Non-Roster Invitee: Doug Deeds

This past Sunday, the Rangers had their first Spring Training game against the Royals and the boys only scored two runs, both courtesy of Doug Deeds.  I was on my way home after being out of town Sunday afternoon and was keeping up on my phone to see that D. Deeds had a two run homer. Then yesterday afternoon he picked up another two run jack against the Angels, I had to Google D Deeds just to figure out his first name.

What I found was a history of fairly consistent statistics. Last year with the Reno Aces (the Arizona Triple-A team), Deeds batted .302 over 125 games. During that span, he picked up 145 hits and 55 RBIs.  Over his 9 professional seasons, Doug is a career 300 hitter. Originally drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 9^th round of the 2002 Amateur Draft, Deeds is 29 and may be too old to ever crack the major league roster. It would not be far-fetched for him to join the Express or the Roughriders and provide them with a solid bat. Everyone loves the underdog and hopefully, Doug can earn his stripes and at least pick up a spot in the Rangers organization.

Here is the official bio from MinorLeagueBaseball.com

Twins’ ninth-round pick in 2002 June draft…1999 graduate of Bexley (OH) High School where finished his career with a record 28 home runs…named All-State twice and All-Conference four times…attended Ohio State, where he holds the freshman home run record (14)…Academic All-Big 10, Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, Big 10 Freshman of the Year and first-team All-Big 10 in 2001…led team in batting (.386), hits (81) and home runs (12) and was second-team All-Big 10 in 2002.

CallToThePen.com did a good breakdown of Deeds and the other Non-Roster Invitees earlier this season, check it out!

-Jonathan