Donnie Sadler

Donnie Sadler
Second baseman
Born: (1975-06-17) June 17, 1975
Clifton, Texas
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 1, 1998, for the Boston Red Sox
Last MLB appearance
May 12, 2007, for the Arizona Diamondbacks
MLB statistics
Batting average .202
Home runs 6
Runs batted in 46
Teams

Donnie Lamont Sadler (born June 17, 1975 in Clifton, Texas, United States) is a former right-handed Major League Baseball utility player. An alumnus of Valley Mills High School in Valley Mills, Texas (where he was an all-state shortstop), Sadler is small in stature, standing at only 5'6" tall and weighing 175 pounds. His cousin, Ray Sadler, is an outfielder in the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

Drafted 229th overall by the Boston Red Sox in 1994, Sadler quickly displayed impressive speed in the minor leagues. From 1994 to 1996, for example, he averaged nearly 36 steals per season, while playing in an average of only 95 games each year. He earned a spot on the Midwest League All-Star team in 1995 because he not only stole 41 bases, he batted a respectable .283 with nine home runs and 55 RBI.[1]

Sadler made his big league debut at the age of 23 in the second game of the 1998 season, April 1. Although Sadlers' Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 2-0 that game, he went 0 for 3 at the plate.

After starting the season without collecting a single hit in his first 11 at bats, he was quickly sent down and did not see any Major League action until July of that year. The first hit of his career was quite impressive-it came in his second game after being recalled from Pawtucket in July-off of pitcher Jason Bere on July 3, he smacked a triple in the sixth inning. Although he finished the game one for five, he did help the Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox 15 to 2-he scored one of the Red Sox' many runs in that game.

The rest of his career has seen him bouncing up and down between the minors and majors, spending only one season in the majors for the entire year: 2001.

He has been involved in a couple noteworthy transactions in his career. The first occurred on November 16, 2000, when he and Michael Coleman were sent to the Cincinnati Reds for Chris Stynes. The second came on June 20, 2001, when the Reds traded Sadler to the Kansas City Royals for minor league pitcher Cary Ammons.[2]

So far, his career batting average is only .202, and he has not shown the speed he displayed in the minors-the highest total of stolen bases he has had in a season is seven. Oddly, of the six home runs he has hit in his career, three of them came in the first 124 at bats of his career. He has hit only three more in 643 at bats since.

His postseason batting average is .500-he has collected one hit (a double) in two at bats.

On July 28, 2007, it was announced that Sadler had tested positive for "a drug of abuse" and was handed a 50 game suspension.[3]

Donnie is now a hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Career Stats

Year Age Team Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
1998 23 Boston Red Sox AL 58 124 21 28 4 4 3 15 4 28 .226 .276 .395 .671
1999 24 Boston Red Sox AL 49 107 18 30 5 1 0 4 2 20 .280 .313 .346 .658
2000 25 Boston Red Sox AL 49 99 14 22 5 0 1 10 3 18 .222 .262 .303 .565
2001 26 Cincinnati Reds/Kansas City Royals MLB 93 185 28 30 6 0 1 5 7 37 .162 .243 .211 .454
2002 27 Kansas City Royals/Texas Rangers AL 73 98 16 16 2 1 0 7 5 19 .163 .231 .204 .436
2003 28 Texas Rangers AL 77 131 27 26 5 2 1 5 4 34 .198 .277 .290 .567
2004 29 Arizona Diamondbacks NL 18 23 1 3 2 0 0 0 0 7 .130 .167 .217 .384
2007 32 Arizona Diamondbacks NL 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000

References

  1. ↑ The Baseball Cube
  2. ↑ Baseball Reference
  3. ↑ "Arizona Minor League Player Sadler Suspended". MLB.com. 2007-07-28. Retrieved 2009-01-23.

External links

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