Tag: Tim Laudner

They went down swinging

Harmon Killebrew

Hitters with 500 are more career strikeouts as Twins

Rk Player SO From To Age G PA AB R H HR BA OPS
1 Harmon Killebrew 1314 1961 1974 25-38 1939 8018 6593 1047 1713 475 .260 .901
2 Kirby Puckett 965 1984 1995 24-35 1783 7831 7244 1071 2304 207 .318 .837
3 Gary Gaetti 877 1981 1990 22-31 1361 5459 4989 646 1276 201 .256 .744
4 Torii Hunter 870 1997 2007 21-31 1234 4894 4492 672 1218 192 .271 .793
5 Bob Allison 842 1961 1970 26-35 1236 4643 3926 648 999 211 .254 .840
6 Justin Morneau 806 2003 2013 22-32 1243 5199 4607 654 1285 211 .279 .833
7 Michael Cuddyer 805 2001 2011 22-32 1139 4555 4072 606 1106 141 .272 .794
8 Kent Hrbek 798 1981 1994 21-34 1747 7137 6192 903 1749 293 .282 .848
9 Jacque Jones 737 1999 2005 24-30 976 3786 3492 492 974 132 .279 .782
10 Rod Carew 716 1967 1978 21-32 1635 6980 6235 950 2085 74 .334 .841
11 Greg Gagne 676 1983 1992 21-30 1140 3697 3386 452 844 69 .249 .677
12 Corey Koskie 647 1998 2004 25-31 816 3257 2788 438 781 101 .280 .836
13 Tony Oliva 645 1962 1976 23-37 1676 6880 6301 870 1917 220 .304 .830
14 Roy Smalley 606 1976 1987 23-34 1148 4676 3997 551 1046 110 .262 .750
15 Zoilo Versalles 606 1961 1967 21-27 1065 4500 4148 564 1046 86 .252 .686
16 Tom Brunansky 589 1982 1988 21-27 916 3760 3313 450 829 163 .250 .782
17 Tim Laudner 553 1981 1989 23-31 734 2268 2038 221 458 77 .225 .682
18 Joe Mauer 552 2004 2013 21-30 1157 4972 4300 677 1389 102 .323 .873
19 Jason Kubel 532 2004 2011 22-29 753 2846 2559 334 694 104 .271 .794
20 Randy Bush 505 1982 1993 23-34 1219 3481 3045 388 763 96 .251 .747
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/25/2013.

Luke Hughes homers in his first ML at bat

 

Luke Hughes (courtesy of MLB Photos)

April 29, 2010 – Luke Hughes hit a home run in his first major league at bat and in the process became the fifth Minnesota Twin to accomplish this feat. Hughes hit his home run to right field off Detroit Tiger starter Max Scherzer on a 2-2 count as he lead off the third inning. Actually Hughes was batting in the second inning when Delmon Young was caught stealing third base for the final out of the second inning so that at bat did not count. Hughes, who was born in Perth, Australia, is the eighth Aussie to hit a homer in the major leagues and the first to do so in his first at-bat in the bigs. Unfortunately for Hughes and the Twins, they lost the game to the Tigers by an 11-6 score.

A complete list of Twins to hit a home run in either their first at bat or their first major league game are listed below. Hal Haydel is the only pitcher in the group. Oddly enough, no Twins rookie ever accomplished this feat at the Metrodome.

Player Date At Bat Count Opponent Pitcher
Luke Hughes 4-28-2010 1 2-2 in Detroit Max Scherzer
Andre David 6-29-1984 1 1-2 in Detroit Jack Morris
Gary Gaetti 9-20-1981 1 1-1 in Texas Charlie Hough
Tim Laudner 8-28-1981 3 0-1 Detroit @ Met Stadium Dave Rozema
Kent Hrbek 8-24-1981 5 2-2 in New York George Frazier
Dave McKay 8-22-1975 1 1-1 Detroit @ Met Stadium Vern Ruhle
Eric Soderholm 9-3-1971 2 1-1 Oakland @ Met Stadium Diego Segui
Hal Haydel 9-7-1970 2 0-0 Milwaukee @ Met Stadium Al Downing
Rick Renick 7-11-1968 1 3-1 Detroit @ Met Stadium Mickey Lolich

 

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