Yuniesky Betancourt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seattle Mariners — No. 5 | |
Shortstop | |
Born: January 31, 1982 | |
Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
Major League Baseball debut | |
July 28, 2005 for the Seattle Mariners | |
Selected MLB statistics (through 2007) |
|
Batting average | .284 |
Home runs | 18 |
Runs batted in | 129 |
Teams | |
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Yuniesky Betancourt (Rikimbilly in Cuba) (born: January 31, 1982, in Santa Clara, Cuba) is a Major League Baseball shortstop for the Seattle Mariners. His early career was spent in the Cuban leagues, including Villa Clara of the Serie Nacional. He was considered the fastest 2nd baseman in the Cuban leagues and the star of the Villa Clara team. In the finals against the Industriales in 2002, he got a hit in nearly every at bat, though the Industriales won, 4 games to 0. He left Cuba on a raft in November 2003 [1]and arrived in Mexico, where he played for a while before being signed by the Seattle Mariners. He made his major league debut on July 28, 2005.
Betancourt has shown himself to be a decent hitter with some gap power. His most valuable asset, however, is his glove. He is fast becoming one of the best fielders in the game by using his mix of excellent range, quickness, soft hands, hand-eye coordination, and his strong, accurate throwing arm. He suffered some uncharactaristic spells of wildness with his throwing in 2007, which helped account for his 18 errors in the first half of 2007, almost as many as his 2006 total of 20, but he returned to form and made only 5 errors in the second half of 2007. He also led the American League with 65 "good fielding plays"[2]
In 2006, he walked only 3.0% of the time, the second-worst percentage in major league baseball[3]; however, he is also one of the hardest hitters to strike out in baseball. The Cuban is becoming very popular among fans in Seattle for his clutch hitting and dazzling play with the glove. He is among the league leaders in batting with runners in scoring position and also game-winning RBI. In a late season game in 2007, ex-Mariner Mike Blowers referred to Betancourt as being "un-real" when batting with runners on in close late games. Betancourt currently bats 9th for the Mariners.
He hit his first grand slam in a 7-6 win against the Chicago White Sox on August 11, 2007.
[edit] References
- ^ Betancourt following his dreams. Major League Baseball.
- ^ Shortstop ATG. Joe Posnanski.
- ^ Advanced stats. fangraphs.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-27.
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube