Class of 2017 recalls Minor League roads

NEW YORK -- The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2017 may not have much in common, outside of their mutual plans to be in Cooperstown on July 30. The trio of Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez played different positions on different clubs and will enter the Hall after different attempts at inclusion, ranging from first (Rodriguez) to 10th and last (Raines). 
But there's another thing they have in common -- none of them stayed long in the Minor Leagues before making the jump to stardom in the Majors. Rodriguez debuted as a 19-year-old catcher with the Rangers on June 20, 1991, only two-and-a-half years after signing out of Puerto Rico. Bagwell began the 1991 campaign with the Astros, topping out at Double-A New Britain after spending his first two professional seasons in the Red Sox system. Raines had perhaps the most traditional route with stops at the complex-level Gulf Coast League, Class A Florida State League, Double-A Southern League and Triple-A American Association, but even he made his Expos debut as a 19-year-old pinch runner on Sept. 11, 1979 before latching on full-time in 1981. 

Though their time in the Minors may have been short, all three recalled indelible memories and lessons learned in that time during Thursday's Hall of Fame news conference from the St. Regis Hotel ballroom in New York.

Jeff Bagwell

Bagwell was supposed to be a New Englander through and through.
A native of Middletown, Connecticut, the right-handed slugger was selected by the Red Sox in the fourth round of the 1989 Draft out of the University of Hartford. Given his college background, the Sox pushed the then-third baseman to Double-A New Britain, where he thrived despite an unorthodox batting stance that kept him particularly low to the ground, for his first full season in 1990. Bagwell finished second in the Eastern League in average (.333), on-base percentage (.422) and OPS (.880) and tied for the lead in doubles (34) over 136 games. His 160 hits and 220 total bases were also tops on the circuit. 
While much has been made about his four homers that season, consider that New Britain's Beehive Field was one of the Minors' most pitcher-friendly parks at the time. New Britain finished last in the league with 31 homers as a club, 53 fewer than leader Albany-Colonie.  
Either way, Bagwell was on his way to becoming one of Boston's prized prospects. Then the Red Sox decided they needed a reliever and considered Bagwell, who was blocked by Wade Boggs at the hot corner, to be expendable. On Aug. 30, 1990, the Red Sox sent him to the Astros for reliever Larry Anderson, who posted a 1.23 ERA over 22 innings for the Sox before signing with the Padres the following offseason. Boston was swept in four games of the American League Championship Series by Oakland, while Bagwell never played a non-rehab Minor League game again.
"I was in Albany playing the Yankees, and we had three games left," Bagwell recalled. "We had to win one game to get to the playoffs. But I got traded. Butch Hobson came and got me off the field. He was throwing BP and was just horrible at it. He got me off the field and was just mad, told me what happened. I stayed there, and my dad picked me up. He said, 'You know what, this is not a bad deal because you now have a chance.'
"My grandma was crying. My grandfather's crying. My mother was crying. Everybody's crying. I'm like, 'What the heck is going on?' I'm making my way up. I'm from Connecticut. I was in New Britain. Then I was supposed to go to Pawtucket. Then the big leagues. Next thing I know, I'm going to Houston. Houston? I'm like, 'Horses? Tumbleweeds? What is that?' This is not what Houston's about."
With the better-armed Ken Caminiti handling duties at the hot corner, the Astros moved Bagwell across the diamond and never looked back. Bagwell was Houston's Opening Day first baseman in 1991 and made 151 starts there while producing a .294/.387/.437 line with 15 homers en route to the National League Rookie of the Year award. With all that was to come, even he didn't think the Astros would be so aggressive with him so quickly.
"When I was going to Houston, I was sitting next to Darryl Kile on the bus, and we were driving by a hotel called the Save Inn," he said. "Both Darryl and I thought they were going to drop us off at the Save Inn and say, 'We're just kidding.' I had no idea I was going to get to the big leagues."
Bagwell finished with a career .297/.408/.540 line and 449 home runs over 15 seasons with Houston. His 79.6 career WAR, as measured by Baseball-Reference, is sixth-highest all-time among Major League first basemen.

Tim Raines

Raines had perhaps the most linear route through the Minors from 1977 to 1980. In hindsight, the six-time All-Star believes that course served him well. 
Selected in the fifth round of the 1977 Draft out of Seminole High School in Sanford, Florida, the then-second baseman showed signs of becoming a speedy on-base machine in his first two seasons, producing an OBP of .390 or higher with 57 or more steals for Class A West Palm Beach in 1978 and Double-A Memphis in 1979. But he wasn't yet totally dominant. The switch-hitter's average at both stops hadn't pierced .290, and his OPSes both began with sevens.
"I was 17," he said. "I was young. I played Rookie ball. Then I went to High-A ball and played Double-A and got called up to the big leagues shortly after my second full season. As a high school kid, you go into pro ball, not really knowing what you were getting yourself into. Being from a small town in Florida, you know how the guys play around in your area in Orlando and Daytona Beach, where I grew up.... But you don't know about guys from Puerto Rico or from Venezuela or from the Dominican or from Japan, all over the world. You don't know where you fit in when you first start."
Where it was easiest to see Raines fit in was on the basepaths, something the Expos noticed in 1979 when they brought him up for a September cup of coffee as a pinch-runner. Raines went 2-for-2 in stolen-base attempts with three runs scored in six appearances that month, and that taste of The Show was all he needed to know he belonged with the world's best.
"There was no looking back from there," he said.
Raines' best Minor League season followed that brief Montreal cameo. He won the 1980 American Association batting title with a .354 average over 108 games for Triple-A Denver and lapped the field in the stolen-base category with 77 thefts, more than doubling second-place Darrell Brown's 38. Add in his .439 OBP, and it was clear Raines ought to be Montreal's future leadoff hitter. An eventual permanent move to left field ensured that.
By the time he retired after the 2002 season, he was known as one of the game's all-time great leadoff men. His 808 stolen bases rank fifth all-time. He reached base 3,977 times via 2,605 hits, 1,330 walks and was hit by 42 pitches over his 23-year career with the Expos, White Sox, Yankees, A's, Marlins and Orioles.

Ivan Rodriguez

Orlando Gomez got his first look at a teenaged Rodriguez during his tryout for the Rangers in Puerto Rico, the homeland of both men, and immediately saw a catcher who would have no problem gunning down would-be basestealers.
"He showed an 8 arm [on the 2-8 scouting scale]," Gomez said by phone Thursday. "He had a young, skinny body, but he had some real quickness in his hands. You got the impression that he could throw it around 90 mph to second base already at that age."
In a story for The Players' Tribune, Rodriguez recalled signing his contract with the Rangers on the trunk of a car in the parking lot outside that 1988 showcase, having impressed then-Rangers scout Omar Minaya with that golden arm. The following spring, Gomez was set to return to Class A Gastonia as manager, and the former backstop wanted Rodriguez to join him, despite the fact the 17-year-old would be four-and-a-half years younger than the average player in the South Atlantic League that summer.
"In Spring Training, you could see how hard he was working," Gomez said. "So in the meetings we had, I wanted him to come to Gastonia. I fought for him. I'd tell them we would only play three, four, five games a week to bring him along and let him develop. Thankfully, they agreed."
Rodriguez unsurprisingly ended up being the Sally League's youngest player during the 1989 campaign, and it wasn't always the easiest transition for the catcher. Gomez lived a couple doors down from Rodriguez in the apartment complex the team shared, and his wife, Nylsa, would help cook the youngster meals to help with homesickness. Rodriguez ended up hitting .238/.278/.355 with seven homers in 112 games, and while those don't jump off the page, his stock took a jump for the way he helped Gastonia pitchers allow the fewest runs on the circuit while posting a collective 2.88 ERA.
"He was a kid, so it was a learning experience," Gomez said. "He had never seen anybody throw 95 [mph] or even 93. The more he played, the more he realized he could do it. He was just building up confidence. But he was always impressive with his receiving and throwing.... By the end of the season, I had to write in my report that he was definitely a prospect."
Rodriguez justified that report with an offensive breakout, sporting a .287/.316/.377 line in 109 games for Class A Advanced Port Charlotte. Add the stellar defense, and he entered the 1991 season as Baseball America's No. 7 overall prospect. (Bagwell was No. 32 on that same list.) He'd spend 50 games with Double-A Tulsa in 1991 before the call came on June 20, 1991 for his debut against the White Sox. (Rodriguez was meant to get married at the ballpark in Tulsa before the promotion, but instead got married in a courthouse the morning of his debut before flying to join the Rangers.) He hit .264 with three homers and threw out 49 percent of attempted basestealers over 88 games with Texas in that debut, eventually finishing fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.
On Thursday, Rodriguez expressed appreciation for his aggressive push through the Texas system.
"I was lucky not having to play Rookie," he said. "I went to Single A right away.... I was glad and lucky to have a short Minor League career. I only played two-and-a-half years in the Minor Leagues, and then at 19, I was in Chicago playing Major League Baseball games."
Gomez didn't foresee Rodriguez joining the big club so quickly following those early looks, but he quickly learned not to be surprised by him either.
"When he came into the big leagues, I was up there too as a [bullpen] coach with Texas," Gomez said. "So he was coming into Chicago, and I was supposed to be his interpreter to make things easier and more comfortable. But I was impressed because he was trying to answer all the questions himself in English. He was showing he wanted to put in the time already at that age because he wanted to be there a while."
Rodriguez ended up playing 21 seasons in the Majors with the Rangers, Tigers, Nationals, Yankees, Astros and Marlins. His 2,844 career hits, 13 Gold Gloves, 14 All-Star selections and 2,427 games behind the plate are tops in history for a Major League catcher.