Old phenoms? Drew, Wright seek revival with Braves - MLB - CBSSports.com Live Scores, Stats, Schedules

Miller's camping trip

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Early morning. Hot sun. J.D. Drew steps into the batting cage, punches out one line drive, two, three, and the only thing different now is each thwack of the bat comes via a simple knee brace instead of out-of-this-world expectations.

Same morning. Same sun. Jaret Wright loosens up on the same Atlanta Braves spring practice field. He stretches, he throws, he sweats until he's soaked, and the only thing different now is the young phenom starring in the World Series last October was Florida's Josh Beckett instead of him.


The Braves want J.D. Drew in right to complement CF Andruw Jones and LF Chipper Jones. (AP)

Pages turn. Chapters end. Time slips away.

They were The Next Great Things, once. A couple of first-round picks with futures more wide open than Montana. But in this game, you get a lifetime deal with neither health nor applause.

And so here they are, wearing the Atlanta logo across their chests and grim determination across their faces, still attempting to stretch themselves into the players all the scouts promised they'd be.

"I feel great," Wright says.

"I feel good," Drew says. "Everything is coming together all right."

The land of the free and the home of the Braves always has been about opportunity. It's just that now, with guys such as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Gary Sheffield distant memories, the size of the opportunity just so happens to be big enough to fit both Drew and Wright, with plenty of room to spare.

Drew

The idea of acquiring him from St. Louis in last winter's five-player deal was that, with Sheffield gone, the Braves were going to need a rugged right fielder who could hang some serious numbers.

Someone like Drew once was supposed to be -- and, if healthy, perhaps still could become.

His disabled list stays over the past few seasons are the stuff of exasperation -- or tears, take your pick. Strained right quadriceps. Sprained left ankle. Broken right pinky finger. Strained right oblique. Patella tendinitis in his right knee.

The worrisome part is the last one, and the downright scary part is he has pretty much the same condition that drove Mark McGwire from the game -- though McGwire was 37 when he retired, and Drew is only 28.

"It's a devastating injury," Drew says. "You can only play with it so long until you're fed up.

"I'm at the point of my career where I'm trying to make some money and establish myself. He already had done both. He did a noble thing by leaving all of that money on the table."

McGwire had two years and $30 million left when he walked away after the 2001 season. Drew has made it through only two full major-league seasons without being shipped back to the minors for either developmental or health reasons.

The Braves knew when they traded for him that they were taking a chance. But they decided it was a smart gamble, and they figure the fact Drew is a Georgia native and still lives there might make for a nice fit.

So they're planning to take it very easy with him this spring. They've set up a program and told him not to overdo it, and they expect him to listen. You probably won't see him play more than three or four Grapefruit League games in a row without getting a day off.

"We didn't want him busting full speed right now, that's not important," Atlanta general manager John Schuerholz says. "What's important for us is that when we leave here to go to Atlanta, he's in shape.

"The worst thing is he tries hard to impress somebody and he blows something out early in camp. Let's get him well-conditioned before we ask him to do anything else."

Drew pauses when asked if he thinks he has played his best baseball yet.

"I had a really good start in '01, but I broke my hand, and then the knee started hurting," Drew said. "Then '02 was a wash, and '03 was rehab.

"Who knows what's going to happen?"

He's quiet and reserved, which causes some to watch him and sneer. Just another spoiled brat bonus baby, they say.

"Some people say he doesn't really care, but you know down deep he cares," says Jim Edmonds, Drew's former teammate in St. Louis. "He's had some unfortunate situations."

You don't have to tell Drew he has failed to live up to expectations. He has shown flashes of what he can do -- .295 with 18 homers and 57 RBI in 135 games for St. Louis in 2000, .289 with 15 homers and 42 RBI in 100 games in '03 -- but he has never been able to stay on the field long enough to make consistent magic.

Add all of the controversy at the beginning of his career -- Drew was Philadelphia's first-round pick in 1997 but didn't sign after a bitter contract dispute and held out, and St. Louis picked him in the first round in '98 -- and he's a guy whose name became bigger than he ever did.

Did the expectations on him reach unrealistic proportions?

"No," Drew says. "They want everybody to be a superstar. You come to the big leagues, they want you to produce."

So he rehabs, builds up the right quadriceps that has weakened along with the knee and tells himself that this year things will be different.

"It affects your body in more ways than you can imagine," Drew says. "You favor your right side long enough, you get back issues, your hips lock up ... you spend a couple of hours a day in the training room, it makes for a long day at the ballpark."

Hot tubs, cold tanks, ice, heat, take your pick. Drew knows all the treatments intimately. He says he's full speed coming into camp, and for Atlanta's sake, that's good. The Braves must have a productive Drew if they are to extend their pro sports record to 13 consecutive division titles. With Chipper Jones in left field and Andruw Jones in center, just think how productive Atlanta's outfield could be if a full-throttle Drew continues to complete it.

"I know I'm capable of doing it," he said.

Which, if you can't stay on the field, is more curse than blessing.

Wright

You bet Wright watched the World Series last fall. Six years earlier, in another October, that was him out there pitching against the Marlins.

"Any time for the rest of my life I see Florida in the World Series, I'm going to think about that," says Wright, who many thought might become Cleveland's next Rapid Robert Feller at one time. "It was unbelievable for me to be a part of that my first year.

"To have the memories of the World Series and a couple of postseasons ... it's something to tell your kids about."

But during the past few seasons, from the shadows of the bullpen and the sweat of the rehab centers, it might as well have happened a couple of lifetimes ago.

"There's a lot of stuff that's happened since then," says Wright, who is hoping to win a job as Atlanta's fifth starter or, failing that, a spot in the Braves bullpen. "A lot of downs. A couple of surgeries.

"It's all part of it. But I got to play last season, go to the postseason. I'm definitely trying to enjoy it more because there was a time, two surgeries into it, where I was close to being done."

Like Drew, he's 28 now, an old 28, and like Drew, he was far more shooting star than North Star.

In 16 starts in 1997, he was 8-3 with a 4.38 ERA for the Indians, and that fall is when he made his mark. He beat the New York Yankees twice in the first round of the playoffs, won a game against Florida in the World Series and then started for the Indians in Game 7 against the Marlins -- the second-youngest pitcher ever to start a Series Game 7.

But after starting 32 games for the Indians in '98, Wright, Cleveland's first-round pick in 1994, landed hard on the disabled list, seven times in the next four seasons.

Finally healthy after the surgeries and barely pitching for three seasons, he resurfaced in San Diego's bullpen last season, was hammered for an 8.74 ERA in 39 relief appearances ... and Atlanta claimed him off waivers last August.

Suddenly, that ol' Atlanta pitching magic kicked in, and that's when both the Braves and Wright saw enough to think that perhaps the right-hander still could salvage something out of his career.

In 11 relief appearances for the Braves, Wright pitched as well as he had in years. He was 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA, allowing just seven hits in nine innings. He struck out nine and walked three.

"How he threw for us at the end of last year was the springboard, both physically and mentally," Schuerholz says. "Obviously, if we can get him back to his 1997 starter's form, that would be a real positive development here.

"Nothing that has happened here so far makes us think that that's not going to happen."

The Braves could not be more thrilled with the way Wright is throwing early this spring.

"I'm not making any predictions, but we'll be real happy if things keep going the way they are. I'll say that to you," Schuerholz says. "We'll be real happy."

Wright, Jung Bong and Trey Hodges are the leading candidates at this point for the fifth starter's spot. One thing working against Wright is that he pitched so well out of the bullpen last year that the Braves think it might weaken them late in games if Wright starts.

The perfect scenario in Atlanta would be this: If relievers Antonio Alfonseca and Armando Almanza step up, that would free up the Braves to install Wright as their fifth starter. But if Alfonseca and/or Almanza falter, then the Braves are going to be awfully tempted to keep Wright as a reliever.

This, of course, is assuming that Wright, the one-time Can't Miss Kid, continues pitching as a Can't Miss Comeback Candidate this spring.

"He looks as if he's throwing as good as he ever has," manager Bobby Cox says. "You've got to respect that."

It's early, of course. Opening day is still nearly five weeks away, and as Wright unfortunately can tell you, a whole heck of a lot can happen between now and then.

Wright, who once regularly threw in the high 90s, still can bring the heat when needed. But on the advice of pitching coach Leo Mazzone, he has worked more on keeping the ball down and spotting his pitches since he has been in Atlanta. And so far, so good.

"I used to try and throw it through 15 brick walls every pitch," Wright says. "Obviously, it takes a toll on your arm. Being young, if young, you're going to go with why you're there, and why do you think people want you there? Because you throw hard.

"As you get older, you realize it's where you throw it and why instead of just trying to throw it as hard as you can every time."