Sammy Sosa, right fielder, Texas Rangers, born 11-12-1968 in San Pedro de Macoris, in the Dominican Republic. Formerly played for the Texas Rangers (as of 2007 he's in his second tour of duty with the Rangers), Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles. Acquired from the White Sox by the Cubs in a trade for George Bell in the 1991-1992 offseason, then was traded in 2004 to Baltimore for a few no-names.
George W. Bush claimed in the 2000 presidential campaign that the biggest mistake he ever made was parting with Sosa, when Bush was the owner of the Texas Rangers. It's certainly proven to be the one with the highest cost. Through the 1992 season, Sosa was a skinny, speedy outfielder who couldn't quite play center field, had no plate discipline, and had no home run power. In 1993, Sosa had a power spike, launching a then-career high 33 home runs, and hitting 25 doubles. He continued to show modest power for the next four years, with remarkable consistency in his power numbers and his on-base percentage, which hovered around .310. He was an analyst's nightmare--a player who has tremendous athletic ability and good raw power, but who doesn't get on base sufficiently to help his team when he's playing right field. Many people, analysts and traditional reporters alike, thought that the Tribune Corporation was being exceptionally generous to Sosa when they offered him a four-year contract extension following his 1996 campaign, and his continuing offensive mediocrity in 1997 made those rumblings louder.
Over the course of 1997, the Cubs' hitting coach Jeff Pentland attempted to get Sosa to become more patient at the plate. Sosa was initally resistant to Pentland's efforts, but sometime during the 1997 offseason, something apparently clicked. He put up a career-high 73 walks in the 1998 season, and not coincidentally, his increased patience led to an improvement in his power, with 66 home runs. Pentland and Sosa have discussed Sosa's hitting renaissance in numerous interviews, and they consistently mention that Sosa learned to drive pitches to the opposite field when pitchers threw outside to him. In 1998, Sosa's home runs were evenly spread throughout the park. Since then, he has tended to pull the ball more, but he has maintained his selectiveness at the plate, with an increase in his walk rate and walk total in each season from 1998 to 2001. He hit over 50 home runs in each year from 1997 to 2001, despite the fact that Wrigley Field is becoming a pitcher's park. His lowest slugging percentage during the last four years is 80 points higher than his highest previous mark. Sosa, at present, is the best example in baseball of what plate discipline can do for a hitter with all of the other necessary tools to become a star.
Sosa was traded by the Cubs to the Orioles prior to the 2005 season, and spent a miserable year in Baltimore. After that season ended, no team wanted him, so he sat out the 2006 season. In 2007, the Rangers were willing to take a chance on him and invited him to spring training. Rangers management expects that he'll make the team.