Travis George Buck (born November 18, 1983 in Richland, Washington) is a retired Major League Baseball outfielder. He was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 23rd round (700th overall) in the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft. He did not sign with the Mariners and elected to attend Arizona State University. He would later be drafted by the Athletics as the 36th overall selection of the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft.
College career[]
Buck played college baseball for Arizona State University (along with Dustin Pedroia)from 2003-2005. He is #8 in the ASU all-time hits category with 272, and his 110 hits in 2005 are the ninth-most in Sun Devils history. In 2004 and 2005, he was selected as a Pac-10 Conference All-Star outfielder, and in 2004 he was a gold medal winner with the USA Baseball National Team.[1]
Professional career[]
In 2006, Buck split time between High A (the Stockton Ports) and Double-A (the Midland RockHounds). He finished the year hitting .302 for Midland with four home runs in 212 at-bats. He was selected as an outfielder for the United States in the All-Star Futures Game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.[2]
Prior to 2007, Buck was rated as the top prospect in the Oakland organization[3] and the #50 prospect in Major League Baseball[4] by Baseball America. He was in the Opening Day lineup for Oakland due to an injury to first baseman Dan Johnson, which prompted manager Bob Geren to shift Nick Swisher to first base and tab Buck as the starting right fielder.[5] Buck went 1-3 in the game, with his first major league hit being a double off Mariners starting pitcher Félix Hernández.
Buck was the opening day right fielder for the Athletics in 2008, but struggled mightily. He spent much of the season at Triple-A Sacramento, before being recalled in September.
Statistics[]
| Year | Ag | Tm | Lg | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | TB | BB | IBB | SO | SH | SF | HBP | GDP | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:MLB Year | 23 | OAK | AL | 82 | 285 | 41 | 82 | 22 | 5 | 7 | 34 | 135 | 39 | 2 | 66 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 1 | .288 | .377 | .474 | .851 | |
| Template:MLB Year | 24 | OAK | AL | 38 | 155 | 16 | 35 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 25 | 67 | 11 | 0 | 38 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .226 | .291 | .432 | .723 | |
| Totals: | 120 | 440 | 57 | 117 | 31 | 6 | 14 | 59 | 202 | 50 | 2 | 104 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 5 | 1 | .266 | .347 | .459 | .806 | ||||
| Template:SmallTemplate:SmallTemplate:Small. Template:SmallTemplate:Small | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Miscellaneous facts[]
- Travis comes out to the song King of Kings by Motörhead for his at bats at Athletics home games.
- Travis appears on the back of Kellogg's Rice Krispies boxes in a 2008 Adidas ad campaign alongside U.S. Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix.
References[]
- ↑ "Player Bio: Travis Buck". CSTV.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-14.
- ↑ "2006 Futures Game Rosters". Baseball America. Retrieved on 2007-08-14.
- ↑ "Top 10 Prospects: Oakland Athletics". Baseball America (2006-12-06).
- ↑ "2007 Top 100 Prospects". Baseball America (2007-02-28).
- ↑ "Four unexpected players make roster". MLB.com (2007-04-01).
External links[]
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube