Yorvit Torrealba

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**Yorvit Torrealba**

Colorado Rockies — No. 8
Catcher
Born: July 19, 1978 (1978-07-19) (age 29) Caracas, Venezuela
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
Major League Baseball debut
September 5, 2001 for the San Francisco Giants
Selected MLB statistics (through May 15, 2008)
Batting average	.249
Home runs	32
Runs batted in	182
Teams
San Francisco Giants (2001-2005) Seattle Mariners (2005) Colorado Rockies (2006-present)

Yorvit Adolfo Torrealba [pron., /joɾ.ˈvit ˌto.re.ˈal.ba/] (born July 19, 1978 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a catcher in Major League Baseball who plays for the Colorado Rockies. He previously played for the San Francisco Giants, and the Seattle Mariners. He bats and throws right-handed.

1 Professional career
2 Source of given name
3 See also
4 Notes
5 Sources

[edit] Professional career

Torrealba signed with the San Francisco Giants as a minor league free agent on September 14, 1994.^[1] He made his major league debut with the Giants on September 5, 2001 as a September call up. Torrealba became the Giants back up catcher for the 2002 season after a strong spring training. During Torrealba's early career, his defensive abilities were his key strength, particularly his ability to throw out baserunners. He had 136 at-bats in 2001 and 200 in 2002.^[2]

Yorvit showed some potential, but when Benito Santiago left via free agency in 2003, the Giants opted to trade for A.J. Pierzynski rather than test Torrealba as a full-time player.^[3] He continued to serve as the backup catcher when the Giants signed Mike Matheny prior to the 2005 season; in fact, he played less than when Pierzynski was the starter. Torrealba expressed frustration over his lack of playing time to the media more than once, saying he believed he was capable of playing every day.^[4] Manager Felipe Alou publicly discussed the possibility of converting Torrealba into a utility player to get him more playing time, but that never came to pass.

Torrealba was traded, along with pitcher Jesse Foppert, to the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Randy Winn at the trading deadline of the 2005 season.^[5] The Mariners were in the midst of a 93-loss season and were rebuilding, and Torrealba competed for the opportunity to be Seattle's starting catcher. After the 2005 season the Mariners traded Torrealba to the Colorado Rockies for Marcos Carvajal after signing Kenji Johjima to be their starting catcher.^[6] With the Rockies, Torrealba had a chance to be the starting catcher, but lost the job after he was injured prior to the 2006 season, establishing Danny Ardoin as the Rockies starting catcher. Torrealba's injury was a lingering shoulder injury that was caused by overtraining.^[7]

Torrealba began the 2007 season for the Rockies platooning with rookie catcher Chris Iannetta. When Iannetta struggled, Torrealba won the starting job. On May 29, 2007, against the St. Louis Cardinals, Torrealba hit a grand slam, the 3rd of his career. He finished the season with a .255 average and 47 RBIs in 396 at-bats and he threw out only 17 percent of potential base-stealers, down from his success in previous seasons.^[8]Torrealba had some big hits for the Rockies during late 2007, when the Rockies won 12 of their last 13 to force a one-game playoff against the San Diego Padres, which the Rockies won. Torrealba hit a 3-run home run off of former teammate Liván Hernández in Game 3 of the 2007 National League Championship Series.^[9]

Through the 2007 season, Torrealba has posted a .251 batting average with 30 home runs and 173 RBIs in 440 games. As a catcher, he has compiled a .997 fielding average with only seventeen errors in 2587 chances; Torrealba's defense has been above average through out his career. He has thrown out over 32% of all baserunners attempting to steal. His ability to throw out runners was a career low 19.7% in 2007.^[10]

On November 29, 2007 the Rockies re-signed him.