Happy Birthday--December 4

Jesse Burkett (1868)
Shano Collins (1885)
Bob Shawkey (1890)
Harvey Kuenn (1930)
Lee Smith (1957)
Stan Jefferson (1962)
Bernardo Brito (1963)
Kyle Lohse (1978)
Carlos Gomez (1985)

Outfielder Bernardo Brito hit 295 home runs in the minors, but only five in the big leagues.  Born in San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic, Brito was signed by Cleveland as a free agent in 1980.  He was young, and it showed, as he struggled his first few seasons.  In 1984, however, he hit .300 with 19 home runs for short-season Class A Batavia.  It would be several years before he batted .300 again, but Brito continued to show power, hitting over 20 homers in nine of the next ten minor league seasons, seven of them at AAA.  When he did top .300 again, he did it three times in a row, from 1993 to 1995.  Despite his minor-league success, he never really got a chance in the majors, batting 14 times for the Twins in 1992, 54 times in 1993, and five times in 1995.  His major league line was .219/.237/.466.  Brito was released by the Twins in late June of 1995.  He then signed with the Nippon Ham Fighters, finishing 1995 and playing 1996 there.  Brito played briefly for Sioux Falls in the Northern League in 1998.  While there's no way to know whether he could have done anything in the majors, it seems odd, given his success at AAA, that he was never given any kind of a chance in the big leagues.  No information about Bernardo Brito's current whereabouts was readily available.

Pitcher Kyle Lohse was with the Twins for several years at the beginning of his career.  He was born in Chico, California, and attended Union High School in Valley City, California.  Lohse was drafted by the Cubs in the 29th round in 1996, and for a 29th round pick, has done very well.  He pitched well in the low levels of the minors, but struggled for a few years after that.  He was traded to the Twins in May of 1999 along with Jason Ryan for Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs.  He continued to struggle, hitting bottom in 2000, when he went 3-18 with a 6.04 ERA for AA New Britain.  In 2001, however, he suddenly turned things around.  In fourteen starts split between AA and AAA, Lohse went 7-3 with a 2.79 ERA, and by late June he found himself in the Twins' rotation at the age of 22.  He did not do well that year, but stayed in the Twins' rotation until early 2006.  He was never a star, but he was generally an average major league pitcher (with the exception of 2004), which is not something to be taken lightly.  Lohse got off to a poor start in 2006, however, was sent to AAA Rochester, and was traded to the Cincinnati at the end of July for Zach Ward.  Lohse continued to be a more-or-less average pitcher for Cincinnati, was traded to Philadelphia at the end of July of 2007, became a free agent at the end of the season, and signed with St. Louis for 2008.  He had his best year to date in 2008, going 15-6 with a 3.78 ERA.  He went back to normal in 2009.  As a Twin, Lohse was 51-57 with a 4.88 ERA, in 172 appearances, 152 of them starts.  Lohse is one of three non-Hispanic Native American players currently active, along with Jacoby Ellsbury and Joba Chamberlain.

Outfielder Carlos Gomez only recently became an ex-Twin.  Born in Santiago in the Dominican Republic, he signed with the Mets in 2002.  It is unclear what he did for the next couple of years, because he does not show up in the minor league stats until 2004, but he presumably was playing ball someplace.  Gomez was remarkably consistent in the minors, hitting around .270-.280 at each level.  He was with the Mets for about half of the 2007 season, then was traded to the Twins with Deolis Guerra, Philip Humber, and Kevin Mulvey for Johan Santana.  A colorful, fast, exciting player, he did not perform particularly well at the plate, hitting .248/.292/.352 in nearly 900 at-bats with the Twins, for an OPS+ of 72.  In early November, the Twins traded Gomez to Milwaukee for J. J. Hardy.  Clearly, much of the Carlos Gomez story has yet to be written.