Felipe López (baseball)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 López with the Nationals in 2008 Photo by Chris Nelson |
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|---|---|
| Washington Nationals — No. 2 | |
| Shortstop / Second base | |
| Born: May 12, 1980 | |
| Bats: Switch | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| August 3, 2001 for the Toronto Blue Jays | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through 2007) |
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| Batting average | .258 |
| Home runs | 65 |
| Runs batted in | 288 |
| Teams | |
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Felipe López (born May 12, 1980 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican shortstop for Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals franchise.
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[edit] Baseball career
In 1998, López graduated from Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs, Florida where he set school records by hitting .521 with 15 doubles, five triples, seven home runs, 28 runs batted in and 34 stolen bases in his senior year. He was also voted Florida's Player of the Year, was a USA Today All-USA selection, and was rated by Baseball America as the best defensive high school shortstop in the country.
Lopez was a 1st round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays (8th pick overall) in the 1998 Amateur draft. López made his major league debut on August 3, 2001 and played second base and shortstop in a part time.
On December 1, 2002, the Blue Jays traded the switch-hitting Lopez to the Reds as part of a four team trade with the Oakland A's and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Toronto Blue Jays sent him to the Cincinnati Reds, who sent pitcher Elmer Dessens to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks sent first baseman Erubiel Durazo to the Oakland Athletics, who, in turn, sent minor league pitcher Jason Arnold to the Blue Jays. The trade was a disaster for the Jays[1] as Arnold never became a major leaguer and the Jays have been stuck with a hole at shortstop since the trade utilizing Russ Adams, John McDonald, Chris Woodward, Royce Clayton.
After backing up Barry Larkin during the 2003 and 2004 seasons, López earned the starting job in 2005. López's first season as the Reds' regular shortstop was his breakthrough. He clubbed 23 home runs and stole 15 bases while compiling a .291 batting average with a .352 on-base percentages. This earned him the honor of being selected to the 2005 National League All-Star team.
López was traded by the Reds on July 13, 2006 to the Washington Nationals along with Austin Kearns and Ryan Wagner for Gary Majewski, Bill Bray, Royce Clayton, Brendan Harris, and Daryl Thompson, a minor league prospect. In 2006, he tied for the major league lead in errors at shortstop, with 28, and had the lowest fielding percentage (.954).
When first traded to the Nationals, López's original jersey number was 7, however when Damian Jackson was traded, he turned in his number 7 for Jackson's previous jersey number 2. This is the number he currently wears.
In 2007, he had the lowest fielding percentage of all NL shortstops, .957, and often found himself switching between the position of shortstop and second base. This switch was due to the recovery of the Nationals original shortstop, Christian Guzman, who had injured himself in 2005, though he later gave the position back to Lopez after sustaining yet another injury during the 2007 season.
On April 24, 2008 Felipe hit a grand slam to give Washington a 7-3 lead in route to a 10-5 victory over the Mets.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or Baseball-Reference
- Yahoo MLB Profile
- 2007 spring training spotlight video from The Washington Post
