Just a reminder to regular RandBall readers that we are on vacation the next couple of weeks and will be scaling back the posting to our customary two-per-day while we’re away. So this fine effort from Stu, the first of what should become a regular feature, will have to satiate the masses through the rest of this afternoon. Please do enjoy:

Welcome to the inaugural installment of They Were Who We Thought They Were; Or Were They? The brainchild of Brandon from Deadspin-approved blog World of B, TWWWTTWOWT’s goal is to analyze past Minnesota sporting figures to see if they were, in fact, who we thought they were. After much thoughtful analysis (read: 15 minutes of Googling and an inexhaustable supply of stale pop-culture references and cheap shots), said figures will be graded on a scale of Absolute Dennys, with a 1 being We Let ‘Em Off the Hook, and a 10 being Crown ‘Em.

Leading Off: Tom Brunansky and Tommy Herr.

Who We Think They Were: Bruno was a belov’d member of the 1987 World Champion Minnesota Twins, playing a solid right field and hitting for power. Tommy Herr was a joykilling malcontent who made baby kittens less adorable just by looking at them. Despite this, the Twins traded Brunansky for Herr in 1988, with the results being less than satisfactory.

Who They Really Were: although Brunansky tends to get overshadowed by the likes of Puckett, Hrbek and Gaetti, the only American Leaguers with more home runs between 1982 and 1987 were Dwight Evans, Eddie Murray, and Dave Winfield. The Twins replaced him in right with Randy Bush, whose 14 HRs in 1988 don’t measure up to Bruno’s 32 HRs the previous season. However, Brunansky never came that close again, either, and the Bush of 1988 was his equal in OPS+.

Meanwhile, the whole thinking behind the trade was to upgrade from Steve Lombardozzi at second base. After all, it’s not like we won a World Series with him there. Anyway, Herr was an RBI machine for the Cardinals, so on paper, this was a major upgrade at second, and the lineup had enough pop that it could withstand losing Brunansky. To borrow a cliché, that’s why they play the games. Herr provided all of one home run and 21 RBI for the Twins, was by all accounts not happy to be here, and was traded for Shane Rawley in the off-season.

The Grade: Brunansky gets 6 Dennys. By all statistical measures, the Twins traded him after he had achieved his peak value as a baseball player. Although it’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday, the Twins probably had the right idea. (Note: Bruno’s original tally of 5 Dennys was upped one Denny due to the mustache.)

Herr gets 10 Dennys. Had he brought anything to the table, who knows what that Twins team could have done? Recall that they were 91-71 and that Frank Viola was just stupid good. I doubt that they would have matched the 104 wins put up by Oakland, but still, a little something would have been nice, you know? He really was who we thought he was. Crown his [redacted].

[Proprietor fun fact #1: Lombardozzi had exactly 38 major league at bats after leaving the Twins following the 1988 season. Proprietor fun fact #2: 1987 stalwart and current broadcaster Bert Blyleven had pretty awful numbers in 1988 as well. He’d surely like to do the whole thing over again because, well, you know. Blyleven then proceeded to go 17-5 a year later with the Angels. Go figure].

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 11:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.