Freddie Velázquez

Federico Antonio Velázquez Velásquez (born December 6, 1937 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican former Major League Baseball catcher. He played for the Seattle Pilots (1969) and Atlanta Braves (1973).

He was signed by the San Francisco Giants as an amateur free agent in 1958. On December 2, 1968, Velázquez was drafted by the Pilots from the San Diego Padres in the 1968 Rule 5 draft.

Velázquez played in a total of 21 major league games, and was a starter in 8 of his 16 appearances as a catcher. Defensively, he handled 66 out of 67 chances successfully for a fielding percentage of .985. At the plate, he was 10-for-39 (.256) with 5 runs batted in.

In addition, he was immortalized in the book Ball Four (see quote below).

Quote

• "Gary (Bell) has come up with a good nickname for Freddie Velázquez. Freddie just sits there in the bullpen, warming up pitchers, and he never gets into a game and just looks sad. So Gary calls him Poor Devil." -- Jim Bouton in Ball Four (May 1, 1969)

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Retrosheet