Raul Ibanez

Raul Ibanez is an Major League Baseball outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies. He was born on June 2, 1972 in New York City, New York. Ibanez attended Sunset High School in Miami, Florida and Miami-Dade Community College.http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=116380 He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 36th round of the 1992 amateur draft. Raul Ibanez made his MLB debut with the Mariners on August 1, 1996. He also played for the Kansas City Royals and has been a member of the Phillies since 2009.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/i/ibanera01.shtml

Raul Ibanez started the 2010 season as the starting left fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies. He batted sixth in the lineup behind Jayson Werth. He started off slowly, with just 1 hit in his first 11 at bats, but then had a three game hitting streak, which included a 3 hit game and 3 runs batted in against the Houston Astros on April 9. He had just 1 hit in his next eight games. Ibanez hit his first home run of the season on April 24 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. For the month, he had just a .221 average and 9 runs batted in.http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_gamebygamelog.jsp?c_id=phi&playerID=116380&statType=1

Ibanez started the month of May hitting better. He had hits in 8 of the first 9 games during the month, which raised his batting average to .253. Ibanez hit his second home run of the year against the Saint Louis Cardinals on May 6. On May 14, Ibanez had 2 hits, one of which was a home run, against the Milwaukee Brewers. He also had 2 hit games against the Chicago Cubs on May 20 and the New York Mets on May 25.http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_gamebygamelog.jsp?c_id=phi&playerID=116380&statType=1 He ended the month of May with a .247 average, 3 home runs and 21 runs batted in.

During the first five games in June, Ibanez had just one hit. On June 8, he got four hits against the Florida Marlins and two hits in a loss against the Boston Red Sox on June 12. He hit his fourth home run of the season and his 220th of his career on June 13 and his fifth home run of the season against the Minnesota Twins on June 19.

Raul Ibanez made his MLB debut with the Seattle Mariners on August 1, 1996. He played in just 4 games with the Mariners in 1996 and got his first career hit in 1997. Ibanez played in 37 games with the Marinerz in the 1998 season and batted .255 with 2 home runs in 103 at bats. In 1999, Raul Ibanez became a bigger part of the Mariners outfield roation and played in 87 games. He had 209 at bats, 9 home runs and a .258 batting average.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/i/ibanera01.shtml He was used mainly as a pinch hitter and backup outfieder in 2000 and had 140 at bats and 2 home runs in 97 games.http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=116380

Ibanez was a non-roster invitee of the Kansas City Royals in 2001 and made the opening day roster. He was sent back to the minor leagues twice that season but became the starter on June 19. He had a .298 batting average the rest of the season in 68 starts. Overall he batted .280 with 13 home runs and 54 runs batted in. Ibanez played two more seasons with the Royals and had his first 20 home run and 100 rbi season in 2002.http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=116380

Ibanez returned to the Mariners in 2004 and had 33 home runs, 123 runs batted in and a .289 average in 2006. That was his first of 3 consecutive years with 100 or more runs batted in. Ibanez also had four consecutive seasons of at least 20 home runs. In 2009 he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies to replace Pat Burrell, who was a free agent signing of the Tampa Bay Rays. Ibanez became a fan favorite with the Phillies and hit a career high 34 home runs for the season despite missing 28 games due to injury.http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=116380

Raul Ibanez began his professional baseball career with the Mariners rookie league team in the Arizona League in 1992. He batted .308 in 33 games. From 1993 through 1995, Ibanez played for Bellington, Appleton and Riverside, A affiliate teams for the Mariners. He batted .312 in 1995 with 7 home runs, 30 doubles and 59 runs batted in. Ibanez started the 1996 season with AA affiliate Port City, but was advanced to AAA affiliate Tacoma after just 19 games. Raul Ibanez batted .284 with 20 double and 11 home runs with Tacoma for the season. 1997 was the last full season for Ibanez in the minor leagues. He had a .304 batting average with 30 doubles, 15 home runs and 84 runs batted in for the season. He had several short stints in the minor leagues in the Mariners organization through 2004. Raul Ibanez played in three games in the Phillies minor league system during rehab from an injury in 2009.http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=ibanez001rau