Vicente Padilla

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**Vicente Padilla**
Major League Baseball debut
Texas Rangers — No. 44
Pitcher
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
June 29, 1999 for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Selected MLB statistics (through 2006)
Wins-Losses	66-61
ERA	4.06
Strikeouts	682
Former teams
Arizona Diamondbacks (1999–2000) Philadelphia Phillies (2000–2005) Texas Rangers (2006-present)

Vicente Padilla (born September 27, 1977 in Chinandega, Nicaragua) is a professional baseball player, a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Texas Rangers. He has also played for the Arizona Diamondbacks and, most notably, the Philadelphia Phillies. He is known for his 96 mph (154 km/h) fastball and devastating curveball.

Padilla was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Phillies on July 26, 2000 along with three other players for pitcher Curt Schilling. Padilla battled injuries during the 2004 and 2005 seasons, posting a combined win-loss record of 16–19. While with the Phillies, Padilla was a member of the 2002 National League All-Star Team, posting a 14–11 win-loss record with a 3.28 ERA. He had a Phan Phavorites group which called themselves "Padilla's Flotilla", a takeoff on his name and Hispanic ethnicity. However, in his career with the Phillies, he was routinely criticized for not thinking on the mound, and for being stubborn and wasting his talent.

Overall, Padilla is 66–61 with a career 4.06 ERA in 227 career games over seven seasons from 1999 to 2006. In the 2005–06 offseason, Padilla was traded to the Texas Rangers for Ricardo Rodriguez after a disappointing 2005 season in which he posted a 4.71 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. During the 2006 season he has also come under fire for his now infamous "lack of control" on the mound. Padilla caused a controversy in Chicago when he twice hit White Sox catcher A. J. Pierzynski, and later in the season again caused a benches clearing brawl against the Angels when he repeatedly threw at Angels batters, showing particular interest in slugger Vladimir Guerrero.

During the 2006-07 offseason, Padilla signed a 3-year, $33.75 million contract (with an option for a fourth year) with the Texas Rangers.

[edit] The 2002 All-Star Game "tie controversy"

Padilla was the pitcher on the mound when the 2002 All-Star game was ruled a tie in the 11th inning. Due to the fact that Padilla was the only remaining pitcher on the NL team and he could not pitch any more innings, the game was called.