Ryan Langerhans

Ryan David Langerhans (born February 20, 1980) is an American former professional baseball outfielder.

During the 1996 season, Langerhans batted .442 and was selected to the All-State team.

His next season, 1997, Langerhans batted .427 and was again selected to the All-State team.

That season, Langerhans also won 11 games as a pitcher for the State Champion Dragons.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1998 Major League Baseball draft by the Atlanta Braves, and made his debut with them in 2002.

Langerhans also played in Major League Baseball for the Oakland Athletics, Washington Nationals, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and Toronto Blue Jays.

Langerhans attended Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas.

During his senior season in 1998, Langerhans batted .512, was named to the All-State team, was selected as a Nike All-American, was selected to play in the 1998 Texas High School All-Star Game, and was named Texas Player of the Year.

Langerhans is one of five players who attended Round Rock High School and have played in the major leagues.

The four other players are John Danks, Brian Gordon, Jordan Danks and Travis Schlichting.

Ryan Langerhans's father, John Langerhans, was his coach while playing for the Round Rock baseball team.

During his senior year, Langerhans signed a letter of intent with the University of Texas, however, after being drafted by the Atlanta Braves, Langerhans went straight to professional baseball.

Langerhans made his professional debut in 1998 with the rookie-level GCL Braves of the Gulf Coast League.

He batted .277 with 41 hits, 10 doubles, 4 triples, 2 home runs, and 19 RBIs.

In 1999, Langerhans was promoted to the Class-A Macon Braves of the South Atlantic League.

In 121 games, Langerhans batted .268 with 120 hits, 30 doubles, 1 triple, 9 home runs, 49 RBIs, and 19 stolen bases.

In 2000, Langerhans was assigned to the Class-A Advanced Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Carolina League.

He appeared in 116 games with the Pelicans and batted .212 with 14 doubles, 7 triples, 6 home runs, 37 RBIs, and 25 stolen bases.

Langerhans's 7 triples was tied for third most in the league with Choo Freeman (7), was and behind Damione Merriman (9), and Chone Figgins (14).

Langerhans continued playing with the Class-A Advanced Myrtle Beach Pelicans in 2001.

He batted .287 with 30 doubles, 3 triples, 7 home runs, 48 RBIs, and 22 stolen bases.

In 2002, Langerhans was promoted to the Double-A Greenville Braves of the Southern League.

He batted .251 with 23 doubles, 2 triples, 9 home runs, and 62 RBIs in 109 games.

Langerhans was called up to the Atlanta Braves from the Double-A Greenville Braves in April 2002.

He appeared in one game that season where he had one at-bat against the Houston Astros where he did not record a hit.

Despite making his major league debut in 2002, Langerhans did not become an everyday big-league player until 2005, getting playing time for the Braves in all three outfield positions.

He was sent back down to the minors to start the 2003 season where he batted a combined .261 with 33 doubles, 4 triples, 10 home runs, and 49 RBIs between the Double-A Greenville Braves and the Triple-A Richmond Braves.

Langerhans was called up by the Braves in September.

On September 5, in his second game of the season, Langerhans got his first major league hit coming against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He is part of the group of 18 rookie players nicknamed the "Baby Braves" that Atlanta called up from its minor league system during the 2005 season.

Langerhans started 2006 as the Braves regular left fielder but a severe drop-off in his production from 2005 combined with the hot hitting of Matt Diaz resulted in a drop in Langerhans's playing time.

By the end of the 2006 season, he was a platoon left-fielder, with Diaz as his right-handed partner.

Scott Thorman often also took starts from Langerhans as the left-handed part of the left-field platoon.

After a poor start to 2007 at the plate, he was traded on April 29 to the Oakland Athletics for a player to be named later.

He played just two games for the A's, going a combined 0-for-4 with a walk and an error.

On May 2, 2007, he was traded to the Washington Nationals for Chris Snelling.

On June 28, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners for utility player Mike Morse.

With the Mariners, Langerhans had better results hitting curve balls and sliders than fastballs and changeups, causing some speculation that this skill set could be responsible for his tendency to play in a part-time role.

He was non-tendered at the deadline to offer arbitration on December 12, 2009.

On December 18, however, the Mariners re-signed Langerhans to a minor league contract.