The Top 40 VORP list continues with the player that accumulated the 23rd highest VORP total as a member of the Minnesota Twins, Torii Hunter.

Torii Hunter is the current center fielder for the Minnesota Twins. Hunter is known for his engaging personality, his fielding prowess, and his spotty, yet occasionally spectacular output. Hunter burst onto the national scene in the first half of 2002 and was able to parlay that half season of success into $44 million. He appeared to be the heir apparent to the great Kirby Puckett. He wasn't. Since then, he’s generally failed to live up to the promise that he showed in that heady time six years ago. Then again, maybe he’s been exactly the player that people should have expected back then. My personal feeling at the time was that Hunter was going to be a superstar. My own disappointment may be a result of my own unrealistic expectations. Then again, I never offered Hunter his huge contract.

In the lens of history, Hunter’s contributions to this team, I believe, will be viewed favorably. He was a major contributor to four AL Central division championships and has been a fan favorite. Even still, not unlike a certain homegrown first baseman that is far higher on this list, Hunter leaves me wanting more. But, that’s just me.

6’2 205 LBS. Bats Right and Throws Right. Born 1975 in Pine Bluff, AR.
Member of the Twins from 1997-
VORP as a Twin: 141.1 Rank: 23rd

Torii Hunter was drafted out of high school in the first round by the Minnesota Twins in 1993 and he signed with the Twins on July 12, 1993. Hunter went off to rookie ball in 1993 struggled as an 18 year old. Hunter had just 19 hits in 100 at bats and a Rondell Whitesque four walks. It was not exactly the type of results one would hope for from a first round draft pick.

Hunter's next season was much better. He hit .293/.358/.437. That .358 OBP was a career high, save for his stint at AAA Salt Lake as a 24 year old. Hunter progressed somewhat steadily through the minor leagues, and got a "Cup of Coffee" in 1997. In his only appearance, he reportedly had a memorable debut, sort of.

Torii Hunter won’t forget the first major league baseball game he saw in person: August 22, 1997, Minnesota Twins vs. Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

He played in it.

Top of the ninth, one out, his Twins trailing, Hunter got the call to pinch run for All-Star catcher Terry Steinbach. Hunter, a 21-year-old from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who had never come closer than a television broadcast to the big leagues before getting called up for the game, trotted nervously across the Camden Yards infield. “I’m supposed to run for you,” the rookie said to the 35-year old vet standing on first base.

Steinbach didn’t budge. “No you’re not.”

Hunter stood in front of Steinbach and 50,000 Oriole fans like a lost child. Have I made a mistake? What do I do now?

Steinbach smiled and surrendered his spot. “Just kidding. Have fun.”

Hunter didn't get an at bat in 1997. His first major league at bat came in 1998, after another year in the minors, split between AA and AAA. In his first game in which he actually had an at bat on April 29, 1998, Torii Hunter lead off and was 0-3 with a walk. His first hit came two days later when he got a pinch hit off of Arthur Rhodes that he pushed through the right side of the infield.

Hunter played six games in just over a week before being sent down again. He was up "for good" in 1999 and played in 135 games. The next season saw Hunter start with the Twins, and got off to a very nice start, hitting .305/.359/.475/.834 in April. But, by May 25th, he was hitting just .207/.243/.300/.543 and he earned a ticket to Salt Lake City. Hunter spent 55 games at AAA before getting recalled at the end of July. Hunter played much better and ended up hitting .280/.318/.408/.726. Note the low onbase percentage.

In 2001, Hunter was really up for good. Hunter's defensive prowess was recognized and he won his first of what is now six consecutive Gold Gloves. He also displayed some healthy pop in his bat, clubbing 27 home runs. Hunter had hit 18 homeruns in his relatively short stint at Salt Lake, and his power was on display in the major leagues. Hunter's OBP was low again, but with a .479 slugging percentage, he had a 102 OPS+ and 18.3 VORP.

Hunter began the 2002 season like a superstar. By the All-Star game, he was hitting .306/.347/.564/.911 with 20 home runs. Playing great defense and knocking the cover off the ball -- Hunter was fast becoming a household name. He was voted to start in the 2002 All-Star game in Milwaukee. In the bottom of the first inning, Barry Bonds stepped to the plate. Bonds was fresh off of his 73 HR season and was off to another great start. Barry got a rare pitch to hit and he uncorked a long drive to right centerfield. Hunter and Ichiro! raced back and Hunter got to the wall, leaped and made what the baseball world thought was a spectacular catch. And certainly it was. While it might have been his most famous catch, it certainly wasn't out of the ordinary -- Twins fans were accustomed to seeing such plays.

Bonds was robbed of a home run. And he let Hunter know about it. It was a classic moment.

Hunter cooled in the second half of the 2002 season, but his numbers were still pretty good. He hit .289/.334/.524 and finished with 29 homeruns. He had a 43 VORP, a second gold glove, national acclaim, and he was eligible for arbitration. His OBP was a little low, but he looked like he was continuing to improve. The Twins won their first division title in eleven years in 2002 and marched onto the ALCS before being disposed of by the soon-to-be World Champion Angels. Hunter had an unspectular post season, but Twins nation was energized. Torii Hunter's life was about to change.

The Twins must felt that they were getting a player who was breaking through to Kirby Puckett like superstardom. The Twins inked Hunter to a 4-year $32 million contract with a $12 million team option for a fifth season. What they got, though, was a player that would never again play as well as he did in 2002. Hunter was an All-Star starter in 2002 and has never seriously made another bid to reach that level. And that is the disappointment.

Hunter's 2003 season was a colossal disappointment. He started slowly, and on May 20th, he was hitting .217/.290/.392/.682. The Twins were sleep walking through the first half of the season as the Kansas City Royals (!) looked to be the team to beat in the AL Central. Hunter, ever the streaky hitter, then went on a hot streak and in 16 games, he was hitting .257/.345/.450/.795. Hunter pretty much hit at the level for the rest of the season and finished at .250/.312/.451/.763. His VORP was 11.7. Hunter's play improved in 2004, but he clearly wasn't the player that people might have thought that he was in 2002. However, he wasn't without his moments, including a memorable pounding that the one-time football player delivered to White Sox catcher Jamie Burke. The Twins seemed to own the White Sox and Hunter's running over of Burke was symbolic of the tire tracks that the White Sox had on their backs for the last four seasons. Hunter had his fourth consecutive gold glove and unlike a Derek Jeter gold glove, Hunter's were earned, or so it seems.

During spring training 2005, Hunter made comments about his leading the team, and indicated that he would fight anyone that didn't have fun. How prophetic that turned out to be. Now making significant money, Hunter trudged through another good, but not great season. Adding to the frustration that some people (like yours truly) had with Hunter, he publicly called out the two young prospects on the team, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, and indicated that these two guys weren't tough enough. The White Sox were running away from the division, the three time defending champs were fading, and there was the hints of dissension. There were reports that the Twins were thinking about trading Hunter and at least one blogger was very strongly in favor of it. He might have been traded, too, but a couple of days before the trading deadline, Hunter was seriously injured in Fenway Park trying to make a spectacular catch off of the bat of former teammate David Ortiz. Trading Hunter was now out of the question. There would be no takers... Hunter was out for the season.

Hunter left the team and retreated to his Dallas home. He made a return later in the season and was joking in the dugout at Justin Morneau's expense. I don't know if Hunter was just playing or what. I do know that Hunter had publicly called out Morneau earlier the season. Whatever happened ended with Hunter taking a swing at the future American League MVP. He missed and hit Nick Punto. It was arguably the darkest moment for the Twins since the 2001 Renaissance began.

Things would get a lot darker for the Twins. In March, 2006, Kirby Puckett, arguably the greatest player (he comes much later in this series) died suddenly. Suddenly, the trifling problems of 2005 seemed unimportant. The Twins promised to play hard to honor the memory of Puckett, but they played instead like they were in mourning. Hunter was hitting just .194/.240/.367/.607 on May 2nd and the Twins had fallen out of the AL Central Race and were sitting in fourth place, eight games out of first. Hunter went on a tear, and it seemed like he was on his annual tear, which would probably lead to nothing. With the Twins out of the race and looking unable to get back in it, surely Hunter would be dealt before the trading deadline.

The Twins unloaded the disastrous left side of their infield and committed to a youth movement, calling up the scandalously repressed Jason Bartlett and moving the up-to-that-point replacement level caliber Nick Punto to third base. They moved Francisco Liriano into the starting rotation. And the greatest four month stretch of Twins baseball was about to begin. The Twins went on a fantastic tear in June and the first part of July. About the only teams that played anywhere close to their level were the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox. On July 15th, Hunter went on the disabled list with a stress fracture in his foot and the Twins were 12 games behind the Tigers and 7.5 games behind the White Sox. Surely, the Twins were done, and now Hunter was on the disabled list right before the trading deadline. Curse the luck!

Hunter came back after fifteen days. He had 14 homeruns was having a typical Hunter season, .269/.346/.441/.787. However, in two months, Hunter would hit 17 more home runs. He provided an offensive force for the Twins as they continued their relentless march to an improbable (or maybe just unbelievable) fourth division title in five years. Ironically though, Hunter, who seemingly provided his greatest value on defense, suddenly was a terrible defensive centerfielder. It was as though Hunter did not understand that he could not run full speed with a broken foot. Repeatedly, Hunter appeared to take routes to balls that showed a lack of understanding of his injury related deficiency. But, Hunter's improved offensive play seemed to make up for his defensive liability.

On September 25th, Hunter hit his 30th homerun of the season. No Twins had hit 30 homeruns from 1987 to 2006. Hunter, of course, was supposed to be the guy who would finally get there. And he finally did... but, of course, he was the second guy to get there. The first was Morneau, the guy who was the object of Hunter's ire about a year earlier. Hunter hit a two run home run on the last day of the season to break a 1-1 tie with the White Sox and lead the Twins to a 5-1 win and the Division Championship.

The Twins would play the Oakland A's in the first round of the playoffs. The Twins were favored, but they'd already won for the last time in 2006. And Hunter would display his suddenly poor defense in a crucial moment. Down 2-0 in game 2, the Twins tied it up with back to back home runs from Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau in the bottom of the sixth. The Metrodome was alive. It was about to die. In the top of the seventh with one out and a man on first, Mark Kotsay hit a looping line drive to right center field. From my seat down the left field line, I could see that the ball would fall in. I watched in horror as Hunter attempted, but failed miserably, to catch the ball. The ball rolled to the fence and Kotsay would circle the bases. What should have been a single was instead an inside the park home run. The Twins momentum was destroyed. Hunter's play was surprising to those who weren't watching Hunter in the second half of the 2006 season. The post season was an anti-climactic end to a great season. It's too bad that Hunter got exposed like that. He contributed to the Twins run to the title. Even though he did make a lot of poor plays down the stretch, he's been too good too long to have that happen.

I decided to do this countdown based upon VORP as opposed to WARP3 because it was a lot easier for me to compile the TOP 40 VORP list than it would be to do so for WARP3. But, VORP, of course, provides no value for defense, where WARP3 does. It would seem, then, that a player like Hunter would have a WARP3 number that shows more value than his VORP. However, Hunter has just 18 FRAA over his career, adjusted for all time. In 2002, the year of his great catch in the All-Star Game, Hunter accumulated -13 runs FRAA. That relatively small number of FRAA provide not a lot of value to the WARP3. Of course, the value of defensive statistics are certainly suspect. Still, baseball-reference.com reports that Hunter's range factor has been below average for four of the last five seasons. Could it be that Hunter is an overrated fielder? I don't believe it.

I've been hard on Hunter over the last few years, but I'll admit that it primarily stems from my disappointment over his failure to be the superstar I thought he'd be. Hunter's been a good player for the Twins, good enough to be a top 25 player in club history. He's also been pretty exciting. There are a lot of other things I could say about him, but I'll stop and let you guys have at it.