1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown – Steve Trachsel

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former mainly Cubs and Mets pitcher Steve Trachsel.

Trachsel was drafted in the eighth round of the 1991 Major League draft by the Chicago Cubs out of Cal State Long Beach.  For a list of good players that played for the 49ers, you just have to go back to the last post on Chris Gomez.  Let’s have some fun with this one though.  Perhaps the worst stats for a player out of CSLB that made the majors was Kansas City Athletics’ pitcher Tom Harrison.  He made his major league debut on May 7^th, 1965 as a pinch runner in a 5-4 loss to the California Angels.  Ten days later, he pitched one inning, gave up a run, two hits and a walk in a 13-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox.  Back to Trachsel!

Upon signing, Trachsel was assigned to A- Geneva, where in two games, he was 1-0 with a 1.26 ERA and seven strikeouts vs. six walks.  He was then promoted to A+ Winston-Salem, where in 12 games, he went 4-4 with a 3.67 ERA and 69 strikeouts vs. 19 walks.  In his combined two stops, he allowed three home runs, one hit batter, one wild pitch, and FOUR balks.  That seems somewhat excessive in 14 games.

In 1992, Trachsel would spend the entire season at AA Charlotte.  There, he would go 13-8 with a 3.06 ERA, with five complete games and two shutouts, along with 135 strikeouts vs. 35 walks.  His 13 wins and 135 strikeouts led the team, along with his 29 starts, 191 innings pitched, and 19 home runs allowed.  He cut his balks down to just one!  This was tied for second on the team with several others.  The team leader was closer Jessie Hollins, who would have three, to go along with his 14 wild pitches in 70 1/3 innings pitched.

Trachsel would start the 1993 season at AAA Iowa.  He put up similar numbers there, going 13-6 with a 3.96 ERA, with one complete game and one shutout, along with 135 strikeouts and 45 walks.  To compensate for the 10 extra walks, he allowed 10 fewer hits.  If it wasn’t for two more hit batters, he would have allowed the exact same number of base runners (albeit in 20 fewer innings).  These numbers were apparently good enough for a call up.

I can't get enough of this card.  WHAT
THE HELL IS HE DOING?  People will
study this years from now, trying to understand.

On September 19^th, 1993, Trachsel would make his major league debut vs. the Florida Marlins.  He would pitch well that day, only allowing a solo home run to Jeff Conine in the top of the first, and Alex Arias would score after a single, groundout, wild pitch, and sacrifice bunt in the top of the fifth.  The Cubs rallied for one in the eighth.  In the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs must have been fed up with their starters, as they had THREE pinch hitters bat.  Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes struck out looking for Steve Buechele, Rick Wilkins struck out swinging for Matt Walbeck, and Dwight Smith struck out looking for Eric Yelding.  That sewed up career save 171 for Bryan Harvey in a Marlins 2-1 victory.

Trachsel would make two more starts, each getting progressively worse.  On September 26^th, he allowed three runs in a 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and on October 1^st, he allowed five runs in an 8-5 loss to the San Diego Padres.  Overall, in three games, he finished 0-2 with a 4.58 ERA, with 14 walks vs. three strikeouts.

1994 would find Trachsel back in the majors to start the season.  He was brilliant in his first start on April 8^th, throwing 7 1/3 shutout innings with one walk and eight strikeouts in a 4-0 win over the Montreal Expos.  He had some ups and downs that April, as in five starts, he finished the month 2-2 with a 4.19 ERA, allowing eight home runs while striking out 33 and walking 12.

In May, Trachsel would get six starts for the Cubs.  In his first two, he would go seven innings and allow two runs in each on his way to victories in both games.  In his next start though, he would only last three innings, giving up 10 hits and four runs in a 6-4 loss to the Marlins.  Overall for the month, he was 2-1 with a 4.81 ERA, allowing four home runs while striking out 23 and walking nine.

June was a much better month for Trachsel in just about every category, except wins and losses.  In five starts, he didn’t give up more than three runs in any of them.  Overall for the month, he was 2-2 with a 2.41 ERA, allowing five home runs while striking out 25 and walking 14.

Trachsel would apparently go on the disabled list towards the end of July, as he only had four starts, and his last was on July 19^th, his first after the All Star break.  In those four starts, he didn’t allow more than two runs in any of them.  He would go 3-1 with a 2.08 ERA, allowing only one home run while striking out 20 and walking 11.  A quick trip to AAA Iowa for a rehab appearance saw him go 0-2 with a 10.00 ERA.

As the season wound down, Trachsel would return to the Cubs, where he would go 0-1 with a 1.29 ERA, only allowing two runs over 14 innings in two starts.  He only allowed one home run while striking out seven and walking eight.

For the 1994 season, Trachsel would go 9-7 with a 3.21 ERA, allowing 19 home runs while striking out 108 and walking 54 on his way to the fourth place finish in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.  His candidacy was buoyed by the second half of that season.  Over the final two and a half months, he was only 5-4, but his ERA was 2.08.  He only allowed 18 runs in his final 78 innings.

The rest of Trachsel’s career was a roller coaster that no one wanted to ride.  His record in 1995 was 7-13, and his ERA jumped all the way to 5.15.  In 14 more innings, he gave up 40 more runs and 22 more walks.

In 1996, Trachsel was an All Star for the only time in his career.  Going 13-9, he had a career low ERA of 3.03, which was good for sixth in the NL.  It sat at 2.00 at the end of June, when he was 7-4.  Overall, he allowed 30 home runs while striking out 132 and walking 62.  He got his first career shutout on May 13^th in a 6-0 victory over the Houston Astros.  He would follow that up with his second shutout on June 25^th, a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.  He would throw one more complete game that season, again against the Astros on August 17^th.  Although he allowed three runs, none of them were earned.

What better way to follow up an All Star campaign than by going 8-12 in 1997.  His ERA was 4.51, and he allowed a league leading 32 home runs.  His strikeouts jumped to a career high 160, while he walked 69.  In true Trachsel fashion, he’d follow up ’97 by going 15-8 in ’98.  His ERA only fell to 4.46.  He did give up five fewer home runs, sitting at 27 on the year, and he struck out 149 while walking 84.

Badass.

But the reason I remember Steve Trachsel so fondly is for what he did on September 8^th, 1998.  He took a loss to my St. Louis Cardinals that day, when he allowed six earned runs in 5 2/3 innings.  He only gave up five hits, but three of them were home runs.  The first was record setting home run number 62 for Mark McGwire in the bottom of the fourth.  The last two were BACK TO BACK.  Ray Lankford and Ron Gant knocked Trachsel out of the game.  Lankford’s shot occurred right after an intentional walk to McGwire.

After going 8-18 in 1999, he was granted free agency by the Cubs.  For the 2000 season, he signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  Going 6-10, the Toronto Blue Jays decided they had to have him for the stretch run.  The Devil Rays traded him with Mark Guthrie to the Blue Jays for Brent Abernathy.  That ended terribly for both teams, but Trachsel went 2-5 for the Blue Jays.  They declined to offer him further employment.

The New York Mets were the next suitors for Trachsel.  His first two years in New York saw him go a combined 22-24 with a 3.91 ERA, allowing 44 home runs while striking out 249 and walking 116.  He would follow that up with a 16-10 record in 2003 with a 3.78 ERA.  He was NL player of the week for the week of August 24^th, when over two starts, he had a one-hit shutout paired with another 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball.  He also didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven.

Wow, there really was a
player named Rocky Cherry.

2004 would see Trachsel’s string of ten seasons with at least 29 starts.  He went 12-13 that season with a 4.00 ERA.  2005 was an injury shortened year, as he only went 1-4.  He would finish his New York career by going 15-8 in 2006, with a 4.97 ERA.

Trachsel’s excellent record in ’06 earned him a spot in the Baltimore Orioles’ rotation in ’07.  After only going 6-8 with a 4.48 ERA, he was traded back to the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline for Rocky Cherry and Scott Moore.  He would finish the rest of the season with a 1-3 record and an 8.31 ERA while being booed out of Chicago.

He would resign with Baltimore for the 2008 season.  After going 2-5 with an 8.39 ERA, he was released by the Orioles on June 13^th, and that was the end of his career.

Over his 16 year career, Trachsel was a perfectly good innings eater.  Across 420 games and 2501 innings pitched, he was 143-159 with a 4.39 ERA, giving up 348 home runs and striking out 1591 and walking 943.  He also allowed 2587 hits, which with the walks equated to a career WHIP of 1.411.

I love the internet.  It says his 2587 hits rank 212^th of all time.  Hmm, I wonder who gave up more?  Well, Cy Young is the leader with 7092 across 22 seasons.  What about this cat at number 93 all time, Al Spalding?  He only pitched eight seasons, and gave up 3280 hits.  That’s impressive.  Turns out that Spalding is a Hall of Famer.  SWEET MERCY HE THREW 617 1/3 INNINGS IN 1874 AS A 23 YEAR OLD FOR THE BOSTON RED STOCKINGS.  He went 52-16 that season in 71 games, 69 of which were starts and 65 of them were complete games.  Of those career hits totals, 755 of them occurred that year.  He would follow up that campaign in 1875 by going 54-5.  Those 54 wins led the league.  So did his NINE SAVES.  His .795 winning percentage as a pitcher is a major league record.

Time has largely forgotten Steve Trachsel, but I’ll always remember September 8^th, 1998.

DON'T WATCH THE BALL!!!  DIDN'T LITTLE LEAGUE TEACH YOU ANYTHING?!?!?!

Tony Gwynn

Career .163 hitter.

Over the past few years, several members of baseball royalty have passed on.  Guys like Harmon Killebrew, Ralph Kiner and Stan Musial for example.  But the passing of Tony Gwynn is different than those guys.  This is a guy I watched play.  When people talk about watching some of the old players, it’s probably the same sort of way that Gwynn played.  He was just on a different level.  Steve Trachsel is no Tony Gwynn, so the Rookie of the Year voting flashback is going to have to wait until next Tuesday.  We’re going to look at Gwynn’s early years, highlight some of his better, along with some odd, seasons, and take an overall look at where he finished.

Gwynn attended Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, CA, where along with baseball, he also excelled at basketball.  The Jackrabbits have produced a total of 18 major leaguers, including Milton Bradley, Vern Stephens and Chase Utley.  Upon graduation, he attended San Diego State University, also playing baseball and point guard for the Aztecs.  The 48 major leaguers that attended SDSU include Bud Black, Tony Clark, Mark Grace, Aaron Harang, Graig Nettles, Harold Reynolds and Stephen Strasburg.  While at the school, Gwynn set school records for assists in a game, season and career.  He was twice a WAC second team all conference basketball player.  He didn’t even play baseball his freshman year.  He hit .301 his sophomore year, .416 as a third-team All American his junior year, and .423 as a first-team All American his senior year.

On June 8^th, 1981, Tony Gwynn was drafted in the third round by San Diego.  That same day, he was also drafted in the 10^th round by San Diego.  The difference is that third round San Diego was the San Diego Padres.  Tenth round San Diego was the NBA San Diego Clippers.  Gwynn chose baseball primarily due to his size, and the physical toll that opposing players took against him in college.  Upon signing, the Padres assigned him to –A ball Walla Walla where in 42 games, he would hit .331 with 12 home runs and 17 stolen bases to go along with 23 walks and 21 strikeouts.  This earned him a promotion to AA Amarillo, where in 23 games, he would hit .462 with four home runs and five stolen bases to go along with five walks and seven strikeouts.

In 1982, Gwynn would open the season in AAA Hawaii.  His slugging percentage fell over 200 points from the previous minor league season, but power was never part of his game.  He hit .328 with five home runs and 14 stolen bases to go along with 18 walks and 18 strikeouts in 93 games.  He would make his major league debut on July 19^th, in a 7-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.  Gwynn’s first at bat that day resulted in a sac-fly RBI.  After a lineout and strikeout, he would get a double and score a run in the eighth inning off of Sid Monge, and he singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth before Ron Reed retired Terry Kennedy.

Gwynn had five multi-hit games in his first eight major league games.  On July 27^th, in an 8-6 loss to the Braves, he was 4-5 with three runs scored and his first stolen base.  He was hitless in his second career game, and then went on a 15 game hitting streak.  The month of August was particularly brutal, as he only hit .227.  His season average dipped all the way to .267 on September 15^th, but he hit .364 with five multi hit games in his last 14 games that season, and his average finished at .289.  That would be the only season he would ever have under .300.

1983 saw Gwynn return to AAA, this time with new Padres affiliate Las Vegas.  That didn’t last long, as in just 17 games, he hit .342 with three stolen bases to go along with six walks and five strikeouts.  He would join the Padres on June 21^st, and would never return to the minors.  In his 27^th game that season, his average was all the way down to .229.  From that point forward that season, he hit .339, finishing up at .309.

1984 would put Gwynn on the map.  He played in 158 games that season.  He had at least one hit in 123 of those games.  At the end of April, he was hitting .434, and won NL Player of the Month.  He hit .261 in May, but that was the only month under .300 for him that season.  Overall, he led the league with a .351 average and 213 hits, with 21 doubles, 10 triples, five home runs, 71 RBIs and 33 stolen bases to go along with 59 walks and 23 strikeouts.  This was the first of five seasons where he had more stolen bases than strikeouts.  The last National League player with a higher average than Gwynn’s that season was the Cubs’ Bill Madlock in 1975.  Tim Raines led the majors in stolen bases that year with 78.  He struck out 83 times.  Juan Samuel was second with 72.  He struck out 168 times.

Gwynn’s teammate Alan Wiggins was third with 70.  He only struck out 57 times.  Maybe there was something in the water in San Diego that season.  Gwynn would help lead the Padres to the World Series where they would lose in five games to the Detroit Tigers.  Gwynn would make his first All Star game, win his first Silver Slugger award and finish third in the NL MVP voting behind Ryne Sandberg and Keith Hernandez.

In 1985 and 1986, Gwynn would hit a combined .323 with 62 doubles, 12 triples, 20 home runs, 105 RBIs and 51 stolen bases, with 97 walks and 68 strikeouts.  In 1986, he would lead the league with 642 at bats, 107 runs and 211 hits.  He would again have more steals (37) than strikeouts (35), and he won a Silver Slugger award and his first Gold Glove.  Both years saw All Star selections.  He finished 23^rd in the MVP voting in ’85, and ninth in ’86.

In a career full of great seasons, 1987 would be one of his finest.  He would lead the league with a .370 average and 218 hits.  He was second in the league with 13 triples and 56 stolen bases.  He set a career high with 119 runs scored.  He would again win a Silver Slugger award and Gold Glove.  He would finish eighth in the MVP race.  He would be player of the month in June when he hit .473.  In addition to the above stats, he had 36 doubles, seven home runs and 54 RBIs with a career high 82 walks and 35 strikeouts.

1988 would be the only season of his career where he played in over 100 games and didn’t make an All Star appearance.  He had a stint on the disabled list in the middle of May.  His batting average was a season low on June 13^th at .237, and it was still at .246 on July 1^st.  After that, Tony Gwynn did Tony Gwynn things, hitting .364 between July 2^nd and October 1^st, including .406 in July when he was NL Player of the Month.  Overall that season, he hit .313 with 22 doubles, five triples, seven home runs, 70 RBIs and 26 stolen bases, with 51 walks and a career high 40 strikeouts.  CAREER HIGH 40 STRIKEOUTS.  He also finished 11^th in the NL MVP voting.

Between 1989 and 1993, Gwynn would make the All Star Game each year.  He won Gold Gloves between 1989 and 1991, and added a Silver Slugger in 1989.  He finished eighth in the NL MVP voting in 1989, 16^th in 1991, and 21^st in 1993.  Over those five seasons, he hit .327 with 151 doubles, 34 triples, 25 home runs, 296 RBIs and 82 stolen bases, with 216 walks and 107 strikeouts.  For the fourth time in his career in 1989, he had more steals (40) than strikeouts (30).  That would be the last season he would ever strikeout 30 or more times.  In July 1993, he would again be NL Player of the Month, where he hit .381.

The strike-shortened 1994 season would be the closest anyone would come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams last did it in 1941.  In 110 games, he had a hit in 91 of them.  In four of those games, he only had one at bat.  In April, he hit .395, and in May it was .392.  June was .387, and July was .370.  He was closing in on .400 at a furious pace, hitting .475 (19-40) in 10 games in August before the season was shut down.  He just needed another four hits that season and he would have had it (technically; it would have been .399527, which would have rounded up, but we all know there would have almost certainly been an asterisk there).  For the season, he led the league with a .394 average and 165 hits.  He also added 35 doubles, a triple, 12 home runs, 64 RBIs and five stolen bases, with 48 walks and 19 strikeouts.  He would again make the All Star roster, win a Silver Slugger award, and he finished seventh in the NL MVP voting.

He had six after 1995.  He
would add two more titles.

In 1995, at age 35, Gwynn showed no signs of slowing down.  He again led the league with a .368 averageand 197 hits.  To add to those totals, he had 33 doubles, a triple, nine home runs, 90 RBIs and 17 stolen bases, with 35 walks and 15 strikeouts.  It was the last time that he had more steals than strikeouts.  Those 15 strikeouts were in 577 plate appearances.  He made the All Star roster, won a Silver Slugger award, and finished ninth in the MVP voting.

Aw, man!

In 1996, Gwynn would miss almost all of July and a handful of games in April, May, and August.  He would still be voted as an All Star, but had to miss because of injury.  He led the league with a .353 average.  He only had 498 plate appearances, which was four short of qualifying, thus the “Tony Gwynn rule” was born.  It allows hitless plate appearances to be added onto the end of a season in order for a player to then officially qualify.  In doing that, he still would have beat second place Ellis Burks by five points.  Despite the injuries, Gwynn still added 27 doubles, two triples, three home runs, 50 RBIs and 11 stolen bases, with 39 walks and 17 strikeouts.  The Padres would make the playoffs, but were swept by the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS.

One could argue that 1997 was Gwynn’s finest season.  He led the league with a .372 average.  His 220 hits were a career high, as were his 49 doubles, 17 home runs and 119 RBIs.  In addition, he had two triples, 12 stolen bases, 43 walks and 28 strikeouts.  He was an All Star, a Silver Slugger, and he finished sixth in the NL MVP voting.  He was NL Player of the Month in May where he hit .447.

1998 was the beginning of the end for Gwynn.  He hit .321 with 35 doubles, 16 home runs, 69 RBIs and three stolen bases, with 35 walks and 18 strikeouts.  Again an All Star, he finished in NL MVP voting for the last time, placing 15^th overall.  He would also make his third and final post season appearance, making it all the way to the World Series as the New York Yankees would sweep the Padres.  Gwynn would hit .500 in the series.

Gwynn was again limited in 1999 by injuries.  On Opening Day, he went 1-4.  That was the only day of the season where he was under .300.  When Gwynn initially went on the DL, he was hitting .333.  Eighteen games later, he came back for seven games, hit .368 to raise his season average to .338.  He would miss another 24 games, hit .228 in his first 14 games back, and then hit .371 the rest of the way.  That got him right back to .338.  He added 27 doubles, 10 home runs, 62 RBIs and seven stolen bases, with 29 home runs and 14 strikeouts.

Gwynn would play only parts of two more seasons, hitting a combined .323 with 21 doubles, a triple, two home runs, 34 RBIs and a stolen base, with 19 walks and 13 strikeouts in 107 games.  His final game was on October 7^th, 2001.  He grounded out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning in a Padres’ 14-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

For his career, Gwynn hit .338 with 1383 runs, 3141 hits, 543 doubles, 85 triples, 135 home runs, 1138 RBIs, 319 stolen bases, with 790 walks and 434 strikeouts.  Curiously, in 10232 plate appearances, he was only hit by a pitch on 24 occasions.  All of these are video game numbers.  No player can actually be this good, can they?

Injuries certainly didn’t help Gwynn.  Had he shifted from the outfield to first base, as many aging stars do, he could have extended his career.  But he never played one game in the infield.  In 4700+ career chances, he only made 62 errors in 20 seasons.  Yet another facet of his game that was lost playing in San Diego.

He should have hit for more power.
I've never played, but I can criticize.

When it came time to vote for Hall of Fame induction in 2007, 2.4% of voters showed themselves as true jackasses.  What sort of beef could you possibly have with Tony Gwynn to NOT vote for him?  But even Cal Ripken was left off of 1.5% of ballots.  That I can see.  One could argue that going out and playing every single day may not have been in the best interest of the team, or even the player, especially if he had a nagging injury.  But 13 voters left off Tony Gwynn.

SPEED ROUND

Gwynn’s career average of .338 ranks 20^th of all time.  Of the 19 players ranked above him, the closest one to a “modern” player that’s on the list is Ted Williams at .344.  Gwynn’s first game was 22 years after Williams’ last.

His 3141 hits rank 19^th all time.

He had 203 career intentional walks, good for 12^th all time.  Of the 11 guys with more, only Vladimir Guerrero (449) and George Brett (317) have fewer than 500 career home runs.

Only Roberto Clemente, Paul Waner, Hank Aaron and Mel Ott played more games in right field.  His .987 fielding percent in right field is 20^th best all time.

The world is worse off without Tony Gwynn in it.  The dangers of tobacco, whether cigarettes or smokeless, is real.  Hopefully his death may prove as a wakeup call to someone out there.  Rest in peace, Mr. Gwynn.

1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown – Chris Gomez

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former shortstop Chris Gomez.

Gomez was originally drafted in the 37^th round of the 1989 major league draft by the California Angels out of Lakewood High School in Lakewood, CA.  Gomez declined the Angels offer, and it paid off, as he was then drafted in the third round in the 1992 draft by the Detroit Tigers out of Cal State-Long Beach.  The 49ers have produced a total of 53 major leaguers, including Jason Giambi, Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria and Jered Weaver.  They also produced a player named Joey Terdoslavich, who is currently in the Braves system.  My son and I were at a Louisville Bats game last year, and a late-middle aged man kept voicing in a loud way “JOEY, KEEP IT UP, WE’RE GOING TO SEE YOU IN ATLANTA IN NO TIME”.  He had Braves garb on, so I don’t think there was any sarcasm there.  He said it in a matter-of-fact way.  And he was right.  Terdoslavich DID make it to Atlanta last year, where he batted .215 across 92 plate appearances in 55 games.  Anyway, back to Gomez.

Thanks for believing in me, random dude in Louisville.

Upon his signing, Gomez was assigned straight to AA London.  The Tigers, sensing the end of the Alan Trammell era may be near, were pleased with the results.  He was a solid, if not spectacular player, hitting .268 with 13 doubles, two triples, one home run and 19 RBIs with 20 walks and 34 strikeouts.  He also was solid in the field, playing shortstop to the tune of a .951 fielding percentage.

In 1993, he was promoted to AAA Toledo, where his numbers took a hit in a league where players averaged four years older than his 22 year old self.  He hit .245 with 12 doubles, two triples and 20 RBIs with 23 walks and 37 strikeouts.  His fielding improved one full percentage point to .961.  The decision to promote him was somewhat odd, considering Trammell was having a bounceback year, and the Tigers also had a young shortstop by the name of Travis Fryman also hitting .300.  But you can never have enough shortstops, so the Tigers said “Come on down!”

That's incredible.

Gomez would make his major league debut on July 19^th, 1993 in a Tigers’ 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins.  The Twins would jump out to a two run lead in the top of the first on a RBI single by Kent Hrbek and an RBI groundout by Dave Winfield.  In the second inning, they added two more on a RBI double by Sean Bergman and a sac fly by Kirby Puckett.  That would be all the support that Scott Erickson would need, as he only surrendered a sixth inning RBI single to Fryman and a solo home run by Kirk Gibson in the seventh inning.  Rick Aguilera would enter in the ninth inning to shut the door for career save 147.  

Meanwhile, Gomez went 0-2 with a groundout to the pitcher and third base, before being lifted for Trammell in the seventh inning.  Gomez would get his first career hit, a triple, three days later off of Enrique Burgos in a 12-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals.  He would finish the 1993 campaign hitting .250 with seven doubles, a triple and 11 RBIs with nine walks and 17 strikeouts.

In 1994, Gomez started the season on the major league roster, but he didn’t make his debut until the fifth game of the season on April 9^th.  His lone hit that day in three at bats was only one of three he would have the entire month, as he ended it hitting .136 with one RBI, two walks and five strikeouts.  That certainly didn’t foreshadow a fourth place Rookie of the Year finish.

I'm a winner!

Gomez had two of his finest games of that season in May.  On May 7^th, he hit his first career home run off of Chris Bosio, and also his second career home run off of Bill Risley, in a rain-shortened 10-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners.  Ten days later, he would go 2-2 with a double and home run with six RBIs in a 13-6 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.  Overall for the month, he hit .346 with seven doubles, five home runs and 26 RBIs, with 15 walks and 16 strikeouts.

June would see Gomez’ numbers slip somewhat.  He had four RBIs on June 8^th in a 14-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox, but other than that, he didn’t have any monster games like he had in May.  His plate discipline also took a hit.  He hit .261 with four doubles, two home runs and 16 RBIs with six walks and 22 strikeouts.  He did steal his first bases of the season, totaling four and only being caught once.

As bad as June was, July was even worse for Gomez.  Continuing to split time between shortstop and second base as he did in June, he only hit .217 with seven doubles, a home run and nine RBIs with 10 walks and 14 strikeouts.

With the season quickly approaching an abrupt end, Gomez limped to the finish line.  In six games in August, Gomez only hit .190 with a double and an RBI, with no walks and seven strikeouts.

Overall that season, Gomez hit .257 with 19 doubles, eight home runs and 53 RBIs with 33 walks and 64 strikeouts.  One could argue that his May alone earned him the votes in the Rookie of the Year voting.  He did have a fielding percentage of .978 across 57 games at shortstop and 30 games at second base. 

It was pretty much downhill for Gomez from there.  He would spend another season and a half in Detroit, hitting .227 with 25 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs and 66 RBIs with 59 walks and 116 strikeouts.  On June 18^th, 1996, he was traded with John Flaherty to the San Diego Padres for Russ Spear, Brad Ausmus and Andujar Cedeno.  In five seasons with the Padres, he hit .253 with 78 doubles, seven triples, 13 home runs and 147 RBIs with 186 walks and 333 strikeouts.  The Padres released him on June 22^nd, 2001.

For the balance of the 2001 season and all of 2002, Gomez was a Tampa Bay Devil Ray.  There, he would hit .275 with 47 doubles, three triples, 18 home runs and 82 RBIs with 29 walks and 82 strikeouts.  He used his moderate success in Tampa Bay to latch onto the Minnesota Twins for 2003, where he would hit .251 with nine doubles, three triples, one home run and 15 RBIs with seven walks and 13 strikeouts.  He would bounce back with the Toronto Blue Jays the following season, hitting .282 with 11 doubles, one triple, three home runs and 37 RBIs with 28 walks and 41 strikeouts.

Sorry for running all of these seasons together, but when you’re reviewing the career of Chris Gomez, there’s not a lot of filler to be filled.  Back to Gomez!

The 2005 season saw Gomez arrive in Baltimore, but he had a somewhat circuitous path there.  On December 8^th, 2004, he was signed by the Orioles.  Then, five days later, he was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the Rule 5 draft.  Seven days after THAT, he was purchased by the Orioles from the Phillies.  The Orioles must have REALLY wanted Gomez.  He would have two and a half seasons in Baltimore, where he would hit .302 with 28 doubles, one triple, four home runs and 51 RBIs with 44 walks and 48 strikeouts.

The Orioles placed him on waivers during the 2007 season, and he was claimed by the Cleveland Indians on August 9^th.  For the remainder of that season, he hit .283 with two doubles and five RBIs with six strikeouts.  Released by the Indians after the season, he would sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2008.  There, he would hit .273 with eight doubles, one home run and 20 RBIs with 13 walks and 30 strikeouts.  He was released by the Pirates after the season.  He resigned with the Orioles for the 2009 season, but they released him right before the start of the season, marking the end of his career.

Overall for his 16 year career, he hit .262 with 234 doubles, 18 triples, 60 home runs and 487 RBIs with408 walks and 750 strikeouts.  His career fielding percentage was .976 across all positions played, only averaging about one error for every 10 games played.  He went to the postseason four times, and even made it to the World Series in 1998.  While the Yankees beat down the Padres in the four game sweep, Gomez had the second highest batting average of any Padre with more than 10 at bats, hitting .364 (Tony Gwynn hit .500).

There’s nothing more to really say about Gomez.  He never sniffed any sort of award, or even league leader in any notable category whatsoever.  I’m sure he was an affable character.  Probably paid his taxes on time.  Didn’t exactly LIKE the smell of Head and Shoulders, but wasn’t opposed to it either.

Now that we’ve gotten the Gomez speed bump out of the way, I fondly remember next week’s subject, Steve Trachsel.  Why?  You’ll have to wait a week and read to find out!