Years of Service: 3 (2009-present)
Position: Shortstop
Photo via Dempsey's Army
Izturis is, simultaneously, the first current Oriole and the first international player to be featured in my A to Z list. Not much of a threat with a bat, he is one of the best fielding shortstops in baseball and will serve as utility man for the club this year. He made his first appearance last Thursday, starting at short against Detroit. With regular shortstop J.J. Hardy heading to the disabled list, Izturis is going to get a lot more work. He represented Venezuela in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. The Venezuelans did well, making it to the semifinals before falling to South Korea.
Itzuris is a great clubhouse leader, too. Here is a very nice Baltimore Sun piece by Jeff Zrebiec from spring training.
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For each letter of the A to Z Challenge, I will feature one player from Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns history. I hope you will join me. I hope you'll also check out the other 1200+ blogs participating. See the full list at Tossing It Out.
In particular, I hope you'll check out my new blogging friends:
My First Book
Jeffrey Beesler's World of the Scribe
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