Brian Stephen Giles (born January 21, 1971 in El Cajon, California) is a Major League Baseball left fielder who plays for the San Diego Padres (2003-04). Previously, Giles played with the Cleveland Indians (1995-98) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1999-2003). He bats and throws left-handed. His brother Marcus Giles is a second baseman for the Atlanta Braves.

In his 10-year career, Giles has been a .299 hitter with 231 home runs and 775 RBI in 1202 games. He was selected for the All-Star Game in 2000 and 2001.

Never used in a full-time role with the star-studded Indians, he was traded to the Pirates for left-handed reliever Ricardo Rincon . Giles was promptly handed a starting role on a below-average Pittsburgh club. Giles quickly established a reputation for being one of the best -- and most underappreciated -- players in baseball. Until suffering a knee injury near the beginning of the 2003 season, he had played in 140 games each season since 1999. Every year in that span, he hit 35 home runs, posted an on base percentage over .400, and had a slugging percentage over .590. A fixture at the #3 spot in the Pirates batting order, he played all three outfield positions adequately and even chipped in 40 steals over those four years. His consistency, good power to all fields, and outstanding plate discipline (he averaged 109 walks and 73 strikeouts per year) made him one of the most feared batters in the National League.

Giles got off to a slow start by his standards in 2003, probably because of a knee injury that eventually sidelined him for nearly a month. On returning, his power production seemed to have dipped slightly, which was enough to convince the cash-strapped Pirates to trade him to San Diego for cheaper youngsters Jason Bay, Oliver Perez, and Cory Stewart in August. He has been a bit of a disappointment for the Padres -- in 2004 he hit only 23 home runs, while his OPS dipped to .849 from the over 1.000 he averaged over his four full seasons in Pittsburgh -- but some of the decline in his numbers has been attributed to San Diego's expansive home field Petco Park.

See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time

External links

• Baseball Library - accomplishments
• ESPN - profile and daily update