J. D. Drew

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**J.D. Drew**
Major League Baseball debut
Los Angeles Dodgers — No. 7
Right fielder
Bats: Left	Throws: Right
September 8, 1998 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Selected MLB statistics (through October 7, 2006)
AVG	.286
OBP	.393
HR	162
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1998-2003) Atlanta Braves (2004) Los Angeles Dodgers (2005-present)

David Jonathan Drew (born November 20, 1975 in Valdosta, Georgia, USA) is a Major League Baseball right fielder, commonly known as J.D. Drew. He is a left-handed hitting outfielder who most recently played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and began his major league career in 1998 with the St. Louis Cardinals. Late Thursday, November 9th, he opted out of his contract with the Dodgers with three years remaining.

1 High School Years
2 Career
- 2.1 College
- 2.2 Professional
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] High School Years

Drew attended Lowndes High School (Valdosta, Georgia) and was a star outfielder.

[edit] Career

[edit] College

He attended Florida State University where he played under head coach Mike Marin. At Florida State, he was the winner of the 1997 Golden Spikes Award, the 1997 Dick Howser Trophy, and was named the 1997 Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year, the 1997 Sporting News Player of the Year, and was a consensus All-American (1997), and was also named the 1997 ACC Player of the Year. He was a 1996 member of Team USA. Drew was First Team All-ACC and All-American in 1996, Freshman All-American in 1995 and was named to the College World Series All Tournament Team in 1995. He was the first player in college baseball history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season. He set a Florida State record by batting .455 in 1997 while managing to become one of only three players in college baseball history to have 100 hits, 100 runs and 100 RBIs. During his college career, Drew broke 17 school and conference records.

[edit] Professional

He was the second overall pick in the 1997 MLB Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Drew and his agent Scott Boras, elected not to sign with the Phillies, sticking to their guarantee that they would not sign for less than $10 million dollars. The Phillies had no plan to pay an unproven player this amount of money, and despite Boras' warnings, drafted Drew nonetheless. Drew's younger brother, Tim, a pitcher, was also drafted in the first round that year, making them the first brothers drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft in the same year. Drew sat out 1997, and was selected fifth overall in 1998 by the St. Louis Cardinals. To this day, he is booed every time he makes a plate appearance in Philadelphia.

Drew blew through the minor leagues, and made his debut with the Cardinals at the end of the 1998 season, and was dazzling in the shadow of Mark McGwire's breaking of the home run record, drawing comparisons to a future Mickey Mantle. In 1999, in Drew's first appearance at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, he was booed loudly, and even had batteries thrown at him by fans. Drew was never able to stay healthy, landing on the disabled list every season he played in St. Louis.

Drew was traded to the Atlanta Braves in December 2003, where he had the best season of his career while finally managing to stay healthy. He displayed excellent power, patience, and defense and hit .305/.436/.569 with 31 home runs, 118 walks, and 96 RBI's in his 2004 campaign, finishing 6th in the MVP voting.

File photo of J. D. Drew during his stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Drew signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December of 2004 for a reported 5 year, $55 million dollar contract, which included an escape clause after the second year. Roughly halfway through the season, Drew's season was again cut short, after being hit on the wrist by a pitch from Arizona Diamondbacks' pitcher Brad Halsey.

His brothers, Tim and Stephen have also been on the roster of a major league baseball team; Tim with the Cleveland Indians and Stephen is currently on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Drew recently exercised his contract option clause, forgoing $33 million over the next 3 years. The Dodgers' General Manager, Ned Colletti, said in a teleconference that he was "surprised how it came down. Everything we had heard, everything that had been written led us to believe the player loved being here." ^[1]