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Brett Nicholas Roneberg
Bats - Left
Throws - Left
Height - 6' 2"
Weight - 216 lb
High School - Smithfield State High School
Born - February 5 1979 in Trinity Beach, Queensland Australia

Infielder Brett Roneberg began his pro career in the Florida Marlins organization in 1996 as an undrafted free agent
He hit .213/~.259/.276 as a part-time 1B for the GCL Marlins that year

In 1997, Brett returned and batted .265/~.362/.346 and led first basemen in the Gulf Coast League in putouts (481), assists (29, tied for the lead) and fielding percentage (.994)

In 1998, at age 19, Brett batted .271/~.340/.338 for the Kane County Cougars but missed the second half of the season due to a back injury

He returned to Kane County in 1999 and produced at a .288/~.383/.413 with 79 walks (fifth in the Midwest League)

Moving up to the 2000 Brevard County Manatees, Roneberg hit .261/.368/.324 with only 2 homers in 445 AB

He represented Australia in the 2000 Olympics, getting to play in and for his native country on leave from the Marlins

In 2001, Roneberg hit .299/.388/.483 for the Manatees and .262/.335/.421 for the Portland Sea Dogs, starting a long run at AA
He homered 16 times on the year and was sixth in the Florida State League in average at age 22

In 2002, Brett injured his hand
He got into 16 rehabilitation games with the Jupiter Hammerheads, hitting only .211/.297/.263
On June 19, he got promoted to the AAA Calgary Cannons and went 2 for 5 at the plate in three games as the team's second-youngest player
On June 25, he was traded to the Montréal Expos in exchange for Donnie Bridges
Assigned to the Harrisburg Senators, he would hit at a .294/.374/.439 clip the rest of the year

Let go by Montréal, Brett signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates system
In 2003, at age 24, he batted .281/.338/.426 for the Altoona Curve

In 2004, he switched to his fourth franchise in three years when he signed with the Boston Red Sox
He put up a .278/.360/.462 back with the Portland Sea Dogs, cranking out 30 doubles and 17 homers and driving in 77

He again took time off to play for the Australian Olympic team - they finished as the Silver Medalists, ahead of powers like Japan and Canada (the USA hadn't even qualified for the Olympics)
Roneberg was the team's offensive star with a .361 average, 7 RBI in 7 games and 3 homers (he slugged .639) and possibly tied Kosuke Fukudome and Yoshinobu Takahashi for the Olympic lead in homers
Roneberg singled in the 9th inning of the Gold Meal game to put two Australians on base with none out as the potential winning run in a 2-1 contest, but Danny Betancourt retired Dave Nilsson, Jeff Williams and Brendan Kingman to end the game

He also played in the AA All-Star Game that year

That winter, he injured his left shoulder making a diving catch in right field for the Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League, tearing his rotator cuff and needing surgery (he was hitting .231/.351/.385 at the time)

The Red Sox released him and he missed the entire 2005 season

Roneberg continued to be a mainstay of Australia in international events such as the Baseball World Cup, Olympics, etc. and played for them in the first World Baseball Classic in 2006
He was 0 for 5 with a walk, 3 strikeouts and an RBI in three games for the Aussies in the WBC as the main right fielder

Back with Pittsburgh and Altoona in 2006, he missed 2-1/2 weeks due to back problems but recovered well
Through early August, he is at .293/.366/.420 as the Curve's cleanup hitter
He went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI in the EL All-Star Game and was named the game's MVP

Sources
1997-2006 - Baseball Almanacs, Worldbaseballclassic.com site, Roneberg's Family Website (URL below under Related Sites), Minorleaguebaseball.com, Altoona Curve website

Related Sites
Brett Roneberg's Family Website (http://www.ronebergcairns.com/brettindex.html)