Henry Blanco
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Henry Ramón Blanco (born August 29, 1971 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Major League Baseball catcher and right-handed batter who plays in the National League for the Chicago Cubs.
Basically a backup catcher most of his career, Blanco also played with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1997), Colorado Rockies (1999), Milwaukee Brewers (2000-2002), Atlanta Braves (2003) and Minnesota Twins (2004). Following the 2004 season, Blanco signed a two-year, US$2.7 million contract with the Cubs to be their backup catcher.
Blanco is currently one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. He is a good handler of pitchers and game caller, and he is quick behind the plate and no one blocks in the dirt better, but his rifle arm is what brought him to the major leagues. Through of his career, he'd tossed out more than 40 percent of his opposing base stealers, a significant number since he caught mostly for Greg Maddux, who virtually ignores the runners on base.
In the batter's box, Blanco is an extreme pull hitter who has a modest contact but hit for extrabases (a 39% career). At 224 pounds, he looks the typical conservative catcher-runner. His defense is so solid that it can compensate for most of his offensive shortcomings.
Blanco is a career .216 hitter with 37 home runs and 163 RBI in 538 games.
Fact
- In the 2000 season Blanco was one of the top defensive catchers in the majors, throwing out 59 percent of attempted stealers. That was the highest caught stealing percentage for a catcher since 1982, when California Angels' Bob Boone posted a 56.4 percent success rate.
See also
External links
- Henry Blanco at:
- Baseball Reference (analysis and statistics) (http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/blanche01.shtml)
- ESPN (profile and daily update) (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5862)
- Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers (http://members.tripod.com/bb_catchers/catchers/blanco.htm)