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Name: Christopher Lyn Davis
Position: First Base
Drafted: 5th round, 2006, Texas Rangers
Became an Oriole: Traded to the Orioles on July 30, 2011 by the Rangers along with Tommy Hunter for relief pitcher pitcher Koji Uehara.
How he got to the ASG: Voted to start by the fans
Chris Davis is easily the most visible Oriole this season, having crushed a major-league leading 37 home runs before the All Star break. While his power didn't come out of nowhere, his monstrous success seems to have done just that. He did hit 33 home runs last year, a more than respectable total, but nothing could have predicted the season he's having so far.
Marketed as a super hero by the Orioles, Davis's brute strength is obvious to those watching him. He'll hit what looks like a pop up, but it ends up over the fence. He breaks his bat and it goes over the fence. And when he really gets a hold of one, watch out.
When Davis was traded to the Orioles mid-season 2011, many people who follow the Orioles (myself included) viewed him as power threat but thought he was probably going to end up being that AAAA player who dominates in the minor leagues but can't get it together in the majors. His time in Baltimore to end the season didn't help that belief as he .276/.310/.398 after being traded.
Then 2012 rolled around, and manager Buck Showalter gave Davis what he had never gotten in the majors: regular playing time. Davis played in 139 games in 2012, mostly at DH, and it was the first season of his career that he didn't go back and forth between the minors and the majors. Davis took his chance and made the most of it, and by the end of 2012 those of us who didn't think he'd pan out were eating our words.
Davis entered the break hitting .315/.392/.717. The .717 is good enough to lead the majors and is higher than his total OPS in 2010, 2011, and 2012. If he can somehow keep up his prodigious pace (which doesn't seem possible, but I didn't think he could do it for this many games), it would be the 26th highest single season slugging percentage in baseball history, with players like Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Ted Williams, Rogers Hornsby, etc. ahead of him. And it would be the highest single-season total in Orioles history.
GIF'd Power
