Scott Schoeneweis

Schoeneweis had three pitches: a sinking 89–90 mph fastball and slider, which are his better pitches, and a changeup. He was able to get his fastball in on lefties, which keeps them off his breaking ball on the outside corner. He was a ground-ball pitcher and has been used many times as a lefty specialist.

During the season, he was dealt to the Chicago White Sox after appearing in 39 games, all in relief, for Anaheim. He was traded with Doug Nickle for Gary Glover, Scott Dunn, and Tim Bittner on July 30. He finished the year with a combined 3–2 record between the Angels and ChiSox, to go along with his 4.18 ERA in 59 games. He was the recipient of the 2003 Gene Autry Courage Award.

The next season, he was used mainly as a starting pitcher by Chicago manager Ozzie Guillén, going 6–9. He held batters to a .111 batting average in games that were late and close.

He ended his first season in Toronto with a 3–4 mark, and picked up his second career save. Schoeneweis’s ERA improved to 3.32. He also saw action in a career-high 80 games (2nd in the American League). The lefty was also among the league leaders in holds, with 35. Left-handed hitters batted a meager .188 against him. In 2006, he went 2–2 for Toronto with a high ERA of 6.51 in 55 games.

On August 16, Schoeneweis was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for cash. In 16 games for the Reds, he was 2–0 with 3 saves and an 0.63 ERA.

Through 2010, he had limited lefties to a .229 average.

Schoeneweis was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, grew up in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey, and is Jewish. Among Jewish pitchers, through 2010 he was first all-time in career games played, having passed Sandy Koufax in 2007 and Ken Holtzman in 2008, and 9th in strikeouts (directly behind Larry Sherry), three spots behind Jason Marquis.

On February 9, 2010, Schoeneweis signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers with an invite to spring training. He competed to be the second lefty out of the Brewers' bullpen. "If I didn't think I could play, I wouldn't be here. My kids want me to play.... This is my job; this is what I do."

On March 26, 2010, Schoeneweis signed a minor league contract with a spring training invitation with the Boston Red Sox. In 15 games and 31 innings at Fenway Park in his career, he had a 2.59 ERA, with a .168 batting average against and .224 slugging percentage against. According to Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell, one of the main factors in the competition for the final two roster spots in the bullpen was "being able to match up left on left". Red Sox manager Terry Francona said: "I haven't even seen Schoeneweis yet, but the one thing he's been able to do is get left-handers out." According to a team source, he was to make $500,000 if he were to make the team.

He was then placed on the disabled list on August 11, 2009, to give him time to deal with depression resulting from her death and with parenting issues. "It's obviously been a horrific year for him," Arizona manager A. J. Hinch said. "At this point, baseball becomes irrelevant." Four weeks later, he returned to the team for the last three weeks of the season. In November, he filed for free agency.

On May 20, 2009, his wife, Gabrielle Dawn Schoeneweis, 39, was found dead in their home in Fountain Hills, Arizona. The autopsy found the cause of death to be an overdose of cocaine and the anesthetic lidocaine. Schoeneweis and his wife had four children (including his wife's daughter from a prior marriage), and had celebrated their 10th anniversary in January 2009.

Schoeneweis returned to the club on June 9, 2009. "I think I will be OK," he said. "It's time for Daddy to go back to work." However, he was unable to focus on baseball, and was tagged for 15 runs in 9 innings. "He showed a lot of character coming back to pitch last season, even though he didn't pitch the way he wanted to," said pitcher Doug Davis. He was placed on the disabled list on August 11, 2009, to give him time to deal with depression resulting from his wife's death.

In 2008, he pitched 73 times, with a 3.34 ERA. Lefties hit only .178 against him, with a .243 obp and a .277 slugging percentage. He tied for seventh in the National League among left-handers, with 15 holds. With his 73 appearances he became the only pitcher in the major leagues to pitch in at least 70 games each of the five seasons from 2004 to 2008. The only other pitchers to do so in the four seasons from 2005 to 2008 were Chad Qualls, Bob Howry, and Dan Wheeler. He was the losing pitcher in both the final home opener and the final game at Shea Stadium during the 2008 season.

On December 12, 2008, Schoeneweis was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Connor Robertson.

ESPN reported in 2007, that in 2003 and 2004 Schoeneweis received six steroid shipments from Signature Pharmacy while playing for the Chicago White Sox. Schoeneweis denied the report, and told the New York Daily News that he has never heard of Signature Pharmacy or received shipments from Florida.

In January 2007, Schoeneweis agreed to a 3-year deal with the New York Mets worth $10.8 million. He struggled during the season, finishing with an 0–2 record, 2 saves, and a 5.03 ERA in 70 games. He did, however, hold lefties to a .204 batting average and .247 slugging percentage, and held batters to a .221 batting average when men were on base, and a .150 batting average with 2 outs and runners in scoring position. Schoeneweis later revealed that he pitched the 2007 season with a severed tendon in his left knee, affecting his push off the mound.

The Baseball Commissioner's Office met with Schoeneweis in 2007 to discuss allegations filed in the Mitchell Report, an independent investigation into the use of steroids in major league baseball. The Commissioner's Office announced on December 6, 2007, that there was insufficient evidence against Schoeneweis to warrant any disciplinary action.

He was signed as a free agent by the Blue Jays on January 11, 2005, for $2,500,000, which was just under what he made the two previous seasons combined.

During the 2005 season he slipped on a just-watered field in Oakland, and his fellow Toronto pitchers buckled over in laughter, not realizing that Schoeneweis had just sustained the worst injury of his career. He tore a tendon behind his left knee, near his hamstring, and the tendon remained torn as he pitched over the next two years.

In the five seasons from 2003 to 2007, Schoeneweis allowed only one home run to left-handed batters. Left-handed hitters batted .209, with a .264 slugging percentage and .293 on-base percentage, in 227 plate appearances against him from 2005 to 2006, and then only .207 with a .241 slugging percentage in 2007. In 2008, he was even stingier—lefties batted only .178 against him. That was second-best among all major league left-handers.

In 2002, Schoeneweis was used primarily as a reliever, though he made 15 starts, going 9–8 with an ERA of 4.88, and left-handed batters batted only .202 against him. At the conclusion of the season, the Angels captured the American League Wild Card and qualified for the postseason.

Schoeneweis appeared in three games versus the defending American League champion New York Yankees, giving up one earned run. Anaheim took the series 3 games to 1, and defeated the Minnesota Twins in the 2002 American League Championship Series in five games. Scott appeared in one of those games, and did not surrender a run in 0.2 innings pitched. In the 2002 World Series, Schoeneweis pitched in two games and held the San Francisco Giants scoreless in the two innings he pitched. The Angels captured the World Series title in seven games. He started the 2003 season with the Angels.

In 2001, during which the Angels continued using him as a starter (beginning with opening day), he won a career-high 10 games and finished with a 5.08 ERA. He hit 14 batters (third in the American League).

Schoeneweis started his MLB career with the Anaheim Angels, where in 1999, he appeared in 31 games and finished with a 1–1 record in a season shortened by a torn medial collateral ligament in his left elbow. The next season, he was used as a starting pitcher, pitching in 27 games, all starts, as he went 7–10 with a 5.45 ERA.

He played for the United States national baseball team in 1996. He was drafted by the California Angels in the third round of the 1996 Major League Baseball Draft.

From 1996–2000, in the minor leagues, Schoeneweis was 28–20. In the 1997 Arizona Fall League, he went 3–2 with a 1.98 earned run average for the Scottsdale Scorpions.

He attended Lenape High School in Medford, New Jersey, where he lettered in baseball and basketball before playing collegiately at Duke University, where he was a 1993 All-American as a freshman. That season, he had 12 wins, the second-best record in the school's history. In 1993, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Scott David Schoeneweis (/ˈ ʃ oʊ . ɪ n w aɪ s / ; born October 2, 1973) is an American former Major League Baseball left-handed relief pitcher.