Tag: Kirby Puckett

Good Eye, Good Eye!

May 15, 2010 – The Twins preach to their pitchers that the batter should earn his way on base via a hit, just throw the ball over the plate and take your chances that the batter will hit it to one of your fielders. In recent years, the Twins pitching staff has always been one of the league leaders in fewest bases on balls allowed.

But the shoe is on the other foot when it comes to the Twins hitters where the coaching staff tries to teach patience at the plate, after all, a walk is just as good as a hit. Plus, the more pitches you see, the better the odds are of the batter getting a hit and the quicker the pitcher reaches their so called pitch limits. This year the Twins hitters have taken that advice to heart and after 32 games they have walked 147 times and are on pace for about 700 walks which would be the most not only in Twins history but in franchise history. The 1956 Senators walked 690 times and the most walks by a Twins team was the 1962 Twins when they walked to first base 649 times. Let’s take a look at the top 10 career Twins and Senators batters that believed that a walk was indeed as good as a hit.

Minnesota Twins

HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Harmon Killebrew 1,321 8,018 16.48%
2 Kent Hrbek 838 7,137 11.74%
3 Bob Allison 641 4,641 13.81%
4 Rod Carew 613 6,980 8.78%
5 Roy Smalley 549 4,675 11.74%
6 Chuck Knoblauch 513 4,571 11.22%
7 Kirby Puckett 450 7,831 5.75%
8 Tony Oliva 448 6,879 6.61%
9 Matt Lawton 408 3,150 12.95%
10 Tom Brunansky 394 3,760 10.48%

 Washington Senators

Eddie Yost
Eddie Yost
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Eddie Yost 1,274 7,461 17.08%
2 Joe Judge 943 8,906 10.59%
3 Buddy Myer 864 7,028 12.29%
4 Mickey Vernon 735 7,769 9.46%
5 Ossie Bluege 723 7,452 9.70%
6 Clyde Milan 685 8,312 8.24%
7 Sam Rice 680 9.879 6.89%
8 Buddy Lewis 573 5,937 9.65%
9 Joe Kuhel 530 5,234 10.13%
10 Goose Goslin 488 5,810 8.40%

Welcome to the big leagues Wilson Ramos

Wilson Ramos (courtesy MLB Photos)

May 2, 2010 – Catcher Wilson Ramos made an impressive debut in the big leagues when he played his first game as a Minnesota Twin in Cleveland where the Twins beat the Indians 8-3 behind an impressive pitching performance from Francisco Liriano. Ramos was 4 for 5 and was the first Twins rookie since Kirby Puckett (1984) to debut with 4 hits. Ramos hit three singles, a double, and scored a run. Ramos was called up yesterday because Joe Mauer suffered an injury when he landed awkwardly on first base in Friday’s game. It is unknown at this time how long Mauer may be out. It appears that the plan is for Ramos to be the main catcher while Drew Butera continues in the back-up role.

May 3, 2010 – Wilson Ramos, who started behind the plate in the eighth spot in the batting order, was the first catcher in modern MLB history (i.e., since 1900) to collect four or more hits in his big-league debut and he was the first to debut with a four-hit game from that low in the batting order since Yankees pitcher Russ Van Atta went 4-for-4 from the nine hole against the Senators on April 25, 1933.

May 4, 2010 – The story continues, Wilson Ramos, who had four hits in his major-league debut on Sunday, collected three more in the Twins’ win against the Tigers on Monday night. Ramos is the first major-league player in 68 years to record at least seven hits over his first two career games. The last player to do that was Nanny Fernandez for the 1942 Boston Braves.

Twins Home Run Leaders by Position

 

October 21, 2009 – I thought that it would be fun to take a look back over the Twins history just to see who the Twins leaders are in home runs at each position. Some of the numbers that I found from the Twins 49 seasons in Minnesota were really a surprise to me and I have followed the Twins since their inception in 1961.

POSITION PLAYER HOME RUNS AT BATS PER HOME RUN
Catcher Tim Laudner 77 26.46
1B Kent Hrbek 293 21.13
2B Rod Carew 46 96.74
SS Zoilo Versalles 86 48.23
3B Gary Gaetti 201 24.82
OF Kirby Puckett 207 35.00
DH Matt LeCroy 53 21.40
P Jim Kaat 14 71.00

You have to be thinking, this can’t be right, where is Twins all-time home run slugger Harmon Killebrew? But when you look at the numbers you will see that Harmon played 14 seasons with the Twins but he split his time playing four positions, he played 881 games at 1B, 481 games at 3B, 455 games in the OF, and 122 games as a DH. Killebrew smashed 191 home runs as a first baseman, 142 as an outfielder, 129 while playing the hot corner, and 13 more when he was the DH. The Twins currently have some players on the roster like Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, and Joe Mauer that could be slugging their way on to this list very soon.

When you look at the Washington Sentaors/Nationals numbers from 1901 to 1960 to get a franchise perspective you see how much different baseball is today from its earlier years. I think the one interesting number that jumped out at me here was Roy Sievers and the fact that he hit a home run in every 16.95 at bats when he played the outfield.It is always fun to look at historical numbers and to do comparisons.

POSITION PLAYER HOME RUNS AT BATS PER HOME RUN
Catcher Jake Early 29 68.76
1B Mickey Vernon 121 57.27
2B Buddy Myer 34 162.94
SS Joe Cronin 51 70.24
3B Eddie Yost 101 59.51
OF Roy Sievers 159 16.95
DH – – –
P Walter Johnson 24 96.83