José Hernández (baseball)

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

José Antonio Hernández Figueroa (born June 14, 1969 in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico) is a shortstop in Major League Baseball who plays for the Cleveland Indians since 2005. Previously, Hernández played with the Texas Rangers (1991), Cleveland Indians (1992), Chicago Cubs (1994-1999[start]), Atlanta Braves (1999[end]), Milwaukee Brewers (2000-2003[start]), Chicago Cubs (2003[mid]), Pittsburgh Pirates (2003[end]) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2004). He bats and throws right handed.

In a 13-season career, Hernández has compiled a .253 batting average with 159 home runs and 553 RBI in 1418 games.

Primarily a shortstop, Hernández has played every position except pitcher and catcher. His positioning and range are good, but he has never had a regular position to master. His most productive season came in 2001 with Milwaukee, when he posted career highs in home runs (25), RBI (78), hits (151), doubles (26) and games (152). Despite his .249 average, he posted a .356 on base percentage.

In 2002, Hernández hit 24 homers with 73 RBI and a career high .288 average and was selected for the All-Star Game. He spent the entire 2004 season with the Dodgers in utility role, hitting .289 (61-211) with 12 doubles, one triple, 13 home runs and 29 RBI in 95 games for the NL West Division champions. Hernández recorded 26 extra base hits and a .540 slugging percentage in just 211 at bats. Only Anaheim's Troy Glaus (207AB, 18HR) hit more home runs in the majors in 2004 among players with 215 or fewer at bats.

On a team plagued with injuries, and with a manager who liked to load his lineup with righty hitters against all left handed pitching, Hernández is in the perfect situation to bring out his talents, filling in virtually everywhere.

Fact

• Hernández set a Puerto Rico Winter League record with 20 home runs for Mayaguez during the 1997-98 winter ball campaign.

External link

• ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=4728) - Profile and daily updates
• Baseball Reference (http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hernajo01.shtml) - Career statistics and analysis

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) José_Hernández_(baseball) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Hernández_(baseball)) version history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=José_Hernández_(baseball)&action=history) GNU Free Documentation Lizenz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License) CC-by-sa (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/)

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