Ryan Freel

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Ryan Paul Freel (born March 8, 1976 in Jacksonville, Florida) is a professional baseball player. He attended Tallahassee Community College and made his Major League debut on April 4th, 2001 with the Toronto Blue Jays. Freel is now a member of the Cincinnati Reds. His versatility in the field makes him a great asset to the Reds. In 2004 and 2005 Freel played all three outfield positions, second base, and third base, while making many acrobatic plays. He is also a major threat on the base paths totaling 110 stolen bases in the past three years (37 in 2004, 36 in 2005, and 37 in 2006). He does not hit for power (only 19 home runs in his career) but does get on base with a career .373 on-base percentage and he knows how to score, too, with 219 runs in 397 career games.

Freel was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 10th round of the 1995 amateur draft and signed with the Reds as a free agent in the fall of 2002. He recently signed a two-year, $3 million contract with the Reds and is signed through 2007.

1 Farney
2 Trivia
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Farney

Freel gained some notoriety in August 2006 when The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Freel talks to an imaginary midget Farney.^[1]

Freel said the Farney reference stemmed from a discussion with Reds trainer Mark Mann.^[1]

"He actually made a comment like, 'How are the voices in your head?' " Freel said. "We'd play around and finally this year he said, 'What's the guy's name?' I said, 'Let's call him Farney.' So now everybody's like, 'Run, Farney, run' or 'Let Farney hit today. You're not hitting very well.' "^[1]