Boog Powell (powelbo02)

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Herschel Mack Powell

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Biographical Information[edit]

Outfielder Boog Powell was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 20th round of the 2012 amateur draft. He began his professional career that same year with the AZL Athletics, where he hit .306/.383/.315 in 35 games, with only one extra-base hit - a double - but 20 runs scored. In 2013, he moved up to the Vermont Lake Monsters of the New York-Penn League, where he played 59 games, hitting .283/.364/.344. He hit 7 doubles and 3 triples, scored 30 runs and stole 14 bases in 20 attempts.

In 2014, Powell split his time between the Beloit Snappers of the Midwest League, where he played 69 games, and the Stockton Ports of the California League, where he played 14. His combined batting line was .343/.451/.435, scoring 54 runs. One negative note was that he was only successful on 16 of 31 stolen base attempts. He was also suspended for 50 games as he was caught using an amphetamine while with Stockton. On January 10, 2015, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays along with C John Jaso and his teammate at Stockton, SS Daniel Robertson, in return for IF/OF Ben Zobrist and SS Yunel Escobar. he split the 2015 season between the AA Montgomery Biscuits, where he hit .328 in 61 games, and the AAA Durham Bulls (56 games, .257). In 117 games total, his batting line was .295/.385/.392 with 3 homers, 66 runs scored and 40 RBIs. On November 5th, he was traded again, this time to the Seattle Mariners alongside Ps Nathan Karns and C.J. Riefenhauser, in return for IF Brad Miller, 1B Logan Morrison and P Danny Farquhar. The Mariners said at the time that they were looking at him as their future leadoff hitter.

Powell was assigned to AAA for the first time at the start of the 2016 season, lining up with the Tacoma Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. In 64 games, he was hitting .270 with 3 homers and 27 RBIs when on June 23rd, he was handed an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a PED. The incriminated substance was a form of artificial testosterone made famous by East German athletes back in Cold war days. Like many others before him, he claimed he had no idea how the substance had got into his system.

He made his major league debut for the Mariners on April 29, 2017, although it was limited to being announced into the game as a pinch-hitter. Having been promoted from AAA Tacoma before the game, he was sent in to pinch-hit for Mike Zunino in the 7th, but Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona replaced pitcher Danny Salazar with lefty Andrew Miller, and M's manager Scott Servais replied by sending in Carlos Ruiz to replace Powell. he did get to see some game action the next day, when he started in left field and went 0 for 3. He played 23 games for Seattle, hitting .194, then on August 6th he was traded to the Athletics, his original team, in return for 1B Yonder Alonso. He was called up to Oakland on August 11th and was planning to make his debut for the team that day, but instead had to go to the emergency room of a local hospital with difficulty breathing, the result of an asthma attack. He recovered quickly and was able to play the next day, leading off and playing centerfield against the Baltimore Orioles.

He is no relation to 1970s slugger Boog Powell.

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