Nick Neugebauer
Nickolas Donald Neugebauer is a former Major League Baseball starting pitcher who spent the entirety of his brief playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers. Despite being touted as one of the organization's "top prospects of the decade" by Baseball America on two occasions, a rotator cuff injury suffered during the 2002 season ultimately cut his career short.
Early years and pre-major league years
Neugebauer attended Arlington [High School |Arlington High School] in Riverside, California, and was drafted out of there by the Milwaukee Brewers with the 56th pick in the 2nd round of the 1998 amateur draft; he was promptly signed to a contract on August 27, 1998. He began play for the Brewers the next year, playing out the entire season with the single-A-level Beloit Snappers; in 80.2 innings pitched for them, he compiled a record of 7 wins and 5 losses with an earned run average of 3.91 in 18 starts.Neugebauer received a promotion within the Brewers' farm system for the season, and began play that year with the Mudville Nine. After compiling a record of 4 wins and 4 losses with an earned run average of 4.19 in 77.1 innings pitched for Mudville, he was promoted mid-season to the Huntsville Stars, where he finished the season with a record of 1 win and 3 losses and an earned run average of 3.73 in 50.2 innings pitched. It was during this year that he began to be touted as a top prospect by Baseball America; during the 2000 season, he was named as Milwaukee's top farm system prospect.
Neugebauer would enjoy an even more successful year in, beginning the year with Huntsville; in 106.2 innings pitched, he had an earned run average of 3.46 and a record of 5 wins and 6 losses with a strikeouts per 9 innings pitched total of 12.6. Neugebauer was called up to the Indianapolis Indians partway through the season, compiling a record of 2 wins and 1 loss in 24 innings pitched with an earned run average of only 1.50. Neugebauer was called up by the Brewers in August 2001.
Major league debut
After getting called up, Neugebauer made his debut for the Brewers on August 19, 2001. In five innings of work for the Brewers against the Cincinnati Reds, he struck out nine and gave up one earned run on three hits for a game earned run average of 1.80, earning his first career major league victory in the process.Neugebauer's second and final major league start for the 2001 season would not go so well, however; in only one inning of work against the Colorado Rockies, he gave up three earned runs and one home run on three hits en route to his first career major league loss.