Andrés Eloy Blanco Perez (born April 11, 1984, in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Major League Baseball second baseman and shortstop for the Chicago Cubs.

Blanco was named in honor of Andrés Eloy Blanco, a Venezuelan poet, by his father.

[edit] Baseball career

Blanco made his major league debut with the Kansas City Royals on April 18, 2004. He hit .317 (19-for-60) with five RBIs, nine runs, two doubles, two triples, and one stolen base in 19 games.

He hit .215 with a .220 on base percentage in 2005, and .241 with a .290 on base percentage in 2006, both with Kansas City. Blanco had surgery on his left shoulder on September 29, 2006, to repair a posterior labrum tear in his left shoulder, which he injured during a swing five days prior against the Tigers.^[1][2]

He did not play in the major leagues in 2007, but batted .192 in the minor leagues with a .226 on base percentage and a .212 slugging percentage.

He signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs in November 2007, played the 2008 season with the Iowa Cubs where he hit .285/.327/.336, and became a free agent at the end of the season. In December 2008, he re-signed with the Cubs.

On June 20, 2009, during an interleague game between the Cubs and Cleveland Indians, Blanco hit an RBI single to tie a game in extra innings. He later scored the winning run for the Cubs, by stealing home on a wild pitch thrown by Indians' closer Kerry Wood.

Blanco hit his first major league home run on July 29, 2009 while playing the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

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