Brunansky

[Lasorda_This_Out]

"In a 14-season career, he batted .245 with 271 home runs and 919 RBIs in 1800 games. Brunansky averaged 24 home runs per 162 games. He finished his career with 1543 hits in 6289 at bats, 69 stolen bases, and 306 doubles."

Wikipedia

 

"Following the 1982 season, Brunansky became a fixture in right field for the Twins starting there through the 1987 season."

Wikipedia

 

"He was the Twins sole All-Star representative in 1985 and was a starter for the World Champion 1987 Minnesota Twins during what was arguably his best overall season (hitting .259, with 32 HR, 85 RBI and 83 Runs). Brunansky helped the Twins upset the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series by hitting .412 with 2 home runs and 9 RBI in the 5-game series. He then had a somewhat invisibile World Series, only hitting .200 with one RBI. Just months after playing each other in the World Series, the Twins shocked both their fans and Tom Brunansky by trading him on 22 April 1988 to the St. Louis Cardinals for second baseman Tom Herr."

Wikipedia

 

"Following retirement, Brunansky was hired in 2004 as the coach for the Poway High School baseball team in Poway, California."

Wikipedia

 

We all love "Bruno". But was he the absolute worst Twins Batting Coach that Buxton and Sano had to deal with when they made the Majors?

 

My take: Yes

HYPER intense dude when Bux and Sano needed a gentle guiding hand into the Show....

Too bad...they are still dealing with the scars?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ashbury]

My tiny bit of observation on the back fields during Spring Training one year was that Bruno was all about yukking it up on the field like he still wanted to be one of the players. That doesn't preclude being a positive influence on young hitters but my impression was that it was a little short of professionalism.

 

I didn't pick up on any hyper-intensity at that time, FWIW.

[gunnarthor]

Wasn't Bruno our minor league hitting coach when Joe Benson and Chris Parmelee broke out? I think that was the reason for his promotion. I wasn't his biggest fan but I do remember that the team did change a bit and took a few more walks under him.

 

I think Vavra was the better hitting coach (Kubel and Morneau both gave huge credit to him on their power output) but frankly, with 25 guys, it's unlikely that one coach is a good fit for all players. I'm glad the Twins are using two and Rudy Hernandez seems like a good fit with Rowson. 

 

Personality wise, I don't think Bruno was a good fit for the  young Twins that were here in 2012-2016 but some older guys (Dozier and Plouffe) seemed to get better under him.

[Doomtints]

Twins hitting was up and down the entire time Molitor was the manager. I don't know that I buy into the idea of Bruno being the problem.

 

The swings we saw this team go through under Molitor were weird. From respectable to catastrophe not once but twice -- all with the same group of people.

 

Back when he was a player, Molitor was on the record as saying his only philosophy is to swing the bat. Good things happened for him when he did that. We certainly saw the young Twins try this in one of those catastrophic seasons with very poor results, and this happened to coincide with Bruno being around.