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A photo of Javier Vázquez.
Javier Carlos Vázquez (born July 25, 1976 in Ponce, Puerto Rico) is a retired right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. He has pitched for the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Montreal Expos, New York Yankees and Florida Marlins.
Personal life[]
Javier is married to Kamille Vázquez, and the couple have two children, Kamilla and Javier Josué.[1] Javier claims that he dislikes being the center of attention outside of the playing field and describes himself as a 'house man' spending his free time with his children.[1] Vázquez is also interested in art pieces especially the ones that are produced by Puerto Rican artists and he possesses pictures painted by Wichie Torres and Iván Rosario.[1] He is a wine aficionado and is educating himself about the different classes of wine in order to begin a private collection.[1] Javier has also expressed that he has always been interested in charity work, this interest was fueled by his parents as he states that a Christian upbringing and their support when he began practicing sports were part of this influence.[1]
Professional career[]
Montreal Expos[]
Vázquez was a 5th round draft pick of the Montreal Expos in the 1994 amateur draft. He made his Major League debut for the Expos in April 3, 1998. He started 32 games as a rookie and pitched 172 innings. By 2000, Vázquez had become the ace of the Expos pitching staff and pitched 200 innings or more for four consecutive seasons.
New York Yankees[]
On December 16, 2003, the New York Yankees acquired Vázquez from the Expos in exchange for Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera and Randy Choate. He agreed to a four-year deal through the 2007 season.
Arizona Diamondbacks[]
Following a disappointing performance and loss to the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series (whereupon entering the game in the second inning, gave up a grand slam to Johnny Damon on his first pitch), the Yankees sent Vazquez, Brad Halsey, and Dioner Navarro, to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Randy Johnson on January 11, 2005.
In 33 starts overall, he went 11-15 with a 4.42 ERA.
After pitching the 2005 season with Arizona, Vázquez formally requested a trade from the team, citing a desire to be closer to his family in Puerto Rico.
Chicago White Sox[]
On December 20, 2005, Vazquez was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Orlando Hernández, Luis Vizcaino, and highly regarded prospect Chris Young. During the 2007 season, he compiled a 15-8 record with a 3.74 ERA (second lowest of his career).
He was selected as an All-Star in 2004.
Vázquez agreed to play for the Puerto Rico Team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, joining fellow Puerto Rican contemporaries Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, Bernie Williams, amongst others representing the island in a team managed by St. Louis Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo.
In the 2007 season, Vázquez exceeded the two hundred strikeouts mark. This marked the third time he had done this in his career with the other two occasions being in 2001 and 2003.[2] This season was the seventh season in his career where he had thrown at least two hundred innings.[3] The only season that he was not able to work this quantity of innings was in 2004 when Joe Torre, then manager of the New York Yankees decided to jump some turns in the team's rotation.[4] Vazquez culminated that year with 198 thrown innings.[5] When asked about Javier's performance during the season in an interview, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén noted that Vazquez had been throwing well for some time but the team had not been able to capitalize on this until it was too late in the season, specifically referring to the team's performance during the summer.[6][7]
Atlanta Braves[]
On December 4, 2008, Vázquez was traded, along with Boone Logan, to the Atlanta Braves for minor league catcher Tyler Flowers, shortstop Brent Lillibridge, third baseman Jon Gilmore and pitcher Santos Rodriguez. [8] With the Braves in 2009, Vázquez had the most successful season of his career, going 15-10, with a 2.87 ERA and 238 strikeouts in 32 starts.He also led the majors in sacrifice hits, with 20.[9]
Javier came in 4th place in the voting for the 2009 NL Cy Young Award.
Return to the Yankees[]
On December 22, 2009 the New York Yankees re-acquired Vázquez, this time from the Braves with LHP Boone Logan, in exchange for OF Melky Cabrera, LHP Mike Dunn and pitching prospect Arodys Vizcaino.[10]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Carlos Gonzalez (2007-12-01). Pelotero y filántropo (Spanish). Primera Hora. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
- ↑ Dave Campbell (2007-09-23). ¡Lo demás es Parking...! (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Día. “Se trata del lanzador ponceño Javier Vázquez, nuestro mejor pitcher en las Mayores. Ayer gano su decimocuarta decision del año, por tercera vez en su carrera poncha a 200 o mas y en siete temporadas ha lanzado 200 entradas o mas”
- ↑ Dave Campbell (2007-09-23). ¡Lo demás es Parking...! (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Día. “Vázquez, que en su apertura anterior tiro ocho entradas para ayudar a Chicago a derrotar alos Reales de Kansas City, 11-3, ya tiene en su resume siete temporadas consecutivas sobrepasando las 200 entradas de labor, demostrando ser uno de los pitchers de mayor durabilidad en el beisbol de las mayores.”
- ↑ Dave Campbell (2007-09-23). ¡Lo demás es Parking...! (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Día. “De hecho de no haber sido porque en el 2004 el dirigente Joe Torre le salto unos turnos en la rotacion de los Yankeesen su unica temporada en Nueva York, el puertoriqueño habria llegado tambien a las 200 entradas y serian al momento ocho años seguidos con igual numero de innings.”
- ↑ Dave Campbell (2007-09-23). ¡Lo demás es Parking...! (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Día. “Ese año Vázquez acumulo 198 entradas, apenas dos por debajo de la cifra.”
- ↑ Dave Campbell (2007-09-23). ¡Lo demás es Parking...! (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Día. “"El ha estado tirando asi hace un tiempo y desafortunadamente no hemos podido ganar mas juegos" dijo el dirigente de los Medias Blancas el venezolano Ozzie Guillén. "No hemos jugado lo suficientemente bien para el, para poder ganar mas juegos".”
- ↑ Dave Campbell (2007-09-23). ¡Lo demás es Parking...! (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Día. “"¿Donde estuvimos durante el verano?", questiono Guillen sobre la labor del equipo en las ultimas semanas.”
- ↑ Braves acquire pitchers Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan from White Sox. MLB.com (2008-12-04). Retrieved on 2009-01-10.
- ↑ Player Batting Stats - 2009," ESPN, accessed October 9, 2009
- ↑ Yankees acquire pitcher Javier Vazquez from Braves for Melky Cabera, Prospects. ESPN.com (2009-12-22). Retrieved on 2009-12-22.
External links[]
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube