Dan Reichert

Daniel Robert Reichert is a 6'3", 175 pound pitcher who was born on July 12, 1976 in Monterey, California. Reichert attended Turlock High School in Turlock, CA, and later attended University of the Pacific (which has also been attended by names such as Joe Ferguson, D.J. Houlton, Keith Johnson, Rob Sperring and John Strohmayer). Reichert not only throws right, he bats right as well.

In 1994, the St. Louis Cardinals drafted Reichert in the 11th round, 306th overall. He did not sign. But, in 1997 when he was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 1st round (7th overall), he did sign. He spent less than three seasons in the minors (where he saw fair success) before getting the call to the big leagues. On July 16, 1999, at the age of 23, he made his major league debut with the Kansas City Royals. He finished his debut season with a 9.08 ERA.

The knock against Reichert has always been his control. In 1999, Reichert walked 32 and struck out only 20 in just over 36 innings. When Reichert is "on" though, he can dominate by inducing groundball after groundball. According to one source: "He's got a nice moving fastball that tops out in the low-90s. He likes to work low in the zone and give his infielders some work. [He is a] borderline big-league reliever [because] he tries to be too fancy, [and] it backfires on him, because he doesn't have a lot of fancy pitches to work with after the fastball."

The last Reichert has seen of the majors was in 2003 with the Toronto Blue Jays. Since then, he has been bouncing around in the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners organizations.

Facts

In 1998, Reichert was diagnosed with diabetes.
In 2000, Reichert led the league with 18 wild pitches in only 153+ innings.
On April 5, 2001, Reichert gave up a 1 run home run in the first inning to Paul O'Neill. This would prove to be the only run of the game. This was only the second time since 1941 that the Yankees won 1-0 game on a first inning home run.
Reichert signed with the Royals for a $1,450,000 bonus.