This is the first in a series of 1987 player retrospectives that I’ll be writing that will lead up to the 1987 championship diary that I’ll be writing come April. The first player is the late Kirby Puckett, who broke onto the scene in 1986 with a top five finish for the MVP and followed up that up in 1987 with an equally good season. With Puckett you get top notch hitting with gold glove caliber defense. Oddly, Puckett finished third in the AL in the MVP voting but he was probably the second best hitter on the team. That’s not to diminish his value but it goes to show that while the Twins barely finished above .500 in 1987, this was a very good team with some very solid elements.
Puckett led the team in hitting (.332) and he was second on the team with a 132 OPS+. A knock on Puckett was that he didn’t walk enough but he also kept his strikeout totals under 100, which wasn’t really common for a guy who with Puckett’s power. He also led the team with 96 runs and 207 hits and he was second with 99 RBIs.
Puckett also didn’t shy away from right handed pitching. His power numbers were down against righties but he hit .329 against right handed pitching and .339 against lefties. Puckett was also very consistent through out the season. With the exception of a rough July where he hit .245, he his at least .322 in every other month and topped out in June with a .382 average.
Puckett’s best game was on May 30. He went a perfect six for six with two homeruns, four RBIs and four runs. He also had five other games in which he had at least four hits.
Here are Puckett’s final 1987 stats.
Games 157
AB 624
Runs 96
Hits 207
Doubles 32
Triples 5
Homeruns 28
RBIs 99
Walks 32
Strikeouts 91
Stolen Bases 12
Caught Stealing 7
BA .332
OBA .367
SLG% .534
OPS .900
RC 116
RCAA 38
RCAP 32
RC/G 7.02
ISO .202
