Carlos Quentin

Carlos Quentin
Quentin with the White Sox
San Diego Padres – No. 18
Right field
Born: August 28, 1982 (1982-08-28) Bellflower, California
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
July 20, 2006 for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Career statistics (through 2011)
Batting average	.252
Home runs	121
Runs batted in	383
Teams
Arizona Diamondbacks (2006–2007) Chicago White Sox (2008–2011) San Diego Padres (2012–Present)
Career highlights and awards
2× All-Star (2008, 2011) Silver Slugger Award winner (2008)

Carlos Josè Quentin (born August 28, 1982 in Bellflower, California) is an American outfielder who plays for the San Diego Padres. In 2008 and in 2011, Quentin was selected as an All-Star.

Early career

Quentin attended Saint Pius X Elementary School (Chula Vista, California). Before Quentin went on to be a professional baseball player, he already had an outstanding sports career in both high school and college. At University of San Diego High School, he was a three-sport star, excelling in baseball, football, and basketball. He led his baseball team to two Western League Championships, while setting a record at the school with 28 home runs and 119 RBIs.

In football his senior year, he was selected First Team All-County, All-CIF, and All-Western League, and was named Western League Defensive Player of the Year as an outside linebacker. He also captured two league and two section titles. In addition, he participated on the 1997 high school state championship team in basketball. He was named the San Diego Male Athlete of the Year in 2000. Aside from sports, he was on his school honor roll. He then went on to Stanford University, where he excelled even more.

College

His Stanford career was exceptional; he was named All Pac-10 the three seasons he played (freshman, sophomore and junior). He was honored by Baseball America magazine all three seasons as well. He was named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 2001. In his junior season (2003), he was named Third Team All-American by the NCBWA and was one of five finalists for the Golden Spikes Award. He played alongside future major leaguers, Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Sam Fuld and Boston Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie.

Quentin helped lead the Cardinal to postseason appearances all three years of his collegiate career, culminating in a 2-for-2, 2-RBI performance in Stanford's 2003 College World Series Championship Series Game 3 loss to Rice University. He finished his Stanford career with a .350 batting average, 35 home runs, 170 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases in 199 games played for the Cardinals.

He married his college sweetheart Jeane Goff, an All-American track runner from Stanford.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Quentin was Arizona's second first round pick of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft, selected 29th overall. He sat out that year after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow (a rare procedure for non-pitchers). Once recovered, he quickly became part of a talented core of young Diamondbacks prospects.

Quentin set a minor-league record in 2004 when he was hit by a pitch 43 times. That season, he led all Arizona minor league players in batting (.332), RBIs (91), runs (103), hits (157), and walks (69), numbers that were divided between Single-A Lancaster and Double-A El Paso. He also starred on a TV show chronicling the life of a minor leaguer with Chris Young and Dustin Nippert.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Quentin in 2007 on the field with the Phillie Phanatic.

2006

Quentin was hitting .289 with 30 doubles, three triples, nine homers and 52 RBIs in 85 games for the Tucson Sidewinders when he was called up to the Diamondbacks on July 20, 2006; after grounding out in his first two major league at bats, Quentin hit a two-run home run off Mark Hendrickson in the sixth inning of Arizona's 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. His arrival was long anticipated by Diamondbacks fans; he was expected to replace Shawn Green as the everyday right fielder for the Diamondbacks once Green retired or otherwise left the team. Green was traded to the New York Mets in August, clearing the way for Quentin to become a full-time starter. Quentin would finish the 2006 season with a .253 batting average, 9 home runs, and 32 RBIs in 57 games for the Diamondbacks.

2007

He began the 2007 season on the disabled list when he was diagnosed with a partial tear of his left labrum during Spring Training. He made his season debut on April 16 against the Dodgers and finished 2-for-4 with two doubles. After producing disappointing results through the first half of the season (.210, 5 HR, 28 RBIs in 66 games), Quentin was demoted to Triple-A on July 6.

Chicago White Sox

Quentin batting on July 23, 2008.

On December 3, 2007, Quentin was traded to the Chicago White Sox for minor league first baseman Christopher Carter. Carter played for the low Class A Kannapolis Intimidators in 2007, and was considered one of the White Sox' best prospects.

2008

In 2008, Quentin was a huge surprise for the White Sox, emerging to become one of the team's best hitters. Through August 18, he was ranking among American League leaders in home runs (first, 35), slugging percentage (third, .586), OPS (third, .981), and runs batted in (third, 96). Quentin's strong season drew calls for a possible AL MVP award. After Quentin hit his 35th HR in a 13-5 rout of the Mariners on August 18, White Sox catcher AJ Pierzynski said, "As far as I'm concerned, Quentin has been the American League MVP."

White Sox fans bestowed the nickname "TCQ," standing for "The Carlos Quentin." The name originated from a quote from GM Ken Williams after he acquired Quentin. He said, "We wanted to upgrade at shortstop, get a setup guy for the bullpen, acquire Carlos Quentin, and not a guy like him but actually Carlos Quentin."

Quentin's other local nickname is "Q-uperman." The "Q-uperman" sign, depicting Quentin as Superman with an "Q" on his chest, was shown many times on the Jumbotron at the park, and even received mention in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and on ESPN's Baseball Tonight.

Due to Jim Thome's slow start, manager Ozzie Guillén promoted the red-hot Quentin up the batting order into Thome's customary third spot for one game against the Angels in Anaheim. Quentin delivered a key eighth-inning grand slam, breaking a 1-1 tie, and kicked off a run that saw the White Sox win 10 of 12 games and charge to first place. He stayed in the 3rd spot in the order thereafter. During a nationally televised home game on May 25, Quentin clocked two home runs off of the Angels' John Lackey and drove in all of the White Sox runs in a 3-2 walk-off victory. His towering home runs drew comparisons to sluggers such as José Canseco and Luis Gonzalez. Angels center fielder Torii Hunter characterized his pure power as "tremendous pop, like Hulk Hogan. He's crazy strong."

Quentin injured his wrist after slamming his bat with his wrist in frustration after fouling off a pitch in Cleveland. . On September 5, 2008, it was reported that Quentin had a fractured wrist and would undergo surgery, missing the rest of the season.

Defensively, in 2008 he had the lowest fielding percentage of all starting AL left fielders, .971.

Even though he missed the last month of the season, Quentin was awarded his first Silver Slugger Award.

Quentin finished fifth in the balloting for AL MVP, behind Dustin Pedroia, Justin Morneau, Kevin Youkilis, and Joe Mauer.

2009

Quentin played well at the start of the 2009 season but he hit a slump after suffering from plantar fasciitis which hampered his swing. He was forced to miss several games in May as a result of the injury and was eventually placed on the 15-day disabled list at the end of the month. He was activated again on July 21, 2009, against the Tampa Bay Rays. He went 1-4 in his return.

In 2009 he was named # 40 on the Sporting News' list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball. A panel of 100 baseball people, many of them members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and winners of major baseball awards, was polled to arrive at the list.

2010

Quentin was mired in a batting slump for a good portion of the first half of the season. He finally went on a hot streak, hitting eight homers. Carlos went from eight to twelve homers in nine games, most of which came during a White Sox 11-game win streak. Also during that win streak, he hit home run #13 against the Chicago Cubs and had a two-homer game soon after against the Los Angeles Angels. He hit two homers on July 10, then hit two more homers, one of them a grand slam, on July 11 against the Kansas City Royals. Carlos Quentin entered the 2010 All-Star break batting .244 with 19 home runs and 61 RBIs, placing him among the American League leaders in both home runs and RBIs. He finished the season hitting .243 with 26 homers and 87 RBIs.

2011

Thus far in 2011, Quentin had 34 walks, a .501 slugging percentage, and a career high 31 doubles through 117 games.

In 2011, Quentin led the major leagues in being hit by pitch, with 23. He batted .254 with 24 home runs and 77 RBIs.

San Diego Padres

On December 31, 2011, Quentin was traded from the White Sox to the San Diego Padres for Simón Castro and Pedro Hernandez.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Carlos Quentin bio on Stanford Cardinal athletics website
• No. 21 - MLN FAB50 Baseball 2005 - Minor League News
• No. 4 - MLN FAB50 Baseball 2006 - Minor League News
• Major League News
• Major League News
• Game recap 2008/05/25
• Carlos Quentin Scouting Report from Dugout Central