Troy Tulowitzki

Troy Trevor Tulowitzki (born October 10, 1984), nicknamed "Tulo", is an American former professional baseball shortstop, who played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Colorado Rockies.

He also played for the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees.

He was named Fremont High Athlete of the Year in 2002.

After high school, Tulowitzki enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, where he played college baseball for the Long Beach State Dirtbags for three seasons.

Tulowitzki had a .962 career fielding percentage.

Offensively, in 155 career games, he had a batting average of .310, with 20 home runs, 117 runs batted in (RBIs), 37 doubles, and a .491 slugging percentage.

He also accumulated 31 multi-hit games in his collegiate career.

Baseball America rated him as having the top arm and as the best defensive shortstop in the Big West Conference.

Tulowitzki was a two-time All-Big West selection (second team in 2003 and first team in 2004) and a two-time All-Regional Tournament selection, earning Most Outstanding Player (MOP) honors in 2004.

In 2004, he was selected for the United States collegiate national team and helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in the World University Baseball Championship.

After playing college baseball for California State University, Long Beach, the Rockies selected Tulowitzki with the seventh overall selection of the 2005 MLB Draft.

He made his MLB debut the following year.

Tulowitzki is a five-time MLB All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner.

The Colorado Rockies chose Tulowitzki with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2005 Major League Baseball draft.

He received a $2.3 million signing bonus from the Rockies.

He made his professional debut with the Modesto Nuts of the Class A-Advanced California League in 2005, and batted .266 in 22 games.

In 2006, Tulowitzki played for the Tulsa Drillers of the Class AA Texas League.

He had a .291 batting average, 13 home runs, and 61 RBIs in 104 games.

Though he had a knee injury in June, he appeared in the 2006 All-Star Futures Game.

The Rockies promoted Tulowitzki to the major leagues on August 30, 2006.

He made his major league debut that day against the New York Mets.

He had four at-bats and went hitless with three strikeouts.

Tulowitzki made it to the big leagues after playing just 126 minor league games.

He collected his first Major League hit, an infield single off Óliver Pérez of the Mets, on August 31.

Tulowitzki hit his first MLB home run on September 4, off Woody Williams of the San Diego Padres, in a 7–5 loss.

He posted a .240 batting average with one home run and six RBIs in 25 games during the 2006 season.

The Rockies traded him to the Blue Jays in 2015.

Tulowitzki missed most of the 2017 season and all of the 2018 season with injuries, and the Blue Jays released him after the 2018 season.

In 2019, he signed with the Yankees, playing the first five games of the season before being sidelined with a calf strain; after experiencing setbacks, he announced his retirement from baseball in late July.

Tulowitzki's arm, range and instincts at shortstop were highly regarded.

His size, ability and leadership skills garnered him comparisons to Cal Ripken Jr.., Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter.

He had a reputation for being an injury-prone player, having played over 140 games in a season only three times and missing at least 30 games in several seasons due to various ailments.

Tulowitzki was born in Santa Clara, California.

He graduated from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California.

He earned four varsity letters in baseball and two in basketball.

He was twice named second team All-State in baseball, and was a three-time team most valuable player (MVP).

As a junior, Tulowitzki had a batting average of .536.

He also had a 15–1 win–loss record as a pitcher.

In his senior year, he batted .519 with six home runs.

In basketball, Tulowitzki won league MVP, and was second team All-State and team MVP, averaging 22.6 points per game during his senior year.