Minnesota Twins Opening Day Countdown: 42, Dozier’s 2016 Home Run total
By Nate Palmer
The Minnesota Twins are just 42 days away from Opening Day in Baltimore. As we near that day, here is more Twins history related to that number!
The Minnesota Twins are preparing for a 2018 season with expectation after making the playoffs in 2017 as a Wild Card team. We will highlight numbers from team history that represent the number of days until Opening Day on March 29th in Baltimore.
Today we highlight one of the best power performances over a season by any Twins player in recent memory. That was when Brian Dozier hit 42 home runs in 2016. Let’s take a look at what made Dozier’s feat as impressive as it was.
For starters, Dozier’s 42 home runs stand as the most home runs by any Twin in history not named Harmon Killebrew. Just to get a grasp of where Dozier is in Twins history here are the top 10 seasons based on home runs in Twins history:
- Harmon Killebrew 49
- Harmon Killebrew 49
- Harmon Killebrew 48
- Harmon Killebrew 46
- Harmon Killebrew 45
- Harmon Killebrew 44
- Brian Dozier 42
- Harmon Killebrew 41
- Harmon Killebrew 39
- Josh Willingham 35
That list is just as much a testament to Dozier’s accomplishment in 2016 as it is to Killebrew’s sustained success over his career.
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Dozier’s 42 home runs also mark only the fourth time in major league history a player has hit 40 home runs while playing second base. The others include Rogers Hornsby, Davey Johnson and Ryne Sandberg.
It took Dozier a while to find his stroke in 2016 as evidenced by his first and second half splits. In Dozier’s first half he slashed .246/.335/.450 and hit 14 home runs. In the second half, he improved to hit .291/.344/.646 and hit 28 home runs.
Part of Dozier’s historic season was a 24 game hit streak from August 27th to September 22nd. During that stretch, Dozier hit .347/.416/.762 and belted 12 home runs. In the middle of that hit streak was also a home run streak of 5 games.
Those games came against American League Central foes Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals. Against the Royals on September 5th, Dozier in three home runs in what was a strange 11-5 loss with an incredible individual accomplishment like Dozier’s in the middle of it.
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Unfortunately, as the Twins were on their way to a historically bad season in 2016 with a 59-103 record there were a lot of moments where Dozier had to reconcile his personal successes with the team’s struggles. Those 42 home runs were a huge bright spot amongst a rough season and we celebrate Dozier’s season as we are 42 days away from Opening Day.