Thursday, November 24, 2016

November 24

George Burns (1889)
Billy Rogell (1904)
Joe Medwick (1911)
Danny Ozark (1923)
Bob Friend (1930)
Jim Northrup (1939)
Steve Yeager (1948)
Randy Velarde (1962)
Ben McDonald (1967)
Al Martin (1967)
Cal Eldred (1967)
Dave Hansen (1968)
Chris Herrmann (1987)
Danny Ozark was the manager of Philadelphia from 1973-1979.
Catcher/outfielder Christopher Ryan Herrmann has been with the Twins off and on since 2012.  He was born and raised in Tomball, Texas and is one of two big-league players to come out of Tomball High School (Troy Patton).  He attended the University of Miami and was drafted by Minnesota in the sixth round in 2009.  He hit well in Elizabethton that season, struggled in Fort Myers in 2010, but did well when he started the season in Fort Myers in 2011.  He was promoted to New Britain fairly early in the 2011 campaign and was there again for all of 2012, with the exception of his September call-up.  He was okay in New Britain, but was nothing special, batting .268 with an OPS of .754.  Promoted to Rochester for 2013, he did not do particularly well there, batting .227, but was in Minnesota for about half of 2013 anyway.  He hit about like you'd expect him to, going .204/.286./.325.  He was in Minnesota for about half of 2014, too, and while he hit better in the half spent in Rochester that did not translate into better numbers at the major league level.  He was in Minnesota for nearly all of 2015 despite batting a sub-Buteran .146/.214/.272.  After the 2015, the Twins traded Herrmann to Arizona for Daniel Palka.  He was the reserve catcher for the Diamondbacks for 2016, with the exception of time on the disabled list.  His April was typical Chris Herrmann, but in May he suddenly started to hit and kept hitting the rest of the season.  It's only 148 at-bats, but he hit .284/.352/.493, numbers that were far above anything anyone had any reason to expect.  He turns twenty-nine today.  It's doubtful that he can do that again, but if he can come even half-way close to it, he's likely to have a pretty decent career as a backup catcher.


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