Yulieski Gourriel

Yulieski Gourriel (born June 9, 1984) is a Cuban baseball player. A member of Cuba's national team and Sancti Spíritus in the Cuban National Series, cite web |title=Unsung heroes bound to emerge: Lesser-knowns players will share Classic spotlight with stars|work=Major League Baseball|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060209&content_id=1309478&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb|accessdate=July 4|accessyear=2006] Gourriel is primarily a third baseman, though he has also played other positions. The son of former Cuban player Lourdes Gourriel, Yulieski is currently regarded as the best player in Cubacite web|title=World Baseball Classic: Cuba's Yuliesky Gourriel|work=Baseball America|url=http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/features/060302wbccuba3b.html|accessdate=July 4|accessyear=2006] , and Major League Baseball scouts project that Gourriel would be a first-round draft pick if he were eligible for the draft.

International play

Gourriel's contributions helped the national team win a gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics and World Cup of Baseball championships in 2003 and 2005. During the 2005 World Cup, he led all batters with eight home runs.

He played second base for Cuba in the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic , making the final out for Cuba in their championship game loss to Japan. He batted .273 in the tournament, with a .342 on base percentage and a .515 slugging percentage. Ironically, later in the finals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Tournament, he again made the final out by grounding out into double play against South Korea.cite web|title=World Baseball Classic: Statistics (Batting Leaders)|url=http://ww2.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_bat&lid=160&sid=wbc|accessdate=July 4|accessyear=2006]

Domestic play

Gourriel had a solid season during the 2004-05 Cuban National Series, leading the league in hits and runs. However, he truly dominated in 2005-06, leading the series in RBIs, runs and triples [Cite web|title=XLV Serie Nacional de Béisbol: Lideres de Bateo|publisher=INDER|accessdate=2006-10-21|language=Spanish|url=http://www.inder.co.cu/indernet/competencias/sinfo/SNacional45/beilb11.htm] . His 27 home runs, which also led the league, were one short of the record of 28cite web|title=Cuba scrambles to shine in baseball's Classic|work=Cubanet|url=http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/feb06/16e9.htm|accessdate=July 4|accessyear=2006] . Gourriel's batting average was .327 and his slugging percentage was .676.

Reported defection

On July 28, 2006, ESPN.com reported that Gourriel and another Cuban national player, Eduardo Paret, had defected from Cuba and into Colombia.cite web|title=Report: Cuban baseball players defect in Colombia|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2533062&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines|work=ESPN.com news services|accessdate=July 28|accessyear=2006] . Gourriel refuted this claim on August 1, 2006, stating that he returned to his home in Cuba immediately after the conclusion of the tournament the Cuban national team had been playing incite web|author=Rojas, Enrique|title=Cuban star Gourriel has no interest in deserting|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=2536573|work=ESPNdeportes.com|accessdate=August 1|accessyear=2006] .

References