Eduardo Nunez will reap the benefits of a strong first half of the season by heading to San Diego next week to represent the Minnesota Twins as their lone All Star selection for the 87th Midsummer Classic.
After not starting in any of the team’s first nine games this season, Nunez has started 66 of a possible 73 games since, and has appeared in 68 games total in that time frame. He’s started games at second (four starts) and third base (25) as well as shortstop (35), and has been a revelation all season long by hitting .315/.341/.479 with 19 steals, 11 home runs, 13 doubles and a triple.
According to Scoutables.com, the biggest difference for Nunez has been that he’s punished pitches pretty much all over the strike zone. Of the nine hitting zones inside the strike zone, Scoutables has Nunez above a .300 batting average on pitches in each spot for eight of the nine zones, and above .333 in all but two.
Nunez met with the media outside of the Twins clubhouse just after finding out he’d been selected, and was grinning ear to ear while proclaiming his excitement.
This is the first year since 2013 that just one Minnesota Twins player was selected (Joe Mauer). In fact, Mauer was the Twins’ lone selection in 2010, 2012 and 2013, and Michael Cuddyer was the club’s only pick in 2011. Prior to that stretch, the previous time the Twins had just one player selected was 2004 (Joe Nathan).
