Jeff Cirillo

Jeff Cirillo
Third baseman
Born: (1969-09-23) September 23, 1969
Pasadena, California
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
May 11, 1994, for the Milwaukee Brewers
Last MLB appearance
September 30, 2007, for the Arizona Diamondbacks
MLB statistics
Batting average .296
Home runs 112
Runs batted in 727
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Jeffrey Howard "Jeff" Cirillo (born September 23, 1969) is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball. In a 14-season career, Cirillo was a .296 hitter with 112 home runs and 727 RBI in 1617 games. He was named an All-Star in 1997 and 2000. He shares the major league record of playing 99 consecutive errorless games at third base with John Wehner. He batted and threw right-handed.

Professional career

With the Milwaukee Brewers, Cirillo collected a .300 batting average or better for three seasons, including a career-high .326 in 1999. The same year, he added 198 hits (also a career-high) with 15 home runs and 88 RBI. His most productive season came in 2000 with the Colorado Rockies, when he posted career-highs in RBI (115), runs (111) and doubles (53); finished with 195 hits, and matched his personal-best .326 average.

On December 16, 2001, the Rockies traded Cirillo to the Seattle Mariners for Denny Stark, Brian Fuentes, and José Paniagua.[1] Posting the lowest BABIP since his rookie season he was ineffective with the bat but provided strong defensive contributions while in Seattle, ranking by UZR the second best thirdbaseman in the American League in 2002.[2] In 2003 he continued to provide above average defense but again posted the lowest BABIP of his career (.226 compared to a .320 career average)[3]

He was traded to the San Diego Padres before the 2004 season, but was inactive most of the year with a wrist injury. He made history by becoming Randy Johnson's 4,000th strikeout victim on June 29, 2004.

Rejoining the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005, Cirillo saw a resurgence in his stroke while continuing his solid defense posting wOBA's of .355 in 2005 and .344 in 2006.

Cirillo signed a one-year contract with the Minnesota Twins in December 2006. He did not finish the season with the Twins and was claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks on August 3, 2007. Cirillo stated that he would most certainly retire at the end of the 2007 season. He made the first pitching appearance of his career on August 20, 2007, against Milwaukee. He pitched one inning and gave up two walks and no runs while striking out one player, former Diamondback Craig Counsell. "He's way nastier than I thought he would be," said Bill Hall, who worked one of the walks. "I was shocked when I got up there. He's got a knuckleball, a slider, he was throwing some changeups. Those pitches make 84, 83 [mph fastballs] look pretty hard. I heard he was a better pitcher in college than he was a hitter."

Before the 2007 NLDS, Cirillo held one of baseball's most unwanted records. He had played in 1,617 regular season games, but never in the postseason. When his team made the playoffs, the title was passed to Damion Easley of the Mets who finished the 2008 season having played 1,706 straight games without a playoff berth.

Post Playing Days

On April 2, 2008, it was announced that Cirillo would join FSN Wisconsin as an analyst for Milwaukee Brewers broadcasts. His first appearance was on April 18, 2008. He worked as a pre/post game show for two years in 2008 and 2011.

Jeff has worked as a part-time scout with the Arizona Diamondbacks (2009/2010) Cirillo was hired by Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2012 to scout for them.

Cirillo is a partner in Pacific Baseball Ventures, LLC, which owns the Walla Walla Sweets. The Sweets play in the West Coast League, a summer collegiate wood-bat league located in Walla Walla, Washington.[4]

Family

Cirillo has three sons: Cole (born 1997), Carson (born 1999), and Connor (born 2001).[5]

The Cirillo family lived in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, during Jeff's time on the Milwaukee Brewers.

He currently resides in Medina, Washington and works as a MLB scout with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He hosts a golf tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin every year and is heavily involved in coaching youth sports and various charities around the United States. In 2013, he jumped out of an airplane for the Milwaukee Air and Water Show to recognize Veterans of Armed Forces. His son, Cole, plays football and basketball, as well as participating in track and field events, at Bellevue High School.[6] [7]

References

  1. ↑ "STLtoday.com". Nl.newsbank.com. 2001-12-16. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  2. ↑ http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=3b&stats=fld&lg=all&qual=y&type=1&season=2002&month=0&season1=2002&ind=0
  3. ↑ http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1073&position=3B
  4. ↑ "Baseball Coming to Walla Walla". KVEW TV. 1 October 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  5. ↑ Jeff Cirillo Stats, Bio, Photos, Highlights
  6. ↑ Cole Cirillo MaxPreps
  7. ↑ Cole Cirillo WA Track and Field

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.