Tony Blanco

Blanco with the Chunichi Dragons

Orix Buffaloes – No. 42

First baseman

Born: November 10, 1980
San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic

Bats: Right

Throws: Right

Professional debut

NPB: April 3, 2009, for the Chunichi Dragons

MLB: April 4, 2005, for the Washington Nationals

NPB statistics
(through August 14, 2016)

Batting average

.272

Home runs

181

Runs batted in

542

Teams

Washington Nationals (2005)
Chunichi Dragons (2009–2012) (NPB)
Yokohama DeNA BayStars (2013–2014) (NPB)
Orix Buffaloes (2015–present) (NPB)

Career highlights and awards

NPB

4× NPB All-Star (2009-2010, 2013-2014)
3× Best Nine Award (2009, 2012-2013)
Leader of Batting average in Central League (2013)
2× Leader of RBI in Central League (2009, 2013)
Leader of Home run in Central League (2009)

Tony Enrique Blanco (born November 10, 1980) is a Dominican professional baseball player. He is mainly a first baseman, third baseman and outfielder. Blanco plays for the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He has also played in Major League Baseball for the Washington Nationals and the Chunichi Dragons, Yokohama DeNA BayStars of NPB.

Career

Blanco began his career in the Boston Red Sox farm system as a third basemen. In 2002, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds as a player to be named later, completing an earlier trade that sent Todd Walker to Boston. As a top prospect in the Reds organization in 2003, Blanco made a name for himself while playing for the Potomac Cannons of the Carolina League. Blanco was picked up by the Nationals as a Rule 5 Draft choice in 2005 and started the year playing for the Potomac Nationals. Blanco was invited to spring training for the big league club and quickly made it to the roster early in 2005, playing in 56 games. During 2005, his rookie season, he hit .177 with one home run and seven RBI.

In 2008, Blanco played for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers in the Colorado Rockies organization batting .323 with 23 home runs and 88 RBI. After the 2008 season, Blanco played in the Dominican Winter League for the Estrellas Orientales. He was then acquired by the Chunichi Dragons, who released their cleanup hitter Tyrone Woods due to his high wage, shortly after that.

His first year in NPB was very successful, and he became known renown for his incredible power. Examples of his power include a grounded home run in Nagoya Dome(first in dome history), hitting the light unit above the advertisement board in Tokyo Dome, as well as hitting the top-level stand in the Nagoya and Osaka Domes. He finished his first season with an impressive 39 HR and 110 RBI, both leading in Central League, along with a .275 batting average. Other than the HR and RBI award, he was also rewarded as Central League Performance Award in Interleague game (11 HR and 24 RBI) and won the Home Run Derby before the All-star game (which he was also playing as Central League first baseman).

External links

Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

Orix Buffaloes current roster

Active roster	3 Ryoichi Adachi 4 Brent Morel 7 Yoshio Itoi 8 Shunta Gotoh 10 Kohji Ohshiro 11 Takahiro Matsuba 14 Kazumasa Yoshida 15 Tatsuya Satoh 16 Yoshihisa Hirano 17 Sachiya Yamasaki 21 Yuki Nishi 23 Torai Fushimi 26 Daiki Tohmei 32 Brandon Dickson 35 Motoki Higa 37 Kenya Wakatsuki 38 Shūhei Kojima 39 Masahiro Nishino 40 Kohei Suzuki 44 Matt Clark 47 Tomoyuki Kaida 50 Yūya Oda 55 Takahiro Okada 57 Nobuyoshi Yamada 60 Ken Akama 61 Kyo Okunami 62 Katsuki Yamazaki 63 Issei Nakamura

Second squad	00 Satoshi Sonobe 1 Hiroyuki Nakajima 2 Takuya Hara 6 Yūma Mune 12 Kohdai Sano 13 Shunichi Satoh 18 Mamoru Kishida 19 Chihiro Kaneko 20 Daisuke Kondoh 22 Hikaru Ito 24 Yūki Miyazaki 25 Pat Misch 27 Daiki Aoyama 28 Satoshi Komatsu 29 Brian Bogusevic 30 Kyohei Iwasaki 31 Eiichi Koyano 33 Takuya Shimada 34 Masataka Yoshida 36 Ban Takagi 42 Tony Blanco 43 Seiichi Sakayori 45 Toshio Saitoh 46 Takayoshi Kawabata 48 Kohki Saitoh 49 Hirokazu Shiranita 52 Erik Cordier 53 Yūto Yoshida 54 Yūki Tsutsumi 56 Kengo Takeda 58 Ryuta Kadoya 59 Shohei Tsukahara 64 Shota Morimoto 65 Ryosuke Yagi 66 Ryo Yoshida 67 Sena Sato 68 Yu Suzuki 69 Satoshi Ohyama 91 Takayuki Tsukada 97 Daisuke Tanaka 98 Atori Ota 99 Yutaro Sugimoto 121 Kosuke Akamatsu (Trainee) 125 Ryo Toda (Trainee)

First squad coaching	Manager: 78 Junichi Fukura Head Coach: 77 Norifumi Nishimura Conditioning Coach: 79 Takahiro Akagawa Pitching Coaches: 71 Nobuyuki Hoshino, 89 Hiroshi Kobayashi Bullpen Coach: 90 Shusaku Beppu Battery Coach: 82 Fumihiro Suzuki Hitting Coaches: 88 Yoshihiko Takahashi, 85 Hirotoshi Kitagawa Fielding Coaches: 76 Naoyuki Kazaoka, 75 Manabu Satake

Second squad coaching	Manager 81 So Taguchi Hitting Coaches: 74 Shinji Shitayama, 79 Ryutaro Tsuji Pitching Coaches: 72 Masafumi Hirai, 73 Atsushi Yoshida Fielding Coaches: 86 Makoto Shiosaki. 84 Daisuke Hayakawa Battery Coach: 87 Daisuke Maeda Development Coaches: 80 Tsutomu Sakai, 70 Takashi Miwa

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