Tony Torcato Tony Torcato Anthony Dale Torcato (born October 25, 1979 in Woodland, California) is a former professional baseball player. Torcato was drafted in the 1st round (19th overall) of the 1998 Major League Baseball Draft by the San Francisco Giants. Before being drafted, Torcato signed a letter of intent to play college baseball at UNLV. He made his MLB debut on July 26, 2002 as the starting right fielder for the Giants against the Los Angeles Dodgers and singled to right field in his first at-bat off of the Dodgers Hideo Nomo. He played in parts of four seasons in Major
Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award three second-place votes in 2008 balloting despite no longer being a rookie under the award's definition. The award has drawn criticism in recent years because several players with experience in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) have won the award, such as Hideo Nomo in 1995, Kazuhiro Sasaki in 2000, Ichiro Suzuki in 2001, and Shohei Ohtani in 2018. The current definition of rookie status for the award is based only on Major League experience, but some feel that past NPB players are not true rookies because of their past professional experience. Others, however, believe it should make no difference since the