David Cooper (baseball)

David Cooper
Toronto Blue Jays — No. 30
First baseman
Born: February 12, 1987 (1987-02-12) (age 24) Stockton, California
Bats: Left	Throws: Left
MLB debut
April 29, 2011 for the Toronto Blue Jays
Career statistics (through 2011 Season)
Batting average	.211
Hits	15
Home runs	2
Runs batted in	12
Teams
Toronto Blue Jays (2011-present)

David Fletcher Cooper (born February 12, 1987 in Stockton, California) is a first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays. He is 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds.^[1]

Minor League career

Cooper played college baseball for the Cal State Fullerton Titans baseball team before finishing his college career with the California Golden Bears baseball team. In his junior season he hit .359/.449/.682 with 19 home runs and 55 RBIs, attracting the attention of professional scouts. Cooper was one of many 1B prospects taken in the first round of the draft after other highly regarded college hitters such as Yonder Alonso, Brett Wallace and Justin Smoak. In scouting reports prior to the draft Cooper was regarded as a highly polished college bat who can hit for both average and plus home run power in the majors. Defensively he is limited and will either play at 1B or DH at the major league level.^[2]

He was drafted with the 17th overall pick of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft. He was playing with the AAA Las Vegas 51s in the Blue Jays organization, until he was called up to the Blue Jays on April 29, 2011.^[3][4]

Major League career

2011 - present

Cooper made his major league debut on 29 April against the New York Yankees, playing the DH position and batting 7th in the line-up. He walked in his first plate appearance, and struck out in his first official at-bat. He finished the game 0-4.^[5] He recorded his first career RBI the next day in a 5-4 loss to the Yankees, and his first career hit on May 1 against Ivan Nova.^[6] On May 10, Cooper hit his first career home run, a solo shot off of Boston Red Sox reliever Daniel Bard, and followed that up with a game winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning.^[7] Cooper was demoted back to Triple-A on May 15, and after almost 4 months with Las Vegas, he was included in the Blue Jays' September call-ups and re-debuted on September 8.

References

1. ^ http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8917;_ylt=A2KJ3CaxW.FNLgcAi3hNbK5_
2. ^ "Minor League Baseball: Events: 2008 Draft Report". Minor League Baseball. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/events/draft_report/y2008/index.jsp?mc=cooper. Retrieved 2008-12-01. 
3. ^ "Draft: 2008 DraftTracker". Major League Baseball. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2008/drafttracker.jsp. Retrieved 2008-08-07. 
4. ^ Roster as of August 1, 2008. The Lansing Lugnuts. Retrieved on 2008-08-07.
5. ^ Romero recovers fast, leads Blue Jays over Yankees
6. ^ Granderson, Teixeria send Yankees past Blue Jays
7. ^ Cooper drives in winning run as Jays beat Red Sox

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

Persondata
Name	Cooper, David
Alternative names
Short description	American baseball player
Date of birth	1987-02-12
Place of birth	Stockton, California, United States
Date of death
Place of death