Rodney Medina

From BR Bullpen

Rodney A. Medina Urdaneta

  • Bats Left, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 1", Weight 203 lb.

BR Minors page

Biographical information[edit]

Rodney Medina has played 15 years in pro baseball through 2014.

Blue Jays minor leaguer[edit]

Medina debuted in 1998-1999 with the Cardenales de Lara, playing one game and not batting. He then got into Organized Baseball in 1999 with Chino Canonico, hitting .299 with 10 steals. In 2000, he batted .282 for the DSL Blue Jays and went deep 7 times after hitting no home runs as a rookie. By 2001, he was in the USA, playing for both the Medicine Hat Blue Jays (.308/.375/.451, 7 HR in 50 G) and Auburn Doubledays (.179/.256/.205 in 11 G). In 2002, he hit .286/.354/.389 with 7 triples and 11 steals (in 21 tries) for the Charleston Alley Cats. He was one triple behind Alex Rios and Justin Singleton, who led the Toronto chain. He hit .268 for Lara in 2002-2003, his first regular action in the Venezuelan League.

In 2003, Medina played primarily for Charleston (.283/.349/.442, 8 3B, 11 HR in 119 G) and was briefly with the Dunedin Blue Jays (2 for 8). He was two triples behind South Atlantic League pacesetter Jason Pridie but led SAL flyhawks with 14 errors. The next summer, he again split time between Charleston (.330/.352/.427 in 20 G) and Dunedin (.259/.321/.386 in 57 G). He hit .314 that winter for the Cardenales. Medina ended his time in the Toronto chain with Dunedin in '05, putting up a .272/.305/.349 line in 45 games. He was the #4 outfielder on a team whose starters included Adam Lind and Jayce Tingler. He fell to .291 for Lara in 2005-2006.

Independent leagues[edit]

Moving to the independent leagues, Medina split 2006 between the Coastal Bend Aviators (.279/.350/.362 in 61 G) and Edinburg Coyotes (.442/.492/.500 in 14 G, only 3 SB in 10 tries). Moving to his hometown Águilas del Zulia, he was 5 for 20 with four walks that winter. He starred for Edinburg in 2007, producing at a .340/.384/.438 clip with 26 steals in 37 tries. He was fourth in the United League in batting average. He kept up his fine singles-hitting in winter ball, batting .383/.426/.394 for Zulia. had he qualified, he would have been second in the Venezuelan League in average, one point behind Jose Castillo.

In 2008-2009, Medina again did very well in his homeland, at .351/.387/.462. He finished third in average behind major leaguers Pablo Sandoval and Oscar Salazar (one point shy of second-place Salazar). The Tigres de Aragua added him to their roster for the 2009 Caribbean Series. While he hit .269/.269/.346 with one run and one RBI in six games, his Tigres club won it all and he was named to the All-Star team in left field (Christian Quintero and Selwyn Langaigne were the other outfielders picked).

After not appearing in the US in 2008, Medina split 2009 between the Lancaster Barnstormers (.290/.343/.323 in 20 G) and Shreveport-Bossier Captains (.339/.364/.371 in 15 G). He had another solid winter for Zulia, batting .326/.401/.451 but fell to .254/.290/.344 in 2010-2011.

Europe[edit]

Signing with Cariparma Parma for 2011, Medina made his Italian Baseball League debut on April 14. Hitting third and playing right field, he went 1 for 5 in a loss to Unipol Bologna. In the 2011 European Cup, Medina fell a triple shy of the cycle in an opening win over the Tenerife Marlins Puerto Cruz. He was 8 for 16 with 4 doubles, a homer, 5 walks, 6 runs and 6 RBI in five games in pool play. He tied Giovanni Pantaleoni for the best average, led in slugging (.138 over Jeffrey Arends), led in OBP (.054 ahead of Pantaleoni), was third in runs (one shy of Arends and Anthony Granato), ranked 4th in hits, tied Alex Sambucci and Arends for second in RBI (one behind Jairo Ramos Gizzi), tied David Gauthier for the walk lead, tied Arends for the double lead, tied for the home run lead and was second in total bases (one behind Arends). In the Cup Final Four, he went 5 for 7 with two RBI, leading in average and tying Daniele Malengo for the most hits but Parma fell to T&A San Marino in the finals, 7-1. He hit .377/.435/.583 with 30 runs in 41 games for the 2011 IBL season. He won the Italian Baseball League batting crown (.005 over Edgard Clemente), ranked 10th in runs, tied Clemente and Lorenzo Avagnina for 6th in homers (5), tied Avagnina and Renato Imperiali for 7th in doubles (10), led in hits (57, two ahead of Willie Vasquez), was second in OPS (tied with Mario Chiarini, 3 behind Clemente), ranked 6th in OBP (between Josh Phelps and Clemente) and was 4th in slugging (between Clemente and Vasquez).

Winding down[edit]

He slumped to .207/.246/.224 for Zulia in 2011-2012, was 6 for 23 with 3 walks as a bench player in 2012-2013 and went 8 for 38 with a homer and two walks after moving to the Bravos de Margarita as a free agent for 2013-2014.

Sources[edit]

Related Sites[edit]

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