Kim Batiste

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Kim Batiste was a baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants. He was drafted in the third round of the 1987 amateur draft by the Phillies. His major league debut came in 1991 with the Phillies. He was a key component of the Phillies 1993 National League Championship. He played 4 seasons with the Phillies and was released on May 15, 1995. Two weeks later on June 2, 1995, he was signed as a free agent by the Baltimore Orioles. He never played for the Orioles and was drafted by the Giants from the Orioles in the 1995 rule V draft on December 4, 1995. He played one year with the Giants before being released on October 1, 1996.

He was generally regarded by the Giants fans of that time as an embarrassment, due to his poor showings both at the plate and on the field. Even today his name is used as a joke on the Giants newsgroup. His fielding was so poor in 1996 that he had a fielding percentage of .847. The majority of third basemen have a fielding percentage around .950, and it is extremely rare for any player to field less than 90% of the balls hit his way.

In contrast, the other Giants third baseman in 1996 had better fielding ability. Bill Mueller had a percentage of .966 that year, and Matt Williams had a .951 percentage, lowered due to his injury.