finalyear bats birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date image article_title debutteam name throws
2008 right dallas , texas 2008 july 30 .203 1 4 first baseman oakland athletics batting average home runs runs batted in july 2 23 november 1983 wes_bankston_2009 . jpg wes bankston
 oakland athletics wes bankston right
wes bankston

wesley wade bankston -lrb- born november 23 , 1983 in dallas , texas -rrb- is a former major league baseball first baseman who is a free agent .
at plano east high school , he played baseball and football as an outfielder and starting quarterback , respectively .
bankston was committed to playing for the university of texas before the tampa bay devil rays drafted him in the 4th round -lrb- 104th overall -rrb- in the 2002 major league baseball draft .
on june 17 , 2002 , he signed with the devil rays .
bankston started his professional career off well in 2002 .
playing primarily as an outfielder for the rookie league princeton devil rays and the single-a hudson valley renegades , he hit a combined .301 with 18 home runs in 70 games .
his impressive 18 home runs set the princeton record , breaking jared sandberg 's record of 17 .
`` baseball america '' rated bankston as the 2nd best prospect in the appalachian league and the 6th best prospect in the devil rays organization .
in , his performance dropped while playing for the single-a charleston riverdogs .
in 103 games , he hit just .256 with 12 home runs .
`` baseball america '' placed him on the devil rays organization prospect list as the 7th best prospect .
due to his poor performance in 2003 , he spent the season again in charleston .
converting to a full-time first baseman , he hit .289 with 23 home runs ; his 23 home runs were a career high for him .
his good performance also got him named as the team 's player of the year and was also named to the south atlantic league midseason all-star team .
bankston missed the first month of the season in with a torn left meniscus .
after being activated from the disabled list , he played with the single-a visalia oaks .
after 17 games in which he hit .387 with 3 home runs , he was promoted to double-a montgomery , where he would be for the remainder of the season .
bankston played in 82 games for the montgomery biscuits and had a batting average of .292 with 12 home runs .
`` baseball america '' also rated him again as the 7th best prospect in the organization .
his contract was purchased by the devil rays on november 18 , 2005 .
bankston began the season for the biscuits .
playing third base for the first time in his career , bankston hit just .263 with 4 home runs in 45 games for the biscuits .
regardless of his poor performance , he was still named to the southern league midseason all-star team as the starting third baseman .
after the all-star game , he was promoted to the triple-a durham bulls on july 13 , finishing the rest of the season at durham .
bankston played in 52 games in his first year at the triple-a level and batted .297 with 5 home runs .
bankston 's performance plummeted in , playing the whole season in triple-a .
his .238 batting average was the worst to date in his career and his status as a prospect is not as high as it was before .
he was designated for assignment on september 19 , 2007 , and was claimed off waivers by the kansas city royals on september 21 .
the royals designated him for assignment on november 20 , 2007 , and was claimed off waivers by the oakland athletics .
bankston was designated for assignment on february 8 , .
he cleared waivers and was outrighted to the minor leagues on february 13 , 2008 .
bankston made his major league debut on july 2 , , with the athletics against the los angeles angels of anaheim .
his first major league home run came on july 7 against the seattle mariners .
he was designated for assignment on august 18 and became a free agent at the end of the season .
on december 18 , he signed a minor league contract with the cincinnati reds , where he spent the 2009 season in their minor league system .
on february 24 , 2010 , bankston signed a minor league deal with the texas rangers .
