The Minnesota Twins have been known as a home run hitting team over the years. It got me to thinking since I was a left-handed batter when I was young and played ball with the other kids, who makes up the top 10 of Twins left-handed hitting home run hitters over the years.
The Twins leading power lefty, is as many of you might suspect, native-Minnesotan first baseman Kent Hrbek with 293 home runs. Nine Twins left-handed batters have hit 100 or more home runs in a Twins uniform. Just as an aside, there are ten Twins right-handed batters with 100 or more home runs wearing Twins colors over the years. Since the Twins began play they have hit a total of 9,002 home runs. 3,564 have been hit left-handed and 5,438 right-handed.
Some fun facts that struck me while looking at this list.
- The number four man on the list is still playing with the Twins, at least at the time this post was written.
- The only player on this list with 1,000 or more RBI is Hrbek and that was kind of a surprise.
- One player that swung from the left side had 1,064 plate appearances and still had a zero next to his home run total, you will have to find him on the list if you want to know who that is.
- Only 45 Twins that hit from the left side had more home runs than pitcher Jim Kaat had in his 1,088 PA’s.
- The only left handed batter on the list that had 1,000 or more strikeouts is Joe Mauer, the guy that had a reputation of seldom striking out. Then again he had more PA’s than anyone else on this list.
- David Ortiz had 541 career long balls but only 58 of them took place while he wore a Twins uniform.
I have seen all the guys play for the Twins over the years since 1961 but the player on the list that kind of stands out to me as a surprise that he hit as many home runs as he did was Jacques Jones who currently sits at number 6 on the list.
The Stathead list brought to you by Baseball-Reference that I have referred to can be viewed here.