Frequent Flyer Miles
From 2000 through 2005, Miceli's services was sought from contenders and non-contenders alike, as teams attempted to fill vacancies in their bullpen. Miceli made stops in Florida, Texas, Cleveland, New York, Colorado (three times), Houston and even an overseas stay in Japan as member of the Yomiuri Giants.
In the 2004 season, Miceli became part of the Astros relief corps. That season, Miceli went 6-6 with a respectable 3.59 ERA, and made career highs in games (74) and strikeouts (83). Miceli also made his second postseason trip that season, coming within a game of another World Series berth. While he was a significant bullpen contributor during the regular season, he pitched poorly in the postseason. Particularly, in the NLCS he posted a 27.00 ERA in only 1.1 innings pitched and received the losses in 2 crucial games - in other words, "He gave it up," as the saying goes in baseball jargon. In contrast to his solid 2004 season, his performance in Japan was one of the worst in his career, losing 2 consecutive games to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp and Yokohama BayStars, which were only his first two games, and resulted in being the fastest player to be released in Giants' History in only 4 games.
On January 12, 2006, the journeyman signed on with his tenth team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, agreeing to a two-year deal. Part of a closer by committee system in Tampa, Miceli earned four saves and held opponents to a .217 batting average. A majority of Miceli's season was lost due to a right shoulder injury. The veteran righty entered the 2007 once again as a candidate for the Rays' closer. Poor results during spring training however cost the well traveled reliever a spot on Tampa Bay's forty-man roster, and on March 29, Miceli was released from the team.
In 631 career games, Miceli had a 43-52 record, with 4.48 ERA. He collected 632 strikeouts, and 310 Base on balls walks in just over 700 innings pitched. Miceli also had 39 career saves, and had two singles in 22 at-bats.
Read more about this topic: Dan Miceli
Famous quotes containing the words frequent, flyer and/or miles:
“... the whole Wilsonian buncombe ... its ideational hollowness, its ludicrous strutting and bombast, its heavy dependence upon greasy and meaningless words, its frequent descents to mere sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“How do you expect to learn to dance when you have not even learned to walk! And above the dancer is still the flyer and his bliss.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Natural law is only whatever happens in your lifetime within fifty miles of you.”
—“Marcy.” As quoted in The Girl I Left Behind, Introduction, by Jane O’Reilly (1980)