Twenty things to know about Eaton

02/26/2006
Twenty things to know about right-handed pitcher Adam Eaton, who was acquired from the San Diego Padres this winter and will be the Rangers' No. 2 starter:
1. He was born in Seattle. To be the all-time winningest pitcher from the state of Washington, Eaton (47-41) will have to beat out Todd Stottlemyre, who retired with 138 victories.
2. He lives in the Snohomish River Valley but has a cabin up in the mountains near the town of Roslyn, where the television show "Northern Exposure" was filmed.
"There is great fly fishing in Central and Eastern Washington," Eaton said. "But I'm not into hiking. You can get your exercise walking down the street."
3. As a senior at Snohomish High, Eaton was 8-0 with a 0.67 ERA and was a second-team High School All-American, selected by Baseball America.
"Is there actually a piece of paper that says that?" Eaton said. "Actually I was a third baseman and a shortstop most of my way up. My senior year, I got physically stronger and my velocity jumped up dramatically. That pretty much wrote my script for the next 11 years."
4. Listed at 6-foot-2, he can slam dunk a basketball.
"Since my sophomore year in high school, I've always been a one-footed dunker," Eaton said. "But this offseason, with all the conditioning and squats and stuff, I was able to dunk standing on two feet. I was very pleasantly surprised."
5. Drafted by the Phillies in the first round in 1996, he was the 1999 winner of the Paul Owens Award as the Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Year. The award is now where?
"I think it's in a stack of boxes," Eaton said. "I need to find it. It's one of the only awards I've won in professional baseball."
6. Eaton actually played in the ill-conceived Maryland Fall League.
"The inaugural and middle seasons," Eaton said. "I played with a lot of pretty cool guys but the weather was not conducive to working on things. The last couple of games, guys were building fires in the bullpen to keep warm."
7. The Phillies traded Eaton, starter Carlton Loewer and reliever Steve Montgomery to the San Diego Padres for pitcher Andy Ashby on Nov. 10, 1999.
Loewer eventually broke his leg falling out of a tree stand while hunting and never recovered. Ashby, a 17-game winner the year before, was 4-7 with a 5.68 ERA in 16 starts before being traded to the Braves for Bruce Chen.
8. Called up to the Majors on May 30, 2000, Eaton won first game and got his first hit in his Major League debut against the Brewers. But after eight starts, he was 1-0 with a 3.02 ERA. Trevor Hoffman had 43 saves that year but blew three games that cost Eaton a victory.
"At one point, he came over, put his arm around me and said, 'Hey, I do like you,'" Eaton said. "Obviously Trevor is one of the best in the game. As many games as he's nailed down, he's definitely entitled to a little human error."
9. He was sidelined from July 6, 2001, to Sept. 1, 2002, after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
10. Eaton accidentally cut himself in the abdomen while opening a DVD package in 2001 and had to be scratched from his start the next day against the Astros.
"The movies were 'Backdraft' and an Adam Sandler movie, I can't remember the name," Eaton said. "I never watched 'Backdraft.' That was a nice award to get. Sports Illustrated gave me the Dumbest Injury Award. That and the Paul Owen Award are my two biggest awards. Now, anytime I have a steak knife in my hand, my family is quick to remind me to be careful."
11. He was thrown out of game for purposely throwing at Albert Pujols. So why would anybody deliberately throw at a big guy like Pujols?
"I don't know, you'd have to ask someone who hit him on purpose," Eaton said. "I hit him with a 67 mile-per-hour curveball. I'm not that good to hit somebody on purpose with a curve. The umpire threw me out of the game. It was pretty ridiculous. I couldn't have hurt him too bad because he ended up winning the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game a few days later."
12. His two Major League home runs -- off Pittsburgh's Jeff D'Amico and Arizona's Andrew Good, came less than a month apart in 2003.
13. He is second among active pitchers with five stolen bases, two behind Greg Maddux.
"I had the first stolen base in PETCO Park," Eaton said. "How's that for 'Trivial Pursuit, San Diego edition.' It was the front end of a double steal. It's fun to be out there and have an impact on the pitcher's mind."
14. Barry Bonds has four home runs in 23 at-bats off him. Bonds also doubled off Eaton last year in his first at-bat after missing 5 1/2 months because of a knee injury.
"He has an 11-pitch at-bat and he doubles off the top of the wall," Eaton said. "I'm like 'Omigod, he's locked in already. But I enjoy the challenge. They'd tell us not to let him beat you. But he'd get up there and I'd go, 'I really want to get this guy out.' "
15. His career ERA is lower at Qualcomm Stadium (3.99) than it was at PETCO Park (4.39.) Overall, it's 4.15 at home and 4.56 on the road.
16. He is 10-3 with a 2.39 ERA in 19 career starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"I don't do anything, it's just a comfort level," Eaton said. "I've talked to some of their players and the mood in the clubhouse that day is just different: 'Oh no, Eaton's pitching.' Every game with them was fun, a full house and the spectators really getting into it. It's a great rivalry, very underrated."
17. He was 9-1 with a 3.18 ERA in his first 13 starts last year, then suffered a strained middle finger on his right hand that put him on the disabled list. He was 2-4 with a 6.09 ERA over his last 11 games.
18. Pitching coach Mark Connor said, "I talked to San Diego pitching coach [Darren Balsley] and he said Eaton had the best stuff on that staff."
19. His career high of six walks came on Sept. 11, 2002, against the Diamondbacks. It was the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, ceremonies were held and he admitted, "It was a moving experience, one of those nights where you go out and give it all you got."
20. He's wearing No. 21. That was once Roger Clemens' number.

Source: http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/