Catching Up With Former MLB Pitcher Russ Ortiz
The former All Star has a lot of great memories from his professional baseball career
Pitching is one of the most difficult endeavors in baseball. It was particularly daunting in the early 2000s, as offenses were operating at high-octane levels. That makes the career of Russ Ortiz all the more impressive, as the right-hander won 99 games in one six-year stretch on his way to a wildly successful 12-year major league career.
Ortiz was primarily a reliever at the University of Oklahoma before being selected in the fourth round of the 1995 draft by the San Francisco Giants. He was virtually unhittable at the get-go, posting a 0.67 ERA with 11 saves and a 1.85 ERA with 36 saves in his first two minor league seasons — while striking out better than 13 batters per nine innings.
The Giants decided to try and strike lightning in a bottle and converted Ortiz to a starting role. He took to it quickly and debuted in the majors in 1998. His 4–4 record and 4.99 ERA in 22 games (13 starts) that year indicate the typical transition experience of a rookie but was more than enough to earn him a permanent place on the San Francisco pitching staff.
Ortiz won 18 games in 1999; the beginning of his 99 wins in six years stretch. The Giants were annual…
