Dan Wheeler

Dan Wheeler
Cleveland Indians – No. 44
Relief pitcher
Born: December 10, 1977 (1977-12-10) Providence, Rhode Island
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
September 1, 1999 for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Career statistics (through 2011 season)
Win-Loss	25–43
Earned run average	3.88
Strikeouts	553
Saves	43
Teams
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1999–2001) New York Mets (2003–2004) Houston Astros (2004–2007) Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays (2007–2010) Boston Red Sox (2011)

Wheeler pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008.

Daniel Michael Wheeler (born December 10, 1977, in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Cleveland Indians organization.

Baseball career

Wheeler attended the Pilgrim High School in Warwick, Rhode Island. He was drafted in the 1996 Major League Baseball Draft by the Devil Rays out of Central Arizona Junior College. In addition to the Rays, he has also played for the New York Mets, who traded him to the Houston Astros for minor leaguer Adam Seuss in 2004.

In 2005, Wheeler established himself as a top setup man for the Astros, going 2-3 with a 2.21 ERA in 71 games.

On October 19, 2005 during the National League Championship Series he recorded the last out at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, a fly ball which was caught by Astro Jason Lane in right field off the bat of Yadier Molina. He played on Team USA in the 2006 World Baseball Classic in the offseason.

On April 9, 2007, Wheeler became the Astros' closer, replacing Brad Lidge. However, Wheeler lost the closer job when Lidge overcame injury and returned to the team.

On July 28, 2007, Wheeler was traded back to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in exchange for third baseman Ty Wigginton.

He is one of four pitchers who have pitched in at least 70 games each of the four seasons from 2004–08, the others being Scott Schoeneweis (who has done so for five seasons), Bob Howry, and Chad Qualls.[1]

On December 17, 2010, the Boston Red Sox signed Wheeler to a 1-year, $3 million contract with a club option for 2012.

Chris Sampson incident

After giving up four runs in the 8th inning and blowing a 3-2 Astros lead over the Oakland Athletics on June 13, 2007, Wheeler pushed fellow pitcher Chris Sampson in the dugout. Sampson was reportedly attempting to console Wheeler after another tough outing. Wheeler later apologized for his outburst and claimed he had no ill feelings toward Sampson, but he was called into manager Phil Garner's office after the game because of the incident.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)