Gil Meche

Gilbert Allen "Gil" Meche [MESH] (born September 8, 1978 in Lafayette, Louisiana) is a right-handed pitcher for the Kansas City Royals. Meche previously pitched for the Seattle Mariners. Meche was a member of the U.S. Junior Olympic team in 1995. During his senior season at Acadiana High school, Meche suffered from a viral infection that caused him to miss a considerable amount of time playing baseball. Because of his tremendous potential, Meche was still chosen in the 1st round of the 1996 amateur draft. His first Major League game was on July 6, 1999 against the Anaheim Angels, making him the second youngest debut for the Mariners at that time^[1]. His 2000 season was cut short due to what was thought at the time to be a dead arm. In February of 2001 he underwent arthroscopic surgery to partially repair a frayed rotator cuff, and at the time he was expected to only be on the disabled list for six months ^[2]. Unfortunately things were more severe, and he had to undergo surgery again on October 3, 2001 on his right AC joint^[3]. He was forced to miss the entire 2001 and 2002 MLB seasons. He made his return in to professional baseball on April 5th, 2003. On December 7, 2006, Meche and the Royals agreed on a 5-year contract worth $55 million, which matches Mike Sweeney's contract as the largest in club history^[4]. On July 1, 2007, Gil Meche was selected to his first All-Star game as an AL reserve for the 2007 MLB All-Star Game on July 10th in San Francisco, although he did not pitch in the game.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Gil Meche at Cardtarget.com