(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo courtesy of Gwinnett Braves)
   Curaçao-talent Ozzie Albies makes Major League-debut
Nederlands
 ATLANTA, Florida (USA) -
Ozzie Albies, another talented player coming from Curaçao, made his Major League-debut on Tuesday-evening (August 1) playing at second base for the Atlanta Braves against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the opener of a 3-game series.
Albies was added to the roster of the Braves on Tuesday-afternoon.
...Ozzie Albies...
(© Gwinnett Braves) |
Albies became the 15th player from Curaçao to play in the Major League since Hensley Meulens was the first Antillian player to reach the Majors in 1989 playing for the New York Yankees.
Since 2010, Meulens is the Hitting Coach of the San Francisco Giants, with whom he won three World Series (2010, 2012, 2014).
Meulens also is the Manager of the Netherlands Kingdom Baseball Team, whom he guided to the Semi-Final of the World Baseball Classic twice (2013, 2017).
Albies also became the fourth Curaçao-player to make his debut as a player of the Atlanta Braves.
The others are outfielder Andruw Jones (1996), first baseman Randall Simon (1997) and short stop Andrelton Simmons (2012).
Pitcher Jair Jurrjens, who made his debut while playing for Detroit Tigers in 2007, also played with the Braves in 2008-2012.
The switch-hitting Albies, who turned 20 in January, plays professionally since 2014 after he was signed by the Braves on July 2, 2013.
In 2014, he played for two teams in the Rookie League, hitting .364.
The infielder promoted to Single-A in 2015 and batted .310 for Rome Braves, scoring 64 runs and batting in 37.
The career of Albies went quickly, as he promoted to both Double-A and Triple-A in 2016.
He played in 82 games for Mississippi Braves in Double-A, hitting .321 with four homeruns and scoring 56 runs, while batting in 33 runs.
Albies also played in 56 games at the Triple-A level for Gwinnett Braves, hitting .248 with two homeruns, 27 runs scored and 20 RBI's.
| Curaçao-born Major League-players |
| Debut | Player | Team |
| 1989 | Hensley Meulens | Yankees |
| 1996 | Ralph Milliard | Marlins |
| | Andruw Jones | Braves |
| 1997 | Randall Simon | Braves |
| 2000 | Ivanon Coffie | Orioles |
| 2006 | Yurendell de Caster | Pirates |
| | Jair Jurrjens | Tigers |
| 2007 | Wladimir Balentien | Mariners |
| 2008 | Roger Bernadina | Nationals |
| | Shairon Martis | Nationals |
| 2010 | Kenley Jansen | Dodgers |
| 2012 | Andrelton Simmons | Braves |
| | Jurickson Profar | Rangers |
| 2013 | Jonathan Schoop | Orioles |
| 2017 | Ozzie Albies | Braves |
This season, Albies played in his first full season in Triple-A.
In 97 games, he batted .285 (117-for-411) with nine homeruns.
He scored 67 runs, batted in 41 and stole 21 bases.
In 2015, Ozzie Albies played in the Futures Game.
Last season and this year, he played in the All Star Game in respectively Double-A and Triple-A.
Since 2015, Albies had been in Spring Training with the Braves every year.
This season, he played in 12 Spring Training-games for the Braves, hitting .353.
On Tuesday, the Braves promoted Albies and pitcher Lucas Sims, who also made his debut in the evening as the starting pitcher.
Like Albies, Sims also played for Gwinnett in Triple-A and was 7-4 with a 3.75 ERA in 20 games, striking out 132 batters in 115 1/3 inning.
To make room on the roster, pitcher Akeel Morris and second baseman Micah Johnson were optioned to Triple-A.
With his 20 years and 206 days, Albies is the youngest player in the Majors this season.
He is the second-best prospect in the Braves-organization.
In the postseason last year, Albies broke his elbow while taking a swing, playing in Double-A.
When he wouldn't have had that injury, Albies might have been earlier in the Majors this year.
In the home game at SunTrust Park against the Dodgers, who lead the National League West, Albies faced Japanese righthanded pitcher Kenta Maeda.
Hitting lefthanded, Albies got his first at bat in the second inning and then grounded out to second baseman Logan Forsythe.
In the fifth inning, Albies popped up the ball into leftfield, where it was caught by leftfielder Chris Taylor.
In the eighth, Albies, wearing uniform number 1, led off against reliever Josh Ravin and walked.
Moments later, Albies scored his first Major League-run when next hitter Johan Camargo hit his third homerun of the season.
Los Angeles opened the score in the third inning when Yasiel Puig led off with a double and scored on an one-out double by Chris Taylor.
In the fourth, Cody Bellinger led off with his 29th homerun to make it a 2-0 score in favor of the Dodgers.
Puig scored again in the fifth inning.
He then led off with a single, moved on a sacrifice bunt, stole third base and scored when that was followed by a throwing error.
With a 3-2 lead, Kenley Jansen closed the game for the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth inning and struckout three batters to earn his 28th save of the season.
Ozzie Albies was on deck when Jansen struckout his third batter, so the two players from Curaçao didn't faced each other tonight.
Atlanta Braves is currently in fourth place in the National League East, which is led by the Washington Nationals.
(August 1)
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