Wally Joyner

Full Name: Wallace Keith Joyner	Primary Position: 1B
Height/Weight: 6'2"/185	First Game: April 8, 1986
Birthdate: June 16, 1962	Final Game: June 14, 2001
Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia	MLB Experience: 16 years
Bat/Throw: Left/Left

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1 Biography
2 Statistics
- 2.1 Batting Stats
- 2.2 Fielding Stats
3 Transactions
4 Trivia
5 Video Gallery
6 Picture Gallery
7 See Also
- 7.1 Recent Wally Joyner ArmchairGM Stories
8 Categories

[edit] Biography

Wally Joyner (Wallace Keith Joyner) was born on June 16, 1962 in Atlanta, Georgia. He made his Major League debut on April 8, 1986 for the California Angels, replacing Hall of Famer Rod Carew as the California Angels' first baseman. In his rookie year, he hit .290 with 22 home runs and 100 RBI. He became the first rookie to start an All-Star game since fan balloting returned in 1970. He finished a close second to Jose Canseco in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting. Besides playing for the California Angels Joyner played for the Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves and Anaheim Angels over the course of his 16 year career.

Most people believe that Wally Joyner's best season was 1987. The team MVP that year slugged 34 home runs, a franchise record for first basemen, hit for a .285 average, and knocked in 117 runs. During that year, he also became the ninth player in Major League history to hit 100+ RBIs during his rookie and sophomore years. He never had another 100+ RBI season after that season, as he declined in the home run and RBI category dramatically in 1988; he dropped from a 34 HR 117 RBI season to a 13 HR 85 RBI season. He was still considered productive, but no one can argue that his first two seasons were two of the three best seasons he had in his career.

A few seasons later, after a very productive 1991 season with the Angels, Joyner's contract was over. He decided to sign a one year deal with the Royals during the 1991 offseason for $4.2 million. Joyner didn't really impress, hitting only .269 with 9 homers and 66 RBIs. However, Kansas City decided to pick up his options for the following three years, pushing aside Jeff Conine in the process. Joyner played for the Royals until 1995, when he was traded with pitcher Aaron Dorlarque to the San Diego Padres for the versatile Bip Roberts and pitcher Bryan Wolff. He played there for four seasons, helping them reach the playoffs twice (1996 and 1998). However, he didn't do well in the postseason, especially in the 1998 World Series against the New York Yankees where he went 0 for 8.

Throughout his career, oddly enough, Joyner hit for average rather than for power at a power position and with the exception of three seasons, not producing runs at the rate a team would generally expect of out of its first-sacker. Additionally, Joyner dealt with nagging injuries during the 90's: pulled hamstrings, strained quadriceps, and sore shoulders all kept him from playing full seasons. Despite all of these injuries, Joyner was still able to play consistently, and had an average of .289 by the time his career was over, as well as collect 2060 hits, 409 doubles, and score 973 runs. He also played swell defense, with a career fielding percentage of .994.

The Padres traded Joyner along with Quilvio Veras and Reggie Sanders to the Atlanta Braves for Ryan Klesko and Jason Shiell during the winter meetings of December 1999. Though the Braves were actually after Veras and Sanders, the club had figured that Joyner would be an adequate backup for Andres Galarraga. Joyner reached a personal highlight that year, slamming his 200th home run on July 29, 2000, when Galarraga was on the disabled list. A couple of days after that, Joyner knocked his 2,000th hit, but was soon relegated to backup duty when Galarraga came off the bench.

In January 2001, clearly in his twilight years, Joyner signed with his original team (Angels) as a free agent, hoping to replace the injured Mo Vaughn. After two and a half months, batting .243 with three homers, Joyner decided to call it quits. "I still felt great when I was on deck, felt great walking back to the dugout," the first baseman admitted. "It was what was in between that wasn't so great anymore."

Joyner was also briefly mentioned in baseball's Mitchell Report. According to Joyner, he first discussed steroids with Ken Caminiti in 1998, because Joyner was concerned with the toll that the game had taken on his body. Joyner decided, after extensive deliberation, that he was going to try steroids. According to the statement he gave to the Mitchell investigators, after using the pills three times, Joyner decided he was uncomfortable using the drugs, and stopped using performance-enhancing substances.

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Batting Stats

Year	Team		G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	2B	3B	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SB	IBB	GDP
1986	CAL	A	154	593	82	172	22	100	.290	.348	.457	27	3	57	58	2	10	5	8	11
1987	CAL	A	149	564	100	161	34	117	.285	.366	.528	33	1	72	64	5	2	8	12	14
1988	CAL	A	158	597	81	176	13	85	.295	.356	.419	31	2	55	51	5	0	8	14	16
1989	CAL	A	159	593	78	167	16	79	.282	.335	.420	30	2	46	58	6	1	3	7	15
1990	CAL	A	83	310	35	83	8	41	.268	.350	.394	15	0	41	34	1	1	2	4	10
1991	CAL	A	143	551	79	166	21	96	.301	.360	.488	34	3	52	66	1	2	2	4	11
1992	KC	A	149	572	66	154	9	66	.269	.336	.386	36	2	55	50	4	0	11	4	19
1993	KC	A	141	497	83	145	15	65	.292	.375	.467	36	3	66	67	3	2	5	13	6
1994	KC	A	97	363	52	113	8	57	.311	.386	.449	20	3	47	43	0	2	3	3	12
1995	KC	A	131	465	69	144	12	83	.310	.394	.447	28	0	69	65	2	5	3	10	10
1996	SD	N	121	433	59	120	8	65	.277	.377	.404	29	1	69	71	3	1	5	7	6
1997	SD	N	135	455	59	149	13	83	.327	.390	.486	29	2	51	51	2	0	3	5	14
1998	SD	N	131	439	58	131	12	80	.298	.370	.453	30	1	51	44	1	0	1	8	11
1999	SD	N	110	323	34	80	5	43	.248	.363	.350	14	2	58	54	2	0	0	6	8
2000	ATL	N	119	224	24	63	5	32	.281	.365	.402	12	0	31	31	1	0	0	3	2
2001	ANA	A	53	148	14	36	3	14	.243	.304	.351	5	1	13	18	0	0	1	0	3
Total	NL		616	1874	234	543	43	303	.290	.375	.426	114	6	260	251	9	1	9	29	41
Total	AL		1417	5253	739	1517	161	803	.289	.358	.445	295	20	573	574	29	25	51	79	127
Total			2033	7127	973	2060	204	1106	.289	.362	.440	409	26	833	825	38	26	60	108	168

[edit] Fielding Stats

Year	Team		POS	G	GS	INN	PO	A	ERR	DP	TP	AVG
1986	CAL	A	1B	152	148	1304.2	1222	139	15	128	0	.989
1987	CAL	A	1B	149	145	1306	1276	92	10	133	0	.993
1988	CAL	A	1B	156	148	1343.2	1369	143	8	148	0	.995
1989	CAL	A	1B	159	150	1373	1487	99	4	146	0	.997
1990	CAL	A	1B	83	82	725	727	62	4	78	0	.995
1991	CAL	A	1B	141	140	1238	1335	98	8	124	0	.994
1992	KC	A	DH	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1992	KC	A	1B	145	141	1262.1	1236	137	10	138	0	.993
1993	KC	A	1B	140	134	1194	1116	145	7	116	0	.994
1994	KC	A	DH	11	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1994	KC	A	1B	86	82	743	777	64	8	68	1	.991
1995	KC	A	1B	126	120	1069.2	1111	118	3	121	0	.998
1995	KC	A	DH	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1996	SD	N	1B	119	115	1044	1059	89	3	85	0	.997
1997	SD	N	1B	131	122	1045.2	1027	89	4	82	0	.996
1998	SD	N	1B	127	113	1013.2	985	81	7	101	0	.993
1999	SD	N	1B	105	88	779.1	731	66	4	83	0	.995
1999	SD	N	DH	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
2000	ATL	N	1B	55	39	350.2	353	29	3	33	0	.992
2000	ATL	N	DH	7	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
2001	ANA	A	DH	9	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
2001	ANA	A	1B	39	31	267.1	270	18	1	27	0	.997
Total			1B	1913	1798	16060	16081	1469	99	1611	1	.994
Total			DH	34	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000

[edit] Transactions

Selected by California Angels in the 3rd round of the free-agent draft (June 6, 1983 - signed June 16, 1983).
Granted free agency (October 28, 1991).
Signed by Kansas City Royals (December 9, 1991).
Traded by Kansas City Royals with Aaron Dorlarque to San Diego Padres in exchange for Bip Roberts and Bryan Wolff (December 21, 1995).
Traded by San Diego Padres with Reggie Sanders and Quilvio Veras to Atlanta Braves in exchange for Bret Boone, Ryan Klesko, and Jason Shiell (December 22, 1999).
Granted free agency (October 30, 2000).
Signed by Anaheim Angels (January 25, 2001).
Released by Anaheim Angels (June 16, 2001).