Help building the largest human-edited directory of the web Suggest URL - Open Directory Project - Become an editor

directopedia.org uses links and structure from dmoz Open Directory Project.
The contents has been generating using technology developed by scientec.

Brian Stephen Giles (born January 20, 1971, in El Cajon, California) is a Major League Baseball right fielder who plays for the San Diego Padres (2003–present). Giles (pronounced JYLES) attended Granite Hills High School and did not attend college, but played with the Cleveland Indians (1995–1998) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1999–2003). He bats and throws left-handed. His brother Marcus Giles is a second baseman for the Atlanta Braves.

In his 10-year career, Giles has been a .299 hitter with 231 home runs and 775 RBI in 1202 games. He was selected for the All-Star Game in 2000 and 2001.

Never used in a full-time role with the star-studded Indians, he was traded to the Pirates for left-handed reliever Ricardo Rincon. Giles was given a starting role on a below-average Pittsburgh club. He quickly established a reputation for being one of the best — and most underappreciated — players in baseball. Until suffering a knee injury near the beginning of the 2003 season, he had played in 140 games each season since 1999. Every year in that span, he hit 35 home runs, posted an on base percentage over .400, and had a slugging percentage over .590. A fixture at the #3 spot in the Pirates batting order, he played all three outfield positions adequately and even chipped in 40 steals over those four years. His consistency, good power to all fields, and outstanding plate discipline (he averaged 109 walks and 73 strikeouts per year) made him one of the most feared batters in the National League.

Giles got off to a slow start by his standards in 2003, probably because of his knee injury, which sidelined him for nearly a month. On returning, his power production seemed to have dipped slightly, which was enough to convince the cash-strapped Pirates to trade him to San Diego for cheaper youngsters Jason Bay, Oliver Perez, and Cory Stewart in August. He was a bit of a disappointment to the Padres in his first full season there — in 2004 he hit only 23 home runs, while his OPS dipped to .849 from the over 1.000 he averaged over his four full seasons in Pittsburgh — but some of the decline in his numbers was attributed to issues in adjusting to San Diego's expansive home field Petco Park.

Giles bounced back in 2005, leading the Padres in batting average (.301), RBI (83), runs (92), and OPS (.905). Giles also led the major leagues in walks with 119, becoming the first National League player other than Barry Bonds to do so since Jeff Bagwell in 1999. The team benefited from his improved play, as the Padres won their first National League West title since 1998.

See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time

External links

• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• Baseball Library - accomplishments
• ESPN - profile and daily update

This article is based on the article "Brian Giles" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.