9/11 and the Aging of Pedro Feliz

At the time of his signing, Feliz was a high-ceiling 17-year-old who reportedly held promise of 30-35 HR potential.  Given his youthful age, the Giants felt no need to rush Feliz along.  Of course, his production through his minor league years certainly didn’t give the team any reason to, either.  But, as the reasoning went, he was still young.

*Played 3 games at AAA (3-for-7, 1 HR, 3 RBI)

It wasn’t until the 2000 season at Triple-A Fresno that Feliz began to really show any of that promise at all.

That breakthrough season, coupled with that supposed potential, was all the Giants' brass needed to latch onto the hope that Feliz would become the Giants' first successful homegrown position player since Bill Mueller (drafted in the 15^th round in 1993).  He was promoted to the majors that September (2-for-7 in his brief debut you’ll recall) and made the club the following spring, sharing 3B duties with Russ Davis and Ramon Martinez (Feliz started 51 games, Davis 46 and Martinez 63).  Offensive success did not immediately follow for Pedro in his rookie campaign.

Defensively, he wasn’t much better either, committing 12 errors and logging a .908 fielding percentage (vs. a .950 league average), while his range factor of 1.38 fell well off the league pace of 2.17.

That September of course, marked the terrorist attacks of 9/11 which in turn led to increased scrutiny of all foreign nationals trying to enter the country.  As a result, that winter and the following spring, the practice of “de-aging” Latin players – using fake birth certificates or those of younger family members – was exposed and consequently many players from Latin countries were found to be generally 2-3 years older than previously believed.  Among those “de-aged” was our hero Feliz who began the 2001 season as a 24-year-old future prospect.   On April 27, 2002, Pedro Feliz turned 27 and his days as a future prospect were suddenly behind him.

The Career of Pedro Feliz, His Faithful Followers, and Their Excuses

Feliz’ poor performance as a rookie in 2001 left Sabean (who to say the least – and to put it mildly – has an obvious preference for experience) unwilling to hand him the everyday third base job, so instead the Giants acquired David Bell from Seattle to play 3B, leaving Feliz on the bench to back him up.  Bell went on to play a crucial role with the team as the they came agonizingly close to winning the World Series, while Feliz again struggled mightily, hitting just 2 HR in 146 AB while slugging only .336 in his second big league season.