James Jurries

James Lee "J. J." Jurries (born April 13, 1979) is an American former professional baseball player notable for co-winning the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Freshman Baseball Player of the Year honor, alongside Mark Teixeira and Blair Varnes. In addition to his college accolades, he spent five years in the minor leagues, including three at Triple-A.
Jurries was born in Freeport, Texas and attended Brazoswood High School in Clute, Texas, whence he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 34th round of the 1998 Major League Baseball Draft. He opted not to sign. He attended Tulane University from 1999 to 2002. In his freshman campaign, Jurries slashed .374/.433/.698 with 20 home runs, 79 RBI, 18 stolen bases and 90 runs scored in 65 games. Baseball America named him to the Freshman All-American team and the Freshman of the Year. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and College Baseball Insider also named him Freshman of the Year. He was the first player from Tulane to be so honored. He was First-Team All-Conference USA, was the conference Freshman of the Year and was voted to the league All-Freshman team. Collegiate Baseball also named him First-Team All-Freshman, while Baseball America, Baseball Weekly, Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association named him second-team All-American. He was also selected to compete with Team USA that summer, but could not due to injury. In 2000, he hit .338/.465/.604 with 12 home runs, 51 RBI and 17 stolen bases to earn first-team All-Conference USA and second-team All-Louisiana selections. He also played for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod League that summer. He hit .324/.391/.514 with 10 home runs, 53 RBI and 15 steals in 2001 and again earned first-team All-Conference USA and second-team All-Louisiana selections. In 2002, Jurries hit .400/.493/.750 with 20 home runs, 74 RBI and 30 stolen bases to earn All-American selections from Baseball America, the NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball. He was also named the NCBWA District VII Player and a first-team All-Louisiana selection. He was the first Tulane player to hit .400 or better since 1985.
Jurries was taken by the Atlanta Braves in the sixth round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft, ahead of future major leaguers Jesse English, Brian Barden and Troy Cate. He was signed by scout Don Thomas. In his first campaign, he hit .293 with six home runs and 34 RBI in 52 games between the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and Danville Braves and homered in his first professional at-bat. In 2003, he hit .284 with nine home runs, 54 RBI and 34 doubles for the Greenville Braves and in 2004, he hit .274 with 25 home runs, 70 RBI and a .518 slugging percentage in a season spent mostly with the Triple-A Richmond Braves. Back with Richmond in 2005, Jurries hit .284 with 21 home runs, 72 RBI and a .537 slugging mark. He suffered a concussion that year that sidelined him for a spell.Early in the campaign, he was suspended 15 games for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. He hit .429/.464/.673 with two home runs and 14 RBI in 49 spring training at-bats with the major league club in 2006 and it was thought he might succeed Julio Franco as the platoon partner with Adam LaRoche. He was one of the last players cut during the spring, with Brian Jordan being chosen over him.He never played in the majors that year, however, and hit .205 with eight home runs and 27 RBI in 89 games with Richmond, thus ending his career. He battled a knee injury for much of the year. Overall, he batted .269 with 69 home runs and 257 RBI in 496 games.
After his playing career, he coached for the Tulane baseball team and then the New Orleans Privateers baseball team.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu