Stephen Drew Career Tracker

By popular demand here's a thread devoted to Stephen Drew.

A natural righty, Drew bats from left side
D-backs' shortstop gave up switch-hitting to hone stroke



PHOENIX -- Not long after he joined the D-backs last summer, Jeff Cirillo found himself in the batting cage with shortstop Stephen Drew.

Cirillo watched Drew take some swings from the right side and then the left. The next time the D-backs faced a left-hander, Cirillo was surprised to see Drew swinging from the left side.

"I thought you were a switch-hitter," he said to Drew.

Those who watch Drew are amazed at how well he swings the bat from the right side, but if they knew how he grew up, they'd be even more surprised with how well he hits from the left side.

Drew, you see, was born right-handed.

So if you watch him hold silverware, sign autographs or do almost anything else, you'll notice he does it right-handed. Everything, that is, except hitting Major League pitching. That he does left-handed.

"I hit right-handed until I was 9 or 10," he said.

With older brother and current big leaguer J.D. a left-handed hitter, Drew decided to give switch-hitting a try. So to practice his left-handed hitting, he would throw a tennis ball up on his garage roof and let it hit the ground once before swinging from the left side.

"It bounced up to the perfect height," he said. "J.D. helped me out a little bit, too."

Drew also worked on his swing with a batting tee and started switch-hitting before he abandoned it in the 10th grade.

"It was kind of tough, because there were not a lot of left-handed pitchers that we faced," Drew said. "And my dad was right-handed, so I didn't really have any lefties to practice against, either. So I decided halfway through 10th grade to just go left and see how it went against lefties. It became just as easy, so I stuck with it."

And with good reason. Drew's hitting prowess got him a scholarship to Florida State University and made him a first-round selection in the 2004 First-Year Player Draft.

Hitting from the left side of the plate forced Drew to use the whole field, and he says it made him a better hitter.

"The biggest thing for me hitting right-handed was that I seemed to pull a lot of balls," he said. "Whereas left-handed, it was kind of natural to go the other way. So I stuck with left-handed and it's gotten me here."

As a rookie in 2006, Drew hit .316 before slumping to .238 last season. This year, he's off to a better start, with a .294 mark through the first 15 games.

There are times that Drew will swing right-handed, but he saves it for the batting cage where only teammates or hitting coach Rick Schu can see.

"We try to keep it loose in the cages at times, so he'll take some swings from the right side," Schu said. "He's got a real nice stroke from there. He's just a real gifted athlete."

How about more photos than anyone knows what to do with?

Ignore the rail here:

Biography:

Stephen O. Drew...Married to Laura...Graduated in 2001 from Lowndes County High School in Valdosta, Ga...Attended Florida State University, where as a junior he batted .353 with 71 hits, 14 doubles, 6 triples, 14 home runs and 52 RBI in 51 games...Named 2002 ACC Rookie of the Year as well as Freshman of the Year by Baseball America, and second team All-America by Collegiate Baseball in 2004...selected to the All-ACC Team and the All-Tournament Team at the 2004 ACC Tournament...Is the brother of J.D. Drew (Boston Red Sox) and Tim Drew, all 3 of whom were first round selections...J.D. and Tim the only set of brothers ever to be selected in the first round of the First Year Player Draft in the same year.


================

That O stands for Oris What the hell kind of name is that (no offense to anyone who is named Oris).

He got a HR tonight. It was the only run the snakies got

SoulRat wrote:

He got a HR tonight. It was the only run the snakies got

Webb lost

catbox_9 wrote:

SoulRat wrote:

He got a HR tonight. It was the only run the snakies got

Webb lost

:haha: I know!

SoulRat wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

SoulRat wrote:

He got a HR tonight. It was the only run the snakies got

Webb lost

:haha: I know!

Poor Brandon

On another note, is it strange that my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th favorite teams in baseball all play in the same division?

Spoiler:

Poor Brandon... yeah... he had to lose sometime. He pitched well too, the fishies were just too good :haha:

catbox_9 wrote:

What measure did you go to get that?

Not that I'm complaining. jk!

That first picture isn't even focused all that well

Drew hasn't been doing so great since I started this thread. He was hitting very close to (or above) .300 when I was in Arizona. Now, not so much

My poor darling!
lol.

That ole Oris better start hitting!

Go Oris!!!

Go Drew!

bobrob2004 wrote:

Go Oris!!!

I still don't get what the deal is with that name. Wikipedia doesn't have an article about that name and it does for most names. I think his parents believe in Egyptian religion and/or are members of the Cult of Osiris and just don't know how to spell all that well - they left out the "sir" part of Osiris. Maybe they thought he was a girl so they didn't want sir in there? Then again, why not name him after Osiris' wife, Isis?

Whatever the explanation, I'm sure it's far less interesting than my story.

Drew is hitting .262 and slugging .460 this year. He has an OPS+ of 93

5 triples though!

Since I last saw him he's batting just .235. He was at .295 before I got there.

He extended his hitting streak to 16 games today. 50 shy of Dimaggio...

catbox_9 wrote:

He extended his hitting streak to 16 games today. 50 shy of Dimaggio...

There's not even 50 games left in the season. :haha: This has me thinking; can streaks like this carry over into next year? I mean obviously the Cal Ripkin Jr. streak carried over from year-to-year so I don't understand why this one couldn't.

Yeah, they can carry over although some people want an * when they do. Jimmy Rollins had a streak a few years back that carried over.

He hit for the cycle today going 5-5