Andy Larkin

 

Andy Larkin pitched for the Marlins, Reds, and Royals between 1996 and 2000.

Andrew Dane Larkin was born June 27, 1974, in Chelan, Washington, just east of the Cascade Mountains. By the time he was in high school his family had moved to Medford in southern Oregon. He graduated from South Medford High, where he lettered in baseball and swimming, in 1992, and on June 6 he was drafted in the 25^th round by the Florida Marlins. He was sent to the Marlins’ team in the Rookie Class Gulf Coast League, where he had a 5.23 ERA in 41 1/3 innings in 14 games, four of them starts.

In 1993 Andy moved up to the Elmira Pioneers of the New York-Pennsylvania League, class Short Season A, where on July 25 he pitched a no-hitter. The Syracuse Herald Journal looked back on it on August 17:

…Larkin’s no-hitter…they’re still talking about that. Three weeks ago, the 19-year-old from Medford, Ore., contradicted a 1-5, 5.25-ERA record with the first no-no in Elmira’s 21-year history of short-season ball, beating the Weiland Pirates, 6-0. He walked one, struck out 13, sent a shiver through the organization.

“It was as fine a game as I’ve seen in professional ball,” says [Elmira manager Lynn] Jones, who played in the majors from 1979 to ’86 and then coached first base for the Royals for two years. “I saw Bret Saberhagen throw a no-hitter in Kansas City and Andy threw as good a game—or better.”

Reason enough to drive the winding 85 miles up to Auburn, with Larkin pitching again, confidence in overdrive. Last year, the Marlins’ 25^th-round draft pick spent his first season in the Gulf Coast League, sure he didn’t belong.

“I was just so scared of professional ball,” Larkin says. 6-1 and a willowy 174 pounds, face spotted by downy blond strands that could never be called whiskers. “’God,’ I said, ‘I’m not as good as these guys.’”

Larkin’s voice twangs like a snapped guitar string. “But then this year I came in thinking, ‘I’m as good as these guys, or better. Why not go after ‘em?’”

Why not, indeed? Since his no-hitter, Larkin has gone 2-1 and lowered his ERA to 3.50. With his fielders committing the usual array of errors—three in the first inning—Larkin kept his poise against the Auburn Astros, gave up one earned run, struck out six, his long right arm cutting air like a whip.

“I truly believe he’ll play in the major leagues someday,” Jones says. He concedes that about only two other players on this team…

Andy finished the year with a 2.97 ERA in 88 innings in 14 games, all starts. At the end of the season he filled out a questionnaire in which he said he was 6-4 175, in the off-season was a student at Southern Oregon State in Ashland, and his hobbies were fishing and golf.

Andy spent 1994 with the Kane County Cougars of the Class A Midwest League. As of May 8 he had a 0.57 ERA, had won his last three starts, each by an 8-0 score, and had pitched 25 consecutive scoreless innings. On June 20 he pitched in the league’s all-star game and injured his elbow; he managed to start and win on July 1 but then went on the disabled list for the rest of the month. In mid-August Baseball America rated him the Marlins’ fifth-best prospect. For the season he had a 2.83 ERA in 140 innings, striking out 125 while walking just 27, though he led the league in hit batters with 19.

For 1995 Andy was moved up to the Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs of the Class AA Eastern League. He started the season with 16 scoreless innings, then began to experience discomfort in his elbow. He would repeatedly sit out a while and then try to come back, until it was decided it was more serious. He pitched just nine games, all starts, and had a 3.38 ERA in 40 innings. In October he underwent surgery in which “doctors removed part of Larkin’s Achilles tendon in his leg and used it to reinforce the elbow ligament.”

In February 1996 Andy signed a major league contract with the Marlins and went to spring training. From a February 24 AP story:

Marlins’ Larkin tries to reel in recovery

MELBOURNE—Andy Larkin was on the mound before most of the Florida Marlins had even arrived Friday morning. His windup was relaxed. His delivery was smooth. The place was unfamiliar.

Larkin, one of the Marlins’ top minor league pitching prospects, hadn’t thrown from the mound since doctors used a tendon from his Achilles’ heel to reinforce the ligament in his right elbow after last season.

The workout didn’t last long, but it was a start, anyway.

“Baby steps,” the lanky right-hander said…

Now the prospect has become a project.

The Marlins are in no rush to bring Larkin back quickly. In fact, he had been scheduled to throw from the mound on Wednesday when they decided to wait a few more days.

“They’re being real conservative with my timetable,” he said. “There’s no rush, which is good for me.”

After a short toss in the outfield, followed by a long toss, he trotted to a bullpen next to one of the practice fields. Larkin threw with about half of his energy at about three-quarter speed. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild was pleased with the delivery.

“He’s not doing anything that could cause problems down the road,” Rothschild said. “The ball comes out of his hand very well, even now.”

Rothschild also likes Larkin’s attitude and his patience. Larkin, 21, compares his recovery to a game—one pitch at a time, instead of wondering in the first inning whether he has the stuff to make it to the ninth.

“I can’t get frustrated,” he said. “I’ve gotten over the fact that whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Some guys coming out of surgery are stronger than before, like Jay Powell. Some guys aren’t. I’m going to take the positive approach.”

His ideal season does not include a certain number of innings pitched or games started.

“Injury-free,” he says with a smile. “I just want to take small steps. That’s the most important thing, not to set a huge goal.”

On March 11 Andy was sent to the Portland roster, and on May 11 he was recalled by Florida and placed on the 60-day disabled list; I don’t know if he had actually pitched in any games for Portland in between. In late July he was activated and on August 2 he won a game for Portland. As of September 12 he had pitched 49 1/3 innings in eight starts for the Sea Dogs with a 3.10 ERA, and also 27 2/3 innings in six starts for the Brevard County Manatees of the Florida State League, class Advanced A, with a 4.23 ERA; I don’t know during what part of the season he was with Brevard County. But on September 12 he was called up to the Marlins. The Sporting News reported on the 23^rd:

The club also promoted two other pitchers, righthanders Bill Hurst and Andy Larkin. Neither was expected to be in the majors at this time…Larkin, 22, was a fast-rising former 25^th-round pick who underwent elbow surgery last fall. His intensity and the movement on his fastball have drawn comparisons to Kevin Brown…

Andy didn’t get into a game with the Marlins until September 29, the last game of the season. He started in Houston, and the first batter he faced was Brian Hunter, who walked and stole second. Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell both grounded out, which combined to score Hunter. Andre Dawson pinch-hit for Andy in the top of the sixth, with the Marlins ahead 2-1, but the bullpen blew the lead and the Astros won 5-4 in ten innings.

Andy went to spring training with the Marlins in 1997, but on March 13 was optioned to the AAA Charlotte Knights of the International League, it being said that he was “believed to be at least a year away from starting in the major leagues.” He did not have a good year, pitching 144 1/3 innings in 28 games with a 6-11 record and 6.05 ERA, and walking 76, which was unexpected given his usual excellent control. Still, an AP article from November 20 said that he was the Marlins’ “top candidate to make the jump to the majors next year.”

In February 1998 Andy signed a new major league contract, and there was speculation that might make the staff and possibly even the rotation. He didn’t make the opening day roster, but ten games into the season he was recalled from Charlotte when another pitcher was injured. The Marlins had won their first game and then lost eleven straight when Andy made his first start on April 13 in Pittsburgh. From the AP account of the game, by Alan Robinson:

…”It feels great,” said Larkin, whose only previous start came in the final game of the 1996 season. “I don’t think I threw as well as I could, but it was good enough to get guys out. I’m just happy we won.”

Larkin gave up a run on six hits over six innings and, as the Pirates’ Al Martin said, was just wild enough to be effective. He walked three but pitched out of jams in the fifth and sixth innings.

By then, the Marlins led 6-0 on [Derrek] Lee’s grand slam and Cliff Floyd’s two-run double in the third inning.

“He (Larkin) didn’t appear to be nervous other than the fact he got to the ballpark at 1:30 p.m.,” catcher Greg Zaun said. “I caught his first big league start and he was more nervous then. He looked all right to me.”

Perhaps it was merely coincidental, but Larkin was twice compared afterward to former Marlins ace Kevin Brown, now of the Padres.

“I thought he (Larkin) had the best stuff of any of them (the Marlins’ young pitchers) we faced,” said Martin, who grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the fifth. “He’s kind of like Kevin Brown in that he throws hard, but he’s wild enough to keep you off guard.”

Zaun made a similar comparison, saying,” He has a similar style to Kevin Brown. Now I’m not comparing their stuff, but he threw just enough off-speed stuff to keep them from cheating.”

In his next start, five days later in Arizona, Andy was removed in the seventh ahead 5-4, but the Marlins lost 7-5. Five days after that, at home against Colorado, he was removed after six innings, ahead 3-2, but yet again the bullpen didn’t come through and the result was a 4-3 loss. After that he went through a rough period, and through his ninth start on May 26 he had a 2-5 record and a 7.11 ERA. Jim Leyland then moved him into the bullpen, but after allowing four earned runs in a third of an inning on the 30^th Andy was optioned back to Charlotte. On July 23 he was recalled and he started the next day in the second game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia; he gave up three runs on just three hits in nine innings, but the game went to extra innings and the Marlins lost 7-6 in twelve. After that came another rough stretch, the Sporting News reporting on August 24:

Rookie Larkin is part of staff’s big-inning woes

Last Friday, rookie starter Andy Larkin gave up seven runs in the second inning against the Giants. Big innings are becoming a trend for the Marlins—the game marked the 20^th time this season they have allowed five or more runs in an inning. Larkin, who hasn’t even been with the team all season, has been involved in six of those games. “I haven’t been good at recovering when something bad happens,” said Larkin, whose ERA rose to 8.67 and record dropped to 3-8. “Whether it’s a bad pitch or a bad inning, whatever. I’ve just got to be able to recover from things like that.” It’s usually one bad event that hurts Larkin, and in this game it was a ball hit back through the box by pitcher Mark Gardner that scored the first two runs. Larkin should have fielded the ball. In his last two starts, Larkin has a 23.40 ERA with 13 hits and 10 walks in five innings.

After that game, which came on August 14, Andy made two relief appearances, in which he allowed ten earned runs in two innings, then he was optioned back to Charlotte. For the year he had a 9.64 ERA in 74 2/3 innings for the Marlins and a 6.37 ERA in 53 2/3 innings for Charlotte. On October 2 his contract was sent outright from Florida to Charlotte, leaving him open for the minor league draft, but he wasn’t taken—clearly his stock had fallen drastically.

In 1999 Andy only pitched in eleven games, I assume due to arm problems though I didn’t find anything that said that. He had a 7.11 ERA in 12 2/3 innings in Portland and 2.40 in 15 innings in Brevard County. The Marlins released him, and in December he was signed to a minor league contract by the Cubs and invited to their spring training 2000 as a non-roster player. However, when he reported he failed his physical and was released.

Andy was picked up by the Reds and on March 14 was designated for assignment; he ended up with their AAA team, the Louisville RiverBats. He made a big comeback for Louisville, as a reliever, pitching 41 2/3 innings in 27 games with a 2.59 ERA. On July 2 the Reds purchased his contract from Louisville and immediately put him into a game; with the Reds ahead 14-2 through seven innings in Arizona, Andy relieved starter Denny Neagle and closed out the game facing the minimum six batters. Two days later he gave up the last four runs, in four innings, in a 14-3 loss in St. Louis, and after facing four batters on the 16^th he was placed on waivers.

Andy was quickly claimed by the Royals, and he made his debut for them on the 22^nd, retiring the last four batters in a 10-6 loss in Detroit, striking out three of them. He spent the rest of the season with Kansas City; along the way he got his only major league save, retiring the final batter in a 5-3 win over Toronto, but had an 8.84 ERA in 18 games. Combined with his Cincinnati totals, for the year he had a 7.96 ERA in 26 innings in 21 games.

After the season Andy became a free agent, and he was signed to a minor league contract by the Colorado Rockies and invited to major league spring training, 2001. On March 4 he had an injection to relieve swelling in his elbow, and on the 19^th he was sent to the Rockies’ minor league camp. He spent the season with AAA Colorado Springs and had a 5.40 ERA in 120 innings in 26 games, 18 of them starts.

Andy signed another minor league contract with Colorado, but retired during spring training in 2002. As of 2011 he was a firefighter in Gilbert, Arizona, near Phoenix.

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