A couple of days ago it was reported that the Detroit Tigers have reached an agreement with free agent 1B Prince Fielder on a 9 year $214 million deal. This deal took place just a couple of days after the Tigers reported they may have lost C/1B/DH Victor Martinez for the season due to a torn ACL. Martinez only hit 12 home runs for Detroit last year but he knocked in 100 runs and he hit .330 while Miguel Cabrera hit .344 with 30 home runs while knocking in 108. The top two home run hitters for the Tigers were Cabrera with 31 and SS Jhonny Peralta who hit 21 long balls. Fielder, playing with the Milwaukee Brewers last season hit 38 while teammate Ryan Braun hit 33 for a total of 71 long balls between them. The big question is how do you keep both of these first baseman in the line-up, Cabrera has already been reported as saying that he can move to 3B but having Fielder at 1B and Cabrera at 3B seems like a real stretch, teams would be bunting left and right. Sure one of these guys can DH but both Fielder and Cabrera are over weight and playing in the field helps to control that to some degree, have one sitting on the bench can’t be a good thing. A home run combo like Cabrera and Fielder made me wonder what kind of power combinations the Twins have fielded over the years. Here is what I found.
| Rank | Year | # Home Runs | Player | Player |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1964 | 81 | Killebrew – 49 | Allison/Oliva – 32 |
| 2 | 1963 | 80 | Killebrew – 45 | Allison – 35 |
| 3 | 1962 | 77 | Killebrew – 48 | Allison – 29 |
| 4 | 1961 | 75 | Killebrew – 46 | Allison – 29 |
| 5 | 1969 | 73 | Killebrew – 49 | Oliva – 24 |
| 6 | 1967 | 68 | Killebrew – 44 | Allison – 24 |
| 7 | 1986 | 65 | Gaetti – 34 | Hrbek – 31 |
| 7 | 1987 | 65 | Hrbek – 34 | Gaetti – 31 |
| 7 | 2006 | 65 | Morneau – 34 | Hunter – 31 |
| 8 | 1966 | 64 | Killebrew – 39 | Oliva – 25 |
| 8 | 1970 | 64 | Killebrew – 41 | Oliva – 23 |
| 9 | 2009 | 62 | Cuddyer – 32 | Morneau – 30 |
| 10 | 1984 | 59 | Brunansky – 32 | Hrbek – 27 |
| 10 | 2007 | 59 | Morneau – 31 | Hunter – 28 |
The Twins have been looking for the next “Killebrew” since the early 70’s but these kind of HOF’s only come around once in a lifetime and I was lucky enough to see the original “Killebrew” play.
so what youre saying is, the power years were with Killebrew… hmmm
Sounds like the Twins need to find the next “Killer”!