Yuniesky Betancourt

Infobox MLB player
name=Yuniesky Betancourt

---

width=300
position=Shortstop
team=Seattle Mariners
number=5
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1982|1|31
birthplace=city-state|Santa Clara|Cuba
debutdate=July 28
debutyear=2005
debutteam=Seattle Mariners
statyear=2008 season
stat1label=Batting average
stat1value=.282
stat2label=Home runs
stat2value=25
stat3label=Runs batted in
stat3value=180
teams=
*Seattle Mariners (by|2005-present)

Yuniesky Betancourt (born January 31, 1982 in Santa Clara, Cuba) is a Major League Baseball shortstop for the Seattle Mariners. His early career was spent in the Cuban leagues, including Villa Clara of the Serie Nacional. He was considered the fastest second baseman in the Cuban leagues and the star of the Villa Clara team. In the finals against the Industriales in by|2002, he got a hit in nearly every at-bat, though the Industriales won, 4 games to 0. He left Cuba on a raft in November 2003 [cite web|title=Betancourt following his dreams|work=Major League Baseball|url=http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060626&content_id=1524448&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea|dateaccesed=July 5|accessyear=2006] and arrived in Mexico, where he played for a while before being signed by the Seattle Mariners. He made his major league debut on July 28, mlby|2005.

Betancourt has shown himself to be a decent hitter with some gap power. His most valuable asset, however, is his glove. He is fast becoming one of the best fielders in the game by using his mix of excellent range, quickness, soft hands, hand-eye coordination, and his strong, accurate throwing arm. He suffered some uncharactaristic spells of wildness with his throwing in mlby|2007, which helped account for his 18 errors in the first half of mlby|2007, almost as many as his mlby|2006 total of 20, but he returned to form and made only 5 errors in the second half of 2007. He also led the American League with 65 "good fielding plays" [cite web|title=Shortstop ATG|work=Joe Posnanski|url=http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2007/11/08/shortstop-atg/]

In 2006, he walked only 3.0% of the time, the second-worst percentage in major league baseballcite web| title=Advanced stats | work=fangraphs.com | url=http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=1&season=2006 | accessdate=2007-06-27] ; however, he is also one of the hardest hitters to strike out in baseball. Betancourt is becoming very popular among fans in Seattle for his clutch hitting and dazzling play with the glove. He was among the league leaders in batting with runners in scoring position and also game-winning RBI in 2007. In a late season game in 2007, ex-Mariner Mike Blowers referred to Betancourt as being "un-real" when batting with runners on in close late games. He hit his first grand slam in a 7-6 win against the Chicago White Sox on August 11, 2007.

Betancourt currently bats 2nd for the Mariners.

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