Fans of the Dennis Quaid Disney film, “The Rookie” should be pulling for the familiar story of real-life ‘rookie’ Chris Sampson.
On the surface, it would appear that Sampson, the oldest player in our FAB 50 at 28, is too old to be a serious major league prospect. Look further, though, and you’ll see a man with a lengthy history, but a surprisingly young arm.
The Astros thought enough of Sampson that they made him an eighth-round draft pick out of Texas Tech in 1999, as a shortstop.
His dream of a major league career seemed shattered at the close of that season when he batted just .239 with one home run at short-season Class A Auburn.
At age 21, Sampson retired from baseball and took a job as an assistant coach at Lon Morris, a junior college in Jacksonville, Texas. From pitching batting practice, he and others determined that the strong-armed Sampson had pretty good stuff on the mound.
In 2003, he arranged a tryout with Astros. general manager Tim Purpura, who liked what he saw, and signed Sampson to pitch for the low Class A Lexington Legends.
Through 2005, he had just a 16-27 record in the minors, including 4-12 last year at Double-A Corpus Christi, seeming to reinforce the idea that he would never be major league material. Yet hidden beneath that below-average win-loss record were a very respectable 3.12 ERA and a 92:19 strikeout/walk ratio. Sampson sported a superior sinker, too.
Chris’ improbable story was about to become more surprising. He got the call in June to play for the Round Rock Express, the Astros’ Triple-A diamond that included highly regarded prospects such as Jason Hirsh and Philip Barzilla, and put him under the advisorial eye of ‘consultant’ and Express co-owner Nolan Ryan.
Sampson caught on fire in the hitting-rich Pacific Coast League. He entered August with an 11-2 record, 2.62 ERA, 53:14 strikeout/walk ratio and his sinker working almost to perfection.
Chris made his first appearance for the Astros in relief June 2, then started five days later. The 6’0”, 170-pounder pitched seven shutout innings against the Cubs for his first win in the majors. New teammate Andy Pettitte had told Sampson not to change a thing. True to himself, he earned 16 of his 21 outs on ground balls.
Sampson impressed Houston manager Phil Garner, and catcher Brad Ausmus, gave him the thumbs up.
Before returning to Round Rock, Sampson had retired almost three times as many batters on ground balls than on fly outs.
Because he continued to pitch well for the Express, the Astros recalled Sampson again in August. We haven’t seen the last of this improbable prospect.
- Lary BUMP
