The St. Louis Cardinals had one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball during the late 90’s and he made his major league debut in 1999. Every Cardinals fan knew of Rick Ankiel because of his talents but by the year 2001, every baseball fan knew of him for his epic collapse in 2000.
Ankiel won 11 games and struck out 194 batters in 175 innings in the year 2000. He was a 20-year old rookie who threw hard and threw from the left side. He was highly coveted by the Cardinals organization and was a fan favorite.