100 Greatest Red Sox >> #70 Tony Armas

Tony Armas, CF, #20 (1983-1986)

526 G, 510 H, 113 HR, 352 RBI, .252 AVG, .288 OBP, .480 SLG

There were three aspects of his game that really defined Tony Armas. He was often injured, he didn’t like to take a walk, and he could hit the ball real hard. He missed a lot of games due to various injuries and his .287 career OBP makes Billy Beane want to cry, but he topped 20 homers 6 times (3 times with 35 or more) and finished with 251 for his career.

Armas, born in Venezuela in 1953, was a promising young slugger making his way through the Pittsburgh Pirates system before he was involved in a nine player deal that sent him to the Oakland A’s. He began his career with the A’s in ’77, but injuries severely hampered him for 3 years before he really broke out in 1980 with 35 HR and 109 RBI. That year he carried a very weak Oakland offense to a second place finish.

Armas would hit 22 and 28 HR in the following two years with the A’s, but his free swinging ways (his 1980 OBP of .310 was one point shy of his career best of .311) wore out his welcome. Thanks to the emergence of future Hall of Famer, Wade Boggs, the Red Sox had a surplus of third basemen. They were happy to send a young Carney Lansford and two others to Oakland in exchange for the hard hitting Armas and backup catcher, Jeff Newman.

The Boston fans would boo him in ’83, his first season with the club, because of his .218 AVG for the year, but he did hit 36 homers and knock in 107 as Boston’s cleanup hitter. He patrolled centerfield for the Sox and played in between Dwight Evans and Jim Rice making for one of the most powerful outfields in Red Sox history.

1984 was the slugger’s best season when he batted .268 and set career highs in runs (107), home runs (43), and RBI (123). The 84 outfield really was the most powerful in Red Sox history as Rice, Evans, and Armas combined for 103 HR. In comparison, Ramirez, Damon, and Nixon hit 77 in ’03 and Lynn, Rice, and Evans combined for 99 in ’79.

Persistent leg injuries slowed Armas for the rest of his career and his final two years in Boston were a far cry from the slugger the Sox saw in the first two years. In ’85 he played in just 103 games and managed an OBP of just .298. In ’86 he was able to take the field for more games (121), but hit just 11 homers on the year. Despite being completely healthy during the postseason, he received only 1 AB in the ’86 World Series before the Sox let him walk during the offseason.

He hit 113 HR in 2136 plate appearances with Boston which comes out to a HR every 18.8 PA. Out of every player to hit at least 50 HR in a Red Sox uniform, only Ted Williams, Manny Ramirez, Jimmie Foxx, David Ortiz, Jose Canseco, and Dick Stuart homered more often than Armas.

Brian Martin once wrote a blog, but got bored and moved onto other things. He's currently counting down the days until he gets to watch the '07 Red Sox on his brand new plasma tv.