Doug Drabek made a career out of making hitters uncomfortable. He didn’t light up radar guns, but his sinker moved late, his slider stayed tight, and he never seemed rattled by traffic on the bases. That approach carried him from a quiet debut with the Yankees to the heart of the Pirates’ rotation at the start of the 1990s.
His defining season came in 1990, when he won 22 games and took home the National League Cy Young Award, leading Pittsburgh to the first of three straight division titles. Drabek became the steady presence on a team built for October, trusted to stop losing streaks and keep games from getting away. He followed that run with productive seasons in Houston and elsewhere, pitching into his late 30s.
