Robb William Quinlan (born March 17, 1977) is an American former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water polo. The ...

who played

first base A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

corner outfield An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catc ...

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

and

designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by th ...

for the Anaheim Angels / Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim between 2003 and 2010.

Amateur career

A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Quinlan attended

Hill-Murray School Hill-Murray School is a coeducational private Catholic school serving grades 6–12. It is located on a site in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States, a suburb of Saint Paul. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, i ...

Maplewood, Minnesota Maplewood is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 42,088 at the 2020 census. Maplewood is ten minutes' drive from downtown Saint Paul. It stretches along the northern and eastern borders of Saint Paul. Maplewo ...

. At Hill-Murray School he set the state and school record for consecutive time reaching base. In his junior year in 1994, Quinlan reached base 86 consecutive times, garnering praise from newspapers around the country. He was drafted by the

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

in the 33rd round (900th overall) of the 1995 Major League Baseball draft out of high school and was offered $50, but did not sign with them. Instead, Quinlan decided to attend the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and graduated from there in 1999, obtaining a degree in marketing and communications. While at Minnesota, he was selected to the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

All-Star team three times, in , , and . In 1997, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Cotuit Kettleers The Cotuit Kettleers are a collegiate summer baseball team based in the village of Cotuit, Massachusetts, which is in the southwest corner of the town of Barnstable. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the lea ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

where he was named a league all-star. In 1999, he was Big Ten Conference Player of the Year after leading the conference in

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

at .416 and hits (92). Quinlan left as the Big Ten Conference's career leader in hits and Minnesota's career leader in hits,

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, doubles, runs scored, RBI,

total bases In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple and 4 for a home run. For example, three singles is three total bases, while ...

, and

at-bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a bat ...

s. He was drafted again by the Anaheim Angels in the 10th round of the 1999 Major League Baseball draft and signed on June 10.

Professional career

Minor leagues

In 1999, Quinlan played third base for the Low-A

Boise Hawks The Boise Hawks are an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) but is an MLB Partner League. Home games are played at Memorial Stadium in Garden City, Idaho, a small city surroun ...

making the Short-Season All-Star team and being named the

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Basebal ...

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

. He batted .322 with 9 home runs and 77 RBI. In , he was promoted to High-A

Lake Elsinore Lake Elsinore is a natural freshwater lake in Riverside County, California, located east of the Santa Ana Mountains and fed by the San Jacinto River. Originally named ''Laguna Grande'' by Spanish explorers, it was renamed for the town of Elsino ...

and moved to first base; he hit .317 with 85 RBI. Quinlan was promoted to Double-A

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

for and after a solid year, began with Triple-A Salt Lake as an outfielder. 2002 was a career year for Quinlan. He spent the entire year with Triple-A Salt Lake and hit .333, posting career-highs in home runs (20), RBI (112), hits (176), and triples (13). He was named Pacific Coast League Rookie of the Year, PCL MVP, and Anaheim Angels Minor League Player of the Year. He was also named a Triple-A All-Star, PCL All-Star, and one of ''Baseball America's'' 1st team minor league All-Stars. Quinlan started in the minors with Triple-A Salt Lake, but after batting .310, he was called up to the majors where he spent the rest of the year. He began with Triple-A again, but was called up to the majors after 27 games.

Major leagues

Quinlan made his major league debut on July 28, , and hit .287 for the rest of the year. After starting 2004 in Triple-A, he was called up the first week in May. He had a 21-game hit streak in 2004 from July 7 to August 10 which is the longest by an Angels rookie in club history, and was the longest by any rookie in the majors since

Ichiro Suzuki , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally for 28 seasons. He played nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), where he began his ...

(23) in . On August 17, he was placed on the 15-day

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 season, it was known as the disabled list (DL). General guidelines ...

with a torn oblique muscle, causing him to miss the rest of the year. For the season, Quinlan batted .344, including .407 in July, with 5 home runs and 23 RBI. In , Quinlan, playing part-time, saw his batting average drop over 100 points to .231 and missed time with a bulging disk and inflamed shoulder. He rebounded in with a .321 average and saw a career-high in playing time with 234 at-bats in 86 games. Quinlan signed a two-year, $1.8 million contract before the season avoiding

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

, but his batting average slumped again to .247. In , he played in 68 games mostly at third base and slightly improved his average to .262. After the 2009 baseball season Quinlan filed for free agency for the first time in his career. On February 11, 2010, Quinlan agreed to a minor league contract to return to the Angels. He was added to the Major League roster at the end of spring training. On September 7, 2010, Quinlan was released by the Angels. Quinlan signed a minor league contract with the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

with an invitation to spring training for the 2011 season. On March 11, 2011, the Phillies reassigned Quinlan and his agent asked for his release, which the Phillies granted.

Personal

In May 2011, Quinlan became a volunteer coach and hitting instructor for the

, his alma mater, through at least the 2011-12 season. Since 2013, Quinlan has been the owner of multiple

chiropractic Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It has esoteric origins and is based on several pseudosci ...

franchises. Quinlan's older brother,

Tom Quinlan Thomas Raymond Quinlan (born March 27, 1968) is an American former third baseman in Major League Baseball. Quinlan spent parts of four seasons in the major leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins. He is t ...

, spent parts of four seasons in the major leagues with the Blue Jays,

Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citizen ...

, and

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

. Tom and Robb Quinlan are part of the ownership group for the St. Croix River Hounds, a

team intended to play in the

Northwoods League The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not paid, so as to maintain their college el ...

though they are not on the 2023 schedule.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinlan, Robb 1977 births Living people Lake Elsinore Storm players Arkansas Travelers players Salt Lake Stingers players Anaheim Angels players Arizona League Angels players Los Angeles Angels players Salt Lake Bees players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball third basemen Baseball players from Minnesota Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball players Cotuit Kettleers players Pacific Coast League MVP award winners Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball coaches Boise Hawks players St. Cloud River Bats players