WASHINGTON--It'd be easy to start John Patterson's story at the beginning--at a time when things came easy for the 6-foot-6 right-hander. Patterson's fastball and knee-buckling curveball made him the fifth overall pick in Major League Baseball's 1996 First-Year Player Draft.
The Montreal Expos picked him long before they were ever slated to move to Washington, but Patterson used a little-known draft rule to become a free agent. The expansion Arizona Diamondbacks threw $6.1 million at the 18-year-old phenom. Huge expectations were part of the deal.
It'd be just as easy to start in the present. Nine years after he was drafted and long after some people gave up on him, Patterson has blossomed into one of the biggest early season surprises in the major leagues, belatedly maturing into the pitcher the Expos and Diamondbacks always thought he would become.
The lanky right-hander breezed through April with a 0.98 ERA in four starts and hasn't allowed more than three runs in any of his five starts entering tomorrow's outing against the San Francisco Giants.
But in between is where Patterson became a pitcher. It's where everything almost ended, and began again.
All the promise Patterson once showed lay on a hospital table in Birmingham, Ala., in 2000 as baseball surgeon Dr. James Andrews transplanted a ligament from his left arm to replace the damaged one in his right arm.
"I had just turned 22. It was supposed to be my breakout year," Patterson said. "That was the year I was going to break into the big leagues. It basically just crushed my dream to be in the big leagues. I was right on track to just be there and fill right into the rotation and just pitch and it just didn't happen. That was very hard to overcome."
Sitting in a video room adjacent to the Nationals' RFK Stadium clubhouse, Patterson holds up his right arm and pulls the sleeve of his T-shirt back to reveal a four-inch scar from his "Tommy John" surgery that snakes along the inside of his elbow. He doesn't smile, or frown, or react.
The scar is there, muted pink in color and slightly raised. It will always be there, which is as appropriate a place as any to understand how a fast-tracked phenom took nine years to finally make it.
"From the day I got drafted nothing was normal," Patterson said. "My career wasn't like everyone else's. There has always been something going on. There have been times where I am just like, 'Am I cursed?'"
Maybe things came too easy too early.
Patterson was always able to blow batters away with his 97 mph fastball or gravity-defying curve. It had been that way since he started pitching at the age of 10 in Orange, Texas, a small port town on the Texas-Louisiana border.
His father, Doug, was also a pitcher, and advanced as far as Double-A in the Baltimore Orioles' organization. John followed the same path, and when he was a senior at West Orange/Stark High School, he fanned 142 batters in 72 innings and was one of the top prospects in the country.
Things looked good then. The plan was for Patterson to be in the big leagues by 2000.
But Patterson quickly learned plans change. He didn't plan to become a free agent after the Expos drafted him, or spend time on the disabled list in parts of his first four minor league seasons. And he certainly didn't plan for the elbow pain he felt in 2000. It was his first career-threatening injury.
The surgery was deemed a success, but it changed him.
"The year after in 2001 was a little scary," Patterson said. "My arm hurt all the time. I was frustrated. I wasn't getting guys out. When I did get them out I was wondering how I got them out. I was used to being able to throw the ball hard and I had a big curve ball.
"The game was fun for me to go out and play every day, and then it wasn't fun and it was frustrating. That was the first time in my career I had to face something like that."
The expectations heaped upon him when he was drafted didn't help things.
Patterson was drafted fifth overall in 1996 by the Expos, but when he wasn't formally offered a contract in 15 days as Major League Baseball rules require, he and three other players applied for free agency.
On the open market, Patterson got $6.2 million from the Diamondbacks, but he also got a reputation.
"A lot of times he would go out and put up decent numbers but it would always be, 'Look at all the money they gave you. I thought you would be better than that,'" Doug Patterson said. "It was always self-fulfilling prophecy of 'I am not good enough,' especially after the surgery."
The going hasn't been smooth for any of the four players that used the contract loophole to become free agents.
No. 2 pick Travis Lee got $10 million from the Diamondbacks, but never realized his potential, and is now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Twelfth pick Bobby Seay got $3 million from the Devil Rays, but injuries slowed his progress. He was eventually waived in 2001, but no one claimed him. He is now on the disabled list with the Colorado Rockies.
Seventh pick Matt White commanded a $10.2 million bonus from Tampa Bay, but has had three shoulder surgeries and has never pitched a game in the big leagues.
"That haunted me a lot early in my career, all of us," Patterson said.
Patterson seems closest to realizing his potential now, but only because he changed his mentality in the years after the surgery. He couldn't throw 97 mph anymore. More like 92 or 93. He'd never been a finesse pitcher, but that changed as he began to rely less on strikeouts and more on his defense.
"At the end of John's career he will say 'The surgery was terrible and I went through some tough times but in the end it made me a pitcher versus a guy that had great stuff,'" Doug Patterson said.
A change in scenery helped, too. Arizona finally gave up on Patterson, and traded him back to the team that originally drafted him for reliever Randy Choate in the spring of 2004.
A groin injury slowed Patterson in Montreal last year, but he has finally become the pitcher that the Expos thought he would be nine years ago.
Patterson started the year in the bullpen, but turned a spot start into a full-time gig, and his 1.60 ERA leads the Nationals.
"This is what the Arizona Diamondbacks thought he would do This is what we thought he would do first when we got him in the trade," manager Frank Robinson said. "Now he is putting it together. We are reaping the benefits of it. I am very happy he is here with us."
It was part of Patterson's plan, too. It just happened a little later than planned.
"This is exactly what I expected out of myself," Patterson said. "I always knew that if I was healthy I could go out and do a good job. I believe I can go out and compete and continue to pitch the way I am pitching."
To reach TODD JACOBSON: 540/374-5440 tjacobson@freelancestar.com