Arturo Rivas

Arturo Gustavo Rivas Hernandez

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 205 lb.

• Born February 2, 1984 in San Francisco Yare, Miranda (BR Minors) or Ocumare del Tuy, Miranda (Purapelota) Venezuela

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Arturo Rivas played in the minors.

Rivas split the summer of 2001 between the GCL Orioles (.308/.412/.346 in 8 G) and the Bluefield Orioles (.147/.286/.147 in 11 G). He hit .272/.342/.446 with 8 homers and 45 runs for Bluefield in 2002, just missing the Appalachian League top 10 in the latter two departments. He had 10 outfield assists but 8 errors. He was one shy of Jason Pridie for the league outfield lead in assists and was one shy of Julio Charles for the lead in errors. In '03, he played for Bluefield (.344/.389/.469 in 9 G) and the Delmarva Shorebirds (.190/.271/.288 in 44 G).

Rivas hit .261/.315/.353 for the 2004 Aberdeen Ironbirds. He hit .311/?/.556 for the 2004-2005 Navegantes del Magallanes, posting the best slugging percentage of any player on the squad with 70+ AB, beating out the likes of Edgardo Alfonzo and Todd Linden. With Delmarva for all of 2005, he produced at a .251/.355/.417 clip with 61 walks, 29 doubles and 78 runs. He had 17 outfield assists and 11 errors. He tied Neil Walker and Alex Requena for 9th in the South Atlantic League in runs scored, tied for fourth in triples and missed the top 10 in walks by one. He was one assist behind Brett Carroll for the lead.

Arturo was only 1-for-21 for the 2005-2006 Navegantes, with four walks, though his one hit was a home run. He split 2006 between Delmarva (.257/.341/.379 in 93 G) and the Frederick Keys (.275/.389/.459 in 35 G), with 7 triples for the year; he had 15 assists and 10 errors between the two stops. He hit .194/.333/.290 in the winter for Magallanes. In 2007, Rivas hit well (.317/.397/.504) in limited action (37 G) for Frederick to end his time in the Orioles chain. He was 1 for 3 with a double and a walk in winter ball.

In 2008-2009, Rivas struggled with the Navegantes (.167/.265/.367 in 18 G) and the Águilas del Zulia (.250/.400/.321 in 15 G), then was 0 for 7 with a walk in the postseason for Zulia. He was 2 for 19 for the 2009-2010 Águilas and 3 for 10 with a walk in the playoffs.

Rivas then spent several years with the Venezuelan national team. He helped them win Gold at the 2010 South American Games. In the 2011 Baseball World Cup, he hit .350/.435/.350 with one run and 3 RBI while fielding .800. He came up big in a comeback win against Italy. In the 10th, he batted for Saúl Torres with a 6-5 deficit, one out and the bases loaded against Yovani D'Amico; after a wild pitch tied the game, he singled in Rodolfo Cardona with the winner. In the 7th/8th place game, he drove in the first run (Cardona) in a 8-3 win over host Panama and later drove in Willie Vasquez as well.

Arturo hit .200/.294/.200 in the 2011 Pan American Games, splitting DH with Torres and LF with Hebert Lara. In the 2013 Bolivarian Games, he hit .231/.241/.231 with four runs and five RBI in 7 games, fielding .833 as Venezuela got the Silver Medal. He batted .182/.308/.455 with a run and two RBI in five games in the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games, backing up Douglas Landaeta in RF and Lara in LF.

Sources

• Pura Pelota
• 2011 Baseball World Cup Final Report
• 2011 Pan American Games website
• 2013 Bolivarian Games website
• 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games website
• 2004 and 2006 Baseball Almanacs