Anthony Ranaudo

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Anthony Ronald Ranaudo

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Biographical Information[edit]

Anthony Ranaudo is a pitcher who made his major league debut for the Boston Red Sox in 2014.

Ranaudo threw two no-hitters as a sophomore in high school; in the state championship game that year, he had a two-hit shutout and cracked a three-run homer. His junior year, he was 7-0 with a 0.96 ERA. He fell to 5-2, 1.32 as a senior. Overall, he was 21-4 with a 1.44 ERA in high school and hit .402 with 11 homers and 83 RBI. He also had over 1,300 points and 800 rebounds in high school basketball. The Texas Rangers chose him in the 11th round of the 2007 amateur draft but he opted for college.

Ranaudo had a 1-0, 0.00 record in 12 innings as a freshman at Louisiana State University and threw one shutout inning in the 2008 College World Series. Ranaudo improved to 12-3, 3.04 in 2009 and struck out 159 in 124 1/3 innings. He led the Southeastern Conference in strikeouts, but lost Pitcher of the Year honors in the SEC to teammate Louis Coleman. He was second in the SEC in opponent average (.209) and third in ERA. In NCAA Division I, he was third overall in Ks behind Stephen Strasburg and Mike Leake. He was tied for fifth in wins, trailing Leake, A.J. Morris and Coleman. In the 2009 College World Series, Anthony was 2-0 with a 3.68 ERA. In the finale of the CWS, he walked five in 5 1/3 innings but beat the University of Texas. He made the CWS All-Tournament Team though Most Outstanding Player honors went to teammate Jared Mitchell.

Ranaudo was considered the #2 prospect for the 2010 amateur draft behind Bryce Harper, but was hampered by injury and his stock fell during his junior season. In the end, he was selected in the supplemental 1st round by the Red Sox with the 39th pick of the draft. Scouted by Matt Dorey, he was signed at the deadline for $2.55 million and made his pro debut the next summer, 2011. He went 9-6, 3.97 in 26 starts between the Greenville Drive of the South Atlantic League and the Salem Red Sox of the Carolina League. He struck out 117 batters in 127 innings.

In 2012, Anthony only pitched 9 times for the Portland Sea Dogs of the Eastern League, with a record of 1-3, 6.69. However, he bounced back with a great season in 2013 that saw him be named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Year and play in the 2013 Futures Game. He went 8-4, 2.95 in 19 starts for Portland, earning a promotion to the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox, where he finished the year with a record of 3-1, 2.87 in 6 games. His combined mark was 11-5, 2.96, with 127 strikeouts in 140 innings. He had the second best ERA among full-season pitchers in the Boston system, behind Henry Owens, and tied for the most wins.

Ranaudo made his major league debut with the Red Sox on August 1, 2014, on the day after the Red Sox completely reshaped their roster by trading away a number of the players who had made key contributions to their World Series championship the year before. Ranaudo started against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park and although he put runners on in each of his first three innings, he showed no sign of nervousness, working out of the jam each time, before allowing a run in the 4th. he ended up a 4-3 winner as he gave up only one other run in 6 innings. His first strikeout victim was his boyhood idol, Derek Jeter. He returned to Pawtucket after the game, as the newly acquired Joe Kelly was scheduled to join the starting rotation. Anthony was having an excellent year in AAA, with a 12-4, 2.41 record for the PawSox at the time of his call-up. He ended up being named the International League's Pitcher of the Year Award, the second consecutive year he had copped such an award. For Boston, he made 7 starts, with a record of 4-3, 4.81 in 39 1/3 innings.

Just like it looked that Ranaudo would have a chance to join the Red Sox's starting rotation full time in 2015, plans changed when he was unexpectedly traded to the Rangers on January 27th in return for P Robbie Ross. Texas had had their eyes on him since drafting him out of high school eight years earlier but failing to get him to sign a contract. After starting the 2015 season in the minors, he was called up when the Rangers placed Derek Holland on the disabled list, but was a 10-2 loser in his first start against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on April 15th. He went back to the minors after that rough outing, but did a lot better whgen he was next called up to make a spot start, on June 18th against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did not give up a run in 6 2/3 innings in a game the Rangers eventually lost, 1-0, in the bottom of the 9th on a rare walk-off balk by reliever Keone Kela. He made 4 appearances in all for Texas, including 2 starts, and was 0-1 with a 7.63 ERA. In the minor leagues, he went 7-6, 4.58 in 21 starts for the AAA Round Rock Express.

He started the 2016 season back at Round Rock, but after going 1-1, 2.02 in his first 3 starts, he was called up to Texas. In his first game on May 7th, he pitched a couple of innings in the middle of a 10-5 win against the Detroit Tigers and was credited with the victory in spite of allowing 2 runs in 2 1/3 innings as starter A.J. Griffin had been unable to complete even three innings. In his next game, however, he was truly lit up, giving up 5 runs in an inning and a third against the Chicago White Sox on May 10th. Two days after that game and in spite of not likely having impressed his future bosses much, he was traded to those same Chicago White Sox in return for minor league P Matt Ball. He was assigned to the Charlotte Knights of the International League, where he did well as a starter: in 13 starts, he was 5-3, 3.20, with a K/W ratio of 53/8 in 78 2/3 innings. On July 27th, he was called up to make a start at Wrigley Field against the crosstown Chicago Cubs. In the 5th, he homered against Jason Hammel for his first major league hit, putting the Sox ahead, 1-0. He had a no-hitter going at that point, but it was broken up with one out in the 6th when Kris Bryant hit a game-tying homer. The Cubs then got to him after two outs in the 7th, when he issued a walk to Jason Heyward followed by a homer by Javier Baez. He was removed from the game, but it was all Cubs after that and he was charged with the 8-1 loss. Gopher balls had already been his bugbear at Charlotte, as he had given up 12 homers in his 13 starts before his call-up.

Sources include LSU bio, 2010 Baseball Almanac

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