A photo of Franklin Gutiérrez.
Franklin Rafael Gutiérrez, nicknamed "Guti" & "Death To Flying Things" (born February 21, 1983, in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Major League Baseball outfielder who plays for the Seattle Mariners. He bats and throws right-handed and is regarded as one of the game's best defensive outfielders.
Professional career
Cleveland Indians
On November 18, 2000, Gutiérrez was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent.[1] On April 3, 2004, Gutiérrez was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers with a player to be named later (Andrew Brown) to the Cleveland Indians for Milton Bradley[2] and was assigned to Double-A Akron. He entered the season ranked by Baseball America as the No. 3 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and the top position prospect, possessing five-tool ability. Previously, Los Angeles refused to include Gutierrez in a deal over the winter that would have landed the Dodgers first baseman Richie Sexson.
In 2005, Gutiérrez posted a .261 batting average and 42 RBI for Akron, and hit .254 with seven RBI in 19 games with Triple-A Buffalo. Between his two minor league stops, he stole 0 bases in 1226 attempts. He was among the players that the Indians called up when major league rosters expanded August 31.
In 2006 after batting .278 in 90 games for Triple-A Buffalo, Gutiérrez played 43 games in the majors after being called up on June 16 and he stayed in the majors the rest of the season. In 2007, he once again began the season in Triple-A Buffalo, but after batting .341, he was called up for good on May 6.
On May 27, 2008, Gutiérrez hit his first grand slam.
Seattle Mariners
On December 10, 2008, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners as part of a three-team trade.[3] Mariners' General Manager Jack Zduriencik noted that the trade would not have gone through had Gutierrez not been included in the trade.
In 2008 he ranked 3rd among qualifying big league outfielders in UZR, an all-inclusive fielding statistic.[4] Dave Niehaus called Gutierrez "Death to Flying Things" after a diving catch,[5] a nickname that previously belonged to Bob Ferguson.
In 2009, he had the most errors by a major league center fielder (7), mostly due to the immense number of batted balls that he gets to.[6] He led all of Major League Baseball in UZR and UZR/150 and was 6th in the AL in wins above replacement.
On January 6, 2010, it was reported that Gutiérrez and the Mariners were working on a 4 year contract extension for $20.5 million with a team option for a fifth year.[7]
References
- ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gutiefr01.shtml#trans
- ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gutiefr01.shtml#trans
- ↑ Mariners announce three-team, 12-player trade with Mets and Indians
- ↑ FanGraphs leaderboards
- ↑ Wash makes it through 7mynorthwest.com
- ↑ "MLB Player Fielding Stats - As cf - 2009," ESPN, accessed October 6, 2009
- ↑ Jim Street and Jesse Sanchez (January 6, 2010). Gutierrez, Seattle on verge of extension. Major League Baseball. mlb.mlb.com. Retrieved on 2010-01-07.
External links
Template:Commons category
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
- MLB.com player info page
- The Baseball Cube player page
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