Cy Falkenberg (1879)
Ray Jablonski (1926)
Cal Ripken (1935)
Jerry Adair (1936)
Leo Cardenas (1938)
Bob Ojeda (1957)
Marvell Wynne (1959)
Curtis Pride (1968)
Alex Cintron (1978)
Chase Utley (1978)
Fernando Abad (1985)
Taylor Rogers (1990)
Ray Jablonski (1926)
Cal Ripken (1935)
Jerry Adair (1936)
Leo Cardenas (1938)
Bob Ojeda (1957)
Marvell Wynne (1959)
Curtis Pride (1968)
Alex Cintron (1978)
Chase Utley (1978)
Fernando Abad (1985)
Taylor Rogers (1990)
Cal Ripken was in the Orioles organization for many years,
managing in the minors from 1961-1974, coaching in the majors from 1976-1986,
and 1989-1992 and managing the big club from 1987-1988. He had a son,
also named Cal, who had a fairly decent major league career.
Shortstop Leonardo Lazaro
(Alfonso) Cardenas was with the Twins from 1969-1971. Born in Matanzas, Cuba,
Cardenas began his professional career in 1956 as a 17-year-old in the
independent Arizona-Mexico League. He then went into the Cincinnati Reds'
organization. He was in Class A Savannah for two years, then Class AAA Havana
for a year and a half before getting called up to the majors in late July of
1960. He was installed as the starting shortstop at the age of 21, but did not
hit and was reduced to part-time status. He started 1961 as the starter as
well, but again went to the bench after a lack of offense. Given another chance
at the starting job in late July, Cardenas went on a tear and ended the season
hitting .308, the only year of his career he hit over .300. He remained
Cincinnati's starting shortstop through the 1968 season. He hit .261 in his
years with the Reds, which is much better than it sounds given the offensive
context of his time, especially for a shortstop. He made the all-star team
every year from 1964 through 1968 except for 1967, when he was injured part of
the season. He also won a Gold Glove in 1965 and finished 21st in MVP
voting. Cardenas also led the league in intentional walks in 1965 and 1966.
After the 1968 season, Cardenas was traded to Minnesota for Jim Merritt. He gave
the Twins three solid seasons, finishing 12th in MVP voting in 1969 and 21st in
1971, when he again made the all-star team. As a Twin, Cardenas hit
.263/.325/.394 for an OPS+ of 98, and also provided fine defense. After the
1971 campaign, the Twins traded Cardenas to the Angels for Dave LaRoche. 1972
would be his last as a big league regular, as he hit just .223. Just before the
1973 season started, the Angels traded him to Cleveland, where he was used as a
reserve. Cardenas moved on to Texas for 1974 and 1975, and then his career was
over. At last report, Leo Cardenas was living in Cincinnati and making regular
appearances at Reds promotional events. He is a member of the
Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
Left-hander Fernando Antonio Abad was with the Twins for the
first four months of 2016. He was born in La Romana in the Dominican
Republic and signed with Houston as a free agent in 2002. B-r.com does
not have any stats for him until 2006, when he was in the Domincan Summer
League with the Astros. He advanced pretty slowly, not reaching AA until
2009, and only pitching in five games of AAA in 2010, but then suddenly shot up
to the majors at the end of July of 2010. He did very well there, too,
posting an ERA of 2.84 and a WHIP of 1.00 in 19 innings. He apparently
was used as LOOGY, as nine of his twenty-two appearances were for less
than an inning. He was used similarly in 2011, but a few bad outings made
his ERA skyrocket (it's hard to get your ERA down very fast when you only pitch
a third of an inning at a time) and he missed the second half of the season due
to injury. He came back in 2012 and pitched fairly well for four months,
but fell apart at the end of the season. He's been a pretty good reliever
since then, though, going to Washington in 2013, traded to Oakland before the
2014 season, and signing with the Twins in 2016. He did quite well for
the Twins, going 1-4, 2.65, 1.21 WHIP in 39 appearances (34 innings). The
Twins traded him to Boston on August 1 of 2016 for Pat Light. His numbers
for the Red Sox are not very good, but again, when you pitch less than an
inning at a time, a few bad outings can really mess up your numbers. He
turns thirty-one today. One assumes he'll be in the Red Sox bullpen at
the start of 2017, and if they don't want him there will be someone who does.
Left-hander Taylor Allen Rogers made his Twins debut in 2016.
Born and raised in Littleton, Colorado, he attended the University of
Kentucky and was drafted by Minnesota in the eleventh round of 2012. A
starter through his minor league career, he pitched well throughout the low
minors and had a solid season in AA in 2014. He was okay, but nothing
more, in AAA in 2015 but was very good in six starts in the Arizona Fall League
after that season. He began 2016 in Rochester, made one appearance with
the Twins in April, then came up to stay in mid-May. He struggled in
September but did all right overall, going 3-1, 3.96, 1.29 WHIP in 61.1 innings
(57 appearances). He turns twenty-six today and presumably will be in the
Twins' bullpen in 2017.
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