[情報] Cubs try to stand in way of Leake's big debut
CINCINNATI --Nothing less than history will be on tap at Great American Ball
Park on Sunday,when the Cubs and Reds meet up for the finale of a three-game
series.Cincinnati will send Mike Leake to the mound for a momentous Major
League debut,and the right-hander will become just the 21st player in the Draft
era to make it up to the parent club without playing at all in the Minors.
It didn't happen for Ken Griffey Jr. or Alex Rodriguez,and it didn't happen for
Roger Clemens or Stephen Strasburg. Leake, the eighth overall selection in the
2009 First-Year Player Draft,will be the first player since Xavier Nady to make
his pro debut in the Majors. In fact,just two other players -- Ariel Prieto and
Darren Dreifort -- have managed that distinction in the last 20 years.
"It's just another game, in my mind," said Leake, who played college ball at
Arizona State University. "I'll just go out there and do what I know how to do.
I'm not changing anything. What I've done to this point has worked. I'm just
going to go out there and pitch."
And while it may be routine for Leake,it's anything but for the game. Four
draftees went straight to the big leagues in the 1973 First-Year Player Draft,
but Major League teams got conservative later in the decade. Only six players
have skipped the Minor Leagues since 1980, and most of them have needed to go
back down for a refresher course at some point or another.
The Cubs would like nothing more than to spoil Leake's debut, to rough him up
and to send him to the Minors in short order. Leake, if nothing else, will be
battling to prove that he was worthy of his team's confidence in him.Leake will
be the first Reds player to make his pro debut in the Major Leagues since
shortstop Bobby Henrich, pitcher Jay Hook and catcher Don Pavletich in 1957.
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