Jerry Sands | |||
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Sands with the White Sox in 2016
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Somerset Patriots – No. 20 | |||
Outfielder / First baseman | |||
Born: Middletown, New York |
September 28, 1987 |||
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MLB debut | |||
April 18, 2011, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |||
MLB statistics (through 2016 season) |
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Batting average | .238 | ||
Home runs | 10 | ||
Runs batted in | 57 | ||
Teams | |||
Gerald Robert "Jerry" Sands, (born September 28, 1987) is an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman for the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 25th round of the 2008 MLB Draft out of Catawba College and made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut with them in 2011. He has also played for the Tampa Bay Rays. Sands grew up in Smithfield, North Carolina and is a graduate of Smithfield-Selma High School.
Sands struggled in his first professional season with the Gulf Coast Dodgers in 2008, hitting only .205 in 46 games. However, he turned it around in 2009, hitting .350 with 14 home runs in 41 games for the Ogden Raptors and earning a birth on the Pioneer League all-star team and a late-season promotion to the Class-A Great Lakes Loons.
In 2010 with Great Lakes, Sands hit .333 in 69 games, along with 18 home runs and 46 RBI. He was named Midwest League player of the week three times and selected to appear in the mid-season all-star game. He hit a home run in the All-Star game and was named the Player of the Game. Right after the all-star game he was promoted to the AA Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern League, where he homered in his first game with the Lookouts. He played in 68 games in AA and hit .270 with 17 home runs and 47 RBI. He was selected as the Dodgers "Minor League Player of the Year" and given an invite to Major League spring training. He was assigned to the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes in the Pacific Coast League to begin the 2011 season. In 10 games, he hit .400 with five home runs.