Tim Salmon | |||
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Right fielder | |||
Born: Long Beach, California |
August 24, 1968 |||
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MLB debut | |||
August 21, 1992, for the California Angels | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
October 1, 2006, for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .282 | ||
Home runs | 299 | ||
Runs batted in | 1,016 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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Timothy James Salmon (born August 24, 1968) is a former Major League Baseball right fielder and designated hitter who played his entire career with the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels, appearing with the team under all three of its recent names. Known affectionately among Angels fans as the King Fish.
Salmon who had been selected in the third round of the Major League Baseball Draft in 1989 out of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, made his major league debut in 1992, the same year that he won the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award.
In his first full season the next year, when he hit 31 home runs with a .918 OPS, Salmon was named the American League's Rookie of the Year for 1993 and quickly became a favorite of the Angels' organization and a household name among the team's fans. He maintained his status as one of the league's elite power-hitting outfielders throughout the decade. He finished seventh in MVP voting totals for the first time in 1995, when he won a Silver Slugger Award, finished third in the league with a .330 batting average, and posted an OPS above 1.000. That year, he was the first major league player to get a hit off future closer for the New York Yankees, Mariano Rivera. He finished seventh again in 1997 when he had a career high 129 RBIs. After playing in fewer than 100 games in 1999, he tied a career high 34 home runs in 2000. From 1993 to 2000 he only had two OPS lines below .900 and he never finished below .860.