![\"David](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/baseball-bears-pros-april09-2.jpg\")
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As the 2009 Major League Baseball season kicks off for most teams today, fans in Arlington have a good chance of seeing two and possible all three Baylor alums currently in the big leagues — Texas Rangers David Murphy<\/a> and Jason Jennings<\/a> and Cleveland Indian Kelly Shoppach<\/a> — as the two teams square off at Rangers Ballpark. (That’s the trio with Baylor head coach Steve Smith above; photo courtesy Brad Newton, Texas Rangers.)<\/p>\n Murphy, a strong candidate for 2008 American League Rookie of the Year<\/a> before a late-season injury, begins the year as the Rangers’ starting left fielder after hitting .275 last season with 15 home runs and 74 RBI. (Bonus link: Nice feature on him here<\/a> from the Oklahoman<\/em>.) Jennings is in the Rangers’ bullpen as he works his way back<\/a> from a pair of elbow surgeries. Shoppach hit .261 last season and led all American League catchers in home runs with 21; he will start 2009 as the back-up to all-star catcher Victor Martinez but is again expected to see regular playing time<\/a> as Martinez also plays first base.<\/p>\n Two other Bears who appeared in the big leagues last season — veteran pitcher Kip Wells<\/a> and infielder Mark Saccomanno<\/a> — will open 2009 in the minors. Wells will likely begin the year with the Washington Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse, NY, while Saccomanno will begin his third season with the Houston Astros’ Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock. A host of other Bears<\/a> are also at various levels of the minor leagues; once their assignments are finalized later this spring, we’ll run a list of those alums, as well.<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, baseball Bears in the pros!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the 2009 Major League Baseball season kicks off for most teams today, fans in Arlington have a good chance of seeing two and possible all three Baylor alums currently in the big leagues — Texas Rangers David Murphy and Jason Jennings and Cleveland Indian Kelly Shoppach — as the two teams square off at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}