Jimmy Rollins | J-Roll | J-Roll Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball | Rollins

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Jimmy Rollins born November 27, 1978 in Oakland, California, nicknamed “J-Roll”, is an All-Star and former MVP shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball.

Though Rollins has developed into a five-tool player during his career due to significant increases in his power hitting, he is perhaps best known for his baserunning skills. He has stolen at least 20 bases every season since 2001, with a career high of 47 in 2008. This emulates Rollins’ childhood baseball hero, Rickey Henderson.

Rollins was assigned to the rookie-league Martinsville Phillies. He led the team in walks, batting only .238, but stealing 20 bases. However, he still earned a promotion to low-A Piedmont for the 1997 season. He had a better year at only 18 years old, leading the team in games played, at-bats, runs, hits, triples, stolen bases, and walks all in the same year. He batted .270, stole 46 bases, and had 560 at-bats, more than 100 higher than second-place Dave Francia.

Coming into his rookie season of 2001, there was a lot of hype surrounding Rollins and his blistering speed. Many Phillies fans were excited at the thought of having an up-and-coming leadoff man of his potential. He did not disappoint, delivering a league-leading 46 stolen bases that season. Rollins was also the Phillies’ only representative at the 2001 All-Star game.

In 2009, Rollins started the season unlike his previous season, and at one point was hitting so poorly that he was benched four games in June by manager Charlie Manuel in an effort to turn around his season. Towards the end of June Rollins was batting just .195 with a .237 on-base percentage when hitting leadoff, and through July 1 he had the lowest on base percentage (.250) in the major leagues. However, by late September, Rollins had raised his batting average to .250, hitting 21 home runs, 43 doubles, scoring 100 runs, and stealing 31 bases. In game 4 of the 2009 NLCS, Rollins hit the game-winning 2-run double against the Dodgers with one out left to win the game 5–4. However, Rollins’ overall poor postseason performance continued, batting only .234 with an OBP of .306 and only 3 extra base hits in 64 at-bats. In the World Series, while his OBP went up to .345 his average dropped to .217.

Rollins was also a member of the 2009 World Baseball Classic All-WBC team.