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Troy Tulowitzki
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Troy Tulowitzki's Message to the Fans
BiographyTroy Trevor Tulowitzki (pronounced /ˈtuləˌwɪtski/; born on October 10, 1984, in Santa Clara, California), nicknamed "Tulo", is a Major League Baseball shortstop for the Colorado Rockies.
His arm, range and instincts at shortstop are highly regarded.[1] Furthermore, Tulowitzki's size, ability and leadership skills have garnered him comparisons to Cal Ripken, Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.[2][3]
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Colorado Rockies — No. 2 Shortstop Born: October 10, 1984 (1984-10-10) (age 23) Santa Clara, California Bats: Right Throws: Right Major League Baseball debut August 30, 2006 for the Colorado Rockies Selected MLB statistics (through April 27, 2008) Batting average .268 Home runs 26 Runs batted in 116 Teams Colorado Rockies (2006-present)
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High school career Tulowitzki graduated from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California. He earned 4 varsity letters in baseball, and 2 in basketball. He was twice named 2nd team All-State in baseball, and was a 3-time team MVP, batting .519 with 24 homers as a senior and .536 as a junior. Tulowitzki also went 15-1 on the mound his junior year. He won league MVP in basketball, where he was 2nd team all-state and team MVP, averaging 22.6 points in basketball his senior year. He was named Fremont High Athlete of the Year in 2002.[4]
Long Beach State A sure-handed starting shortstop for three seasons, Tulowitzki had a .962 career fielding percentage and 117 career RBIs to go along with a .296 career average. Baseball America rated him as having the top arm and the best defensive shortstop in the Big West. He had 20 career homers, 37 career doubles, and a .453 career slugging percentage over 155 games. He was a two-time All-Big West selection (second team in 2003, and first team in 2004), and a two-time All-Regional Tournament selection, earning MOP honors in 2004, and had 31 multi-hit games in his career. Tulowitzki was drafted 7th overall by the Colorado Rockies in the 2005 MLB Draft.
Major leagues
2006 season Tulowitzki made his Major League Baseball debut with the Colorado Rockies on August 30, 2006, at Coors Field in Denver, wearing jersey number 14. He made it to the big leagues after playing just 126 minor league games. He collected his first Major League hit, a single off Oliver Perez of the New York Mets, on August 31, 2006, and hit his first MLB home run September 4, 2006, off of San Diego's Woody Williams. Tulowitzki posted a .240 batting average with 1 home run and 6 runs batted in in 25 games.
2007 season
Spring training
Tulowitzki entered spring training prior to the 2007 season in a battle with incumbent Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes for the starting role. After a spring that saw Tulowitzki win the Spring Training's MVP Award and Barmes struggle offensively, Tulowitzki entered 2007 as the starting shortstop.
Defense
As a rookie, Tulowitzki established himself in the eyes of some as a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop.[5][6][7] He led all MLB shortstops in fielding percentage (.987), putouts (262), total chances (834), assists (561) and double plays turned (114; 2 more than Jack Wilson, in 233 more innings). He also ranked first in range factor (5.39), and second in zone rating (.866). His target at first base, 3-time gold glover Todd Helton, led the NL in fielding percentage (.999; for the second straight year) and range factor (10.39). Tulowitzki was a major contributor in the Rockies' MLB-record .98925 fielding percentage for one season.[6]
Tulowitzki ended up not winning the 2007 National League Gold Glove award, which is voted on by NL coaches and players. The award went instead to Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, despite the fact that Tulowitzki had a better fielding percentage (.987 to .985), zone rating, and range factor, and more total chances, putouts, and assists, and turned 4 more double plays, in 66.1 fewer innings, than Rollins. They each had 11 errors, but Tulowitzki's came on 834 total chances, compared to Rollins' 717.[1]
Tulowitzki did, however, win the Fielding Bible award at shortstop, which is awarded to the shortstop who a panel of voters view as the best defensive shortstop in Major League Baseball.[8] The panel consists of national sports writers, scouts and sports radio talk show hosts.
Unassisted triple play
On April 29, 2007, Tulowitzki turned just the 13th unassisted triple play in MLB history, during a 9-7 home victory at Coors Field over the Atlanta Braves.[9][10] Eight of the 13 unassisted triple plays have been made by a shortstop. In the top of the seventh, Tulowitzki caught third baseman Chipper Jones' line drive with the runners moving, stepped on second to retire Kelly Johnson, and tagged Edgar Rentería before he could return to first. Confused and not realizing what he had done, he then went back and tagged second again, then threw the ball to Todd Helton at first, neither of which was necessary.
Instead of giving the historic triple play ball back to Tulowitzki, Helton accidentally tossed it into the crowd. However, the ball was eventually retrieved and returned to Tulowitzki a couple of weeks later.[11]
Wrong end of triple play
On September 12, 2007, Tulowitzki was on the wrong end of a triple play this time. As he put it, "I was on first base, I thought the ball hit the ground. I was running to second to break it up. Oh, well. I don't know too many people who can say they turned a triple play and had a triple play turned on them in the same year."[12]
Home run record
On September 10, 2007, Tulowitzki hit his 20th home run of the season, which set the record for most home runs in a single season by a National League rookie shortstop.[13] The previous record was 19, held by Ernie Banks. He hit his first career grand slam on September 29, 2007, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Tulowitzki ended with 24 home runs on the season.
National League Rookie of the Year candidate
Tulowitzki was named National League Rookie of the Month for August.[14]
In the 2007 season, Tulowitzki ranked first among NL rookies in at bats (609), plate appearances (678), games (155), hits (177), doubles (33), runs (104), total bases (292), walks (57), and RBIs (99; 2 ahead of Ryan Braun, in 158 more at bats). Tulowitzki's 99 RBIs led all National League shortstops (he was 3 short of a tie for the MLB lead, held by Detroit Tigers shortstop Carlos Guillén). He finished second behind Ryan Braun in OBP (.359). He was third behind Braun and Hunter Pence in batting average (.291), slugging percentage (.479), OPS (.838), and triples (5). Tulowitzki was also 3rd behind Braun and Chris Young in home runs (24) and extra base hits (62), and tied for 9th in stolen bases (7).
Tulowitzki also tied Young, Rajai Davis and Norris Hopper for the lead among all NL rookies in caught stealing (6), was 2nd to Carlos Ruiz in grounding into double plays (14, which was one more -- with 158 more at bats -- than third place Braun), and 2nd behind Young in strikeouts (130; leading all NL shortstops). However, Tulowitzki had the third lowest strikeout ratio (21.3%) out of all rookies with at least 400 at bats, behind Kevin Kouzmanoff (19.4%) and Pence (20.8%). He batted .320 with a .554 slugging percentage and 15 home runs at mile-high Coors Field, but hit only .256 with a .393 slugging percentage and 9 home runs in away games. However, it should be noted that one of the reasons for any substantial differences in home and road splits for Rockies batters is that they have to make adjustments in how they see pitches away from Coors Field - particularly breaking balls, such as sliders and curve balls - since those pitches act differently at Coors Field than on the road.[15]
Team veterans alerted Tulowitzki every time Braun, his chief rival for rookie of the year honors, hit a home run.[16]
Tulowitzki had a 10.8 WARP3 for the season (WARP3 is a metric that measures offensive and defensive production).[17] By comparison, Tulowitzki's rookie of the year rival, Braun, only had a 4.8 WARP3 rating.[18]
Tulowitzki came in second in the race for National League Rookie of the Year. The award was voted on by 32 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, two from each National League city. Braun beat Tulowitzki, 128 points to 126 points, which was the closest voting in the NL since the current system was adopted in 1980.[19] Tulowitzki lost to Braun in the vote for the 2007 NL Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award, which was voted on by 488 major league players and 30 managers.[20][21] He also lost out to Braun in the competition for the 2007 Baseball America Rookie of the Year Award,[22] in the vote for the 2007 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie by their fellow major league players,[23] and in the Baseball Prospectus 2007 Internet Baseball NL Rookie of the Year Award, with 487 first place votes, versus 666 for Braun.[24] However, on December 14, fans voted Tulowitzki the This Year in Baseball Rookie of the Year, with 27.6% of the vote, which was ahead of Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (26.3%) and Braun (22.3%).[25]
Tulowitzki was selected to the 2007 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team. The selection was the result of the 49th annual Topps balloting by Major League managers.[26]
Tie-Breaker and Postseason
On October 1, 2007, in a one-game tie-breaker against the San Diego Padres, Tulowitzki went 4-7 with 3 extra-base hits and scored the tying run in the bottom of the 13th inning. The Rockies won the game 9-8 and entered the playoffs as the NL wild card team. They faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series. On October 4, 2007, in the second game of the series, Tulowitzki and left fielder Matt Holliday hit back-to-back first-pitch homers in the first inning to begin a 10-5 win, and the Rockies headed to Denver with a 2-0 lead in the series. The Rockies went on to complete a three-game sweep of the Phillies, and advanced to the NLCS, in which they swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in four games. Colorado went on to face the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, which was the first ever World Series appearance in Rockies history. Boston swept Colorado in four games.
Tulowitzki batted .195 in the post-season, with a .267 on base percentage, and 15 strikeouts in 41 at bats. Fox News writer Chadd Finn stated that while the World Series was the first time that he thought Tulowitzki looked like a rookie all season, he feels Tulowitzki will be better for the experience.[27]
At the same time, MLB Hall of Fame shortstop and third baseman Cal Ripken, Jr. offered his own assessment of Tulowitzki: "He has a strong offensive game, but defensively, he's unbelievable. He really thinks about the position, all aspects of the game. I love that about him."[28]
2008 season On January 23, 2008, Tulowitzki signed a six-year, $31 million contract extension with the Rockies.[29] The deal, which also included a club option for 2014, was the largest ever contract for a player with less than two years experience.[29] The previous contract extension record was a six-year, $23.45 million deal that center fielder Grady Sizemore signed with the Cleveland Indians back in 2006.
Personal Batter walk-up song (2008): "Superstar" by Lupe Fiasco
Batter walk-up song (2007): I'm a Flirt, by R Kelly.[30]
His favorite players growing up were Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Jeter. Tulowitzki's jersey number in college was No. 5, due to his admiration of Garciaparra, and his jersey number for the Rockies is No. 2, due to his admiration of Jeter.[31]
In a television interview with ESPN, Tulowitzki stated that his favorite team growing up was the Oakland Athletics, and that his favorite musical artist is Jay-Z.
Awards and honors 2007 - This Year in Baseball Rookie of the Year 2007 - Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team; SS 2007 - Fielding Bible Award; SS 2007 - National League Rookie of the Month (August) 2006 - Colorado Rockies Minor League Player of the Year 2006 - All-Star Futures Game 2006 - No. 32 - MLN FAB50 Baseball 2006 - Minor League News 2005 - Big West Conference All-Star SS 2004 - Palo Alto Regional MVP (College World Series) 2004 - Big West Conference All-Star SS
References
**** Source: Wikipedia.org at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Tulowitzki
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