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Jack Eugene Wilson (born December 29, 1977 in Westlake Village, California) is a shortstop in Major League Baseball who plays with the Pittsburgh Pirates since 2001. He bats and throws right handed. In a five-season career, Wilson has compiled a .263 batting average with 35 home runs and 245 RBI in 720 games.
Originally selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1998 amateur draft, Wilson was dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2000 midseason and made his debut a year later.
Like his Pirates predecessors, Wilson has been compared favorably with Dick Groat, Gene Alley and Jay Bell for his defense, but no one in the organization expressed any hope he would become one of the National League’s best offensive shortstops. Wilson has quietly become one of the better defensive shortstops in the game. He has outstanding range, particularly in the hole, greats hands, a good throwing arm, and has sound great reflexes and instincts for the game. With the bat, Wilson is a line-drive hitter and an excellent bunter who is starting to develop gap power as he gains experience and confidence at the plate. He hit second in the batting order.
Wilson had almost identical seasons in 2002 and 2003, hitting .252 with 22 doubles in 147 games and .256, 21, 150, respectively.
But Wilson easily enjoyed the finest season of brief career in in 2004 as he set career highs in almost every category, when he posted a .308 average, shared the league in triples with 12 (along with Jimmy Rollins), scored 82 runs, hit 41 doubles with 11 home runs and 49 RBI, and collected 201 hits (3rd in the league) in 157 games, including 56 multi-hit game, ending the year with a season-high 12-game hitting streak (17-for-46, .370).
With his 201 hits, Wilson became just the ninth National League shortstop to collect 200 hits in a season; the franchise’s first player since Dave Parker (1977), and the first Pirates shortstop since Hall of Famer Honus Wagner (1908). Wilson also became the first Pirates player to collect 10 or more doubles, triples and home runs in the same season since Andy Van Slyke (1992).
Defensively, Wilson led National League shortstops in assists (492) and total chances (743); his 129 double plays led all major league shortstops and broke the club record of 128—set by Gene Alley in 1966, and went 31 straight contests without making an error. Wilson also was named for the 2004 All-Star Game and was honored with the Roberto Clemente and Silver Slugger awards as well.
In December 2004, Wilson was hospitalized for an appendectomy. Despite the setback, he was optimistic at spring training 2005. At 6-foot, 175-pound, Wilson had regained six of the 15 pounds he lost. However, he started the season poorly, hitting just .163 in April and .227 for the first half of the season, and acknowledged that he hadn’t been fully recovered when the season started. Late season improvements to his hitting brought his cumulative season numbers to near his career averages.
Facts
Wilson was selected for the 2004 All-Star Game after receiving the most votes (395) among all National League shortstops in player balloting.
When he was a teenager and playing on a summer travel team, Wilson’s roommate was his future Pirates teammate Freddy Sanchez. At the time, Sanchez played the more demanding shortstop position while Wilson was related to second base.
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