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**Mike Avilés**
Mike Avilés
;
	Kansas City Royals — No. 30
	Shortstop
	Born: March 13, 1981 (age 28); New York, NY
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
	May 29, 2008 for the Kansas City Royals
Career statistics; (through 2009 season)
Batting average	.293
Home runs	11
Runs batted in	59
Teams
	Kansas City Royals (2008-present);
Career highlights and awards
	Royals 2008 Player of the Year

Michael Anthony Avilés [ah-ve-les' ] (born March 13, 1981 in New York City, New York) is a Puerto Rican-American Major League Baseball shortstop for the Kansas City Royals.

[edit] College career

Avilés was a Division II All-American shortstop at Concordia College, Bronxville, New York. He was named Division II player of the year in 2003, after hitting .500 with 83 runs, 22 homers and 65 RBI in 45 games. He is the top prospect for 2009.

[edit] Minor leagues

His professional baseball career began when he was chosen in the 7th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft by the Kansas City Royals and offered an "insulting" $1,000 signing bonus.^[1] He spent 2004 with the Wilmington Blue Rocks in the Carolina League and 2005 with the Wichita Wranglers in the Texas League. He then spent 2006 and 2007 with the Omaha Royals of the Pacific Coast League, becoming the Royals' Minor League Player of The Year in 2007. He started 2008 in the minors, batting .338 with 10 home runs and 42 RBI in just 50 games with Omaha.

[edit] Kansas City Royals

Avilés was called up from Triple-A on May 29, 2008, to replace designated hitter Billy Butler on the roster.

On June 12, 2008, hit his first Major League home run against the Texas Rangers. On August 3, he went 4-for-4, for the first time in his career.

Finished his rookie season with a .325 batting average in 102 games, with 10 home runs and 51 runs batted in. If Avilés had recorded a sufficient number of plate appearances to qualify for the American League batting title, his .325 average would have ranked third among all AL hitters and sixth-best in the Major Leagues. Although the Royals finished the season 12 games under .500 with a 75-87 record, they were a .500 team (51-51) in the 102 games in which Avilés played.

On November 11, 2008 the Royals named Avilés the 2008 Player of the Year. He ended the 2008 season with a .325 average, and the day before, November 10, 2008, he found out that he finished fourth in the American League Rookie of the Year standings, ending in fourth place behind Evan Longoria (Tampa Bay Rays), Alexei Ramírez (Chicago White Sox) and Jacoby Ellsbury (Boston Red Sox). Avilés had a pretty good showing considering he didn't join the Royals until May 29 when he was called up from Omaha, and didn't play regularly until June 6.

[edit] Personal life

Avilés is engaged to Jessy Poulsen. He has a daughter named Kyla with his ex-wife.^[2]^[3]

His uncle, Ramón Avilés, is a former backup infielder for the Boston Red Sox (1977) and Philadelphia Phillies (1979-1981).

[edit] References

^ Passan, Jeff (08-13-2008). "Royals’ Aviles is a 1,000-to-1 shot". Yahoo.com. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Anghhv59IoqXffDiLLFyrqsRvLYF?slug=jp-aviles081208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
^ http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=449107
^ http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=3524895

[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)
[1]Aviles named Royals' Player of Year

[1000dollars-0] Passan, Jeff (08-13-2008). "Royals’ Aviles is a 1,000-to-1 shot". Yahoo.com. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Anghhv59IoqXffDiLLFyrqsRvLYF?slug=jp-aviles081208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns. Retrieved 2008-08-19.

[1] ttp://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=449107

[2] ttp://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=3524895

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