Meet the Cubs..... * Geovany Soto *

Every so often, I will put together a fairly small bio of Cubs players in a blog. If you are like me, I always want to know a little more about my favorite Cubs players. So, I am going to look through some information on the players and give you some of the good stuff. That way you don't have to do as much reading. So, here is some info on Geovany Soto.

GEOVANY SOTO

#18, Catcher

Born: January 20, 1983

Birthplace:  San Juan, Puerto Rico

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 225

Current Stats as of August 1st 2008: .275 batting average, 17 HR, 58 RBI, .351 OBP, .492 SLG

BASEBALL INFO 

Soto was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 11th Round (318th pick) of the 2001 Amateur Draft. In 2007, Soto had a .353 batting average, 26 HR, and 109 RBI with the minor league Iowa Cubs. These numbers earned him the Pacific Coast League's MVP award in 2007. Although Soto had made his very brief major league debut in September of 2005 and another quick stop in the majors in July of 2007, he finally got called up in September of 2007 to play a larger role for the playoff push. Soto had a great first half in 2008, which gave him All-Star Starter honors at catcher. He was the first rookie catcher to be a starter on the National League All-Star Team.   

PERSONAL INFO

Geovany Soto attended the American Military Academy. He is the cousin of Ramon Martinez, an ex-Cub. His child was born on October 24th 2007. His 2008 salary is $401,000. He learned English from watching TV shows such as Full House and Fresh Prince. His family moved from Puerto Rico to the Bronx when he was 3 years old; Then, they moved to Florida, and then back to Puerto Rico when he was 8 years old. He claims to be a perfectionist and would be an accountant if he was not a major league ballplayer. He won a $2,000 bet with Carlos Zambrano in 2007...the bet was to see who could reach the lowest body fat between the two. In fact, Soto lost 30 pounds in 2007. 

(Sources used: Sports Illustrated, ESPN.com, MLB.com, Cubs.com, Wikipedia)