Greatest Minnesota Twins First Baseman Round Two: Reese vs Mientkiewicz
Puckett’s Pond faces off two notable Minnesota Twins players and you decide which one was greater
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Puckett’s Pond is enlisting your help in deciding who the greatest Minnesota Twins in history are at each position. Eventually we’ll square off each position against the others and wind up with the greatest Minnesota Twin, as selected by you. The first position we’ll be selecting is catcher. We’ll only be counting literal Minnesota Twins and not the pre-1961 Washington franchises. Players also will need 700 PAs as a Twin to qualify. We ask you to consider the player based solely on his time as a Twin and at the position specified.
Four first round match-ups in our search for the greatest Twins first baseman according to you are in the books. Second round match ups are now set.
We faced off Rich Reese vs Ron Jackson in our first match up. Reese took 78% of the vote in what could be considered an upset. Absolute and rated WAR disagreed with the result.
Doug Mientkiewicz vs Don Mincher was our second match up. Mientkiewicz took 63% also somewhat surprisingly. WAR again did not agree.
Mientkiewicz vs Rich Reese will be the first match up of round two. Killebrew will face Hrbek in the second. Harmon Killebrew defeated Craig Kusick as if he was swatting a fly and Kent Hrbek took down Justin Morneau in close vote.
Match-up 1: Reese vs Mientkiewicz
We gave a brief summary of Reese’s and Mientkiewicz’ careers in round 1. Have a look at Rich’s and Doug’s if you need a refresher on their accomplishments. Mientkiewicz will be more familiar to fans as his playing career was more recent. Both players went to the playoffs with the Twins a few times but neither player helped Minnesota win the highest prize.
Who was the greater Twins first baseman? Have your say:
Feel free to leave your reasoning in the comments. Check back here for the rest of the match ups and to see who moves on.