Mark Reynolds (baseball)

For other people named Mark Reynolds, see Mark Reynolds (disambiguation).

Mark Reynolds
Baltimore Orioles — No. 12
Third Baseman/First Baseman
Born: August 3, 1983 (1983-08-03) (age 28) Pikeville, Kentucky
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
May 16, 2007 for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Career statistics (through September 17, 2011)
Batting average	.238
Home runs	155
Runs batted in	426
Stolen Bases	48
Strikeouts	949
Teams
Arizona Diamondbacks (2007–2010) Baltimore Orioles (2011–present)
Career highlights and awards
3× NL Player of the Week

Reynolds batting for the South Bend Silver Hawks, Single-A affiliates of Arizona Diamondbacks, in 2005.

Mark Andrew Reynolds (born August 3, 1983, in Pikeville, Kentucky) is a third baseman/first baseman in Major League Baseball who plays for the Baltimore Orioles. He is known both for his power-hitting abilities and for his record-breaking strike out totals. He holds the all-time record for most strikeouts in a season, with 223 in 2009, and led the National League in strikeouts in his first three full major-league seasons and the American League in his fourth.

Playing career

Amateur baseball

Born in Pikeville, Kentucky on August 3, 1983, Reynolds later moved with his family to Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 1994 he played for the Virginia Blasters Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) baseball program, where one of his teammates was B. J. Upton. Both would eventually join B. J.'s younger brother Justin, David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman on a Hampton Roads-based autumn showcase team called the Mets in 2000. The five players, who were all shortstops at the time, rotated among the three positions on the left side and middle of the infield.^[1] While with the Mets, Reynolds was nicknamed "Skeletor" due to his lanky build and "Forrest Gump" because of his awkward running style.^[2]

He was a four-year letterman in baseball, basketball and golf at First Colonial High School, where he graduated in 2001.^[3]

In his three years at the University of Virginia, he was the starting shortstop on the Cavaliers baseball team. During his sophomore and junior campaigns, he played alongside Zimmerman, who had been shifted to third base.^[2] Reynolds led the team in home runs (15) in 2002, runs batted in (46) in 2003 and triples (5) in 2004.^[4] His 60 runs scored in 2004 matched a school record which has since been broken.^[5] His 35 career homers at Virginia is tied for second all-time in Cavaliers history.^[6] Through August 2011, he was one of 29 former UVA players to have made it to the major leagues, along with among others former Cavaliers Michael Schwimer, Javier López, and Zimmerman.^[7]

Reynolds was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 16th round (476th overall) of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft.^[8]

Arizona Diamondbacks

2007 season

Reynolds made his major league debut on May 16, 2007, against the Colorado Rockies. He had been called up from Double-A Mobile when Chad Tracy was placed on the disabled list.^[9] Reynolds made an instant impact with the Diamondbacks, driving in 14 runs in his first 15 MLB games.

Reynolds was the latest of a number of players from the Tidewater, Virginia region to make it to the major leagues in recent years, a list that includes David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman, B.J. Upton, Justin Upton, and Michael Cuddyer.

Reynolds ended the season 3rd among NL rookies in strikeouts (129), 4th in runs (62), tied for 4th in triples (4), and tied for 6th in home runs (17). He also drove in 62 runs and had a .279 batting average.

On October 3, 2007, when Arizona faced the Chicago Cubs in the first game of the National League Division series, Reynolds' seventh inning home run off of Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol led the Diamondbacks to a 3–1 victory.

2008 season

On September 25, he set a major league record by striking out for the 200th time in one season when he failed to check his swing against St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joel Pineiro. He broke the record of 199 set in 2007 by Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard. Reynolds ultimately finished the season striking out 204 times.^[10] He also led the majors in strikeout percentage, with 33.3%.[14]

Reynolds made the most errors (34) and had the lowest fielding percentage (.904) of all major league third basemen.^[11]

He did have a good offensive year, leading the Diamondbacks in home runs (28) and RBIs (97) to go along with 11 stolen bases and 87 runs scored. His batting average saw a significant dip from his rookie campaign, however, ending with a .239 clip.^[12]

2009 season

Reynolds playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010.

Reynolds was named one of the five finalists for the National League Final Vote for the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, finishing third behind Shane Victorino and Pablo Sandoval.^[13]

On July 28, 2009, Reynolds hit a two-run home run off of Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge landing at 481 feet, making it the longest home run of the 2009 season, and the second longest home run in the history of Chase Field. Reynolds quickly became recognized for hitting towering home runs (25 of his 44 home runs being over 400 feet), averaging his home runs at 430 feet (longest in baseball).^[14]

In the Diamondbacks' four game series against the Mets on July 29 – August 3, Reynolds managed to hit the longest home run in the short history of Citi Field, at 461 feet, as well as capped off the series finale with home runs in consecutive innings (first and second).^[15] His 4 home runs at Citi Field rank him 2nd all time in home runs hit at the park by a visiting player.^[16]

On August 10, 2009, Reynolds was named the NL Player of the Week for the week ending August 9, beating out teammate Ryan Roberts (who finished second) in voting for the honor. Reynolds finished the week hitting .448 with 6 home runs, 32 total bases, 10 RBIs, 1 stolen base, a .515 on base percentage, and a slugging percentage of 1.103. This has been Reynolds's second NL Player of the Week award (the other being earlier this season for the week ending June 14).^[17] As tradition with the Player of the Week award, Reynolds has received two wrist watches (one for each week), one of which he gave to his father, and the other of which he gave to his grandfather.

Reynolds played at first base for 26 games, where he has a .974 fielding percentage, the second-highest in the league of players with 125 or more innings at first base, and a 8.21 range factor, the best in the league. Reynolds helped improve his defensive skills by working with former Diamondbacks third baseman Matt Williams, during Spring Training; work that has raised his fielding percentage by over 50 points from the previous season.^[18] He has also made headlines for several notable catches including July 21 in Colorado,^[19] July 24 in Arizona,^[20] and August 1 in New York.^[21]

He broke his own one-year-old major league record for strikeouts in a season in 2009 with 223. He also hit .260 (batting average), hit 44 home runs, had 102 RBI, and scored 98 runs,^[22] along with 24 stolen bases.

He led the major leagues in the Three True Outcomes (the total of the three main outcomes not involving defense) with 343.

2010 season

After signing a three-year, $14.5 million contract extension on March 18, 2010,^[2][23] Reynolds began the season with two home runs in the first four games of the season. On May 20, Reynolds hit his 100th career home run off of the Giants' Tim Lincecum. Though he finished the season with 32 home runs, the sixth highest total in the National League, along with 85 RBIs and a career high 83 walks in 145 games, Reynolds again led the league in strikeouts with 211 and, having reached the mark three times, remained the only player in major league history to have at least 200 strikeouts in a season. Most notably, his .198 batting average established him as the first full-time position player in Major League history to finish the season with a lower batting average (x 1000) than strikeout total.^[24]

Baltimore Orioles

Reynolds and a player to be named later (John Hester on April 30, 2011) were traded to the Baltimore Orioles for David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio on December 6, 2010.^[25][26] From the Diamondbacks' standpoint, the transaction, which was executed by new general manager Kevin Towers, was to improve the bullpen and reduce the record-breaking strikeout total by the team's batters (1,529 in 2010).^[27][28] The Orioles, on the other hand, needed a starting third baseman and a power hitter.^[29]

2011 season

In 2011, Reynolds led all major leaguers in errors, with 31, as his .897 fielding percentage was the lowest of all major league third basemen, and led the AL in strikeouts, with 196.^[30][31][32] He batted .221, and was fourth in the league in homers, with 37.^[33]

References

1. ^ Jenkins, Lee. "Virginia's Boy Wonders," Sports Illustrated, September 29, 2008.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Connolly, Dan. "For Orioles' Reynolds, a fresh start," The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, March 27, 2011.
3. ^ Mark Reynolds (baseball player biography) – University of Virginia Athletics.
4. ^ Baseball: Annual Batting Leaders – University of Virginia Athletics.
5. ^ Baseball: Single Season Batting Records – University of Virginia Athletics.
6. ^ Baseball: Career Batting Leaders – University of Virginia Athletics.
7. ^ "Schwimer Makes It To The Majors". Nbc29.com. August 17, 2011. http://www.nbc29.com/story/15286533/schwimer-makes-it-to-the-majors. Retrieved August 22, 2011. 
8. ^ 2004 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft Pick Transactions, Rounds 11–20 – Pro Sports Transactions.
9. ^ Gilbert, Steve (May 16, 2007). "Notes: Reynolds makes first ML start". MLB.com. http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070516&content_id=1968574&vkey=news_ari&fext=.jsp&c_id=ari. Retrieved January 7, 2010. 
10. ^ Gilbert, Steve (September 25, 2008). "Reynolds breaks strikeout record". MLB.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080925&content_id=3546636&vkey=news_ari&fext=.jsp&c_id=ari. Retrieved March 18, 2009. 
11. ^ "MLB Player Fielding Stats – As 3b – 2008". ESPN.com. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/year/2008/position/3b/order/false. Retrieved January 7, 2010. 
12. ^ [1]
13. ^ Newman, Mark (July 9, 2009). "'Bran-Torino' takes a ride to All-Star Game". MLB.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090709&content_id=5787776&vkey=allstar2009&fext=.jsp. Retrieved January 7, 2010. 
14. ^ [2]
15. ^ [3]
16. ^ [4]
17. ^ [5]
18. ^ [6]
19. ^ [7]
20. ^ [8]
21. ^ [9]
22. ^ "MLB Player Batting Stats – 2009," ESPN, accessed October 8, 2009
23. ^ "Reynolds signs multiyear contract with D-backs," Arizona Diamondbacks press release, Thursday, March 18, 2010.
24. ^ More K than BA: Mark Reynolds in position to start exclusive club, Yahoo Sports, 10/1/2010
25. ^ "Orioles acquire 3B Mark Reynolds from Arizona Diamondbacks," Baltimore Orioles press release, Monday, December 6, 2010.
26. ^ "Orioles receive CA John Hester from Arizona," Baltimore Orioles press release, Saturday, April 30, 2011.
27. ^ Gilbert, Steve. "D-backs deal Reynolds for bullpen help," MLB.com, Monday, December 6, 2010.
28. ^ 2010 Arizona Diamondbacks (batting, pitching & fielding statistics) – Baseball-Reference.com.
29. ^ Ghiroli, Brittany. "Orioles thrilled to add Reynolds' bat to lineup," MLB.com, Monday, December 6, 2010.
30. ^ [10]
31. ^ [11]
32. ^ [12]
33. ^ [13]

External links

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

Persondata
Name	Reynolds, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 3, 1983
Place of birth	Pikeville, Kentucky
Date of death
Place of death