What ever happened to Brad Komminsk?

Yesterday, my brain was in shut down mode and couldn’t think of anything to write about. So I asked a friend of mine, who I met over at Blogcatalog.com, to name a player he would like to read about. He named a player who I forgot about, Brad Komminsk. Since I grew up in the late seventies and eighties, this got my juices flowing.

So today I think this is the start of a “What ever happened to..” series that I plan on doing on a weekly basis. I hope you enjoy…

Brad Komminsk was born on born April 4, 1961 in Lima, Ohio and was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 1st round (4th pick) of the 1979 amateur draft. Over eight major league seasons he played in 376 games, had a .218 career batting average, with 28 homeruns. He is what I would call a “4A” ballplayer, which means he was a great Triple-A ballplayer, but just couldn’t excel in the majors.

Teams he played for

Atlanta Braves 1983-1986

Milwaukee Brewers 1987

Cleveland Indians 1989

San Francisco Giants 1990

Baltimore Orioles 1990

Oakland Athletics 1991

There is a great interview of him, done by Michael Echan over at MiLB.com, which you can find here.

Presently, Brad is managing the Bowie Baysox, an affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles in the Eastern League. As of 6/17/2008, they are in first place of the Southern Division with a 41-27 record.

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Chipper Jones Going For .400

Joe Morgan interview Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves Sunday afternoon before their game against the LA Angels of Anehiem, and talked about his qwest for .400 and being a switch-hitter. Nobody has hit .400 in the majors since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. Williams also hit .400 in 1952 and .407 in 1953, both partial seasons; nobody has hit over .400 in a season since Williams.

Chipper gave a little insight how what he does at the plate from both sides. He stated that as a left handed hitter, that is his strong side, and that from that side of the plate he hits more of his home runs. When he bats from the right side of the plate, he usually has a more compact swing.

Joe Morgan spoke about this during the telecast of the game that it can be more difficult for a switch hitter to maintain his batting average than a batter that only hits from one side of the plate. He reasoning is there is twice as much to keep up with as far as mechanics and strength. Being that a switch hitter will bat from the right side against a lefty pitcher and that is Chipper’s “weak”, plus they have faced the most amount of lefty starters to this point of the season, it is going to be a real tough road for Chipper to hit .400. Up until that game Sunday night, Chipper was 1 for 9, but was coming back from the eye injury sustained during batting practice a few days before, when the ball he popped up hit the cross bar of the batting cage and bounced back to hit him in the eye.

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