Octavio Medina

From BR Bullpen

Octavio Medina

BR Minors page

Biographical information[edit]

Octavio Medina was born in Mexico, raised in Los Angeles and went on to his best success in Germany.

Octavio played for Santa Ana High School, where he lettered in football, basketball, and baseball. He was a First Team All-Century League Wide Receiver, Point Guard, and Shortstop for the Saints. He graduated from high school with honors, including the "Arturo Barrios" Scholarship, and "The Amateur Athletic Union/Mars-Milkey Way Bar High School All-American Award. He was also SAHS´s Athlete of the year (1990).

He played two years of Junior College ball at Rancho Santiago Jr. College. (1991-92), now known as Santa Ana College. He played 2nd base for the Dons who were Empire Conference Champs both those years. His freshman year he had a 100% fielding (no errors), and broke a record with 6 hits in one game, previously held by five other players. His sophomore year, he was a Second Team All-Conference 2nd baseman for the Dons. His junior year, he transferred to Chapman University where he played first base and lead the team in hitting with a .335 batting average and 71 hits. His final year he played in North Alabama University, because Chapman went down to D3 from D1. His final year of college he played shortstop and batted .323 for the UNA Lions.

In 1994, he played half a season with Germany's Trier Cardinals who where in danger of relegation. He helped the team stay in the top league and win the German Championship the next two years in a row. 95 & 96. His final year in Trier, he hit .597 with 8 homeruns and 50 stolen bases, the latter still a record today (2011).

In 1998, he played with the Paderborn Untouchables of Bundesliga, hitting .449/.516/.783, finishing with the fifth-best average in the southern division of the league. He was 7th in OBP and 4th in slugging. He stole 30 bases in 33 tries to finish second in steal percentage. He led in hits (64), was 5th in RBI (35), led in hits (62), tied for the most doubles (19) and tied for fourth with 3 triples.

For the 1999 season, he moved back to the United States and played one year of baseball in the US, with the Bayou Bullfrogs. In 25 games with them, he hit .185 with 12 stolen bases.

He returned to Germany and has played for the Untouchables since 2000. In his first year back in Bundesliga, he finished third in the northern division in batting average with a mark of .484. He was also third in OBP (.542) and slugging (.934). He was second in runs (44) and 4th in doubles (13) and stole 10 bases in 12 attempts.

Amazingly, he hit .500 in 102 at-bats in 2001, to lead the division by .062. He also led in OBP (.630) while placing third in slugging (.706). He led in runs (53) and hits (51) and tied for the lead with 12 doubles. He tied for second with 3 triples.

In 2002, he hit .471/.570/.647 with 26 stolen bases (in 29 tries) in 85 at-bats, finishing second in the Bundesliga north in batting average and only .001 points behind the leader (Carlos Sanchez) and .003 ahead of 3rd-place Dominik Wulf. He did lead the northern Bundesliga in steals and runs (41, 3 ahead of Wulf). He was 4th in walks (19), 5th in slugging and 2nd in OBP. He fielded .951 at shortstop and led the division with 13 double plays.

Once again, he hit an incredible .500 (with 15 stolen bases), in 68 at-bats in 2003, leading the northern league in average (by .061), hits (34) and OBP (.604, .066 ahead of Robert Gruber). He tied for 7th in RBI (17), was 3rd in runs (28), tied for 4th in walks (14), was second in slugging (.662), second in steals. Defensively, he led in assists (56), fielding .957 at short.

Medina hit .455/.571/.571 with 10 stolen bases in exactly 100 plate appearances in 2004. He finished second in the league in average behind Wulf, tied for third in hits (35), was 4th in doubles (7), led in runs (34, 3 ahead of Wulf), tied for 5th in walks (15), was 5th in slugging, led in OBP (.005 ahead of Wulf), was 4th in OPS and tied for 5th in steals. He fielded .966, playing all but two games at shortstop.

In 81 at-bats in 2005, he hit .420 (third best in the league) with nine stolen bases. He tied for 9th in the division in RBI (23), tied for 7th in doubles (8), tied for 4th in triples (2), tied for second in runs (32, trailing only Kai Gronauer), led in walks (22), was 4th in slugging (.605), 2nd in OBP (.545), third in OPS and tied for 8th in steals. He fielded .988, 5th among all players in the league and second among players whose main position was on the middle infield.

In 2006, the Mexico City native's average slipped and he hit only .286/.357/.429. He only ranked among the northern league's leaders in steals (tied for 9th with 8). He did not man a full game at shortstop as Jendrick Speer took over there. Paderborn's run of 5 straight pennants ended.

In 63 at-bats in 2007, the 35-year-old rebounded. He hit .444/.507/.540 with 15 stolen bases, finishing third in the league in batting average, tied for 7th in hits (28), tied for 7th in runs (24), was 7th in slugging, 5th in OBP and 6th in OPS. He tied for third in steals and made no errors in 50 chances in the field. He struck out only twice, finishing behind Markus Gienger for the lowest strikeout ratio in the division.

In 2008, he hit .394/.520/.489 with 13 stolen bases in 94 at-bats, posting the sixth-best batting average in the northern Bundesliga-1. He also became an assistant coach to Stefan Fechtig for the team that year. He was tied for 4th in RBI (30), tied for 6th in hits (37), 7th in runs (33), 3rd in walks (25), 8th in slugging, 3rd in OBP, 4th in OPS, 7th in steals, first in steal percentage (he was only thrown out running once) and first in fielding percentage at SS (.948).

In 2009, he hit .403/.513/.516 with 4 stolen bases in 18 games. He finished 4th in average, tied for fourth in RBI (24), 7th in slugging, 3rd in OBP and 7th in OPS. He played for the German national team in the 2009 Baseball World Cup, going 0 for 3 with a walk as the backup SS behind Andy Janzen. He retired after hitting .160/.185/.200 in 7 games in 2010.

Overall, Medina hit .453/.545/.701 with 408 hits, 19 home runs, 387 runs scored, 237 RBI and 168 stolen bases in 279 games over 17 seasons.

He then became a coach for Paderborn and managed them in the 2012 European Cup and 2013 European Cup.

Sources[edit]

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