Wednesday, July 5, 2017

July 5

Jack Farrell (1857)
Robert Brown (1876)
Charles Stoneham (1876)
Bump Hadley (1904)
Jack Krol (1936)
Curt Blefary (1943)
Gary Matthews (1950)
Rich Gossage (1951)
Dave Eiland (1966)
Tim Worrell (1967)
Bo Porter (1972)
Jesse Crain (1981)
Marco Estrada (1983)
Jorge Polanco (1993)
 Robert Brown owned various teams in Vancouver from 1910-45.  He was also president of the Western International League in 1953.  He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Charles Stoneham owned the New York Giants from 1919 until his death in 1936.
Jack Krol was a long-time minor league manager and major league coach. coaching for St. Louis from 1977-80 and San Diego from 1981-86.
Right-handed reliever Jesse Alan Crain has played for the Twins since 2004.  He was born in Toronto, went to high school in Boulder, Colorado, and then attended the University of Houston.  He was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 2002.  A reliever throughout his career, he had some tremendous seasons in the minors, posting a minor league career ERA of 2.00 and a WHIP of 0.94 in 180 minor league innings.  He was called up to the Twins in August of 2004, and with a brief exception has been there ever since.  He was very good through 2006, although his ERA and his WHIP went up every year.  In 2007, he started poorly, was injured, missed most of the season, and has not been as good since.  He was decent, but no more, in 2008, but had a bad year in 2009, going back to AAA Rochester for a little over a month.  The demotion may have done him some good, as he pitched much better when he was brought back.  He got off to a rough start in 2010, but eventually righted the ship and had a pretty good season.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with the White Sox, for whom he pitched very well for two and a half seasons.  He was named to the all-star team in 2013, but was injured in late June and has not pitched since.  He became a free agent and signed with Houston, but spent all of 2014 on the disabled list.  A free agent again, he signed with the White Sox and pitched briefly for their rookie league team in Arizona in 2015, but that was all.  He became a free agent after the season and went unsigned, ending his playing career.  As a Twin, Jesse Crain was  33-21, 3.42, with a 1.26 WHIP and three saves.  He appeared in 376 games, pitching 382 innings.  At last report, he was living in Arizona and seemed to be enjoying his retirement.
Infielder Jorge Luis (Pacheco) Polanco made his major league debut on June 26 of this season.  He was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic and signed with Minnesota as a free agent in 2009.  As he was only sixteen, it took a little while for his offense to develop.  In 2012, however, he hit .313 with an OPS of .903 at Elizabethton and followed that up by hitting .308 with an OPS of .813 at Cedar Rapids in 2013.  He began 2014 at Fort Myers, was called up to Minnesota in late June due to injuries to infielders, and then went back to Fort Myers, eventually being promoted to AA.  He started 2015, was promoted to AAA, and appeared in four more games in the majors.  He split 2016 between Rochester and Minnesota, struggling in his first appearance with the Twins but doing well upon his return in late July.  He has been the Twins' starting shortstop in 2017 and is batting .238/.285/.343.  In the majors so far, he is batting .261/.314/.387 in just over five hundred at-bats.  The Twins seem to like him, but given the questions about his range at short he's going to have to bat well to remain a starting shortstop in the majors.  He turns twenty-four today, so it's entirely possible that he will.  On the other hand, the Twins also have Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianza, and Nick Gordon is batting over .300 in Chattanooga.  The time Jorge Polanco has to establish himself as a major league shortstop may not be terribly long.


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