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Mark Reynolds

Mark Reynolds was born in Pikeville, Kentucky. He attended First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and also played on an Amateur Athletic Union that included New York Mets superstar third baseman, and good friend, David Wright, and future teammate Justin Upton.

He was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the sixteenth round of the 2004 amateur draft, and no one would have figured that this kid would one day become a huge steal for the Diamondbacks organization.

In 2007, Mark Reynolds was called up from double-A Mobile after starting third baseman Chad Tracy had gone down with an injury. He hit 17 home runs in 111 games, good enough to earn himself the starting job for the next season.

The next year, Reynolds showed off a bit of a power stroke by belting out 28 home runs and smashing 28 doubles. It did come at a price though, as he set the major league record in strike outs with 204, along with a sub par .239 batting average.

As a 25 year old, he seemed to have a classic "young hitter's" attitude, which would be swinging for the fences at every at bat. He showed some upside, but people wondered whether he would ever cut down on the K's and up his average a bit to become a decent regular at the major league level. If both were to happen, his home run total would possibly go down, thus eliminating his only value he has shown so far. He was also no fielder at the hot corner, as he committed 34 errors.

But as a determined young player, improvements were expected, and improvement came.

This season Mark Reynolds has been a monster. Not only is he hitting more home runs than ever (has already surpassed last season's total by a wide margin), but he has also brought his average up to a respectable .290 clip, while adding a new attribute to his game: stolen bases. He has gone 20 for 27 and is on pace for just shy of 30 stolen bases, but one couldn't help but think he would go 30/30 one day, possibly even 40/40.

He plays in a hitter friendly park, so non believers would have to question whether he is for real or not. He answered this the best he could, as he crushed 4 home runs in 3 games at Citi Field (including two on his birthday), arguably one of the toughest parks to put one over the fence. To put into perspective, that was the same amount as good friend David Wright had all season.

He is currently sitting at 36 home runs, tied for the league lead with Albert Pujols, and has been on a tear lately, as he has hit 7 homers in his last 8 games with a triple slash line of .441/.500/1.118

If you don't know who he is yet, his name is Mark Andrew Reynolds, and he is baseball's newest power threat.


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via assets.espn.go.com

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