Shawn Estes


‧ Height, weight: 6-foot-2, 200 pounds.

‧ Bats: Right.

‧ Throws: Left.

‧ Age: 31.

‧ Acquired: Signed to a minor league contract and invited to spring training.

‧ Status: One of 10 candidates for four spots in starting rotation.

‧ Career highlights: Went 19-5 and selected to National League All-Star team
                      for San Francisco in 1997 . . . Won 15 games with Giants
                      in 1999 . . . Has made 23 or more starts in each of the
                      past three seasons . . . Split past two years with New
                      York Mets, Cincinnati and Chicago Cubs, and went 13-23
                      with a 5.41 earned-run average.

‧ Personal: 11th player selected in first round of 1991 draft, going to
             Seattle Mariners . . . Turned down full ride to Stanford
             University to sign with Mariners . . . Traded by Mariners early
             in 1995 season to San Francisco for right-handed pitcher Salomon
             Torres . . . Wife Heather gave birth to couple's first child,
             Jackson Timothy, on Sept. 12, 2003.

‧ Who had the biggest impact on your career?
             "There's probably at least four. The pitch that got me to the big
              leagues was the curveball. Rick Kester was my high school
              pitching coach and taught me how to throw it properly. He
              actually played in the minor leagues (in the Atlanta
              organization) with Dusty (Baker) and Tom House. In the minor
              leagues, the year I turned my career around was after the 1994
              season. Ron Romanick was my coach in the instructional league and
              he broke down my mechanics. The next year I felt confident in my
              mechanics. And Gary Mack (a Mariners coach) talked with me a lot
              about the mental approach, and being focused. When I got to the
              big leagues with San Francisco, Dick Pole was the pitching coach.
              He helped me work with what you needed to be a big- league
              pitcher."