for a cup of coffee. He struggled a bit in his 1989 trial, batting .247 in 95 games, then switched to 3B in 1990 and hit .294. He was hurt most of 1991, then got traded to San Diego near the end of Spring Training 1992 for three players. He exploded into stardom, batting .330 with 33 HR and 100 RBI, but was traded in midseason 1993 to the Marlins, with a firmly placed tag as a troublemaker.
He stayed with the Marlins, putting up some solid if unspectacular numbers, then led the league in OPS in 1996 batting .314 with 42 HR and 120 RBI. 1997 was the Marlins' magical year, even though Sheffield slumped to .250, but he drew 121 walks for a .421 on-base average. He batted .320 in the Marlins' postseason run. Sheffield soon became part of the Marlins' "fire sale," being traded in 1998 to Los Angeles.
He became a more consistent hitter in LA, regularly batting over .300 with exceptional power. Before 2002 he was traded to Atlanta for Brian Jordan and Odalis Perez, and was part of two postseason teams for the Braves. Sheffield's name is on the short list of greatest hitter of the last quarter century. Before 2004, he signed with the Yankees, and put up two more terrific years as an MVP candidate. Then he has gone to Detroit for two seasons with a final year with the Mets.
