Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies
of the Year in 1994, today we examine former Rangers outfielder, and one of my
personal favorite players, Rusty Greer.
Thurman Clyde Greer was drafted in the 10th round
of the 1990 Major League draft by the Texas Rangers out of the
Upon signing with the Rangers, Greer was assigned to Rookie
ball Butte . There, in 62 games, he did was he was born to
do – hit the baseball. He hit .345 with
12 doubles, six triples, 10 home runs, 50 RBIs and nine stolen bases, with 41
walks vs. 23 strikeouts. His on base
percentage was .444, and his OPS was 1.029.
All of these numbers are pretty good.
Unfortunately, in 60 games in the outfield, he made eight errors, which
equaled a .918 fielding percentage.
Fortunately, it would never be that low again for the rest of his
career.
1991 found Greer promoted to A+ Port Charlotte. While his numbers weren’t as glitzy there, he
still held his own. He hit .294 with 15
doubles, a triple, five home runs, 48 RBIs and 12 stolen bases, with 66 walks
vs. 48 strikeouts. His OBP dipped just
below 40%, coming in at .395. On
defense, he made two fewer errors in 36 more games in the outfield, and added
just one in eight games at first base.
This was good for a fielding percentage of .970 overall. This earned him a late season callup to AA
Tulsa, where in 20 games, he hit .297 with three doubles, two triples, three
home runs, 12 RBIs and two stolen bases, with 17 walks vs. just six strikeouts. His OBP jumped to .451. He also didn’t commit an error in those 20 games in the outfield.
Other than the eight games the prior year, Greer had little
experience at first base, but in 1992, again in Tulsa ,
that was where he mainly played. His
numbers did take a dip while he adjusted to the new position, but that is
somewhat understandable. The good news
is that it was his worst professional season, numbers-wise anyway. He hit .267 with 22 doubles, four triples,
five home runs, 37 RBIs and two stolen bases, with 60 walks and 63
strikeouts. Still, with the lower
average, he had a .376 on base percentage.
He adjusted pretty well to the new position, only committing 11 errors
in 98 games at first base, good for a .987 fielding percentage, and was again
error-free in six games in the outfield.
Greer again found himself in Tulsa
to start the 1993 season. With a mostly
full season of first base under his belt, his numbers rebounded. For the season, he hit .291 with 25 doubles,
six triples, 15 home runs, 59 RBIs and 10 stolen bases, with 53 walks and 79
strikeouts. While his on base percentage
fell to .365, his slugging percentage jumped to .464, both numbers higher than
any season since his days in Butte . Playing all 129 games at first base, he only
made eight errors, good for a .993 fielding percentage. He earned a late season callup to AAA Oklahoma
City…where he didn’t do very well. In
only eight games, he hit .222 with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs, with
six walks and seven strikeouts. Back in
the outfield, he once again played eight error-free games.
Greer would open the 1994 season again at AAA Oklahoma City,
but he wouldn’t be there long. In 31
games, he was back to his old self, hitting .315 with 12 doubles, a triple,
three home runs, 13 RBIs and a stolen base, with 18 walks and 24 strikeouts. Back in the outfield, in 29 games he made two
errors, and he added one in his only game at first base, which equaled a
combined .948 fielding percentage. The
Rangers deemed him ready, and called him up in mid-May.
On May 16th,
1994 , Greer would make his Major League debut in a 10-inning,
11-7
win over the Oakland Athletics. In the
first inning, the Rangers teed off against former Cy Young Award winner Bob
Welch to the tune of six runs in 2/3 of an inning. This featured a two run triple by Will Clark,
a two run double by Ivan Rodriguez, and a two run single by Manny Lee. Greer, batting second, flew out to right
against Welch, but leading off the second, he hit a home run for his first
major league hit off of Carlos Reyes. He
would line out in the fourth, single in the seventh, and fly out in the ninth,
before finishing the day in grand fashion by hitting a two run single in the
top of the tenth in between RBI singles from David Hulse and Jose Canseco.
Greer certainly did make a splash in his first half-month in
the majors. At the end of May, through
15 games, he was hitting .382 with five doubles, a triple, a home run and 12
RBIs. The plate discipline that he
showed throughout the minors dropped off a bit, with only four walks vs. 10
strikeouts, but you couldn’t argue with the results. His on base percentage sat at .424 at the end
of the month. He was only hitless in
three games, and had seven multi-hit games.
He switched back and forth between left field and right field, and
played first base in one game, entering in the fourth inning of a 19-2 loss to
the Mariners on May 20th (they would also lose to the Mariners the
next day 13-2). In those two losses,
Greer did his part, going 3-6 and knocking in two of the four runs.
As the league developed a book on him, Greer didn’t fare
quite as well in his first full month in June.
He only hit .263 with five doubles, four home runs and 13 RBIs. Good hitters make adjustments though, and
while his average did fall, he increased his walk/strikeout ratio to exactly
one, with 15 walks vs. 15 strikeouts. In
fact, there was one five game span where he had seven walks vs. just one
strikeout. This helped maintain his .372 on base percentage that month. He had arguably his best game of the season
on June 4th, when he went 4-6 with two doubles and a home run in a
10-4 win over the Boston Red Sox. Along
with five games at first base, he would play all three outfield positions in
June.
Greer would continue to adjust in July, once again getting
his average on the right side of .300.
For the month, he hit .327 with four doubles, four home runs and 17
RBIs, to go along with 20 walks vs. just 15 strikeouts. His on base percentage for the month was
.433. In a double header sweep against
the Detroit Tigers on July 1st, he was a combined 4-8 with a home
run and four RBIs. He had his first
multi-home run game on July 21st, with two solo shots against Pat
Hentgen in a 9-3 loss to the Blue Jays.
He played three games at first base, with the rest across all three
outfield positions. Perhaps the greatest
moment of that July came on the 28th, when he made a spectacular diving catch to keep Kenny Rogers’ perfect game in tact.
As the season wound down, Greer kept it steady. Over his last nine games in August, he hit
.310 with two doubles, one home run and four RBIs, with seven walks and six
strikeouts. He was only hitless in two
of those games. He played mostly center
field, but also had a couple games in right field. In his last game that season, he had your
typical Greer game, with a ground out, single, walk, and intentional walk.
Overall, on his way to the third place finish in the 1994 AL
Rookie of the Year voting, Greer hit .314 with 16 doubles, one triple, 10 home
runs and 46 RBIs, with 46 walks and 46 strikeouts. His on base percentage was .410. In 73 games in the outfield, he only made
four errors, and he added two more in nine games at first base. This was good for a combined .973 fielding
percentage. Only three players between
both leagues received first place votes for Rookie of the Year that season –
the two winners, and Greer.
1995 was Greer’s worst full season of his major league
career. He started the season with a five
game hit streak, but by mid-May, his average had dipped all the way to .197. A month later, he had it all the way up to
.310. At the end of July, it was back
down to .243. Finally, by the time the season
ended, he had it up to .271. To go along
with that average, he had 21 doubles, two triples, 13 home runs, 61 RBIs and his
first three stolen bases, to go along with 55 walks and 66 strikeouts. His .780 OPS was exactly league average. Across 125 games at all three outfield
positions, he only made four errors, but he added two more in just three games
at first base. This added up to a .976
fielding percentage. His seven assists
from left field were good for fifth in the league, behind 11 that leaders Marty
Cordova and Mike Greenwell had. He hit
his first grand slam of his career on May 18th as a pinch hitter in
the eighth inning in a 6-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.
In 1996, Greer would help lead the Rangers to their first
ever playoff appearance. For the season,
he hit a career high .332, good for fifth highest in the AL, with 41 doubles, six
triples, 18 home runs, 100 RBIs and nine stolen bases, with 62 walks and 86
strikeouts. His on base percentage
jumped back up to .397. He added two
more grand slams during the season.
Playing all of his games in the outfield, he only made five errors, good
for a .984 fielding percentage, which was second best among
The Rangers didn’t make the playoffs in 1997, but Greer had
arguably the best season of his career.
He hit .321 with 42 doubles, three triples, 26 home runs, 87 RBIs and
nine stolen bases, with 83 walks and 87 strikeouts. His on base percentage went north of 40% at
.405, helping him set a career high in OPS at .936. He also set a career high with 112 runs
scored. He played all of his games in the
outfield again, and his 12 errors in 154 games equaled a .965 fielding
percentage. He was AL
player of the week for the week of June 15th, when he batted .600
with four doubles, three home runs, five RBIs, two stolen bases, five walks and
two strikeouts. I’m not sure who had a
better week than he did the week of August 24th though. He hit .444 with two doubles, four home runs,
14 RBIs, four walks and six strikeouts. This
included back to back games with two home runs and six RBIs against the Chicago
White Sox on August 22nd and 23rd. He finished 22nd in the AL MVP
voting, far down the list from unanimous winner Ken Griffey Jr.
The Rangers would return to the playoffs in 1998, and Greer
kept producing. His average dipped a
bit, as he hit .306 with 31 doubles, five triples, 16 home runs, 108 RBIs and two
stolen bases, with 80 walks and 93 strikeouts.
His on base percentage dipped back to .386. Defensively, he had his finest season, where
in 154 games in the outfield, he only made three errors, good for a league
leading .990 fielding percentage in left field.
In 1999, the Rangers would return to the playoffs for the
third time in four years. This would be
the last season where Greer would hit .300.
His average sat at .326 at the end of April, but it fell all the way to
.268 by mid-July. From there on out, he
hit .343, to finish the season right at .300.
To go along with that average, he had 41 doubles, three triples, 20 home
runs, 101 RBIs and two stolen bases, with an excellent 96 walks vs. 67
strikeouts. His on base percentage went back
up to .405. In 145 games in the
outfield, he made five errors, good for a .983 fielding percentage.
In 2000, at the age of 31, Greer would have his last season
playing in more than 100 games. He hit
.297 with 34 doubles, three triples, eight home runs, 65 RBIs and four stolen
bases, with 51 walks and 61 strikeouts. He
only had three errors in 97 games in the outfield, for a .985 fielding
percentage. He missed most of April and
May on the disabled list, and as of June 16th, his average sat at an even .200. Then, he went on a streak of nine multi-hit games, had one game where he went 0-5, then had another four multi-hit games. Over that 14 game streak, he hit .411, raising his average to .294.
Greer would only play in parts of two more seasons. Across the 2001 and 2002 seasons, he hit a
combined .284 with 32 doubles, two triples, eight home runs, 46 RBIs and two
stolen bases, with 46 walks vs. 49 strikeouts.
In 86 games in the outfield, he had a .955 fielding percentage.
The reason why Greer is one of my all time favorites is because
of his style of play. It basically
disabled him, and was the reason why his career was so short. I remember countless plays where he was
diving or crashing into walls. After he
played the last game of his career on July
11th, 2002 , he had a surgery to fuse two vertebrae in
his neck. During the offseason that
year, he had rotator cuff surgery. Expected
to miss the entire 2003 season, he then underwent Tommy John surgery. During the next offseason, he had additional surgeries
to remove scar tissue from his shoulder and elbow. He attempted a comeback in 2004, but then had
to have another surgery, this time to remove scar tissue from his forearm. The Rangers then bought out the final year of
his contract and released him. He was
invited to Spring Training in 2005 as a non-roster invitee for the Rangers and
Minnesota Twins, but instead, he retired on February 20th,
officially ending his career.
Overall in his career, he hit .305 with 258 doubles, 25
triples, 119 home runs, 614 RBIs and 31 stolen bases, with 519 walks and 555 strikeouts. Across 970 career games in the outfield, he had a .979 fielding percentage. On August
11th, 2007 , he was elected to the Texas Rangers Hall of
Fame.
Greer may have taken a back seat to the larger stars of the
Rangers, including Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Will Clark,
and later, Alex Rodriguez, but for those who appreciate hard-nosed, all-out
play, I’m sure there are a few videos out there in internet land of some of
Greer’s best plays. I think I know what
I’m doing the rest of the evening!
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