Nick Neugebauer

Neuge was a polarizing prospect who had sky high potential but his career was destroyed by a devastating rotator cuff surgery at 22. He only pitched 61 innings for the Brewers but showed ace potential if he would be able to get his control problems under wraps.

Neugebauer attended Arlington High School in Riverside, California, and was drafted out of there by the Milwaukee Brewers with the 56th pick in the 2nd round of the 1998 amateur draft. he was promptly signed to a contract on August 27, 1998.

In 1999, in A ball, he pitched 80.1 innings with a 3.90 era 125/80 k/bb. Wait that is nothing in 2000 between High A and AA he through 128 innings with 4.01 era and a 174/134 k/bb, yes this guy walked more than a batter per inning his 1st 2 years and was still thought of as a top mlb/organizational pitcher. In 2021 he showed some command improvement pitching 131 innings with a 3.10 era and a 175/61 k/bb. He made his mlb debut at the end of the year pitching 12 innings in 2 games. Go to 5:40 mark to see a couple pitches and how good his stuff looked in his major league debut. The whole clip is actually a pretty cool blast from the past and the Adam Dunn defense and way the Reds analyst describe the games are great.

I remember being a kid and watching that mlb debuting and how psyched I was for this guy to join Ben Sheets. 

Neugebauer was on the Brewers' major league roster at the start of the 2002 season, projected as the fifth starter in their five-man rotation. At the inception of this season, Baseball America ranked him the seventeenth best prospect in all of baseball and Milwaukee's top prospect.  Hampered by a rotator cuff injury suffered during the season, Neugebauer would finish the season with a dismal record of 1 win and 7 losses in 55.1 innings pitched with a 4.72 earned run average.

Neugebauer underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on February 28, 2003, causing him to miss the entire 2003 season. In a brief comeback attempt with the Brewers' "A advanced" affiliate – the High Desert Mavericks – in 2004, Neugebauer gave up two earned runs on one hit in one inning of work in his only start of the season, finishing him with an 18.00 earned run average for the year. He was released by the Brewers on September 10, 2004 and eventually retired from the sport last pitching at the age of 23.

The what-ifs will always be there for me and my favorite player at least for a year or so. Nuege forever.