SethSpeaks.net

Happy Election Day 2012! It may be happy for you for many reasons. Maybe your candidate will win. Or, maybe you are just happy that you don’t have to see any more political advertisements on TV for a couple of years. In any case, be sure to take time today to make your voice heard on a ballot.

Here are Twins Daily, you haven’t read any articles on the politicians, and you won’t. However, on this election day, I did think it would be fun to take another look at some of the greatest Minnesota Twins players over their 52 seasons in Minnesota. Below, I will list 12 candidates. Of course, there are a handful at the top of everyone’s list, but I encourage you to ‘vote’ in the Comments below. Rank them 1-10, and at the end of the day, we can take a look at see who Twins Daily ranks as the Top 10 Twins hitters of all time. Of course, on your voting ballot today, you can feel free to write-in me (or anyone else). Likewise, if I missed a candidate you would consider, feel free to write him in.

With that, here are a couple of charts looking at the top Twins players statistically. These lists are alphabetical so as not to provide any bias.

Player	Yrs w/Twins	Games	H-AB	2B/3B/HR
Bob Allison	1961-1970	1236	999-3926	167/41/211
Rod Carew	1967-1978	1635	2085-6235	305/90/74
Michael Cuddyer	2001-2011	1139	1106-4072	239/35/141
Gary Gaetti	1981-1990	1361	1276-4989	252/25/201
Kent Hrbek	1981-1994	1747	1749-6192	312/18/293
Torii Hunter	1997-2007	1234	1218-4492	259/26/192
Harmon Killebrew	1961-1974	1939	1713-6593	232/21/475
Chuck Knoblauch	1991-1997	1013	1197-3939	210/51/43
Joe Mauer	2004-Curr	1065	1270-3933	247/20/94
Justin Morneau	2003-Curr	1151	1190-4254	257/16/204
Tony Oliva	1962-1976	1676	1917-6301	329/48/220
Kirby Puckett	1984-1995	1783	2304-7244	414/57/207

I notice that each Twins decade is represented by at least one or two players. In other words, even through some of the bad times, the Twins have always had a hitter or two in their lineup that put up numbers. Here are some more numbers:

Player	WAR	BA/OBP/SLG	OPS (OPS+)
Bob Allison	28.4	.254/.361/.479	.840 (131)
Rod Carew	60.4	.334/.393/.448	.841 (137)
Michael Cuddyer	10.2	.272/.343/.451	.794 (111)
Gary Gaetti	24.8	.256/.307/.437	.749 (100)
Kent Hrbek	35.7	.282/.367/.481	.848 (128)
Torii Hunter	24.7	.271/.324/.469	.793 (104)
Harmon Killebrew	56.1	.260/.383/.518	.901 (148)
Chuck Knoblauch	36.3	.304/.391/.416	.807 (114)
Joe Mauer	37.0	.323/.405/.468	.873 (135)
Justin Morneau	19.2	.280/.351/.492	.842 (123)
Tony Oliva	39.7	.304/.353/.476	.830 (131)
Kirby Puckett	48.2	.318/.360/.477	.837 (124)

What role does defense play in your vote? The Twins player with the best defensive WAR in their years is Greg Gagne, and he isn’t on this list at all. However, this overall WAR number does include defense which clearly has helped a couple of players and hurt others. I also find it interesting comparing the OPS+ numbers from era to era.

So, what is your Top 10? How does your ballot look? I’ll post mine in the Comments section, but be sure to have your voice heard today!