Tag: Ron Coomer

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Vargas, Ruiz, Baptist, Watkins, & Coomer

Kennys Vargas

Kennys Vargas (1B) – August 1, 2014 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent on February 25, 2009 – Debuted on his 24th birthday at U.S. Cellular Park in a Twins 10-8 loss to the White Sox. Vargas went 1 for 5 with a double, a run scored and 2 RBI. Happy Birthday Kennys!

Randy Ruiz

Randy Ruiz (1B) – August 1, 2008 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on November 16, 2007. Debuted at the Dome in a 4-1 win over the Indians. Ruiz started at DH and went 1 for 3 with a run scored.

Travis Baptist

Travis Baptist (P) – August 1, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins from the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1996 rule 5 draft. Debuted in a Twins 10-9 loss to the Blue Jays at the Dome. Baptist pitched the ninth inning for the Twins and had a tough go of it allowing two runs on 3 hits in his lone inning of pitching.

Scott Watkins (P) – August 1, 1995 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 23rd round of the 1992 amateur draft. Debuted at Jacobs Field and helped to protect a Twins 6-5 lead in the ninth inning by facing one batter and retiring him.

Ron Coomer (3B/1B/OF) – August 1, 1995 – Traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers with a player to be named later, Greg Hansell and Jose Parra to the Minnesota Twins for Mark Guthrie and Kevin Tapani on July 31, 1995. The Los Angeles Dodgers sent Chris Latham (October 30, 1995) to the Minnesota Twins to complete the trade. The Coom Dog debuted at Jacobs Field in the same game that Scott  Watkins did. Coomer’s debut however came as a pinch-hitter with one out and two runners on and Coomer hit into a double play ending the Twins threat.

To see other Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins

Plouffe has shot at setting a franchise GIDP record

Trevor Plouffe
Trevor Plouffe

With two more GIDP’s (ground in to double play) on his resume after last night’s loss to Kansas City, Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe has the franchise record of 28 GIDP by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew in 1970 well in his sights. Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett had 27 GIDP in 1991. With his pace of a GIDP once every five games, Plouffe should be able to set a new mark easily. Actually this list of Twins GIDP leaders has some pretty good hitters on it so Plouffe shouldn’t feel too bad. It is kind of an odd year for Plouffe from a GIDP perspective as he has 26 so far this season and in his five previous seasons combined be had only 38.

 Twins GIDP leaders

Rk Player GDP Year Age G PA AB R H HR RBI BA OBP
1 Harmon Killebrew 28 1970 34 157 665 527 96 143 41 113 .271 .411
2 Kirby Puckett 27 1991 31 152 661 611 92 195 15 89 .319 .352
3 Trevor Plouffe 26 2015 29 130 542 491 63 118 18 73 .240 .303
4 Michael Cuddyer 26 2010 31 157 675 609 93 165 14 81 .271 .336
5 Ron Coomer 25 2000 33 140 589 544 64 147 16 82 .270 .317
6 Gary Gaetti 25 1987 28 154 628 584 95 150 31 109 .257 .303
7 Joe Mauer 24 2006 23 140 608 521 86 181 13 84 .347 .429
8 Gary Ward 24 1983 29 157 676 623 76 173 19 88 .278 .326
9 Bobby Darwin 24 1972 29 145 562 513 48 137 22 80 .267 .326
10 Joe Mauer 23 2012 29 147 641 545 81 174 10 85 .319 .416
11 Torii Hunter 23 2004 28 138 569 520 79 141 23 81 .271 .330
12 Rod Carew 23 1971 25 147 632 577 88 177 2 48 .307 .356
13 Earl Battey 23 1964 29 131 471 405 33 110 12 52 .272 .348
14 Michael Cuddyer 22 2009 30 153 650 588 93 162 32 94 .276 .342
15 Marty Cordova 22 1999 29 124 488 425 62 121 14 70 .285 .365
16 Ron Coomer 22 1998 31 137 555 529 54 146 15 72 .276 .295
17 Gary Gaetti 22 1990 31 154 625 577 61 132 16 85 .229 .274
18 Bobby Darwin 22 1973 30 145 614 560 69 141 18 90 .252 .309
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/9/2015.

UPDATE: By hitting into his 28th double play on October 1 against the Royals in his home park, Plouffe tied the Twins record which was held by Harmon Killebrew for 28 double plays in a season. Plouffe was the league leader in hitting into double plays in 2015.

A month to remember for Chris Colabello

Chris Colabello
Chris Colabello

Minnesota Twins 1B and outfielder Chris Colabello had a month to remember in April and now he ranks at the top of the list of some pretty good players that knew how to knock in runs for the Minnesota Twins. Some interesting names on this list of Twins that had 20 or more RBI in the first month of the season.

Rk Player Split Year G RBI PA AB R H 2B 3B HR SB BB SO BA OBP OPS
1 Chris Colabello April/March 2014 24 27 102 95 11 28 9 0 3 0 6 26 .295 .343 .827
2 Kirby Puckett April/March 1994 25 26 116 112 14 39 11 0 2 0 2 10 .348 .371 .871
3 Ron Coomer April/March 2000 22 23 92 83 14 22 4 0 5 0 7 9 .265 .326 .820
4 Brant Alyea April/March 1970 17 23 60 53 7 22 4 0 5 1 7 7 .415 .483 1.257
5 Justin Morneau April/March 2008 27 22 110 97 12 26 4 0 6 0 11 16 .268 .345 .840
6 Kent Hrbek April/March 1982 22 22 100 86 18 27 5 2 8 0 13 15 .314 .404 1.102
7 Dave Hollins April/March 1996 25 22 103 82 19 24 4 0 7 1 19 18 .293 .437 1.034
8 Matt Lawton April/March 2000 26 22 118 102 18 38 9 0 3 5 14 12 .373 .449 .998
9 Paul Molitor April/March 1996 25 21 114 101 24 39 7 1 2 5 11 10 .386 .439 .973
10 Pat Meares April/March 1996 24 21 95 84 16 27 4 3 3 3 6 19 .321 .372 .920
11 Doug Mientkiewicz April/March 2001 23 21 87 79 14 30 6 1 6 0 6 14 .380 .425 1.134
12 Harmon Killebrew April/March 1971 21 21 91 81 7 26 6 0 3 2 10 16 .321 .396 .902
13 Torii Hunter April/March 2002 27 20 115 105 23 39 5 0 9 5 8 21 .371 .409 1.085
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/2/2014.

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It will be interesting to see how many RBI Colabello will end up with in 2014. Harmon Killebrew wih 119 and Kirby Puckett with 112 ended up leading the league in RBI’s in the season they had 20 or more RBI’s in April. Dave Hollins on the other hand had 22 RBI in April and finished the season with 53. Strangely enough Dave Hollins, Paul Molitor, and Pat Meares all had 20 or more RBI in April of 1996 and yet the team finished the season at 78-84 with Paul Molitor and Marty Cordova ending up with over 100 RBI.

A nice record to have for Chris Colabello but it is a long season so it will be fun to watch to see if Colabello can maintain his RBI pace or if this past month is just an anomaly.

You can check out a nice article written about Colabello and his history by Dan Cook of WCCO Radio here.