Nate Schierholtz

Nate Schierholtz
San Francisco Giants — No. 12
Outfielder
Born: February 15, 1984 (1984-02-15) (age 27)
Bats: Left	Throws: Right
MLB debut
June 11, 2007 for the San Francisco Giants
Career statistics (through September 15, 2011)
Batting average	.273
Home runs	18
Runs batted in	102
Teams
San Francisco Giants (2007–present)
Career highlights and awards
World Series champion (2010)

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  United States
Men's baseball
Bronze	2008 Beijing	Team

Nathan John Schierholtz (born February 15, 1984 in Reno, Nevada) is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the San Francisco Giants. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed. Schierholtz commonly bats without batting gloves, one of the few Major Leaguers to do so.^[1] Schierholtz is known for his particularly strong and accurate throwing arm.

High school and college

Schierholtz attended San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, California, the same high school as former Giants teammate Randy Winn. Schierholtz was not heavily recruited out of high school and instead decided to play for Chabot College, a community college located in Hayward, California. He played only one season for Chabot, starting at third base. He batted .400 with 72 hits, 60 RBI, 18 home runs, and 45 runs scored that season. He was the co-MVP of the 2000 junior varsity team with Gregory Fortayon. Famous Danville baseball coach, Don Jons helped him get a recruitment into Chabot College. Matt Jons helped groomed his body into the athletic shape that it is today contributing to his recruitment into Chabot College, as well.

Professional career

Schierholtz was drafted by the Giants in the second round (63rd overall) of the 2003 MLB Draft. In 2004, Schierholtz switched from third base to right field. He excelled at each of his stops in the minor league system, en route to his call up in 2007.^[2]

Major Leagues

Schierholtz made his major league debut on June 11, 2007, against the Toronto Blue Jays as a defensive replacement. He got his first hit the next night in his first career at-bat. His most notable moment while on the big league club was on June 23, at home against the New York Yankees, when he blooped a single into center field in the bottom of the 13th inning to win the game for the Giants. Despite a .325 batting average in 40 at-bats, Schierholtz was sent down at the start of July.^[3]

Schierholtz was again called up in September 2008, as the Giants' roster expanded.

Schierholtz started the 2009 season as a pinch hitter. On June 14, 2009, Schierholtz had an inside-the-park home run, only the fourth in AT&T Park history, in the 3rd inning against the Oakland A's.^[4]

The next year, Schierholtz's Giants won the 2010 World Series. He appeared in 137 games during the regular season, mostly as a pinch-hitter and late-inning defensive substitution. He received regular playing time throughout the postseason as a replacement for starting outfielder Pat Burrell. Burrell was one of the best hitters on the Giants, but was a poor defender in the outfield. Whenever the Giants held a lead in the 6th inning or later, manager Bruce Bochy would remove Burrell from the game and replace him with Schierholtz. This strategy was meant to provide the Giants with the best possible defensive outfield and, thus, the best chance of holding the lead and winning the game. Schierholtz ultimately appeared in 11 of San Francisco's 15 playoff games, accumulating 13 plate appearances and recording an RBI in Game 1 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers.

In 2011 Schierholtz began playing more as a starting Giant, due to a slump by outfielder Pat Burrell. On July 6, 2011, against the San Diego Padres, Schierholtz recorded his first multi-home run game. In the bottom of the 14th inning of that game, he hit a walk-off home run that secured a 6-5 victory for the Giants. As of Sep 21, 2011 The Giants announce that Schierholtz season may be over due to a broken right foot.

2008 USA Baseball Olympic Team

In 2008, Schierholtz was batting .314 with fifteen home runs and 65 runs batted in for the Giants' Triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate, the Fresno Grizzlies when his minor league season ended as a result of his being selected for the 2008 USA Olympic Baseball Team. In the sixth inning of a preliminary round game against China, Schierholtz collided with China backup catcher Yang Yang at the home plate on a sacrifice fly, a play that resulted in a near brawl between the teams and saw Chinese manager Jim Lefebvre ejected from the game.^[5]

References

1. ^ "Nate Schierholtz Player File". MLB.com. http://mlb.com/team/player_career.jsp?player_id=435625. Retrieved 2007-09-13. 
2. ^ "Nate Schierholtz Baseball Statistics". The Baseball Cube. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/S/Nate-Schierholtz.shtml. Retrieved 2007-08-31. 
3. ^ "Nate Schierholtz 2007 Batting Splits". Baseball-Reference. http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/bsplit.cgi?n1=schiena01&year=2007. Retrieved 2007-09-09. 
4. ^ "Oakland Athletics vs. San Francisco Giants - Recap - June 14, 2009 - ESPN". ESPN.com. 2009-06-14. http://espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=290614126. 
5. ^ Shea, John (2008-08-19). "Schierholtz a big hit after play in Olympics". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/19/SPSD12D6JI.DTL. 

External links

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

Persondata
Name	Schierholtz, Nate
Alternative names	Schierholtz, Nathan John
Short description	American baseball outfielder
Date of birth	1984-2-15
Place of birth	Reno, Nevada, United States
Date of death
Place of death