Krynzel eager to redeem himself

02/21/2006
PHOENIX -- One of the Brewers' top outfield prospects made a huge mistake last winter. He fessed up to the Brewers, and now he's ready to fess up to his fans.
"I thought I was doing what was right," said 24-year-old Dave Krynzel. "I look back now, I was wrong.
"I've apologized, and that's going to go as far as I can throw a rock. Right now, that's not very far."
That's because Krynzel, a former first-round draft pick and one of the organization's fastest baserunners, underwent surgery in January to repair a broken collarbone. He was injured in a motorcycle accident in November but sought private medical care. Two months later, when the bone failed to heal itself, Krynzel was forced to seek help.
It was a major setback for a player already coming off one of his poorest professional seasons, and Krynzel knows it.
"It was a hobby of mine, a passion," he said. "I love speed, the adrenaline rush, the excitement of it. That's me all the way.
"I was being ignorant, not realizing what I had. [Baseball] is much more than some other little passion I've got. This is my life. I live for this."
Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash, the team's point man on injuries, said he and GM Doug Melvin planned to sit down with Krynzel to lay out the team's expectations.
For now, he still has a locker in the Major League clubhouse at Maryvale Baseball Park, but after undergoing his regular preseason physical on Saturday, Krynzel has moved his rehabilitation to the Minor League complex.
He has been working with new Brewers Minor League physical therapist Kenny Patterson on range of motion exercises, and assuming things go well, Krynzel is on track to resume baseball activities by the second week in March.
"Timing is everything, and this was a pivotal year because we were on the lookout for exactly what he is: a guy that can play center field, who can run a little bit," Ash said. "Now he's not in that mix because he's not in the first part of camp. The other guys will get a jump on him.
"Can he overcome it? Yes. I've seen players in the past who have fallen out of favor and have come back to be a great success."
According to Ash, had Krynzel reported the injury right away and received proper medical care, he would have been healthy by now and in the running for a spot on the Brewers' bench. Now, Krynzel is ticketed for a return to Triple-A.
"I'm lucky that Milwaukee still wants me," Krynzel said. "I have a very, very, great, big opportunity in front of me. I am the first to say that I am going to work my [tail] off to make the most of it."
Krynzel told his story this week for the first time.
After four or five years riding motorcycles, he considers himself an intermediate rider. But this year, Krynzel made a decision to stop riding on the streets of Las Vegas, where he makes his offseason home, ironically because he felt they were unsafe.
One night in November he paid $20 to enter a winding, paved track usually used for go-karts. Riding a 125cc sports bike, Krynzel started the first few laps slowly, but he began accelerating as he became more comfortable.
"I started learning the mechanics of it a little bit," he said. "I was really whipping around corners, passing people. It was such a rush, but at the same time, it was so dangerous. I liked that, at the time."
Coming out of one of those turns, he crashed. Krynzel said he does not remember any of the details of the actual tumble -- only the tremendous impact as he hit the asphalt.
"I've been hit in the head by baseballs and I've hit [outfield] walls as hard as possible," he said. "That was nothing like this."
Krynzel believes the leather jacket, helmet and pads he was wearing saved his life. He struggled to his feet and was helped off the course but refused offers for an ambulance. His girlfriend drove Krynzel to the hospital.
That's when he made the pivotal decision to seek his own care. Krynzel said an orthopedic surgeon advised him that the broken right clavicle would heal itself given time. But it did not, and as a required Brewers physical approached in January, it became clear to Krynzel he would have to alert club officials.
Tests revealed that the injury was not healing because tissue was pinned between the broken bone. He flew to Milwaukee for surgery, during which Dr. William Raasch essentially re-broke the bone and set it in place with a metal plate. Rehabilitation was expected to take eight weeks.
"I'm very lucky," Krynzel said. "It was definitely a wakeup call. If that's what it took for me to change, so be it. No one ever slapped me in the face and said, 'This is the way it's got to be.'"
Because Krynzel is not on a guaranteed Major League contract, he did not technically break the rules by riding a mini-bike, according to Ash. The team has not taken any disciplinary action.
Krynzel's troubles did not begin on that speed bike. The last player cut out of camp after a strong 2005 Spring Training, Krynzel made a brief appearance with the Brewers in June, but otherwise he slumped through a personally disappointing season.
The Triple-A Nashville team won the Pacific Coast League Championship, but Krynzel batted .256, including .247 as the leadoff hitter, and he struck out 138 times. Considered an excellent defensive player, he also committed 10 errors.
"I'm sure he didn't like his performance offensively, and defensively he was not the same player as he was in the past," said Triple-A manager Frank Kremblas, who has coached Krynzel at the Double-A and Triple-A levels since 2002. "He lost confidence at times."
"There were flashes of Dave being Dave," teammate Brad Nelson said. "He would really get it going for a few days or weeks, but he couldn't keep it going."
In July, Krynzel left the team without permission for several days, but Ash said the reasons were confidential. He did not appear in a game with the Sounds from July 15-23.
"He does have a lot going on in his head, but that's why we have people like Tim Hewes," Ash said, referring to the director of the team's employee assistance program. "They can help resolve some of that. [A player] has to compartmentalize when he is on the field.
"There is a long list of players who have significant talent but do not make it to the Major Leagues because of other issues," Ash continued. "Hopefully, Dave is not one of those guys. It is far too early to say that he is."
Said Kremblas: "The first step in improvement [is] standing up like a man and dealing with it. I think that's what Dave is doing."
Brewers manager Ned Yost's own son, Josh, suffered a broken collarbone last week while riding a skateboard at a park in Phoenix. Yost said Krynzel will get a chance to redeem himself.
"David's hurt right now. He can't mix in to what we're going to do, so he'll rehab as hard as he has been working to get himself back," Yost said. "There is no more to it than that. Accidents happen. Things happen.
"And I can see from his end of it that you don't want to tell anyone about it. It's a scary thing, and you think that you can get it healed before anyone knows about it. He felt that way, and he made a mistake."
Krynzel knows he will have to hit and run his way out of the doghouse.
"That's all that's left for me to do," he said. "If you guys want to see a turnaround, it's going to be this year. I can't say what I'm going to hit [or] how many bases I'm going to steal, but you'll see a big difference."
He also plans to sell his bikes.
"It's not worth it," Krynzel said. "I've reprioritized my life, with baseball being No. 1. Finally."

Source: http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/