Kirk Saarloos

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**Kirk Saarloos**

Cincinnati Reds — No. 15
Pitcher
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
Major League Baseball debut
June 18, 2002 for the Houston Astros
Selected MLB statistics (through August 31, 2006)
Record	27-24
ERA	4.72
Strikeouts	197

Kirk Craig Saarloos (born May 23, 1979 in Long Beach, California) is a right-handed major-league pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. He has been used both in starting and relief situations.

Saarloos graduated from Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California a three-sport (baseball, football, soccer) athlete. He attended California State University, Fullerton where he established himself as one of the best closers in college baseball during his sophomore and junior seasons. In 2001, his senior year, he became a starter (the new closer was current Washington Nationals closer Chad Cordero) and established himself as the ace of the staff, winning 15 games with a 2.18 ERA. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft in the 3rd round, the 86th overall pick.

Saarloos quickly rose in the Astros organization, making brief stops at Class AA Round Rock and Class AAA New Orleans before being called up to the major leagues in his second year as a professional. In 2002 he went 6-7 with a 6.01 ERA with Houston and was sent down to New Orleans for the next season. In 2003 he again pitched very well in the minors but posted a 4.93 ERA in 36 games for the big club. It was around this time he caught the eye of Oakland Athletics assistant general manager Paul DePodesta. A few weeks into the 2004 season, after appearing in only 2 games for New Orleans, he was traded to the A's for Chad Harville. They sent him to Triple-A Sacramento, where he pitched well enough to receive a call-up and start 5 games for Oakland.

In 2005, with Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson traded away, the Athletics had openings in their rotation. Saarloos beat out Keiichi Yabu and Juan Cruz to win the last starter spot in the rotation. Saarloos succeeded, going 10-9 with a 4.17 ERA in 27 starts. He was widely considered to be among the best #5 starters in the American League.

With the signing of veteran starter Esteban Loaiza before the 2006 season, the A's bumped Saarloos to the bullpen. Soon after, Rich Harden got injured and Saarloos was put in as a 5th starter for a few games. He has also been be used in many varying relief roles, much like Justin Duchscherer was in 2005, but also as a spot starter. On Jan. 19th 2007, Saarloos signed a one year $1.2 million deal with the A's

On January 23rd, Saarloos was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for minor league reliever David Shafer. Both teams will also receive a player to be named later.

[edit] Scouting

Saarloos has a variety of pitches, including a 4-seam fastball, a curveball, a slider, and a changeup. However, his best pitch by far is his mid-to-high 80's sinker. For this reason, Saarloos is known predominately as a sinkerball specialist, and as such gets few strikeouts (batters tend to hit groundballs when faced with a sinker). In fact, his 2.99 strikeouts per 9 innings in 2005 ranked 3rd to last in Major League Baseball, and was the lowest mark in Oakland Athletics history for a starting pitcher.

[edit] Trivia

Saarloos was part of the no-hitter that involved him and five other Astros in 2003. He pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief after Roy Oswalt left with an injury.

Saarloos became a breast cancer activist when his mother, Linda Saarloos, survived the disease in 2005. They both attended the Oakland Athletics 8th annual Breast Cancer Awareness Day at McAfee Coliseum on September 2, 2006.[1]