1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown – Jeffrey Hammonds

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds.

Hammonds was originally drafted in the ninth round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1989 draft out of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.  Fellow ninth rounders that you may have heard of include Mike Lansing and Sterling Hitchcock.  Hammonds turned down the offer from the Blue Jays and instead opted to go to college, having several scholarship offers on the table.

Three years later, Hammonds was drafted in the first round by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1992 draft out of Stanford University.  The Cardinal have produced an astounding 91 major league players, including names such as Mike Mussina, Bob Boone, Jack McDowell and Carlos Quentin.  He was drafted fourth overall behind can’t miss prospects Phil Nevin, Paul Shuey and B.J. Wallace, and two spots ahead of Derek Jeter.

At Stanford, Hammonds was named the NCAA Freshman of the Year, was a two time All American, and set a Stanford record with 102 stolen bases in 174 games.  He wouldn’t play in the minors in 1992, as he played that summer with the USA national team.

Hammonds made his minor league debut at AA Bowie, where he had the tag of the 19^th best prospect in baseball.  He didn’t exactly set the world on fire, hitting .283 with three home runs, 10 RBIs and four stolen bases in 24 games, but nonetheless, he was promoted to AAA Rochester.  There he would play in 36 games, hitting .311 with five home runs, 23 RBIs, and six stolen bases.  Across both levels, he didn’t make a single error in the outfield in 123 chances.  The 1993 Orioles, with outfielders Brady Anderson, Mike Devereaux and Mark McLemore said “Good enough” and promoted him in June.

BUFORD OR BUST!

He would make his major league debut on June 25^th, 1993, just over a year after he was drafted.  In his first game, he would get an RBI single in his first at bat off of the Yankees’ Jim Abbott.  He would add another single and a walk in a 7-6 win, as John Habyan would walk the Orioles’ Chris Hoiles with the bases loaded, scoring Damon BUFORD in the bottom of the 10^th inning.

In his first six major league games to start his career, Hammonds had a six game hitting streak with nine hits and hitting .391 at the end of June 1993.  

Actually, for the 1993 season, he had 29 games where he had a plate appearance, and had a hit in 20 of those games.  Not bad for a rookie.  He would hit his first major league home run off on July 3^rd, greeting the White Sox’ Kirk McCaskill, who had just entered in relief of Jason Bere, with a three run shot in a 9-6 Orioles victory.  Hammonds would finish his 1993 season hitting .305 with eight doubles, three home runs, 19 RBIs, four stolen bases and two walks vs. 16 strikeouts.

You said there
would be donuts.

The 1994 season would find Hammonds in right field on Opening Day.  Batting at the bottom of the lineup, he would go 1-4 with an RBI double as the Orioles’ Mike Mussina bested the Royals’ Kevin Appier 6-3.  Hammonds would open the season with a six game hitting streak which included two home runs.  Overall that April, he hit .305 with seven doubles, a triple, four home runs, 14 RBIs, 17 runs scored and a stolen base with two walks and six strikeouts.

Hammonds would only play in one game in May, going 3-4 with a triple and two runs scored on May 3^rd in a 9-2 win over the Minnesota Twins.  That brought his batting average up to .326, where it would sit until he returned from the disabled list in the middle of June.

Hammonds would return to the Orioles six weeks later on June 17^th, and with no minor league rehab assignment, showed some rust.  In 13 games, he only hit .233 with a double, a home run, three RBIs, eight runs scored and a stolen base with five walks and 11 strikeouts.  He did end the month on a six game hitting streak, so things were looking up.

Hammonds would get off to a good start in July, going 2-4 with two home runs against the California Angels in a 14-7 victory on July 1^st.  The wind must have been blowing out that day, as the teams combined for 11 home runs, including five off of Orioles' starter Mussina.  In July, Hammonds would finish hitting .302 with seven doubles, three home runs, nine RBIs, 12 runs scored and a stolen base to go with eight walks and 17 strikeouts.

As the season wound down, Hammonds kept up more of the same in August.  In 10 games, he hit .286 with three doubles, five RBIs, six runs scored and two stolen bases with two walks and five strikeouts.

1994 was very much the definition of Hammonds’ career.  He put up decent numbers, but never stayed healthy enough to do it consistently.  Overall that season, he hit .296 with 18 doubles, two triples, eight home runs, 31 RBIs, 45 runs scored and five stolen bases to go with 17 walks and 39 strikeouts.

Good job!  You were really
good on the Rockies.

The first season he played in more than 100 games was in 1997, when in 118 games, he hit 21 home runs and stole 15 bases, the first time he hit double digits in either category.  The following season, he was traded on August 10^th to the Cincinnati Reds for Willie Greene.  He would spend the rest of that year and all of 1999 in Cincinnati before being traded with Stan Belinda to the Colorado Rockies for Dante Bichette and cash on October 30^th.  By this time, the 36 year old Bichette was a shell of his former self, only playing two more seasons in the majors.  Hammonds still had something left in the tank though.

That's Hammonds with an $.

Hammonds had his finest season with the Rockies in 2000.  He hit .335 with 20 home runs, 106 RBIs, and 14 stolen bases on his way to his first and only All Star Game invitation.  Looking for a mark to overpay him for inflated Coors Field numbers, he found that mark in the Milwaukee Brewers, getting a three year, $22 million contract.

YOU JUST GAVE UP A HIT
TO JEFFREY F. HAMMONDS!
@^$#@$!  GAH! @&$@#&!

In two and a half seasons in Milwaukee, the best thing you can say about him is he was bad.  Only playing in 187 games, he hit .248 with 16 home runs and 65 RBIs.  The Brewers finally had enough on June 4^th, 2003 when they released him.  Shortly thereafter, he would sign with the San Francisco Giants, where he played just good enough to get resigned by them the next year.  However, the party was over on June 8^th, 2004 when they also released him.  The following December, he would sign with the Washington Nationals, where he would last half a season before retiring on June 10^th.  His final game was on May 22^nd, 2005 where he would go 1-2, collecting his final major league hit off of the Blue Jays’ Josh Towers in a 9-2 Nationals victory.

C'mon man!  I'm a Cardinals
legend and the best thing
you can say about me is that
I'm healthy Jeffrey Hammonds?

For his career, Hammonds only played in 957 games in 13 seasons.  He hit .272 with 110 home runs, 423 RBIs, 67 stolen bases and 292 walks vs. 596 strikeouts.  The lone honors he earned were the sixth place tie in the 1994 Rookie of the Year voting, and the 2000 All Star nod.  If he could have stayed healthy, he probably still wouldn’t have been a Hall of Famer, but could have put a nice career together (think Reggie Sanders).

Next week, our trip down memory lane continues with a man who had to gain several pounds just to get his name on his jersey, former Giants hurler William VanLandingham.