Josh Booty’s Second Chance

has a second chance at being in MLB as a pitcher.(Image Credit 965kvki.com)

Josh Booty is a former college football quarterback. He played his college football at LSU for only two years, before deciding to go pro. Booty was drafted by the Florida Marlins in the first round of the 1994 Amateur Draft with the fifth overall pick as a third baseman. Booty would end up hitting 20 home runs in Single and Double A minor league stops. He was even voted the Minor League Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 for the Portland Sea Dogs. He was also part of the 1997 World Series Champion Florida Marlins and has a World Series ring. Booty has a career average of .269 in the big leagues with only 26 at-bats spread out over three seasons.

Josh Booty competed on the MLB Network first ever reality competition series The Next Knuckler. The show along with Booty featured five former quarterbacks. The quarterbacks were John David Booty who is the younger brother of Josh, Doug Flutie, David Greene, and Ryan Perriloux. The show had former knuckleball pitchers showing them how to throw the pitch. One of the former knuckleball pitchers was Tim Wakefield. Josh Booty won the competition and he earned an invite to Spring Training with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Booty reported to Spring Training with the Diamondbacks after he won the competition.  He began working with Diamondbacks radio color analyst Tom Candiotti to help him with throwing the knuckleball. Booty chances of making the team as a member of the bullpen is going to be tough, because there are not many spots available in the team’s bullpen. The Diamondbacks have maybe two slots open for their bullpen, those pitchers already have an advantage in that they are accustomed to throwing multiple days in a week. If Booty is able to make the team out of spring training, the Diamondbacks would have a weapon in their bullpen. They would be the only team in MLB to have a reliever that can throw a knuckleball and get batters out.

For the Diamondbacks this is a situation where there is a low risk, but high reward. The Diamondbacks lose nothing if Booty does not perform well. The other part is if Booty performs well and shows he can get hit hitters out it works well the team.