Former Mets Pitcher: Willie Collazo (2007)

William Collazo was born November 7th 1979 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The five foot eight left handed relief pitcher, attended school in Miami Florida & Cedar Rapids Iowa. He tied for the Sun Belt Conference in wins & was named a third Team All American by Baseball America. Collazo was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2001 in the 10th round.

After pitching four years in the minor leagues, he tested positive for steroids in 2005 & was suspended 15 games. Upon his return he struggled. The next year he pitched good at Winter Ball to enough to win Pitcher of the Year honors. In March of 2006 he was signed by the New York Mets.

At AA Binghamton he went 7-6 with the leagues fourth best ERA (3.11) getting promoted to AAA Norfolk the same year. There he was 3-3 the rest of the way. In 2007 he began the year at AAA New Orleans going 6-5 with a 2.46 ERA posting four saves in 56 games.

Collazo got his call up that September debuting on September 5th in a 7-0 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati. He would next finish up an 11-3 Mets win at Shea over the Houston Astros. On September 11th he was roughed up for three runs pitching two innings against the Braves in a 13-5 Mets loss.

Collazo would make appearances in three games of the Mets 2007 NL East collapse where they lost out on the post season. Most famously he relieved John Maine, after he had been pitching a no hitter & gave up a hit with two outs in the 8th inning on September 17ths 13-0 win over the Florida Marlins at Shea.

Collazo spent the next season at AAA New Orleans going 4-9 with the Zephyrs never getting back to the big leagues.

Retirement: By 2010 he was pitching in Taiwan with the President Lions. After his pitching days he became a coach with the Gulf Coast Blue Jays in 2014-2015.