It was late in the summer of 2010 on Cape Cod, and Angels right-hander Nick Tropeano was pitching the biggest game of his life for the Cotuit Kettleers.
Then 19 and well past his career high in innings thrown, he had logged 87 pitches in five innings of a tied playoff game. While he waited to head back out for the sixth, his manager, Mike Roberts, stopped him and said he wanted to save him for another day. A mostly quiet but occasionally ferocious Long Island native, Tropeano seethed.
"I thought he was going to hit me in the dugout," Roberts recalled.