StaTuesday: The Twins' Max Kepler and German-born players
When this season's Southern League's Most Valuable Player takes the field for the first time he'll become the 43rd German-born player to appear in the majors.
When it comes to producing major leaguers, Germany has actually had the third-most players of any European country, trailing only Ireland and the United Kingdom, with 47 each. (However, only one player born in Ireland has appeared in a major-league game since 1918, and that was for one game in 1945.)
There are actually three other active major leaguers who were born in Germany: Miami's Jeff Baker, Atlanta's Edwin Jackson and Philadelphia's Aaron Altherr.
Of the 42 previous players born in Germany, only 16 have been since 1947. In fact, there was a a30-year game between Heinz Becker (1943-47) and Mickey Scott (1972-77).
That isn't to say Kepler has an easy path to being the best German-born player ever. Here's the list of the top-10 German-born players by plate appearances (as to knock out the pitchers, although one of the below both pitched and played outfield in the 19th century). Included are: several with nicknames which we'd probably consider politically incorrect nowadays, the first baseman who took over for Hall of Famer George Sisler when he had to miss a season and a former Twins manager:
| PLAYER | YEARS | GAMES | HR | SB | BAVG | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glenn Hubbard | 1978-89 | 1,354 | 70 | 35 | .244 | .328 | .349 |
| Bill Kuehne | 1883-92 | 1,085 | 25 | 150 | .232 | .258 | .337 |
| Mike Blowers | 1989-99 | 761 | 78 | 7 | .257 | .329 | .416 |
| Jeff Baker | 2005-active | 748 | 54 | 14 | .264 | .318 | .432 |
| Fritz Mollwitz | 1913-19 | 534 | 1 | 70 | .241 | .278 | .294 |
| Fritz Buelow | 1899-1907 | 431 | 6 | 20 | .192 | .238 | .251 |
| Pretzels Getzien | 1884-92 | 303 | 8 | 17 | .198 | .257 | .275 |
| Ben Koehler | 1905-06 | 804 | 2 | 31 | .233 | .295 | .281 |
| Ron Gardenhire | 1981-85 | 285 | 4 | 13 | .232 | .277 | .296 |
| Dutch Schliebner | 1923 | 146 | 4 | 4 | .271 | .333 | .362 |
If Kepler can live up to his promise and his minor-league statistics -- he batted .322 with a .416 on-base percentage and .531 slugging percentage with 18 steals in 112 games for Double-A Chattanooga this season -- he should be able to climb up this list in no time and have a chance to be just the third German-born player to make an All-Star team, joining Hubbard and Jackson.
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