Chris Shelton (baseball)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Texas Rangers — No. 16 | |
| First baseman | |
| Born: June 26, 1980 | |
| Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| April 15, 2004 for the Detroit Tigers | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through April 29, 2008) |
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| Batting average | .280 |
| Home runs | 35 |
| Runs batted in | 109 |
| Teams | |
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Christopher Bob Shelton (born June 26, 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah), is a Major League Baseball first baseman currently playing for the Texas Rangers. Before entering professional baseball, he played at Cottonwood High School, Salt Lake Community College, and the University of Utah. Shelton was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the thirty-third round, although he never made the team's 40-man roster. Unprotected, he was selected by the Tigers in the rule 5 draft. He split time catching for the team with Brandon Inge until the acquisition of Iván Rodríguez in 2004. Then Chris started playing first base.
While in Detroit, due to his red hair and prodigious batting, he had earned various nicknames, such as "Red Pop" (a reference to the Detroit-made Faygo beverage) from the Tiger faithful. Tigers play-by-play commentators Rod Allen and Mario Impemba often called him "Big Red" or "Orange Crush."
[edit] Professional career
In 2006, Shelton hit nine home runs in the first 13 games of the season; this made him the fastest player in American League history to reach that mark at that point in a season. He also became the fourth player in baseball history to hit at least nine home runs in his team's first 13 games; he trails only Mike Schmidt in 1976, Larry Walker in 1997 and Luis Gonzalez in 2001 in that regard.[1] He earned the American League Player of the Week accolade for April 3, 2006.[2] Shelton's power dropped significantly after April, however, and on July 31, 2006, he was optioned to Triple-A Toledo to make room for Sean Casey, whom the Tigers had acquired from Pittsburgh in a trade-deadline deal. On September 1, Chris Shelton was recalled back to Detroit
During the 2007 spring training Chris Shelton started and finished spring training with the Tigers and by the end of spring training there was one spot left on the team's roster and the fight was between Marcus Thames and Chris Shelton. Shelton did not make the roster, which left him to Toledo for the 2007 season.
On December 5, 2007, Shelton was traded to the Texas Rangers for Freddy Guzmán, and on January 14, 2008, designated for assignment in order to make room for Kazuo Fukumori, a veteran reliever from the Japanese leagues.
On April 29, 2008, his contract was purchased from Triple-A Oklahoma, again by the Texas Rangers when Jason Botts was designated for assignment.
[edit] External links
- MLB Profile
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
| Preceded by Carlos Pena |
Detroit Tigers starting at First Base April 3,2006- July 31, 2006 |
Succeeded by Sean Casey |
