Osman Marval

From BR Bullpen

Osman José Marval González

  • Bats Both, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Osman Marval has played in the US, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Italy. He has led the Italian Baseball League in RBI three times, average, runs, slugging and OBP twice and and home runs once apiece.

Marval was signed by Atlanta Braves scout Rolando Petit in 2003. He hit .264/.357/.344 for the 2004 DSL Braves 2 and .263/.318/.333 for the same club in '05. In 2006, he produced at a .327/.382/.391 clip for the DSL Braves and handled 184 chances error-free at catcher. Had he qualified, he would have been in the top 10 in the Dominican Summer League in average. In 2007, he hit .308/.416/.414 for the DSL Braves and threw out 37% of those who tried to steal.

He made his Venezuelan Winter League debut with the 2007-2008 Águilas del Zulia, going 5 for 8 with 3 doubles, a walk and two runs in an excellent brief look. He backed up Guillermo Rodriguez at catcher; both would later be Italian Series MVPs. Marval struggled in his US debut with the 2008 GCL Braves, hitting only .213/.289/.267 but playing good defense. In 2008-2009, he was again stellar in a brief look with Zulia (6 for 9, HR, 2 BB, 2 R, 3 RBI) but was 0 for 6 with two walks in the postseason. In 2009, he hit well as a backup for the Danville Braves: .297/.344/.407 in 128 PA. He had his first poor winter, though, going 0 for 6 with the Águilas.

He finished his US career in 2010 with the Rome Braves (.234/.291/.308 in 34 G) and Myrtle Beach Pelicans (.286/.298/.411 in 20 G). With Zulia in 2010-2011, he produced at a .273/.330/.352 clip as a 3rd-string 1B (Lino Connell was the starter) and fourth-string catcher (Guillermo Quiroz started). He was 4 for 10 with a triple and two runs in the postseason. After not playing in the summer, he was 0 for 5 for Zulia in 2011-2012 and 0 for 2 in the postseason.

Marval moved on to the Italian Baseball League in 2012, signing with Cariparma Parma. He split catching with Riccardo Bertagnon and played DH, 3B and 1B when not at catcher. He fielded .994 in 23 games at C and .923 in 8 games at 3B. He hit .384/.450/.597. He led the league in average (.019 ahead of former major leaguer Ray Sadler), slugging (.001 ahead of Danilo Sánchez), RBI (41 in 41 games, one RBI ahead of Sánchez), hits (61, two more than Daniel Bittar), total bases (95, 5 ahead of Mario Chiarini) and OPS (tied with Sánchez). He was 4th in OBP (between Giuseppe Spinelli and Gabriele Ermini), 10th in runs (33) and second in home runs (8, two behind Sánchez). Despite the impressive numbers, he did not make the league postseason All-Star team; Simone Albanese got 23.1% of the voting at catcher while he was at 20%; Juan Pablo Angrisano and Sánchez also were over 15 in a close race.

In 2013, he again played part-time at catcher (.983 FLD% in 21 G) while splitting time between LF (6 G), 3B (4 G) and 1B (1 G) when not catching. His batting line was .404/.500/.526. He was 4th in the IBL in average (between Alessandro Vaglio and Jack Santora), OBP (between Sánchez and Vinicio Sparagna) and OPS (between Vaglio and former major leaguer Chris Aguila), tied for 6th in hits (46) and 9th in slugging (between Ben Harrison and Giuseppe Mazzanti). He again was second in All-Star voting at catching, but further back - he was at 18.9% to Bertagnon (now playing for Rimini)'s 29.7%

The Punto Fijo native slipped somewhat in his third year with Parma, when the IBL split to two halves. He hit .324/.432/.473 in the first half, with 16 RBI in 20 games. He still tied Paul Macaluso for the lead with 8 doubles, was 3rd in RBI (2 behind Macaluso, the leader), tied Ennio Retrosi for 5th with 24 hits and was 10th in OBP (between former big leaguer Oscar Salazar and Bertagnon). In the second half, he batted .292/.383/.492. He tied Rodriguez for second with 3 homers, was 4th in slugging (between Carlos Duran and former major leaguer Trent Oeltjen) and 4th in OPS (between Duran and another ex-MLB player, Alex Romero). He drew 15.5% of the All-Star voting, down to third place behind Rodriguez (39.8%) and Bertagnon (26.5%).

Moving to Nettuno 2 and first base in 2015, he hit .290/.369/.430. He tied Giuseppe Sciacca for third with three homers, was 6th with 20 RBI and 89th in slugging (between Alex Sambucci and Retrosi). He switched clubs again for 2016, now with Unipol Bologna. He hit .354/.485/.462 with 34 walks and 21 RBI in 36 games. He led Italy in OBP (.033 ahead of Sebastiano Poma), was second in OPS (26 points behind teammate and former big leaguer Ronny Cedeño), tied Cedeño for second in his (46), was third in average (behind Poma and Cedeño), tied Willie Vasquez for 3rd in walks, was 4th in slugging (between Daniel Mayora and Mazzanti) and ranked 10th in RBI (21, tied with Francesco Imperiali and Claudio Liverziani). He fielded .996 but allowed 12 steals in 13 tries; he also played DH sometimes, with Marco Sabbatani doing the catching. In the semifinals, he was 6 for 19 with two doubles, three walks, two runs and three RBI in five games. He then starred in the 2016 Italian Series as Bologna beat Rimini in six games; he hit .462/.481/.654 with five doubles, four runs and two RBI. He scored the winner in the finale. He led the Series in average (.144 over Vaglio), hits (12, 5 more than Jose Flores and Vaglio), runs (tied with Cedeño and Flores), total bases (17, 5 over Mayora), doubles (3 more than Lino Zappone and Stefano De Simoni) and slugging (.154 better than Mayora) and was second in OBP (.019 behind Liverziani). For his performance, he was named Series MVP. He was the third Venezuelan to win in the past seven years, following Marcos Yepez (2010) and Rodriguez (2014), when no other country had more than one (Canada, Italy, the Dominican Republic and the US having each produced one Series MVP).

Marval hit .444/.542/.611 with 6 runs and 5 RBI in 5 games in the 2017 European Champions Cup; in the round-robin phase, he was 9th in OBP, tied for 3rd in runs and tied for first in walks (5). He was even better over the course of the 2017 Italian Baseball League (.464/.526/.672, 36 R, 40 RBI in 34 G; .996 FLD%). He led the league in average (.049 over fellow Venezuelan Oscar Angulo), OBP (.060 over Angulo), runs (3 ahead of Nick Nosti), hits (two ahead of Angulo), RBI (1 ahead of Flores) and sacrifice flies (5, tied with Nathanael Batista). He was second in slugging (.058 behind Angulo), home runs (3 behind Angulo) and total bases (89, 15 behind Angulo) and tied Vaglio for 7th in doubles (10). He hit .263/.333/.263 in the 2018 European Champions Cup.

In the 2018 Serie A1, he again was one of the league's top threats. He hit .378/.441/.703 with 36 runs, 31 RBI and 9 home runs in 28 games as the schedule shrank. He was 8th in average (between Yordanis Alarcón and Batista), led in slugging (.009 over Mazzanti), was 7th in OBP (between Jesús Ustariz and Charlie Mirabal), led in runs (5 ahead of Romero), was 3rd in hits (42), led in RBI (3 over Ustariz), tied for 3rd with 9 doubles, led in home runs (3 ahead of Angulo and Mattia Reginato) and led in total bases (78). He kept on rolling in the 2018 Italian Series, homering twice and driving in four in the opener as Bologna would top his old Parma mates. He hit .333/.429/.889 for the Series with 3 homers, 4 runs and 6 RBI in four games. He led the Series in homers, RBI (tied with Mazzanti), runs (tied with Flores and Kevin Moesquit) and total bases (16, 7 ahead of Aldo Koutsoyanopulos). He won Series MVP for the second time in three years.

He continued his dominance in the 2019 European Champions Cup, hitting .429/.438/.929 with 7 RBI in 4 games entering the finals, then going 2 for 4 with a walk, two doubles, a run and a RBI in the finale win over the Amsterdam Pirates. Exempting the final day (which did not count for statistical leader purposes), he was 10th in average, 6th in slugging, tied Denzel Richardson for 3rd in RBI and 6th in total bases while playing error-free defense. He was named Cup MVP.

Sources[edit]

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