User:Ksy92003/Chris Young (pitcher)

Christopher Ryan Young (born May 25, 1979 in Dallas, Texas) is an American Major League Baseball player who debuted on August 24, 2004 for the Texas Rangers.

Young, a 6ft 10in right-handed starting pitcher, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the August 2000 draft. He was groomed in the Pirates, Montreal Expos and Texas Rangers minor league systems before debuting with the Rangers in the 2004 season. Young's professional baseball career took off in 2006, when he was named the National League Pitcher of the Month in June and led all Major League pitchers in road earned run average. He had a 24-game undefeated road start streak and earned the Padres' only win in the team's loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2006 NLDS.

High school career
Young attended Highland Park High School where he excelled in both basketball and baseball. He lettered three times in basketball in a career in which he scored over a thousand career points, accumulated five hundred career rebounds and two hundred career blocked shots. He was a two-year letterman in baseball, compiling a 14–3 record with 180 strikeouts. During his senior year, he was first-team All-State selection in basketball and baseball. In basketball, he averaged sixteen points, twelve rebounds and three blocked shots a game, and in baseball, he had an 8–3 record, with a 1.70 earned run average and 95 strikeouts in 80.0 innings pitched. He was District MVP in basketball as a senior and he led his baseball team to win the state championship the same year.

Collegiate career
He was the first male athlete to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year in two sports&mdash;basketball and baseball. He was a unanimous selection for both awards. In addition to being named Rookie of the year, Young was named second-team All-Ivy in basketball and was basketball Rookie of the Week each of the final six weeks. He was named Ivy League Player of the Year and an All-American by Basketball Weekly. During the season he set Princeton freshman records for points and rebounds. Young played well in tournaments, including a 62% field goal shooting performance in three NIT games, highlighted by a season-high twenty-four points in an NIT win at North Carolina State against North Carolina State. He scored more than 10 points in twenty-one games, including each of the final eleven and 17 of the final 19. Young led the Princeton Baseball team and the Ivy League with a 2.38 ERA. During this performance he allowed only one home run over the course of 150 batters faced. He was twice named Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

He finished his college basketball career by starting every game of the 1999-2000 season. He scored more than 10 points in 22 games, broke his own single-season school record for blocked shots with 87, and also led the team in scoring, rebounding, and steals. Young had the most rebounds of any player in team history since 1978 and he was the 13th player in school history to earn 100 asssists.

During his sophomore Baseball season in 2000, he was Ivy League's leading pitcher with a 1.82 ERA overall, 1.05 in conference games. He wemt 5-0 in eight games with 52 strikeouts in 49⅓ innings. Young was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League baseball selection, and he led the team to their first Ivy League title since 1996.

Major League career
Young was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 3rd round of the 2000 amateur draft. Young was signed to a deal on September 6, 2000. After three years with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization at the minor league level, he was traded with Jon Searles to the Montreal Expos in exchange for Matt Herges. Prior to the 2004 season, the Expos traded him and Josh McKinley to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Einar Diaz and Justin Echols.

In 2001, Young went 5-3 in 12 starts, with an ERA of 4.12 for the minor-league Hickory Crawdads in the Single-A South Atlantic League. In 2002, Young helped the Crawdads to a league title. He allowed more than three earned runs in just two of 26 starts, but his efforts got him traded to the Montreal Expos with Jon Searles for pitcher Matt Herges. Young began the 2003 season on the disabled list before joining the minor-league Brevard County Manatees towards the end of April, where he earned himself a 5-2 record with a 1.62 ERA in 8 starts. The best performance of his season was a one-hitter, striking out eight against the Fort Myers Miracle on May 11, 2003. This start ended a run in which Young went 3-0 with a 0.47 ERA to begin the season.

In June, Chris was promoted to the Harrisburg Senators of the Double-A Eastern League, where he went 4-4 with an ERA of 4.01. Chris was traded from the Expos to the Rangers on April 3, 2004. He started the season with the Frisco RoughRiders of the Texas League where he went 6-5 with a 4.48 ERA. Young was promoted to Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks and went 3-0 with a 1.48 ERA in five starts. He was named Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week in August.

Young debuted with the Rangers on August 24, 2004 against the Minnesota Twins. He pitched 5⅔ innings, gave up four hits and three earned runs, struck out four batters, and walked three. Young became the first Princeton baseball player to start a major league game at any position since Dave Sisler pitched in 1961.

With his debut, Young became the second-tallest player in Major League Baseball, only an inch shorter than the 6ft 11in Jon Rauch. He became the tallest pitcher in Rangers history, surpassing Mike Smithson, who was 6ft 8in. After joining the starting rotation, he made seven starts and earned a 3–2 record with a 4.71 ERA. Young signed a 3-year contract through 2007 on November 19, 2004.

Young's first Major League loss came during his second career start, a loss to the Baltimore Orioles on August 29, 2004. His first win came in his next start on September 4, 2004 against the Boston Red Sox. He earned his first career shutout when he pitched 6 innings against the Anaheim Angels on September 19, 2004. The Rangers went 5-2 during his 7 starts in his brief stint with the club.

2005 season
Young was one of three rookies on the opening day roster. He made 31 starts in 2005 with the Rangers, compiling a 12–7 record with a 4.26 ERA. His 12 wins tied Kevin Brown's record for most wins by a rookie in Rangers' team history. His season started slowly with seven earned runs allowed 7⅓ innings pitched, giving him an ERA of 8.59. However, his next 11 games dropped his ERA to a season-low 2.78. In a span of two starts, Young pitched a season-high 13⅔ consecutive scoreless innings. Over the course of the season Young had the 2nd-highest run support in the Majors, trailing only David Wells of the Boston Red Sox. However, he surrendered three runs or less in 22 of 31 starts.

Young produced many impressive rookie statistics. He ranked in the top five among qualifying Major League rookies in strikeouts, wins, ERA, starts, and inning pitched. He also tied team rookie records in wins and wins before the All-Star break. He ranked fifth among all American League pitchers with 7.5 strikeouts per 9 innings. Young started seven games alongside former University of Pennsylvania infielder Mark DeRosa making them the second Ivy League tandem in the last 50 years to start for the same team. However, he was traded along with Terrmel Sledge and Adrian Gonzalez to the San Diego Padres for starting pitcher Adam Eaton, middle reliever Akinori Otsuka, and minor-league catcher Billy Killian.

2006 season
In 2006, Young dropped his ERA to 3.46 and he recorded a career high 169 strikeouts. He finished with an 11–5 record. Young led all major league pitchers with a 2.41 ERA on the road in 15 starts and allowed a .206 opponent batting average. His strong June performance earned him the National League Pitcher of the Month by maintaining a 1.17 ERA. His five starts in June were highlighted by a career high twelve strikeout performance on June 9, 2006 against the Florida Marlins and a June 21, 2006 win over his former team, the Texas Rangers.

Young took a no-hitter into the eighth inning on May 30 against the Colorado Rockies, the first time a pitcher took a no hitter into eighth inning during the 2006 season. But he surrendered a double to Brad Hawpe on his first pitch of the eighth inning. During Young's next start on June 4 at Pittsburgh, he did not allow a hit for the first 5 1/3 innings, making him one of only two pitchers to have consecutive starts with at least five hitless innings since the 2000 season.

On September 22, Young had a no-hitter through 8 1/3 innings of the game against the Pirates before Joe Randa hit a two-run home run. It was the first time a Padre had taken a no hitter into the ninth inning since Andy Ashby on September 5 1997 vs. the Atlanta Braves (8.0 innings).

He ended his season by winning his first career postseason start. On October 7, he earned a victory in the 2006 NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals. Young's 6–0 road record in 2006 was one of 49 undefeated road seasons with at least five victories by pitchers since postseason play began in 1903; it is the first, however, to be followed by a road postseason victory.

2007 season
Young won his season debut on April 4, but surrendered a home run to Barry Bonds in a victory over the San Francisco Giants. On April 10, Young signed a four-year contract extension with the Padres through the 2010 season that includes a club option for the 2011 season that could increase the value based on Chris' performance. The contract is reportedly for $14.5 million with a club option that could increase the value to $23 million.

On May 30, Young continued his dominance over the Pittsburgh Pirates, posting 7 shutout innings, giving him a record of 4-1 with a 1.13 ERA during the month. On June 5, Young improved his ERA in home games to 0.52, second in the National League behind teammate Jake Peavy. On June 16, Young threw a pitch that hit Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee on the back of the upper left arm. The errant pitch, which seemed directed towards Lee's head, hit Lee's left hand near his surgically repaired wrist. After Lee was hit by a pitch, Lee and Young exchanged words and Lee started a bench-clearing altercation. Both Young and Lee were ejected. and were both suspended 5 games each for their roles in the brawl. Lee and Young both appealed their suspensions, however.

On July 1, Young was named a candidate for the All-Star Final Vote by the fans, contending against Tom Gorzelanny, Roy Oswalt, Brandon Webb and Carlos Zambrano. Although Oswalt and Webb were named All-Stars to fill in for injured players, Young earned his first career All-Star appearance. But prior to the announcement, Young dropped his appeal of the 5 game suspension.

Career statistics
Statistics include 17th 2007 start on July 4, 2007

Personal
Young's wife, Elizabeth (née Patrick), was also a member of the Princeton University class of 2002. She attends law school in Washington, DC. Lester Patrick, the honoree of the Patrick Division and for whom the Lester Patrick Trophy was named, was Elizabeth's grandfather.