Sam Rice (1890)
John Wesley Donaldson (1892)
Muddy Ruel (1896)
Pete Monahan (1902)
Tommy Henrich (1913)
Frankie Gustine (1920)
Jim Wilson (1922)
Roy Face (1928)
Shigeo Nagashima (1936)
Clyde Wright (1941)
Bill Gullickson (1959)
Shane Spencer (1972)
Livan Hernandez (1975)
Ryan Langerhans (1980)
Justin Verlander (1983)
Jose Morales (1983)
Brian McCann (1984)
John Wesley Donaldson (1892)
Muddy Ruel (1896)
Pete Monahan (1902)
Tommy Henrich (1913)
Frankie Gustine (1920)
Jim Wilson (1922)
Roy Face (1928)
Shigeo Nagashima (1936)
Clyde Wright (1941)
Bill Gullickson (1959)
Shane Spencer (1972)
Livan Hernandez (1975)
Ryan Langerhans (1980)
Justin Verlander (1983)
Jose Morales (1983)
Brian McCann (1984)
John Wesley Donaldson pitched in the Negro Leagues and averaged
nearly twenty strikeouts per game for the All Nations team in the 1910s.
He pitched three consecutive no-hitters in 1913.
Pete Monahan played in the minors from 1921-1940, batting .301
and collecting 2,462 hits, but never played in the major leagues.
Third baseman Shigeo Nagashima played for the Yomiuri Giants
from 1958-1974 and is considered by some to be the greatest player in the
history of Japanese baseball.
Right-hander
Eisler Livan Hernandez was with the Twins for roughly four months in
2008. The brother of Orlando Hernandez, he is a native of Villa Clara,
Cuba, which is where he went to high school. He was signed by Florida as
a free agent in 1996. He struggled some in his first year in organized
baseball, a season he split between AA and AAA as a 21-year-old, but he pitched
fairly well in AAA in 1997 and reached the Marlins in mid-June. He did
very well, going 9-3, 3.18, helping lead the Marlins to the World Championship,
and finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting. Hernandez was not
as good for the rest of his career with the Marlins, posting ERAs in the
mid-fours through late July of 1999, when he was traded to San Francisco.
He finished that year and pitched the next three for the Giants. His best
year in San Francisco was 2000, when he went 17-11, 3.75. In March of
2003, Hernandez was traded to Montreal and was and Expo/National until August
of 2006. He posted an ERA under four each year from 2003 through 2005 and
made the all-star team twice. In 2006, however, he was having a poor year
when he was traded to Arizona. He stayed with the Diamondbacks through
2007, when he became a free agent. He signed with Minnesota for 2008.
He got off to a decent start, but deteriorated as the season went along:
as a Twin, he was 10-8, 5.48 with a WHIP of 1.63. He was placed on
waivers in August and claimed by Colorado, for whom he finished the
season. He signed with the Mets for 2009, was released in late August,
and signed with Washington, for whom he finished the season.
He remained with Washington through 2011 and actually pitched
fairly well for them. He pitched 200 or more innings every season from
1998 through 2007, and pitched 175 innings or more every season from 1998
through 2011. A free agent after the 2011 season, Livan Hernandez signed
with Houston for 2012 but was released at the end of spring training. He
signed with Atlanta, pitched poorly in relief, was released in June, signed
with Milwaukee a few days later, and continued to pitch poorly in relief.
He became a free agent after the season and did not sign with anyone,
bringing his playing career to an end. It was a long and pretty decent career,
though. In 2014 he was said to have started a boxing management company,
Team Knockout, based in Miami, but it is uncertain whether anything ever came
of the venture. At last report, Livan Hernandez was employed by the
Washington Nationals as a batting practice pitcher and was also doing public
relations work for the team.
Catcher Jose Guillermo Morales is the second of two players
named Jose Morales to have played for the Twins. This one was born in Rio
Piedras, Puerto Rico, and attended high school there. He was drafted by
the Twins in the third round in 2001. He was in rookie ball for two
years, hitting .309 the second season. He then was in A ball for two
years and AA for two more years before reaching AAA Rochester in 2007.
Something seemed to click for him at AAA, because he hit over .300 three years
in a row there. Only one of those years was a full season--he was injured
part of 2008 and was called up to the majors for much of 2009. He
hit over .300 in the majors in 2009, too, hitting .311 in 119 at-bats. He
was back in Rochester in 2010 but had a down year, batting .264. He still
got about six weeks in the majors, but hit just .194 in 36 at-bats. As a
Twin, he hit .297/.370/.354 in 158 at-bats. Morales did not show power in
the minors (his highest home run total was four) nor did he draw very many
walks (his combined walk total in 2010, 42, was the highest of his career), and
his defense was considered suspect, so he needed to hit for a high average to
have much value. The Twins apparently did not think it would happen, as they
traded him to Colorado for Paul Bargas in December of 2010. Morales was
injured much of 2011, playing in only twenty-two games. He became a free
agent after the season, signed with Pittsburgh for 2012, and continued to have
injury trouble, playing in only 58 AAA games. He does not appear to have
played anywhere in 2013, although he did play winter ball. He played for
Camden in the Atlantic League in 2014 and for Long Island in the same league in
2015. He does not appear to have played anywhere in 2016, however, so it
appears his playing career is over. No information about what Jose
Morales has done since 2015 was readily available.
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