Aaron Heilman was drafted by Minnesota in the first round in 2000, but did not sign.
Gregory Carpenter Gagne was the shortstop for the Twins in their World Championship years. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, he attended Somerset High School in Somerset, Massachusetts, and was drafted by the Yankees in the fifth round in 1979. He started slowly, but had a solid year in 1981 at Class A Greensboro, hitting .297 with a .445 slugging percentage. In April of 1982, Gagne was traded along with Paul Boris and Ron Davis to the Twins for Roy Smalley. He got cups of coffee with the Twins in 1983 and 1984, was the semi-regular shortstop in 1985 (sharing the position with Alvaro Espinoza and the returned Smalley) and became the regular in 1986. A solid defensive player, he could be counted on to hit somewhere around .250 with about ten home runs every season. A free agent after the 1992 season, Gagne signed with Kansas City, where he played for three years. His best season came in 1993, when he hit .280 with 10 homers and finished 22nd in the MVP voting. A free agent after the 1995 campaign, he signed with the Dodgers and played for them for two more years, retiring after the 1997 season. As a Twin, Greg Gagne batted .249/.292/.385 with an OPS+ of 83; oddly, his OPS+ for each of the teams he played for was 83. Gagne tied a major league record by hitting two inside-the-park homers in one game on October 4, 1986. After his retirement, Gagne moved back to Somerset. He was the head baseball coach for Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Massachusetts for eleven years. His biography in wikipedia says he is "revered" by Twins fans, which is probably overstating it, but he is remembered fondly. Gagne was inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in September of 2010.
Catcher Jeffrey Scott Reed played for the Twins from 1984-1986, at the beginning of a career that stretched for parts of seventeen seasons. Born and raised in Joliet, Illinois, Reed was taken by Minnesota with the 12th pick of the 1980 draft. He had a big year in Class A Visalia in 1982, hitting .329. He was never able to repeat that success, but got big-league cups of coffee in 1984 and 1985 and was the Twins' backup catcher in 1986. In February of 1987, Reed was traded with Al Cardwood, Neal Heaton, and Yorkis Perez to Montreal for Tom Nieto and Jeff Reardon. He was the Expos' backup catcher for a year and a half, and then was traded to Cincinnati. Reed was a part-time player for Cincinnati through 1991, doing a solid job for the Reds. He was injured for most of 1992, and was a free agent after the season. Signing with San Francisco, Reed was the Giants' backup catcher through 1995. A free agent again after that season, he moved on to Colorado, where Reed enjoyed his best seasons. In his three and a half years with the Rockies, Reed hit .286 as a part-time catcher, hitting 36 home runs. He slipped to .255 in 1999, however, and was released in July. He caught on with the Cubs, finished the season there, and played for them again in 2000, but hit only .214 in a reserve role. He went to spring training with the Cubs in 2001, but did not make the team. Reed played with the Phillies' AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre that year. Scranton is apparently the home of the Jeff Reed fan club, founded in 1988 by a young fan who was looking for an alternative hero to the more popular players of the day, much like a young Jeff A once chose Sal Butera as his favorite player. Reed remains extremely popular in Scranton. As a Twin, Jeff Reed hit .224/.293/.311 for an OPS+ of 64. For his career, though, he spent parts of seventeen years in the big leagues, and there aren't too many people who can say that. Jeff Reed has been the batting coach for the Elizabethton Twins from 2002-2019, which was the last year the team played. It appears that Jeff Reed is currently working with youth baseball in the St. Louis area.
No comments:
Post a Comment