Adam Lind

From BR Bullpen

Adam Alan Lind

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 2", Weight 195 lb.
School University of South Alabama
High School Highland High School
Debut September 2, 2006

Born July 17, 1983 in Anderson, IN USA

[edit] Biographical Information

Adam Lind is an outfielder and DH with the Toronto Blue Jays. He made his major league debut in 2006 in striking fashion, slugging .600 in a limited sample of 18 games. In the minors through 2006, he never had less than a .300 batting average and was Eastern League MVP in 2006.

Lind is one of nine major leaguers born in Anderson, IN (through 2007). Other than Lind, the most recent one is Jermaine Allensworth.

Out of high school, Adam was drafted in the 8th round of the 2002 amateur draft by the Minnesota Twins. He instead opted to go on to college. As a freshman at the University of South Alabama, he hit .349/.398/.555 and made the Baseball America freshman All-American second team at first base behind Stephen Head. In 2004, Lind batted .392/.456/.659 and led the Sun Belt Conference in batting average. He made the All-Conference team as an outfielder.

He was then picked in the 3rd round of the 2004 amateur draft by the Toronto Blue Jays, a compensation choice for the loss of free agent Kelvim Escobar. He signed for a $445,000 bonus. In A ball in 2004, he hit .312/.367/.474 at Auburn in the NYPL with 23 doubles, 7 homers and 50 RBI in 70 games. He was 6th in the circuit in batting average and tied Chris Gimenez for the lead in doubles.

In high-A ball in 2005 with Dunedin in the Florida State League, he hit .313/.375/.487 with 12 home runs, 42 doubles, 80 runs and 84 RBI. Baseball America rated him the #13 prospect in the league. He tied Chin-Lung Hu for second in average, 14 points behind leader Tony Abreu. He led the loop in both doubles and extra-base hits (58). He made the league All-Star team in the outfield.

In 2006, he was in AA ball for 91 games, AAA ball for 34 games and in the majors for 18 games. He led the Jays chain with a .330 average and was named their Minor League Player of the Year. He hit .310/.357/.543 for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, .394/.496/.596 in for the Syracuse SkyChiefs and .367/.415/.600 for the 2006 Blue Jays. He won the Eastern League MVP award, made the league All-Star team in the outfield and was voted the #6 prospect by Baseball America, right behind Adam Loewen. He did not have enough plate appearances to qualify or he would have been second in the EL in average and led in slugging. He had a shot at the Triple Crown before being promoted away. Baseball America also rated him the best batting prospect and best power prospect in the EL. He won his third Webster award in 2006, which is given annually to the top player from each Toronto Blue Jays minor league club.

In 2007, he was expected to be given a chance to compete for the left field job, vacated when Frank Catalanotto left the team. In spite of that, and in spite of slugging .692 in spring training in 2007, Lind was sent back down to the minors because the Blue Jays couldn't find a place for him to play. The Syracuse Chiefs were thrilled to have Lind, who was called "the jewel of the Blue Jays minor league system", playing for them. However, before the middle of April the Blue Jays brought him back up to the major league team, when Reed Johnson was placed on the disabled list. He went 3-for-5 in his first major league game of the season. He hit a disppointing .238/.278/.400 in 89 games for the Jays that season.

After the 2007 season, the Blue Jays re-signed Matt Stairs and indicated a desire to retain Reed Johnson, thus sending Lind back to Syracuse again for the start of the 2008 season, in spite of releasing Johnson at the end of spring training. After hitting a solid .328 with 17 doubles and 6 home runs in 59 games for the Chiefs, Lind was called up for good in June and established himself as the starting left fielder for the Blue Jays for the rest of the year, batting .282/.316/.439 with 16 doubles and 9 home runs in 88 games. His OPS+ with Toronto was 99, low for a corner outfielder.

In 2009, he made the team out of spring training as manager Cito Gaston announced that Lind and rookie Travis Snider would alternate between left field and DH. He started the year with a bang, collecting 6 RBI thanks to a double and a three-run home off the Tigers' Justin Verlander in a 12-5 win on opening day, April 6.

Sources include 2004-2007 Baseball Almanacs, Thebaseballcube.com