Brendan Kevin Donnelly is a professional baseball player who plays as a pitcher in his home country, the United States of America. In 1992, he began his nomadic playing career at the Chicago White Sox where he was part of the Minor League Structure for 10 long seasons. He played all over the place before getting his opportunity in the MLB after moving to the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim in 2002.
It didn’t take much for Donnelly to attract too many fans with his sun-shades and intensity. Donnelly was extremely effective as the main setup man in the team and was ideal for Troy Percival to come on and finish the job. The following year, Donnelly ended with a 1.58 ERA as the setup man and become one of those rare non-closer who made it to the All-Star game. Donnelly became the pitcher who grabbed the win in that wonderful game in 2003. In the 2004 Spring Training session, Donnelly broke his nose and missed out a large part of the season. He came back with a decent level of effectiveness in an already strong bullpen held by American League West Champion Anaheim Angels.
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| Team |
Miami Marlins
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| Born | Jul 4, 1971 |
| Nationality |
United States
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| Team History | |
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Miami Marlins
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2009 - present |
Cleveland Indians
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2008 |
Boston Red Sox
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2007 |
Anaheim
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2002 - 2006 |
The following season, Donnelly began losing some of his original ability and his fast-ball also dipped in pace. Percival had left the team and Donnelly was now setting things up for Francisco Rodriguez. In June that year, Donnelly received a suspension for using illegal material to work on the ball after he was found with Pine Tar on his glove. His inconsistency as a middle reliever became more prominent and by 2006, he had dropped far down the rotation.
By December that year, Donnelly was out on his way to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Phil Seibel.
By July of 2007, Donnelly was struggling to come up with the goods and the team announced that he would require a Tommy John surgery to get back on track. He was out till February of 2008, which is when he was sent out to the Cleveland Indians for a minor league contract that included an invite to the Spring Training session.
Donnelly had, until 2007, already pitched in 18 teams including 2 independent teams; he was a part of 9 different organizations during his playing career and had played in 2 independent leagues as well as 11 minor leagues.
In August, 2008, Donnelly finally came up to the Cleveland Indians in place of Tom Mastny. After an average season that was mostly spent recovering and getting back some old form, Donnelly signed with the Florida Marlins in 2009.
Controversy surrounded Donnelly when, he was one of those players named in the Mitchell Report as having used performance enhancing drugs. Donnelly came out in his own defense saying that he had looked for the drug mainly to speed up his healing process but denied ever buying or using the drug.
Donnelly has also had some controversy regarding his tiffs with Jose Guillen, a former teammate. The players have had a number of arguments that have resulted in the benches being cleared out as well. The occurrences had become so frequent that the players were asked to keep their differences off the field and not go on with it.
Guillen was suspended, in 2004, by the team management after getting into a disagreement with the manager. Donnelly, a teammate at the time, supported the team management and this stand was considered one of the main reasons for the feud to start.
In 2005, Guillen was the player who informed his manager about Donnelly using pine tar in his glove. While pine tar is allowed for a batter, a pitcher cannot use it and this lead to a bench clearing shouting match in which Guillen had to be physically restrained by his teammates. The feud continued in 2007 when, while playing for the Red Sox, Donnelly struck Guillen, then a part of the Seattle Mariners, out. On his way back, Guillen was bombarded with some not-so-kind words by Donnelly and the former decided to take off his helmet and head towards the pitcher.
The bench was clear again but this time, no punches were thrown and order was restored to the event.
