John William Grabow, nicknamed "Grabes"[1] (born November 4, 1978) is an American former professional baseball left-handed reliever.

In his MLB career, he held opposing batters to a .218 batting average and a .293 slugging percentage when there were runners in scoring position.

Grabow is Jewish, as is his mother, and his Lebanese-Jewish maternal grandmother had the surname Mizrachi and immigrated from Beirut, Lebanon.

[5][6][7][8] There were 13 Jewish players in the majors in 2008, including Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun, Jason Marquis, and Ian Kinsler.

[12] He was a pitcher at San Gabriel High School in California, and was named his league's most valuable player as well as All-California Interscholastic Federation in baseball in his senior year in 1997.

[3] In 1998, Grabow was hit on the ear by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout and spent some time on the disabled list.

[15] That season Altoona manager Dale Sveum and pitching coach Jeff Andrews asked Grabow to make the switch, suggesting it might be a good career move.

[15] But Grabow was then promoted to Class AAA Nashville in July, and pitched exclusively as a relief pitcher there before joining the Pirates for the final weeks of the year.

[18][20] In February 2005 Grabow signed a contract pursuant to which he would make $327,000 in the majors, but $240,000 if he pitched at Class AAA Indianapolis.

Grabow initially planned to have minor surgery after the 2007 season to remove bone chips in his left elbow.

[1] Grabow edged Minnesota's Craig Breslow for the 2008 Barney Pelty Award for Jewish Pitcher of the Year.

"[37] He tied for the WBC lead in games pitched (with six), and had a 2.08 ERA, helping Team USA reach the semi-finals.

In July 2009 the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Florida Marlins, and Los Angeles Dodgers had all expressed interest in trading for Grabow.

[39][40] Asked about the possibility of the Pirates trading him, Grabow, failing to stifle a grin, responded "I'm untouchable, dude.

[44] General Manager Jim Hendry said: "It was really imperative we re-sign Grabow, because he's not only our kind of guy and very successful, but has some experience and some savvy to him and can pitch seventh, eighth, ninth, matchups, righties, lefties.