Never Heard of Him - Monty Fariss

Today’s blog focus stems from a recent visit to Slugger Field, where I was able to tour the inner workings of the facility.  I got to see the player lounge, locker room, batting cages, all of the typical stuff.  They also have several pictures, team stats, etc.  Then, for some reason, they have the entire 1989 Topps baseball card set, in several uncut sheets, on the walls of one large room.  I’m guessing because they could probably purchase them for just the cost of the cardboard they’re printed on.  Honestly, the frames cost more than the card sheets.

Valuable or not, being that this set was from when I was 10 years old, I instantly thought this was cool.  I spent a good amount of time examining the sheets.  I snapped a picture of a group of six cards that was probably one of the greatest and/or saddest things ever.  Going clockwise, the players are George Brett, Roberto Alomar, Ron Gant, #1 Draft Pick Jim Abbott, #1 Draft Pick Robin Ventura, and #1 Draft Pick…Monty Fariss.

George Brett is a Hall of Famer with 3154 hits, 317 home runs and a career batting average of .305.  He’s the only player to win a batting title in three different decades – 1976, 1980, and 1990.

Robert Alomar is also a Hall of Famer.  He finished with 2724 hits, 210 home runs, 474 stolen bases and a career batting average of .300.  His career fielding percent was .984.

Fariss never graced the
cover of Sports Illustrated.

Ron Gant is not a Hall of Famer.  As a matter of fact, he didn’t receive a single vote when he was first eligible in 2009.  While not a Hall of Famer, he was a very effective player in his prime.  He hit 20 or more home runs seven times, and stole more than 20 bases five times.  His career numbers are 321 home runs and 243 stolen bases.

Everything you need to know about Jim Abbott you can read in my earlier blog post, but in case you haven’t gotten to it yet, Abbott won 87 games in his 10 year career, striking out 880 across 1674 innings.  He did this despite being born with one hand.

Robin Ventura was also a very effective player across his 16 year career.  He was a two time all star and a six time Gold Glove winner.  He hit 20 or more home runs nine times, finishing with a career total of 294.  Despite only batting .267 in his career, his on base percentage was nearly 10% higher at .362.  He also threw one inning of shutout ball in his last season with the Dodgers in a 13-0 loss to the Angels.

And now we get to the main event – Monty Fariss.  Fariss was drafted out of Oklahoma State University as the sixth overall pick in the 1988 draft by the Texas Rangers.  The shortstop was assigned to rookie-ball Butte of the Pioneer League where he would turn heads by hitting .396 and four home runs while walking 20 times vs. only seven strikeouts across 77 plate appearances.  He was quickly promoted to AA Tulsa where he came back to earth, only hitting .224 with three home runs and 22 walks vs. 39 strikeouts.

1989 saw Fariss return to Tulsa, and he had some better results.  His average increased to .272, but his slugging percentage actually fell about 20 points.  He only had five home runs, and had 64 walks vs. 112 strikeouts.  That would be pretty good for a shortstop still more than two years younger than the league average, until you look at his .928 fielding percentage.

He would return to Tulsa yet again for the start of the 1990 season.  This time, he brought his average all the way up to .299 while hitting seven home runs.  That earned him a promotion to AAA Oklahoma City where he would hit .302 the rest of the season with four home runs.  Across both stops, he had 70 walks vs. 108 strikeouts.

He started the 1991 campaign back in Oklahoma City.  His average fell back to .271, but he increased his power, hitting nine triples and 13 home runs.  His walks jumped all the way to 91, but his strikeouts increased to 143.

Boy, you're going to lead the
league in HIT BY FISTS!

The Rangers decided it was time to call up the 23 year old Fariss.  He would make his major league debut on September 6^th in an 11-6 loss to the White Sox.  Fariss would hit leadoff as the DH and go 0-2 with two strikeouts.  This looks like a fun game.  It featured Bo Jackson hit a double off of Nolan Ryan, a Ryan HBP of Robin Ventura (this was before their “incident”), and Julio Franco falling a double short of the cycle.  It was the exact opposite of a pitcher’s duel, with the pitchers combining for 17 hits and 20 walks.  Fariss would finish his first taste of the bigs hitting .258 with a double, a home run, six RBIs, and seven walks vs. 11 strikeouts while playing left field and second base.

1992 would find Fariss in left field on Opening Day.  He was 0-2 with a walk and a strikeout before being pulled in the top of the eighth inning for pinch hitter Kevin Reimer.  The Rangers would erupt for NINE runs in the top of the eighth to put them up 12-8.  The Mariners scored two runs in the bottom of the frame, but that was as close as they would get as Jeff Russell would come in to shut the door for the save.  A score of 12-10 doesn’t sound like your typical game started by Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson, but this was more of a reflection of the early 90’s bullpens of the Rangers and Mariners, as they were responsible for 16 of those 22 runs allowed (and the Rangers defense was also responsible for a couple).

Fariss would only appear in 16 games in April and May before being sent back down to Oklahoma City.  Through mid-July, Fariss would hit .299 in the minors before being called back up.  Unfortunately, that success would not carry over to the majors, as for the season, he finished hitting .217 with seven doubles, a triple, three home runs, 21 RBIs and 17 walks vs. 51 strikeouts playing left field, center field, right field, and second base.

Fariss on his way to the
ballpark in June, 1993

After the 1992 season, Fariss was left unprotected against the expansion draft and was drafted by the Florida Marlins.  After hitting just .172 with two doubles, one triple and two RBIs with five walks vs. 13 strikeouts, he was sent to AAA Edmonton.  Since his last major league game was on June 1^st, and the one week Alberta summer was still a couple of months away in Edmonton, he only hit .256 finishing out the season in the minors.

1994 would see Fariss back in Edmonton.  This time, better equipped for the extreme conditions, over the course of the season he hit .285 with 32 doubles, four triples, 20 home runs and 60 RBIs with 55 strikeouts vs. 99 walks.

He signed with the Cubs for the 1995 season.  After just 10 games and a .182 batting average, that was the end of the line for Fariss.  He packed his bags for warmer weather, heading to play for Monterrey in the Mexican League.

All of this is probably more than you knew, or even cared to know, about Monty Fariss.  For his career, he was a .217 hitter with four home runs and 29 walks vs. 75 strikeouts.  But he never made one single error in his career!  He was perfect in 133 chances.  Despite being drafted as a shortstop out of college, he never made a single appearance there in his career.

Don't Fariss me, bro!

Hey!  Texas Rangers!  You drafted a shortstop and screwed around with him, playing him at five different other positions and he ultimately failed as a major leaguer.  Sound familiar?  Learn from your mistakes from 20 years ago!