Edgar Rentería

Infobox MLB player
name = Edgar Rentería


width = 300
position = Shortstop
team = Detroit Tigers
number = 8
bats = Right
throws = Right
birthdate = birth date and age|1975|8|7
birthplace = Barranquilla, Colombia
debutdate = May 10
debutyear = 1996
debutteam = Florida Marlins
statyear = August 10, 2008
stat1label = Batting average
stat1value = .290
stat2label = Home runs
stat2value = 123
stat3label = Runs batted in
stat3value = 800
stat4label = Stolen bases
stat4value = 277
stat5label = Hits
stat5value = 2,034
teams =
*Florida Marlins (by|1996–by|1998)
*St. Louis Cardinals (by|1999–by|2004)
*Boston Red Sox (by|2005)
*Atlanta Braves (by|2006–by|2007)
*Detroit Tigers (by|2008–present)
awards =
*World Series Champion (1997)
*3x Silver Slugger Award winner (by|2000, by|2002, by|2003)
*2x Gold Glove Award winner (2002, 2003)
*5x All-Star selection (1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006)

Edgar Enrique Rentería (pronounced as IPA2|ˌɾenteˈɾia) (born August 7, 1975 in Barranquilla, Colombia) is a shortstop in Major League Baseball who plays for the Detroit Tigers. He is also the first Colombian to play in the World Series.

Playing career

Profile

Rentería has a compact swing and drives the ball to all fields. He is a patient, fundamentally-sound hitter, particularly adept at driving the ball to the right side. Like most hitters with the innate ability to hit the other way, Renteria has spent most of his career batting second in lineups. On the bases, he reads pitchers' moves well, usually getting good jumps which account for his consistent stolen base totals. Although widely regarded a shy person, Renteria often takes time out of his busy life to meet with fans and sign autographs. This fan-friendly nature, in fact, inspired a group of Atlanta fans to dress up in egg costumes, calling themselves Edgar's Eggs [ [http://elbelbelb2000.blogtog.com/archives/6297_1579073640/156892] .

Accomplishments

* Hit a two-out walk-off single in the bottom of the eleventh of Game 7 to win the 1997 World Series for the Florida Marlins. During the 1997 regular season, he drove in walk-off runs five times in extra innings.
* Five-time All-Star (1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006)
* Two-time Gold Glove Award winner (2002–03)
* Three-Time Silver Slugger Award winner for shortstop (2000, 2002–03)
* Had a 24 game hitting streak spanning the last game of 2005 and his first 23 games of 2006. His 23 game single season streak was the second longest ever to start a season.
* Renteria is one of only three players to be the last hitter of two World Series, having won the 1997 Series with a walk-off RBI single and ended the 2004 World Series with a groundout to the pitcher. Boss Schmidt of the Detroit Tigers ended the 1907 World Series by popping up and the 1908 World Series by grounding out. Goose Goslin struck out to end the 1925 World Series and won the 1935 World Series with a walk-off RBI single.
* In addition to being the last hitter of two World Series, Edgar also has completed a rare feat-to make the consecutive last and first at bats of two seasons. At the end of the 2004 World Series, with the St.Louis Cardinals, Renteria made the final at-bat with a groundout. Also, he made the first at bat of the 2005 season, in the season opening game, with the Boston Red Sox.
* Hit his 2,000th career base hit on June 18, 2008 vs. the San Francisco Giants.

Lowlights

The 2005 season, playing for the Boston Red Sox, was a disappointing one for Rentería. Replacing fellow Colombian and fan favorite Orlando Cabrera at shortstop, who had jump started the World Series winning team the year before, and Nomar Garciaparra before him, was not an easy job. Rentería committed a major league-leading and career high 30 errors in 2005, blaming the poor conditions of the field. He also pointed to an injury when he "pulled [his] lower back and leg" [http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/12/12/renteria_says_he_wanted_out/?page=full] Although much maligned for his defensive problems in 2005, Rentería scored 100 runs in a season for the first time in his career. Coincidentally, the season before, Rentería was the Cardinals' final out in the World Series when the Boston Red Sox won their first championship since 1918. The next year, he was the last out in the American League Division Series for the Red Sox when the Chicago White Sox defeated Boston and went on to win the World Series. Rentería was traded by Theo Epstein after the 2005 season to the Atlanta Braves for prospect Andy Marte. Healthy and seemingly more relaxed in 2006, Rentería has returned to the form that made him such a valuable shortstop for many years in the National League. Due to his poor play, Renteria also became fodder for the local sports shows. WEEI (the Boston Sports Radio Station) nicknamed him "Rente-error and Rent-A-Wreck."

Atlanta Braves: A return to form

After his trade to the Braves, Renteria proved his year with the Red Sox was indeed a fluke. In 2006, Renteria batted .293 with 14 homers and 70 RBI. In the same year he only committed 13 errors, as opposed to 30 in his year with Boston. He quickly became an integral key to the Atlanta Braves offensive attack, hitting ahead of Chipper Jones.

In 2007, Renteria saw an even greater increase in production and was on pace to collect well over 200 hits. However, on August 2, Renteria sprained his ankle while fielding a groundball and was placed in the 15-day DL. This was his first trip to the DL in his career and effectively eliminated his chances of obtaining 200 hits in a season for the first time in his career. Renteria was activated on August 22 and was put in the lineup but left the game after tweaking the ankle after the first pitch he saw. He subsequently returned to the disabled list a day later. He was activated on September 7 and played a day later going 2-for-4. He finished batting .332 (4th in the NL and a new career-high) with 12 homers.

For reasons of salary and the emergence of Braves young shortstop Yunel Escobar, Renteria became expendable to the Braves. On October 29, 2007 Renteria was traded to the Detroit Tigers for pitching prospect Jair Jurrjens and outfielder Gorkys Hernandez.

Detroit Tigers

The 2008 season for the Detroit Tigers looked extremely promising, with many magazine experts predicting that the Tigers would make it to the World Series. But Renteria had another slow start in the American League and continued to struggle all season, both offensively and defensively. He finished the season a major disappointment for the Tigers, who announced that they would not pick up his $12 Million dollar option for the 2009 season, but still left the door open for him to accept a smaller deal to resign.

ee also

* NL Gold Glove winners at shortstop
* Players from Colombia in MLB
* Florida Marlins all-time roster

External links

*
* [http://www.teamrenteria.com/ Colombian Professional League "teamrenteria"]