Cooper Named 2011 PCL Batting Champion
September 6, 2011 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1) News Release
ROUND ROCK, Texas - With a .364 batting average, David Cooper of the Las Vegas 51s is the 2011 Pacific Coast League Batting Champion, the league officially announced today.
Cooper, 24, collected a PCL-best 170 hits over 467 at-bats (545 plate appearances). Of his 170 hits, 51 are doubles, which makes Cooper only the fifth player in the PCL's Triple-A era (since 1958) to have 50 or more doubles in a single season.
The 2011 PCL Mid-Season All-Star had nine home runs, 96 runs batted in and 77 runs scored in 120 games this season with the 51s, while also adding a league-leading .439 on-base percentage. The Stockton, CA native set new career-highs in batting average, hits, runs, doubles, RBI, walks (67), OBP, slugging percentage (.535) and OPS (.974).
Cooper is the third Las Vegas hitter to win the PCL Batting Title in the last six seasons and fourth in franchise history, joining John Kruk (.351 in 1985), James Loney (.380 in 2006) and Terry Tiffee (.378 in 2008).
To be crowned a league's batting champion, hitters in Minor League Baseball must qualify with 2.7 plate appearances per league game scheduled, equating to 389 for a 144-game schedule such as the case in the Pacific Coast League.
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