Royals Where are They Now? Jeff Granger

In 1993, the KC Royals had just one first round pick and they used the fifth overall pick on left-handed pitcher Jeff Granger. The Texas A&M pitcher was a Golden Spikes Award finalist and also played quarterback in college.

Unfortunately, like a lot of the Royals high draft picks over time, Granger was rushed to the big leagues after just seven starts in Low-A in 1993. He made his big league debut out of the bullpen on September 16, 1993, in which the first hit he allowed was to Ken Griffey Jr. He made two big league starts in May of 1994 and pitched in 15 big league games in 1996.

After being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in December of 1996, he last saw a big league mound in April of 1997 with the Pirates (nine games).

From there, he bounced around from team-to-team in the minor leagues from 1997-2000. His ERA was only under 4.00 once in that time period (2000 with Double-A Greenville in 16 games).

Granger is currently a financial advisor with Chase Bank in Colleyville (a town in Texas between Dallas and Fort Worth). In an interview with TheRecordLive, he gave some advice for future college baseball players:

"“Go to class and as far as baseball, do not forget that there is always someone behind you to take your spot, so never take a day off.”"

In that same interview, Granger also gave another good quote about whether or not he thought he could play quarterback in the NFL:

"“I never really thought about it but I do know throwing a baseball is a lot better than getting my head ripped off by a huge defensive lineman.”"