Elvis Andrus

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Andrus and the second or maternal family name is Torres.
Elvis Andrus

Andrus with the Texas Rangers in 2016
Texas Rangers – No. 1
Shortstop
Born: (1988-08-26) August 26, 1988
Maracay, Venezuela
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
April 6, 2009, for the Texas Rangers
MLB statistics
(through 2016 season)
Batting average .274
Hits 1,266
Home runs 35
Runs batted in 436
Stolen bases 241
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Elvis Augusto Andrus Torres (born August 26, 1988) is a Venezuelan Major League Baseball shortstop for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB).

Entering 2007, he was rated by Baseball America as the No. 2 prospect in the Atlanta Braves organization. In 2009, Andrus earned the Texas Rangers starting shortstop job at the age of 20.

Early life

Andrus was born in Maracay, Venezuela, the son of Emilio and Elvia Andrus. Emilio Andrus was a university professor; he died when Elvis was seven years old.[1] He has two older brothers, Erold and Erikson.[2][3] Some Venezuelan families name their children after famous non-Venezuelan people, but Andrus said that he is not sure whether he was named after Elvis Presley. Andrus said, "I asked my mother a lot of times, but she never told me. Maybe my dad liked Elvis Presley. I’m not sure about that."[1]

Baseball career

Minor leagues

At the age of 16, Andrus was signed by the Atlanta Braves and received a signing bonus of more than $500,000.[4] He started the 2005 season with the Orlando Braves of the Gulf Coast League, and was promoted to Danville late in the season. He spent 2006 with Class-A Rome, being named to the South Atlantic League All-Star team.

In 2007 Andrus joined the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Carolina League. During the season he was selected to the All-Star Futures Game and was selected again for the showcase in 2008.[5][6]

On July 31, 2007, Andrus, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and three minor league pitchers (Matt Harrison, Neftalí Feliz and Beau Jones) were traded from the Braves to the Rangers for Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay.[7]

Texas Rangers (2009–present)

Andrus in 2010

With Rangers shortstop Michael Young agreeing to move to third base in 2009, Andrus earned the starting job on Opening Day. He was the second-youngest player in the American League at the time.[8] As Andrus was only 20 years old, Texas signed veteran shortstop Omar Vizquel for insurance.

Andrus stole his 20th base on July 28, 2009 in his rookie season. Andrus was the 10th player in major league history to steal 20 bases under the age of 21. The last player to do that was then-teammate Andruw Jones in 1997 with the Atlanta Braves. Andrus was named to the 2010 American League All-Star team as a reserve shortstop.

In 2010, he batted .265, without any home runs.[8] He led the AL in sacrifice hits (17), was 2nd in caught stealing (15), and 9th in stolen bases (32).[8]

In 2011, Andrus batted .279, with 5 home runs.[8] He was 3rd in the American League in sacrifice hits (16), 4th in caught stealing (12), and 5th in stolen bases (37).[8] On defense, he led all AL shortstops in errors, with 25, and was 2nd among league shortstops in putouts (245) and 3rd in assists (407).[8] In 2012, Andrus earned his second All-Star selection, batting .286 while leading the American League in sacrifice hits with 17.

Before Opening Day of 2013, Andrus signed an eight-year, $120 million extension.[9] On September 14, he stole his 40th stolen base of the season against the Oakland Athletics, stealing second base off of Bartolo Colón. Andrus later surpassed Ian Kinsler for the Texas Rangers all-time leader in stolen bases with 175. He finished the year again leading the American League in sacrifice hits (16) while batting .271 and scoring 91 runs.

Andrus began the 2014 season with an 11-game hitting streak that ultimately ended with an early ejection April 13. On June 8, Andrus had a 39-game hitting streak against the Cleveland Indians snapped as he went 0 for 4. That game marked the first time in his career where he did not get a hit against the Indians. Only Vladimir Guerrero had a longer streak against a team with (44, against Texas). Andrus stole his 180th career stolen base against the Seattle Mariners but led the American League in caught stealing with 15, batting .263 for the season.

Andrus finished 2015 with career lows in batting average (.258), OBP (.309) and sacrifice hits, while posting a career best seven home runs and stealing 25 bags for the AL West champion Rangers. He batted .182 in the Rangers' ALDS series against Toronto and made two of the team's three errors in the pivotal seventh inning of Game 5, won by the Blue Jays.[10] In 2016 Elvis had a career year, he batted .302, hit eight home runs, and had 69 RBIs, which are all career highs.

The 2015 baseball season did not end the way Andrus wanted it to, in the ALDS the Texas Rangers blew a 2-0 series lead over the Toronto Blue Jays, in game 5 Elvis made 3 costly errors that allowed Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista to hit a game winning 3 run home run. In a post game interview Andrus said that he would not let the game 5 breakdown define him or his career, that it would only motivate him to do better next year. The 2016 season saw many career highs stat wise for Elvis Andrus, he finished the 2016 campaign batting .302 which was good enough to lead the team. Although he did not lead the team he also had career highs in RBI’s (69), home runs (8), and a career low in strike outs (70). 2016 was the 7th year in the career on Andrus and he showed no signs of aging. "I'm really proud of him," "I think that pushed him and motivated him to do what he's done. It made him stronger. It's given him that extra push to every day that he's better than that. I've told him before that I knew he could hit .300. He's smart. He's got a good swing. He's got good command of the strike zone. I think he's got a better swing than I do,” said team mate Adrian Beltre.

On May 17 Andrus was suspended one game for his involvement in a bench clearing brawl in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays.  The incident occurred when Jose Bautista made an illegal slide in attempt to break up a double play and take out Andrus’s team mate second baseman Rougned Odor.  Bautista was hit by a pitch thrown by Matt Bush, on a ground ball to third baseman Adrian Beltre Bautista made the dirty slide in hopes of taking out Odor, Bautista then got up in the face of Odor, Odor then threw a punch and connected with Bautista’s face with resulted in the brawl, Andrus was suspended for throwing a punch at Kevin Pillar, the Blue Jays Center fielder.

In the 2016 ALDS Elvis and the Rangers took on the Toronto Blue Jays in a rematch of the 2015 ALDS. Andrus started all 3 games at shortstop for the Rangers but were swept and eliminated from the playoffs by the Blue Jays. Elvis went 4 for 11 (.364) and hit 1 home run in the divisional series. Even though Elvis is not a top of the line up hitter like he was earlier in his career he has improved his play on the field and has become a leader in the locker room for the new generation of players coming into the Texas locker room. Andrus just turned 28 this past season and is well known around the league as he is a veteran in the league that has played in plenty of important games, and has appeared in 2 world series (2010,2011).

Personal

Andrus in August 2014

Andrus is a Christian.[11] In 2012, Andrus donated $12,500 to OurCalling, a Christian charity that helps homeless people in Dallas County.[12]

Two of Andrus' brothers remain in Venezuela. Andrus voiced concern about his home country during civil unrest in early 2014. "As a human being, you always get angry when you see what's happening with the military back home doing stuff to the civils, and to the students, and that's what really gets me angry. I'm not a political guy, but I just hate when you see somebody just walking and trying to say something get hit by police, or get hit by any military from the country that's supposed to defend the country instead of shoot him or hit him", he said.[13]

Andrus' older brother Erold Andrus played in the independent leagues in 2009 and 2010 as an outfielder.[14] He has played in the organizations of several MLB teams. During spring training of 2011, though Erold was in minor league camp, he got the opportunity to play in a Rangers spring training game, the first time that Erold and Elvis played together in the United States.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 Borzi, Pat (October 21, 2010). "Elvis Andrus leads Rangers' revolution of savvy over slugging". The New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
  2. ↑ Passan, Jeff (February 23, 2009). "Vizquel to mentor Andrus for Rangers". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  3. ↑ Borzi, Pat (October 21, 2010). "Elvis Andrus Leads Rangers' Revolution of Savvy Over Slugging". New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  4. ↑ Fine, Larry (October 22, 2011). "Elvis making name for himself at World Series". Reuters. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
  5. ↑ Shawn Shroyer / MLB.com (June 23, 2008). "Andrus excelling in minor leagues". Texas.rangers.mlb.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Statistics, including awards/honors". minorleaguebaseball.com. August 26, 1988. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  7. ↑ Bowman, Mark (July 31, 2007). "Braves finalize deal for slugger Teixeira". MLB.com. Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Elvis Andrus Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Source: Rangers lock in Elvis Andrus." ESPN.com. Retrieved 2013-Apr-1.
  10. ↑ http://m.mlb.com/news/article/154487546/elvis-andrus-has-two-key-errors-in-alds-game-5
  11. ↑ "Andrus".
  12. ↑ "Texas Ranger Elvis Andrus Makes Donation To Help The Homeless".
  13. ↑ "Spring training may be kicking off, but MLB's Venezuelan players focused on home". Fox News Latino. February 22, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Erold Andrus Minor League Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  15. ↑ Sullivan, T. R. (March 15, 2011). "Andrus brothers enjoy special day". MLB.com. Retrieved August 31, 2014.

External links

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