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. Image:Henryblanco.jpg 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). Before the 2005 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. Throughout 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 .219 hitter with 43 home runs and 188 RBI in 538 games. His career batting average is lowest among active players with 1000 or more at-bats. However, in 2005 he hit much better than usual, posting a .242 average with six home runs and 25 RBIs and was very hot in his last 85 at-bats of the season (incidentally that was when he switched numbers from 9 to 24), hitting .318 with four home runs and 19 RBIs.

In the 2006 Caribean World Series, he hit a walkoff hit off the top of the opposing Shortstop's head to bring the Venezulan team the championship.

He is a cult favorite among Cub fans, among whom he is affectionately called "Hank White".

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

• List of players from Venezuela in Major League Baseball

External links

• Henry Blanco at:
  • ESPN - profile and daily updates
  • Baseball Reference - career statistics and analysis
  • Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers
  • Hank White Fan Club - a page dedicated to Henry Blanco