Joel Carranza returns for his second season after setting the Pacific Association single-season home run record in 2014.
Staff Photo/Sonoma Stompers
Theo Fightmaster, General Manager
The Sonoma Stompers Professional Baseball Club has re-signed the Pacific Association’s single-season Home Run King, Joel Carranza, for the 2015 season. Team President, Eric Gullotta, and General Manager, Theo Fightmaster, announced the signing on Tuesday, Feb. 24.
Carranza led the Stompers and the Pacific Association with a league record 19 home runs, and drove in 64 runs in 2014. In 73 games with Sonoma, the 26-year-old right-handed hitting first baseman hit .270 (77 for 285), with an OPS (on-base-percentage plus slugging) of .862. He also slugged .516 in 2014 by clubbing 31 extra-base hits and walking 31 times. Carranza finished fifth in the 2014 Pacific Association MVP balloting, tallying 11 points in the voting system.
Originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 23rd round of the 2007 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Charles Flanagan High School, in Pembrooke Pines, Fla.
During his four years of professional baseball, Carranza has tallied 45 homers, 201 RBIs, and a .548 slugging percentage.
“I’m super pumped to come back to Sonoma and finish what we started last summer,” Carranza said. “I had a great time with my teammates and this town was so welcoming to me.”
Said team owner Gullotta, “Joel was a big part of our success last year. I can’t wait to see him start crushing baseballs at Arnold Field this summer.”