Jeffrey Hammonds

[Michael Trzinski]

Jeffrey Bryan Hammonds was born in 1971 in Plainfield, New Jersey. He was drafted out of high school in the ninth round of the 1989 MLB Amateur Draft but did not sign. Instead, he attended Stanford University and was picked as the fourth overall selection in the first round of the 1992 draft by the Baltimore Orioles.

Hammonds played in the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona, Spain. Hammonds began his pro career in 1993 and played just 56 games at two levels before getting called up to Baltimore. He was batting .323/.330/.500 in early August but was forced to the disabled list with a herniated disk in his neck. After playing four more games in September, the Orioles shut Hammonds down for the season. His finals numbers showed a slash line of .305/.312/.467 across 105 at-bats with three homers and 19 RBIs.

The following season Hammonds missed six weeks because of a concussion and strained knee, and the last seven weeks of the season due to a player strike. Hammonds still got enough votes to place sixth in the AL ROY race, even though he only played in 68 games.

Injuries and poor performance plagued Hammonds in 1995 and 1996, but he had a solid season in 1997 when he slashed .264/.323/.486 and hit 21 home runs and stole 15 bases in 118 games. Hammonds was traded to Cincinnati in 1998, and he would also play the 1999 season with the Reds.

He was traded to Colorado and spent the 2000 season there before the Brewers signed him as a free agent after the season. Hammonds played 187 games for Milwaukee over the next three years with a slash line of .248/.321/.398. He was released by the Brewers mid-season 2003 and went on to play through the 2005 campaign with San Francisco and Washington.

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