Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Guardado & Jimenez – June 13

Two players again today making their major league debuts as Minnesota Twins on June 13 but 10 years apart.

 

Eddie Guardado

Eddie Guardado (P) – June 13, 1993 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 21st round of the 1990 amateur draft. “Every Day” Eddie debuted as a starter but even though the Twins scored four times for him in the bottom of the first inning, Guardado could not get out of the fourth inning at the Dome against the A’s. Eddie can still be found in the Twins bullpen today, as the bullpen coach.

 

Houston Jimenez

Houston Jimenez – (SS) – June 13, 1983 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on October 28, 1980. Jimenez went 1 for 5 in his debut at the Dome with a double off Steve Renko in his second big league at bat.

To see other Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins

Former Twins OF Revere finally gets off the home run schneid

Ben RevereBen Revere hit his first major-league home run in his 1466th at-bat in the Phillies’ home loss to the Rockies. That was the longest start-of-career homer-less streak by any player since the Pirates’ Frank Taveras connected for an inside-the park grand slam at Cincinnati on August 5, 1977 in his 1594th at-bat.

 

Twins batters with 100 or more at bats and zero home runs

Rk Player AB HR From To G PA H 2B 3B RBI BA
1 Al Newman 1647 0 1987 1991 618 1876 380 59 7 135 .231
2 Ben Revere 989 0 2010 2012 254 1064 275 22 11 64 .278
3 Houston Jimenez 384 0 1983 1984 144 409 75 16 2 28 .195
4 Luis Gomez 362 0 1974 1977 241 403 72 6 2 22 .199
5 Junior Ortiz 304 0 1990 1991 132 338 85 12 2 29 .280
6 Mudcat Grant 263 0 1964 1967 151 298 45 10 2 23 .171
7 Bert Blyleven 235 0 1970 1988 348 265 34 3 0 9 .145
8 Tsuyoshi Nishioka 233 0 2011 2012 71 254 50 5 0 20 .215
9 Dick Stigman 213 0 1962 1965 138 233 20 4 0 6 .094
10 Dean Chance 209 0 1967 1969 104 246 9 0 0 4 .043
11 Jim Merritt 206 0 1965 1968 122 236 27 6 0 7 .131
12 Nelson Liriano 185 0 1990 1990 53 211 47 5 7 13 .254
13 Jose Morales 158 0 2007 2010 74 181 47 9 0 14 .297
14 Sergio Ferrer 138 0 1974 1975 56 157 36 3 3 2 .261
15 Dan Monzon 131 0 1972 1973 94 154 32 2 1 9 .244
16 Tom Hall 130 0 1968 1971 145 146 25 2 0 2 .192
17 Bruce Look 118 0 1968 1968 59 139 29 4 0 9 .246
18 Dick Woodson 117 0 1969 1974 129 129 9 0 0 2 .077
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/28/2014.

Can Aaron Hicks get “off the interstate”?

Aaron Hicks
Aaron Hicks

Hitting challenged center fielder Aaron Hicks had a game winning hit a week or so ago at Target Field and since that day he is hitting at a .333 clip. Yes, I know that only encompasses 6 games and 22 plate appearances but it is a start. As hard as it may be to watch this 24 struggle with the bat, it is way too early to give up on the athletic outfielder. I hope the Twins keep working with Hicks and let him become the player he can be.

Mario MendozaAccording to the Baseball Glossary a player batting between .100 and .199 is said to be “on the interstate.” The term refers to the fact that a batting average in the .100s can resemble an interstate name (e.g. .195 resembles I-95), especially on older scoreboards where the numeral “1” appears identical to the uppercase letter “I” . A hit to put an average above .200 gets a batter “off the interstate.” A batter whose average is below .100 is sometimes said to be “off the map”. The “Mendoza Line” is another baseball term coined after former shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose batting average is taken to define the threshold of incompetent hitting. That being said, this former Pirate, Mariner and Ranger shortstop managed to stay in the big leagues for all or parts of nine seasons and appear in 686 games. The cutoff point is most often said to be .200 and when a position player’s batting average falls below that level, the player is said to be “below the Mendoza Line”. This is often thought of as the offensive threshold below which a player’s presence in the big leagues cannot be justified, regardless of his defensive abilities.

Since the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961 they have had a total of 373 position players. So how many of these players have had at least 300 at bats in a Twins uniform and not gotten off the interstate? Let’s take a look.

The fearsome Six

Rk Player BA AB G PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO OBP
1 Drew Butera .182 490 186 534 38 89 21 2 5 41 94 .230
2 Jerry Kindall .183 470 187 534 49 86 14 1 7 42 141 .254
3 Aaron Hicks .193 383 115 438 50 74 15 3 9 35 115 .279
4 Houston Jimenez .195 384 144 409 33 75 16 2 0 28 45 .231
5 Luis Gomez .199 362 241 403 36 72 6 2 0 22 40 .246
6 Charlie Manuel .199 366 223 413 25 73 12 0 4 40 74 .276
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/23/2014.

Since

Current Twins outfielder/1B Chris Colabello in spite of a hot April is on the verge of joining this illustrious list by hitting .213 in 310 at bats and former shortstop Pedro Florimon who is now calling Rochester home has a Twins career mark of .208 in 605 at bats.

For all you Nick Punto bashers out there, he is no where close to making this list. In 1,121 career games spanning 14 seasons Punto is has a .247 career batting average.

UPDATE AS OF MAY 26, 2014 – Aaron Hicks announced today that he is done with switch-hitting and will only bat from the right side going forward. The Twins with no other center field options available have given him their blessing.