Tankersley will again look for a job
By john • Nov 19th, 2008 • Category: dennis tankersley, minor leagues
One guy who has been a minor league free agent before is Dennis Tankersley. Tankersley will look to do the seemingly impossible feat of joining his sixth organization in six years this off season.
Tankersley began his career in the Boston Red Sox organization after being selected in the 38th round of the 1998 draft. Previously he was drafted by the Red Sox in the 1997 draft (also in the 38th round) but did not sign. After a surprising season of rookie ball a 20 year old Tankersley was sent to San Diego for Ed Sprague.
Tankersley began to pop up on everyone’s radar at this point. After pitching splendidly at Double-A and Triple-A he was promoted to the majors in 2002 making 17 appearances including 9 starts. He finished 1-4 with a 8.06 ERA, he would make just one big league appearance in 2003 allowing 7 runs without recording an out. In 2004 he was 0-5 with a 5.14 ERA.
Since then Tankersley was been traded to Kansas City where he pitched poorly in Triple-A, granted free agency and has pretty much repeated that cycle with Detroit, St. Louis and Washington.
Last season with the Nationals Triple-A affiliate he was 4-4 with a 5.10 ERA in 30 games. It’s easy to see that the once bright star of Tankersley has quickly evaporated.
Once armed with an arsenal to strike opposing batters out Tankersley hasn’t had a strong IP/K ratio even in the minors since 2003. In addition he has allowed more hits then innings pitched dating back to 2004.
Last season Tankersley signed with the Nationals largely because the team was looking to fill holes in their rotation, and even though Tankersley hadn’t been a major league pitcher since 2004 he entered camp with other similar pitchers. He never got called up to the majors for the team and this year will be looking for any team who would even offer a contract.
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