Maels Rodríguez Corrales (born 15 October 1979) is a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

silver medalist. He set the

Cuban National Series The Cuban National Series (, or SNB) is a domestic baseball competition in Cuba. Formed after the dissolution of the Cuban League in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, the National Series is a part of the Cuban baseball league system. For most ...

record for strikeouts in one season after he struck out 263 players in just 178.1 innings of play during the 2000–2001 Cuban National Series season. In that season he won 15 games while also leading in walks granted with 76. He led the Gallos de Sancti Spiritus to the playoffs that year and was eventually awarded the Cuban National Series Most Valuable Player Award, the second player from that team to ever win the award. In six seasons of play in Cuba he went 65-45, having 1,148 strikeouts in 938 innings of work while having a 2.29 ERA. He allowed a batting average of .177. He attempted to defect from Cuba to play in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, but a subsequent arm injury derailed his chances. He was the second pitcher in Cuban player history to throw 100 mph or more and his mark of 100.5 mph;

Aroldis Chapman Albertín Aroldis Chapman de la Cruz (; born February 28, 1988) is a Cuban-born American professional baseball relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Cincinnati Reds, New Y ...

is the only pitcher with a higher mark, having thrown 101.2 miles per hour.

References

1979 births Living people Defecting Cuban baseball players Olympic baseball players for Cuba Olympic silver medalists for Cuba Olympic medalists in baseball Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Baseball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for Cuba Baseball players at the 1999 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists in baseball Pan American Games baseball players for Cuba Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games 20th-century Cuban people {{Cuba-baseball-bio-stub