George Kottaras

From BR Bullpen

George Kottaras

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 6' 0", Weight 180 lb.

School Connors State Junior College
High School Milliken Mills High School
Debut September 13, 2008

Born May 16, 1983 in Scarborough, ON Canada

[edit] Biographical Information

A native of Canada, George Kottaras has played for US teams in his first five seasons, except for two appearances with Greece in international competition. He made the majors in his 6th season.

Kottaras was picked in the 20th round of the 2002 amateur draft by the San Diego Padres. He debuted professionally in 2003, hitting .259/.348/.476 for the Idaho Falls Padres. He joined the Greek national team and hit .208/~.407/.250 in the 2003 European Championship as his team won the Silver. His 8 walks were second in the tournament, one behind Claudio Liverziani.

In 2004, Kottaras led all Padres farmhands with a .415 OBP. He batted .310/.415/.461 for the Fort Wayne Wizards. Had he qualified, he would have ranked 7th in the Midwest League in average. His OBP was 30 points behind MWL leader and league All-Star catcher Daric Barton. He rejoined the Greek national squad for the 2004 Olympics and batted .250/.308/.333 in 4 games in the Summer Games. He played two contests at both catcher and first base. All three of his hits came in Greece's win over Italy.

Kottaras batted .303/.390/.469 in 91 games for the 2005 Lake Elsinore Storm and .287/.397/.416 in 29 contests with the Mobile BayBears. His 36 doubles led Padres minor leaguers. Baseball America rated him as the 17th-best prospect in the California League, right behind Nate Schierholtz and the #2 prospect in the San Diego chain.

Kottaras continued his climb in 2006, with a .276/.394/.451 campaign in 78 games for Mobile and a .210/.286/.361 line in 33 games for the Portland Beavers. He hit just .111 against left-handers while with Portland. Baseball America rated him as the #14 prospect in the Southern League, between Tyler Lumsden and Alberto Gonzalez. Kottaras also dazzled in the 2006 Futures Game. He started at catcher for the World team, hitting 7th. In the second inning, he doubled against Homer Bailey and scored on a Chin-Lung Hu double for a 1-0 World team lead. By the time he batted again in the 4th, the World trailed 7-2. He did his part, with a 2-run homer off of Philip Hughes to score Wladimir Balentien. Kottaras was replaced by Salomon Manriquez at catcher before he batted again. He finished the day as the World team's top player in total bases and runs and tied Balentien for the RBI lead. The World team lost, 8-5.

That September, he went to the Boston Red Sox as the player to be named later in the trade for David Wells. He immediately was added to Boston's 40-man roster and joined the Portland Sea Dogs for the playoffs, his second Portland of the year. He hit .276/~.400/.552 in the playoffs with 8 RBI in 8 games to help the Sea Dogs to the title.

Kottaras had a disappointing first year in the Red Sox organization, hitting .241/.316/.408 for the 2007 Pawtucket Red Sox. While it was the lowest OPS of his career by 30 points, he still had an OPS only six points below league average. He was still just 24 years old, not that advanced in years by any means. His average was only .243 in 2008, but he did hit 18 doubles and 22 homers for Pawtucket plus drew 64 walks. This led to a .348 OBP and .456 slugging percentage, an OPS well above average for the 2008 International League, earning a call-up to the Red Sox in September. He made his debut replacing Jason Varitek in the 7th inning of the first game of a doubleheader on September 13, 2008, against the Toronto Blue Jays. He struck out against A.J. Burnett in his first at-bat, but still reached base on a wild pitch and came around to score the Sox's only run in an 8-1 loss.

In 2009. Kottaras made the Red Sox's roster as a back-up to Varitek. In practice, this meant that he had the very specialized job of catching knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

His brother, James Kottaras, was drafted in the 2008 amateur draft.

Sources: 2004-2007 Baseball Almanacs, 2007 Red Sox Media Guide, MILB.com, IBAF website, 2003 European Championship stats