Early Years
Bacsik was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 18th round (543rd overall) in the 1996 Major League Baseball draft. He was in his 6th minor league season with the Indians organization before making his debut on August 5, 2001. He was supposed to be serving mop-up duty, as the Seattle Mariners had opened up a huge lead on the Indians. He was knocked around at first and settled in. The Indians rallied from 12 runs down to win the game in extra innings. He had a 9.00 ERA in 3 relief appearances (9 innings) in 2001.
On December 11, 2001, as part of a big trade, he was traded along with Roberto Alomar and Danny Peoples to the New York Mets for Matt Lawton, Alex Escobar, Jerrod Riggan, Earl Snyder, and Billy Traber. On July 5, 2002, he got his first big league win when he made his debut with the Mets. He would later go on to have a 3-2 record with a 4.37 ERA in the 2003 season. He spent just two seasons with the Mets before becoming a free agent on October 15, 2003.
Two months later, on December 23, 2003, he would sign a contract with the Texas Rangers (incidentally, the team where his father was a member when he was born). He spent most of the 2004 season for the Oklahoma Redhawks, the Rangers Triple-A affiliate. He made just 3 starts in 2004 for the big league club, going 1-1 with a 4.60 ERA. He became a free agent after the 2004 season and signed a contract on November 18, 2004, with the Philadelphia Phillies. However he spent the whole 2005 season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, the Phillies Triple-A team. He opted for minor league free agency after the 2005 season. While in Dallas, he interned for the popular KTCK mid-day show the Bob and Dan radio program, and gave them many interviews both before and after 756, at one point claiming he would "give up the home run to Bonds" to be immortalized in baseball history.
He signed a contract with the Washington Nationals on February 9, 2006, with an invitation to spring training. He made just one start in spring training and gave up 6 runs in 0.2 innings before getting cut in April. Afterwards, he signed a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had an impressive minor league season with the Diamondbacks Triple-A team, the Tucson Sidewinders, in which he went a perfect 11-0 with a 2.79 ERA in 28 games (10 starts). He became a free agent after the 2006 season and later signed a minor league contract with the Washington Nationals again on November 6, 2006.
Read more about this topic: Mike Bacsik (left-handed Pitcher)
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