Gerald Laird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
|---|---|
| Texas Rangers — No. 15 | |
| Catcher | |
| Born: November 3, 1979 | |
| Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| April 30, 2003 for the Texas Rangers | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through May 18, 2008) |
|
| Batting Average | .250 |
| Home Runs | 22 |
| RBI | 108 |
| Teams | |
|
|
Gerald Lee Laird III (born November 13, 1979, in Westminster, California) is a Major League Baseball player for the Texas Rangers.
Contents |
[edit] Baseball Career
Laird was originally a second round draft choice of the Oakland A's in 1998, and was traded to the Rangers before the 2002 season, along with Ryan Ludwick, Jason Hart, and Mario Ramos, for first baseman Carlos Pena and pitcher Mike Venafro. Laird won the Rangers' starting catching job in spring training in 2004, but after dislocating his thumb in a home plate collision in May, 2004, ended up on the disabled list and lost his starting job to Rod Barajas. After spending most of the 2005 season in AAA, Laird took over as the backup catcher for the Rangers in 2006. In 2007, Laird will be given the opportunity to be the starting catcher again. The Rangers' new manager, Ron Washington, took a special interest in Laird during spring training, and told Laird that he should "be more vocal and voice [his] opinion on pitches."
He attended La Quinta High School and then went on to play college baseball for Cypress college. Gerald's younger brother, Brandon Laird was drafted by the New York Yankees and is currently in their farm system.
Never a holy terror with his bat, in 2007 Laird also had the lowest fielding percentage of all major league catchers, .984, and the lowest range factor among full-time AL catchers, 6.84 (though the statistical significance of these numbers in comparison with the other MLB catchers is debatable). In any case these numbers were at least as good if not significantly better than those of his only realistic competition in the Rangers organization (Jarrod Saltalamacchia, a minor-leaguer obtained from the Atlanta Braves as part of a deal for former Rangers first baseman Mark Teixeira in July, 2007) and Laird handled a much heavier workload. Compensating for Laird's deficiencies is the fact that he possesses one of the most fearsome arms in MLB when it comes out to tossing out base-runners, gunning down 40% of attempted base thieves, ranking him second only behind the Seattle Mariners' Kenji Johjima and well in front of all other MLB competition (base-stealers were successful 84% of the time against Saltalamacchia in very limited action). Additionally Laird participated in the second most number of double plays among all MLB catchers despite having among the least number of fielding chances.[1]He currently splits time behind the plate with Saltalamacchia.
[edit] Career Statistics
| Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career | 248 | 773 | 115 | 196 | 42 | 4 | 16 | 79 | 7 | .254 |
[edit] References
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=5465&context=fielding; http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=28663&context=fielding; http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding?groupId=9&season=2007&seasonType=2&split=78&sortOrder=true&sortColumn=totalChances&qualified=1
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
