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The Twins' best one year wonders - hitters

There are many reasons a player may have been with a major league team for just a single year. Like current Twin Jim Thome (one year so far, a couple more, I hope) or the great Harmon Killebrew in Kansas City, they may feel they have another good year in them to round out a Hall of Fame career and add to their statistics. A player could have finally gotten their big break only to be lost to a career ending injury, either on or off the field. A player could have been brought up to sub for a injured regular and was then sent back down, never to get another shot at the bigs. Some players look for a change of scenery on a one year contract to rehabilitate a bad reputation at their previous team so they can get a better deal in free agency. Then there is the rent-a-player, the strong arm or big bat that could turn a contending team into a champion.

Below the jump are the statistics of the ten players who spent just one year with the Twins and had more than 300 plate appearances, not including current players (Hardy, Hudson, Thome and Valencia). Let's get your best guesses on the identities of these players. I'll post the answers before Wednesday's game. In the interest of fairness, if you have to run over to baseball-reference.com to get the answers, sit on your hands and let people try to guess. Also, who do you think was the Twins' best one-year acquisition? How about in all of baseball?

Star-divide

G H HR RBI SB BB BA OBP SLG OPS
121 102 13 53 6 71 0.242 0.364 0.396 0.760
110 133 1 20 37 44 0.297 0.361 0.344 0.705
108 92 6 36 3 13 0.246 0.275 0.361 0.636
90 75 15 48 0 29 0.225 0.289 0.414 0.703
114 65 10 37 0 21 0.206 0.26 0.368 0.628
86 80 1 21 10 40 0.263 0.349 0.326 0.674
87 69 1 26 1 32 0.231 0.306 0.284 0.591
96 77 5 27 0 27 0.261 0.324 0.342 0.667
87 61 7 39 6 60 0.231 0.371 0.36 0.731
91 63 4 19 2 18 0.227 0.277 0.321 0.598

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Otis nixon, ’98, he was my favorite player that year

by HeDidWhat? on Sep 6, 2010 7:36 PM EDT reply actions  

Correct!

You win a kewpie doll.

The only stat that counts is W

by wayback on Sep 6, 2010 8:27 PM EDT up reply actions  

Well, the first name I thought of was Tommy Herr...

…and I looked him up and I saw he had the 86 game, 1 HR stat line.

Though he wanted to be here so little, I would rather him not be on any “best of” Twins lists…

Run baby run!

by darren004 on Sep 6, 2010 10:34 PM EDT reply actions  

Also saw that Henry Blanco was the .206, 10 HR guy

This list is not exactly an all-star list. I guess that is a good thing…

Run baby run!

by darren004 on Sep 6, 2010 10:46 PM EDT reply actions  

Don Baylor

I remember in 1987 when the Twins got Don Baylor as a castoff from the Bosox. He was an instant and great team leader despite only getting 49 plate appearances in the regular season. In the playoffs, he basically saved the Twins in Game 6 with his only homer as a Twin—a three-run shot to tie that game at 5. He hit .400 against the Tigers in the ALCS and .385 against the Cards with a whopping OPS of 1.082.

He helped Gagne maintain composure in the playoffs (or so they say). In any case, not bad for a short-timer. Actually he’s my favorite short-timer.

"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. See, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it . . ."

by Skippy tastes better than Jiff on Sep 8, 2010 3:58 AM EDT reply actions  

My guess

Shannon Stewart has got to be up there the season that we picked him up…..don’t know if he counts because he was picked up around the trade deadline. But thats my guess!

by S-Dot on Sep 8, 2010 12:14 PM EDT reply actions  

Shannon played here for more than a year.

This list is for Twins players that were only with the club for a year.

by Twins4Life on Sep 8, 2010 1:23 PM EDT up reply actions  

The Answers

 Name Year
 Dave Hollins 1996
 Otis Nixon 1998
 Billy Martin 1961
 Joe Crede 2009
 Henry Blanco 2004
 Tom Herr 1988
 Wally Backman
 Bob Usher 1967
 John Briggs 1975
 Milt Bolling 1967

The only stat that counts is W

by wayback on Sep 8, 2010 8:06 PM EDT reply actions  

I admit

there is a lot more “what were they thinking” that “what a shrewd move” on that list.

The only stat that counts is W

by wayback on Sep 8, 2010 8:11 PM EDT reply actions  

I would imagine that part of it is the nature of this list

If the season had been better, they might have kept him for another year or two, which would take him off the list

by Hillstop on Sep 8, 2010 8:28 PM EDT up reply actions  

Billy Martin was a one-year wonder as a Manager, too

97-65, AL West Champs

Also knocked out one of the teams 20-game winners in a fight outside a bar in Detroit

by DavidRF on Sep 9, 2010 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions  

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