1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown – Bob Hamelin

Alligator it!

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former Royals/Tigers/Brewers DH and first baseman Bob Hamelin.

Nabholz was able to acquire
more WAR because he was
drafted when he was seven.

Hamelin attended Irvine High School in Irvine, CA, where he excelled in baseball and football.  Despite being recruited by Notre Dame to play football, he decided to pursue baseball, and was drafted in the second round of the 1988 Major League draft by the Kansas City Royals out of Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, CA.  The Dons have produced a total of six major league players which include Heath Bell and Darryl Ward.  Ward, despite not having played a Major League game since 2008, continues to live the dream to this day, playing in the Mexican league at age 39.  Hamelin has the third most WAR of players drafted in the second round in 1988, behind Arthur Rhodes and Chris Nabholz.

More on this later.

Upon signing with the Royals, they assigned him to A- ball Eugene.  In his first season of professional ball, he would hit .298 with 19 doubles, one triple, 17 home runs and 61 RBIs, with 56 walks and 67 strikeouts.  He would lead the team in almost every offensive category, and some by a wide margin.  The second place home run hitter had five, who was also second in RBIs with 28, and average at .265.  Hamelin even finished tied for fourth in stolen bases with nine, and he was only caught once.  His slugging percentage was 217 points higher than second place.  He played all his games in the field at first base, with a .978 fielding percentage.

In 1989, Hamelin was promoted to AA Memphis, where he would build upon the success of the previous season.  There, he would hit .308 with 12 doubles, five triples, 16 home runs and 47 RBIs, with 52 walks and 52 strikeouts.  His on base percentage was .454.  Due to only playing in 68 games, presumably due to injury, he wasn’t among the leaders in many categories, but he still led the team in average, and was fourth in walks, with all three players ahead of him playing in over 100 games.  Playing mainly at first base, he had a .985 fielding percentage.

Due to his numbers in his first two years, he was ranked the 31^st best prospect in the game prior to the 1990 season.  That year, he was promoted to AAA Omaha.  There, as a 22 year old who was more than four years younger than league average, his numbers took a nosedive.  In 90 games, he hit .232 with 11 doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 30 RBIs, with 62 walks and 78 strikeouts.  In 48 of his 90 games, he played first base, with a .991 fielding percentage.

Hamelin would find himself back at Omaha in 1991.  Injuries limited him to 37 games, and his average dipped all the way to .189.  He also had three doubles, a triple, four home runs and 19 RBIs, with 16 walks and 32 strikeouts.  He only managed to play in six error-free games at first base.

The Royals attempted to hit the reset button on Hamelin for 1992.  He started the season at A+ Baseball City, where he hit .273 with one triple, one home run and six RBIs, with two walks and 11 strikeouts.  He was then promoted back to AA Memphis, where he hit .333 with eight doubles, six home runs and 22 RBIs, with 26 walks and 17 strikeouts.  This led to another promotion to AAA Omaha, where he would again tank.  He hit .200 with three doubles, one triple, five home runs and 15 RBIs, with 14 walks and 15 strikeouts.

In 1993, Hamelin was finally healthy, playing in 137 games, again with Omaha.  His numbers would somewhat improve.  He hit .259 with 19 doubles, three triples, 29 home runs and 84 RBIs, with 82 walks and 94 strikeouts.  In 127 games at first base, he only made 11 errors, good for a .991 fielding percentage.

Hamelin was called up to the big show for the end of the season in 1993, about the time that first baseman Wally Joyner went on the DL for the remainder of the season.  He would make his debut on September 12^th, in a Royals 10-2 victory over the New York Yankees.  He would strike out in the bottom of the eighth as a pinch hitter for Jose Lind against Lee Smith.  Tom Gordon entered the game in the top of the ninth and danced around solo home runs to Paul O’Neill and Jim Leyritz to close out the game.

Four days later, Hamelin again would be hitless, popping out to third base in the top of the ninth in a 14-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners.  Two days later, Hamelin would get his first hit off of Chris Bosio in a 1-0 victory over the Mariners.  Three days later, he would get his first home run, a solo shot off of Kelly Downs in a 9-6 loss to the Oakland Athletics.  In all, in 16 games, he would hit .224 with three doubles, two home runs and five RBIs, with six walks and 15 strikeouts.

In 1994, Hamelin would open the season with the big club.  Through his first 10 games, he hit .324 with four home runs and 14 RBIs.  This included a 1-3 effort with a three run home run, a sacrifice fly and a bases loaded walk on April 16^th, totaling five RBIs in a 12-9 win over the Cleveland Indians.  Overall for the month of April, he hit .361 with four doubles, six home runs and 21 RBIs, with 10 walks and 11 strikeouts.  He was AL Player of the Week for the week of April 17^th, when he hit .500 with a double, four home runs and 13 RBIs in five games.

When the calendar turned to May, Hamelin went south.  In 21 games, he only had a hit in eight of them.  Overall, he hit .158 with two doubles, a triple, four home runs and 10 RBIs, with 16 walks and 14 strikeouts.  Even with the horrible average, his walks buoyed his on base percentage to .345, and at the end of May, his OPS was still .973.

June was somewhat better for Hamelin as far as batting average goes, but that’s about it.  In 23 games, he hit .238 with nine doubles, two home runs and six RBIs, with five walks and 13 strikeouts.  He did hit .333 over the final five games of the month, but all six of his RBIs on the month came in three different games.

Hamelin continued to steadily improve in July.  For the month, he hit .296 with six doubles, nine home runs and 20 RBIs, with 18 walks and 20 strikeouts.  He had his first career two-home run game on July 8^th, hitting two solo shots off of Dave Stewart in a 6-5 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.  He also had a four RBI game on July 25^th, hitting a walk-off three run home run off of Roberto Hernandez in the bottom of the 12^th in a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.  That was part of the last nine games of the month, when he hit .375 with four home runs and nine RBIs.

Over the last 10 games of the season in August, Hamelin finished on a tear.  He hit .394 with four doubles, three home runs and eight RBIs, with seven walks and four RBIs.  In those 10 games, he had 13 hits.

Overall for the 1994 season, on his way to American League Rookie of the Year honors, Hamelin hit .282 with 25 doubles, a triple, 24 home runs and 65 RBIs, with 56 walks and 62 strikeouts.  His on base percentage was .388, his slugging percentage was .599, and his OPS was .987.  His slugging and OPS percentages were good enough for fifth in the AL behind Frank Thomas, Albert Belle, Ken Griffey Jr. and Paul O’Neill.  He was ninth in the AL in home runs, and forth in AL in at bats per home run at 13.0.

George Brett’s retirement in 1993 opened up a roster spot for Hamelin, and he took full advantage of it.  With Wally Joyner’s return to health, for the most part, Hamelin just had to show up, eat some sunflower seeds, and hit every two or three innings.  He only played 24 games in the field, all at first base.  There, he only made two errors, good for a .992 fielding percentage.

In 1995, Hamelin took the phrase “sophomore slump” to a whole new level.  For the season, in 72 games, he hit .168 with seven doubles, a triple, seven home runs and 25 RBIs, with 26 walks and 56 strikeouts.  He went on the DL on June 8^th, when he was only hitting .175.  He came back for the month of July, when he only hit .145, and he was then sent back to AAA Omaha.  Between the rehab stint while he was on the DL, and for the month of August, at Omaha he did hit .294, but his MINOR success (see what I did there?) didn’t translate back to the big leagues.  Over the final month of the season back in Kansas City, he only hit .184.

Was this the worst
baseball card ever?

Health issues continued to plague Hamelin in 1996, which would be his last season in Kansas City.  Overall, he hit .255 with 14 doubles, a triple, nine home runs and 40 RBIs, with 54 walks and 58 strikeouts.  At the end of May, he was only hitting .196, but through the first half of June, he hit .367.  At that time, he went on the DL until the middle of July.  When he returned, he hit .298 through the end of August, although there was little power, as his slugging percentage over that time was only .464.  It appears he battled through injuries through the month of September, where in only eight games, he hit .222.

The Royals released Hamelin on March 26^th, 1997.  A couple of weeks later, he was signed by the Detroit Tigers.  He started out the season at AAA Toledo, where he hit .242, but he did have 27 walks and 24 strikeouts.  This was good enough for the Tigers, and he made his debut with them on May 7^th.  Through his first 23 games with the Tigers, he was hitting .394, but for the rest of the season, he only hit .238.  Overall, he hit .270 with 15 doubles, 18 home runs and 52 RBIs, with 48 walks and 72 strikeouts.

Hamelin was granted free agency at the end of 1997, and he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers for the 1998 season.  He did play in 109 games, but he only had a total of 167 plate appearances.  For the Brewers, he hit .219 with six doubles, seven home runs and 22 RBIs, with 16 walks and 30 strikeouts.  His final Major League game came on September 27^th, when he went 1-4 with a strikeout in a 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 1999, he was signed a minor league deal with the Tigers, but at AAA Toledo, through 46 games, he hit .221 with nine doubles, five home runs and 20 RBIs, with 24 walks and 29 strikeouts.  One day, Hamelin grounded out, went back to the dugout, and told the manager that he was done, and so it was.

For his career, across 497 games, Hamelin hit .246 with 70 doubles, three triples, 67 home runs and 209 RBIs, with 206 walks and 293 strikeouts.  He had a respectable .352 on base percentage, which helped boost his career OPS to .816, making his career OPS+ 109.  He only played in 138 games in the field, all at first base, where he committed a total of 10 errors, and had a fielding percentage of .990.  All of these numbers equal a seven or eight hitter in today’s game, but this wasn’t nearly good enough for the offensive environment of the mid-to-late 1990’s.  Leg injuries and an eye problem quickened his exit from the game.

Bob Hamelin came relatively out of nowhere to claim the 1994 American League Rookie of the Year honors.  And that’s ok.  Jim Edmonds and Manny Ramirez I’m sure are glad to have traded that honor for their World Series rings.  That’s ok though.  There are two things that I’ll always remember about baseball in 1994 – we lost a third of the season to the strike, and some guy named Bob Hamelin won the AL Rookie of the Year.

And yes, according to this blog, he has the worst baseball card ever.  So he has that going for him.