Jered Weaver Is The Angels Stephen Strasburg

Eric DentonJun 11, 2010

Flashback May 27, 2006. The most dominating college pitcher since Mark Prior makes his major league debut throwing seven shut-out innings giving up only three hits while striking out five Baltimore Orioles. Okay, so it wasn't quite the fourteen strikeout performance Stephen Strasburg delivered against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates but it wasn't too shabby either. While Jered Weaver doesn't possess the 100 MPH fastball of Strasburg the similarities in hype surrounding the two pitchers before their major league drafts and debuts is pretty uncanny.

Jered David Weaver was the most electrifying pitcher in college baseball in 2004. The Long Beach State alum dominated in his final year with a 15-1, 1.62 record with 213 strikeouts against only 21 walks in 144 innings pitched. Weaver was awarded the Dick Howser Trophy (collegiate baseball player of the year), the Roger Clemens Award (top college pitcher). Weaver was poised to become a top three pick if not go number one overall in the 2004 MLB Draft.

Stephen James Strasburg's final college season at San Diego State was just as dominate. After going 8-3, 1.59 with 133 strikeouts as a sophomore, Strasburg went 13-1, 1.32 with an astounding 194 strikeouts in only 104 innings. He ended his college career firing a 17 strikeout no-hitter against Air Force.

The Anaheim Angels had the good fortune of having a bad year at the right time. Coming off their first World Series Championship in 2002, the Halos in 2003 were besieged by injuries. Their starting catcher (Bengie Molina), third baseman (Troy Glaus), short-stop (David Eckstein) and centerfielder (Darin Erstad) all missed significant time. Anaheim also saw their entire starting rotation take a major step backward in production. So instead of defending their World Championship the Halos received the 12th pick in the first round of the 2004 MLB Draft.

Also helping the Angels was Weaver had chosen super agent Scott Boras as his adviser. Boras' reputation for being a tough negotiator scared away the eleven other teams ahead of the Angels. Boras had stated publicly that Weaver was looking for "Mark Prior money" a contract in the neighborhood of over $10 million dollars. The San Diego Padres, owners of the 1st overall pick much like the Minnesota Twins in 2001 chose not to draft the best pitcher available and ended up taking Matt Bush who became the 3rd first overall pick to never make the major leagues (it worked out better for the Twins, they passed on Prior and ended up with a fellow named Joe Mauer). Incidentally, not only did the Padres pass on Weaver they also let Justin Verlander and Stephen Drew get away in one of worst draft day blunders of all time.

After a contentious negotiating period with the Angels that resulted in Jered becoming the longest draft hold out in history and nearly resulted in Weaver re-entering the 2005 draft; he finally signed with Anaheim and got his professional baseball career under way. After posting a 6-1, 2.10 mark at Triple-A Salt Lake and the Angels in need of a starting pitcher Weaver's MLB career got under way just 361 days after signing. Jered finished his rookie year 11-2, 2.57 for the Angels.

The Washington Nationals were not about to make the same mistake the Padres had made in '04 and drafted the pitching phenom number one overall in the 2009 MLB Draft. Strasburg also had a long drawn out negotiation with the Nationals and like Weaver, held out until the very last moment. However with the leverage of being the number one overall pick going to a franchise in need of a shot in the arm Strasburg signed a record $15.1 million dollar contract. It can be debated whether or not Strasburg is ready for the majors or if he is being rushed to sell tickets or because the Nationals are playing decently (30-31) and the franchise feels it has a shot. What can't be debated is the extreme pressure Strasburg is going to be put under by the national baseball media to be the man. Strasburg will not have the luxury of being the 5th starter on a great ball club. These are things Jered Weaver never had to deal with.

Jered Weaver has been able to grow naturally into the staff ace for the Angels being surrounded over the seasons by veterans such as Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar and his brother Jeff. He's also been able to establish himself with other home grown starters Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana all who were led by John Lackey a fellow Angel draft pick who was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series.

It's unknown how the Stephen Strasburg story will play out. Will he fulfill his potential and become a perennial Cy Young candidate and lead the Nationals to glory? Will he have problems adjusting to the elite competition of the major leagues or suffer a series of unfortunate injury set backs like the last next big thing Mark Prior? The Nationals will probably be very pleased if Strasburg ends up being their Jered Weaver.