José Contreras

José Contreras

: "For the Chilean football player, see José Contreras (footballer).": "For the Canadian rock singer, see José Miguel Contreras.": "For the Venezuelan cyclist, see José Alirio Contreras."

Infobox MLB player
name = José Contreras



width = 200
caption =
team = Chicago White Sox
number = 52
position = Starting pitcher
birthdate = birth date and age|1971|12|6
birthplace = Pinar del Río, Cuba
bats = Right
throws = Right
debutdate = March 31
debutyear = 2003
debutteam = New York Yankees
statyear = August 11, 2008
stat1label = Win-Loss
stat1value = 65-50
stat2label = Earned run average
stat2value = 4.57
stat3label = Strikeouts
stat3value = 693
teams =
*New York Yankees (by|2003-by|2004)
*Chicago White Sox (by|2004-present)
awards =
*All-Star selection (by|2006)

José Ariel Contreras Camejo (born December 6, 1971 in Las Martinas, Pinar del Río, Cuba) is a right-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. He previously played for the New York Yankees (by|2003-by|2004) as well as the Cuban national team.

Early career

Cuban Years

In addition to his time with the Cuban national team, Contreras pitched for the Pinar del Río Vegueros of Cuba's Cuban National Series. In his last season in Cuba (2001-2002), he went 13-4 with a 1.76 ERA and 149 strikeouts.cite web |title=Pinar del Rio - Etapa Clasificatoria: 41 Serie Nacional de Beisbol |work=Granma|url=http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/41serie/articulo05.html|accessmonthday=July 24 |accessyear=2006|language=Spanish] Contreras was named Cuban Athlete of the Year on three separate occasions.

Professional career

In March 1999 José Contreras pitched for the Cuban national team against the Baltimore Orioles in front of his countrymen at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana. Contreras pitched eight shutout innings and struck out ten. It was then that Major League scouts took notice of the Cuban pitcher.Fact|date=February 2007

Contreras defected from Cuba in October 2002 while pitching for the Cuban national team during the Americas Series in Santillo, Mexico, [cite web|title=Baseball Briefs|url=http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2002/oct/05/baseball_briefs/|work=Lawrence Journal-Record|accessmonthday=December 8 |accessyear=2006] leading the Yankees to sign him to a four year deal on December 26, 2002.cite web|title=Contreras, Yankees agree to four-year deal|url=http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/1224/1482132.html|work=Associated Press|accessmonthday=July 4 |accessyear=2006]

Major League Baseball career

2003 with Yankees

The by|2003 season was rough for Contreras, although he was 7-2 and posted a 3.30 ERA, he spent two months on the disabled list with a subscapularis strain, had four stops in the minor leagues, and was in and out of the bullpen. While a starter, Contreras was 6-16 with a 22.34 ERA. Out of the bullpen he was 1-1 with a 7.43 ERA. His best game occurred on September 23 at U.S. Cellular Field, in which he shut out the White Sox for eight innings while striking out nine. Contreras would also appear in the 8 postseason games 11 innings total, with a 5.73 ERA striking out 17. His record was 0-12.

2004: End with New York, new beginning in Chicago

The Yankees inserted Contreras into the starting rotation from the start of the by|2004 camp, but once again he was inconsistent. Contreras was optioned to the minor leagues for approximately a month (May 5 May 21). His best start occurred on June 27, against the New York Mets. He struck out ten batters, but what was more important is that for the first time since being in Cuba, Contreras got to pitch in front of his wife, Miriam and daughters, Naylan and Naylenis. On July 31, 2004 Contreras was traded to the White Sox for pitcher Esteban Loaiza.cite web|title=Yankees acquire Loaiza from White Sox|work=Associated Press|url=http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5568444|accessmonthday=July 4 |accessyear=2006] Contreras would pitch inconsistently for the White Sox, up until the end of the season. On the last day of the season, he threw eight innings of two hit baseball earning his 13th win of the season. He would finish with a 5.50 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 70 1/3 innings between New York and Chicago.

2005: Breakout season

The 2005 season began with mixed results for Contreras. The big righty started the season with five consecutive no-decisions and an ERA of 3.04, and stunk up a storm until the All-Star break, with a 4-3 record. The first game after the break (July 14), Contreras pitched extremely well, beating the Indians 1-0.cite web|title=Contreras in control as White Sox win|url=http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20050714&content_id=1131232&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=cws|work=Major League Baseball|accessmonthday=July 4 |accessyear=2006] As the White Sox raced to the playoffs in the second half of the by|2005 season, Contreras became Chicago's most reliable pitcher, winning his last 8 starts and on occasion halting the team's losing streaks. One of the main reasons was the way he pitched. With the help of fellow Cuban Orlando Hernández, Contreras began dropping his arm angle during his delivery. Contreras would also contribute the 3 postseason victories that tied Andy Pettitte for the most second half victories in the Major Leagues with 11, and he threw his first Major League complete game against the Minnesota Twins, on September 23cite web|title=Dye, Contreras pair up to oust Twins|url=http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20050923&content_id=1221178&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=cws|work=Major League Baseball|author=Kelly Theiser|accessmonthday=July 4 |accessyear=2006] Contreras would finish the season 15-7 with a 3.61 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 204 2/3 innings.

Contreras started Game 1 of every series during the playoffs. He would win two of the three Game 1's. The one he lost was to the Los Angeles Angels, this allowed Contreras to earn the win in the pennant clinching Game 5, the fourth consecutive complete game for White Sox starting pitching. Contreras would go 3-1, with a 3.09 ERA, 14 strikeouts, and only two walks. During Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, television commentators said that Contreras, who started the game for the White Sox, had his name banned from being mentioned in Cuba by order of President Fidel Castro. [source needed] White Sox games were also banned from Cuban television and could be seen only with illegal television satellites. [source needed] The White Sox went on to win the World Series in 4 games.

2006: In pursuit of history

The by|2006 season began with Contreras inking a three year contract extension to remain on the South Side.cite web|title=Contreras agrees to three-year extension with White Sox|url=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/whitesox/2006-04-01-contreras-extension_x.htm|work=Associated Press|accessmonthday=July 4 |accessyear=2006] Contreras started the season as well as he had finished the previous one. As of July 6, 2006, he was 9-0, with a 3.31 ERA and 71 strikeouts. On June 17, in an 8-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds, José pitched 6 innings and threw a career high 13 strikeouts as he broke the White Sox team record with his 16th consecutive regular-season win (previously 15 held by LaMarr Hoyt (1983-84) and Wilson Alvarez (1993-94)). Dating back to the 2005 season, Contreras won 17 consecutive games before finally taking the loss against his former team, the New York Yankees on July 14, 2006. Contreras was named by his White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén to the 2006 American League All-Star team, but was unable to play because he had thrown 6 innings and 117 pitches in a start just two days before the All-Star game. Guillen, the AL manager, replaced him with Minnesota Twins rookie Francisco Liriano. [cite web|title=Liriano, Eckstein Added to All-Star Game|date=July 11, 2006|accessmonthday=July 24 | accessyear=2006|work=SFGate.com|url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/07/10/sports/s142231D82.DTL] This enabled Contreras to become the first pitcher in 30 years to start 2 consecutive regularly scheduled games (see "Trivia" below).

Contreras suffered setback as a case of sciatica put him on the 15-day DL in May. Along with seeing his personal winning streak come to an end, Contreras finished the season with a 4.27 ERA, including a 5.40 ERA after the All-Star break.

2007

In 2007 he led all major league pitchers in errors, with 6, and had the lowest fielding percentage among them, .818.

2008

Contreras ruptured his Achilles Tendon on August 9, by|2008 while attempting to field a ground ball against the Boston Red Sox. The White Sox have placed him on the 15-day disabled list, and expect him to miss the remainder of the season. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=White Sox place Contreras on DL | date=2008-08-10 | publisher=Yahoo! Sports | url =http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Al04RsUNImVf33PQ70eCPKEU0bYF?slug=ap-whitesox-contreras&prov=ap&type=lgns | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-11 | language = ]


=References=This cat really sucks and is useless because he spends most of his career on the disabled list.

External links

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