Juan Encarnación

Juan Encarnación
Juan Encarnación
	File:JuanEncarnacion.jpg
St. Louis Cardinals – No. 43
	Right field
	Bats: Right Throws: Right
debut
	September 2, 1997, for the Detroit Tigers
Career statistics ; (through August 10, 2006)
Batting average	.269
Home Runs	144
RBI's	603
	Stats at Baseball Reference
Former teams
	Detroit Tigers (1997-2001); Cincinnati Reds (2002); Florida Marlins (2002-2004, 2005); Los Angeles Dodgers (2004);

Juan De Dios Encarnación (b. March 8, 1976 in Las Matas de Farfan, Dominican Republic) is a Major League Baseball outfielder with the St. Louis Cardinals. He is 6'3" and weighs 215 lbs.

Background

File:Juanencarnacion2.jpg

Encarnación homers

Encarnacion was signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent in 1992, at age 17. Juan can play all three outfield positions, but prefers right. He is known for having a serviceable bat and good speed, and although he has seldom been without a starting job, general consensus is that he has never played to his potential, due in part to his low on base percentage. He is a bit of a free swinger which leads to few walks and too many strikeouts. And although he has good speed, he usually doesn't steal many bases (Although he did have 33 in 1999). He is generally portrayed as a solid defender (fielding percentage of 1.000 in 2003), but can sometimes miss the routine plays.

Playing Years

File:Juanencarnacion3.jpg

Juan makes a diving catch

Juan played for the Tigers until 2002, when he had his best season as a Cincinnati Red and Florida Marlin, hitting 24 home runs and driving in 85 runs. In 2003 he had 94 RBI as well as a team-leading 37 doubles on the way to a World Series ring with Florida, then was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in December. He was traded back to Florida midway through 2004 along with Paul Lo Duca and Guillermo Mota for Brad Penny, Bill Murphy, and Hee Seop Choi after hitting a disappointing .235 in 86 games. Encarnación bounced back with a career year in 2005, batting .287 with 16 homers and 76 runs batted in. He was also on the roster for the Domincan team in the inaugural World Baseball Classic. Juan signed a three-year contract with St. Louis on December 23, 2005, worth $15 million. As of August 27, 2006, Juan was batting .278 with 17 home runs and 67 RBI for the Cards, with 5 steals.

Feats

File:Juanencarnacion4.jpg

Juan rounds the bases

In August 2000 as a member of the Tigers, Juan became one of the first notable victims of Comerica Park's 420 ft. center field fence as he tried to hit a walk-off home run with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th but instead flied out to the center fielder after about a 415 ft. frozen rope.
Hit two grand slams in April of 2005 (including one off Atlanta's John Smoltz on Opening Day), and became just the 16th player in history record grand slams in their first two homers of the season. He only had one grand slam in his career prior to that.
Up until the 2005 season, did not commit an error at Dolphins Stadium, in 138 games as a Marlin and 5 as an opponent.
In 2003, was one of just three outfielders without an error, with Milwaukee's Geoff Jenkins and St. Louis' Orlando Palmeiro. Also was the first Marlin's outfielder to post a 1.000 fielding percentage in their history.
His stint of 227 errorless games in the outfield was the second-longest streak in baseball behind the Met's Joe McEwing (228).
Has 3 career multi-homer games, two of them coming this year in 2006.
On April 25, 2006, Juan fell a single short of a cycle against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
As of August 27, 2006, he was 427th on the All-Time Home Run List, tied with Damion Easley, with 145 home runs.

Trivia

When Juan comes up to bat at Busch Stadium, the song Numb / Encore by Jay-Z and Linkin Park plays. As of late, the song Ridin' by Chamillionaire has also played.
His brother, Seferino, was drafted by the Marlins in 2003. He also has a 7-year-old son, Adrian.
Juan attended Liceo Mercedes M. Mateo High School in the Dominican Republic.
Was scouted and signed by Ramon Peña of the Tigers.
Has been a participant in Adopt-a-Classroom.

Statistics

Career Statistics:
Hitting (through July 15, 2006)

G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG
1,114	4,175	1,120	215	44	140	545	589	253	775	122	.268	.316	.441

Average Season 1997-2005

G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB
114	427	114	22	4	14	56	60	27	80	13

==Career Honors and Awards

1997 - Southern League All-Star Team (Double-A) (Outfielder)
1997 - Double-A All-Star Team (Baseball America)
1997 - Southern League All-Star Game Most Valuable Player
1997 - Southern League's Best Batting Prospect, Best Outfield Arm, and Most Exciting Player (Baseball America)
1997 - One of baseball's Top 10 prospects (Howe Sportsdata)
1998 - Detroit's Player of the Month (September)
2000 - Detroit's Player of the Month (April)

Annual Salaries

1997 Detroit Tigers - Undetermined
1998 Detroit Tigers - $170,000
1999 Detroit Tigers - $233,000
2000 Detroit Tigers - $325,000
2001 Detroit Tigers - $4,400,000
2002 Cincinnati Reds - Undetermined
2002 Florida Marlins - Undetermined
2003 Florida Marlins - $3,450,000
2004 Los Angeles Dodgers - Undetermined
2004 Florida Marlins - $3,565,000
2005 Florida Marlins - $4,435,000
2006 St. Louis Cardinals - $3,500,000

Uniform Numbers

Wore #34 as a member of the Detroit Tigers.
Wore #34 as a member of the Cincinnati Reds.
Wore #43 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Wore #43 as a member of the Florida Marlins.
Wore #43 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Wore #19 as a member of the Dominican Republic World Baseball Classic Team.

External links

MLB.com profile
Template:Espn mlb
Career statistics from Baseball Reference
Yahoo! Sports stats and photos from Yahoo! Sports
Baseball Almanac - career stats
BaseballLibrary.com - info and biography