Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

Twins switch-hitters from 1961-2023

Jorge Polanco

Back in February 2016 I did a post about Twins switch-hitters that you can view here. I decided to update it with a another post that includes just eight more seasons but the results are dramatically different. The player that moved up significantly in home runs hit by a Twins switch-hitter is a player that many Twins fans want to see traded and that player is Jorge Polanco. At the time I did that posting, Polanco had zero home runs, look where he ranks now. By clicking on the various table headings you can re-sort the table to see the leader in any category you wish. I am a huge Polanco fan and I hope the Twins find a way to keep him for a whole slew of reasons.

Credit to Stathead by Baseball-Reference

88-Year Old Dan Dobbek Passes Away

Dan Dobbek, one of the original 1961 Minnesota Twins died in his home in Portland, Oregon on November 28 just eight days short of 89th birthday, of congestive heart failure with dementia surrounded by his family. Dan was born December 6, 1934, in Ontonagon, Mich., to John and Marion (McKinnon) Dobbek. He had an older sister Dolores, who died at 26.

Dan was drafted and served in the U.S. Army in 1957-1958. He played professional baseball for the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins. Jim Kaat noted that he and Dan Dobbek were both signed by Twins scout Dick Wiencek. In his first year in pro ball in 1956 with the Class B Hobbs Sports, Dobbek played in 129 games hitting .340 with 23 home runs and had 144 RBI. Dan was drafted by Uncle Sam and served in the U.S. Army in 1957-1958. He made his MLB debut with the Washington Senators on September 9, 1959 going 1 for 4 against the Chicago White Sox at Griffith Stadium in a 5-1 loss. Dobbek spent the 1960 season with the Senators appearing in 110 games but had only 288 PA’s while hitting just .218 with 10 home runs.

Read more: 88-Year Old Dan Dobbek Passes Away

When the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins, Dan Dobbek became one of the original Twins. Although Dobbek did not start the Twins first game in 1961 against the New York Yankees he entered the game in the seventh inning as a defensive replacement for Jim Lemon and had the honor of being just one of ten Twins who played in that first Twins game, a 6-0 Twins shutout at Yankee Stadium I. Later that year on July 2 in a game at Municipal Stadium against the Kansas City Athletics Dobbek ran into a fence hurting his shoulder and cutting his head. It was later determined he would need surgery for the injured shoulder. After the 1961 season, the Twins traded Dobbek to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Jerry Zimmerman.

Dan Dobbek never played in the major leagues again, finishing his pro career in the minors with the Reds and then again in the Twins minor league system and retired after the 1963 season. Dobbek also played for the Elefantes de Cienfuegos of the Cuban Winter League and was a member of the 1960 Caribbean Series champion team. After leaving baseball, Dobbek worked over 30 years for several different laundry companies in Portland.

Dan Dobbek leaves behind his wife, Helen Joan (Lingelbach) Dobbek; and sons, Thomas John and Patsy and Daniel Joseph and Johnita; as well as a granddaughter, Cecilia Palos; and a great-granddaughter, Athena of Georgetown, Ky.

Thank you for the memories Dan Dobbek. We at Twinstrivia.com pass on our condolences to the Dobbek family, friends and fans.

Dan Dobbek Obituary

RIP Baseball Dan Dobbek Obituary

Using dWAR to determine Twins best gloves over the years

What is dWAR? Defensive WAR (dWAR): this takes only the player’s defensive contributions and positional adjustment into account in a WAR calculation. dWAR was created by Baseball-Reference. I am using this tool to look at Minnesota Twins players from 1961 thru 2023 to see what it determines as the best defensive Twins players by position for their entire Twins career. A player has to have played at least 51% of his games at that position to qualify. According to dWAR, Greg Gagne is the best defensive player the Twins have ever had.

Minnesota Twins Greg Gagne (7) in action, 6/16/1991 CREDIT: Chuck Solomon (Photo by Chuck Solomon /Getty Images

Catcher – Butch Wynegar 9.0 Glenn Borgmann 4.1

First Base – Ron Jackson -0.4 C.J. Cron -0.4

Second Base – Chuck Knoblauch 8.6 Steve Lombardozzi 3.7

Third Base – Gary Gaetti 11.3 Nick Punto 8.6

Shortstop – Greg Gagne 12.4 Zoilo Versalles 8.6

Left Field – Lew Ford 2.0 Gary Ward 1.2

Center Field – Byron Buxton 7.6 Torii Hunter 6.2

Right Field – Max Kepler 3.0 Tom Brunansky 1.2

Pitcher – Camilo Pascual -0.1 Mudcat Grant -0.1

So what do you all think? Is dWAR a fair way to help determine the best defensive players? Here is a B-R Stathead link to the best defensive players in all of MLB from 1961 thru 2023, does this list make you a believer?

Some of the best Twins we saw at Metropolitan Stadium

Minnesota Twins home from 1961-1981

Baseball was fun to watch at Metropolitan Stadium from 1961-1981 and a lot of MLB and Minnesota Twins “greats” played there. Here is a short list of some of the Twins leaders in some hitting and pitching categories. Keep in mind these are stats accumulated only while playing at Met Stadium.

Games played – Harmon Killebrew-963, Tony Oliva-842, Rod Carew-817

Hits – Rod Carew-1,046, Tony Oliva-935, Harmon Killebrew-844

Continue reading Some of the best Twins we saw at Metropolitan Stadium

Twins Spring Training home has new name

Hammond Stadium

Lee Health and the Minnesota Twins agreed to a 10-year partnership Thursday, November 16th that will rename the spring training stadium site in Fort Myers the Lee Health Sports Complex. The complex has been the Twins’ spring training home since 1991. Lee Health is now designated as the Twins’ official Florida healthcare provider. As you might expect, both sides are mum on the financial’s in this new partnership.

The Twins and the club’s six minor league affiliates have called the Lee Health Sports Complex their spring training home since 1991; the 2024 spring campaign will be the organization’s 34th in Fort Myers.

Lee Health Sports Complex, located at 14100 Six Mile Cypress Parkway in Fort Myers, is inclusive of the 8,730-seat Hammond Stadium in which the Twins play spring training home games and conduct select workouts (while also serving as the Mighty Mussels’ home ballpark); five full practice fields (including the home field for the FCL Twins) and two half-fields; a minor league building with locker rooms, training and video facilities; the Twins Player Development Academy, which features a 58-room residence hall for players and staff, dining facilities, recreational spaces, meeting rooms, educational classrooms and the 220-seat Champions Hall; and four community softball fields.

Short 2 minute video

Twins Switch Hitters

Eddie Murray

In baseball, a switch hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed, usually right-handed against left-handed pitchers and left-handed against right-handed pitchers, although there are some exceptions. Is it beneficial to be a switch hitter? Left-handed batters get a better jump out of the batter’s box to first base. This means the left-handed batter will get more infield hits. Hitting the ball to the first base side of the field has many built-in advantages for his team (such as hitting behind the runner), so he becomes a more valuable hitter.

If you look at position players only, then about 13% are switch hitters, 54% right-handed and 33% left-handed hitters. I believe that at last count there have been 20 switch hitters elected into the Hall of Fame. Many consider Mickey Mantle the greatest switch hitter of all time while others might tell you that it was Pete Rose but that is a whole different story. The switch hitter in the HOF with the most hits is Eddie Murray and the only HOF switch hitting player with more home runs than Murray (504) is Mickey Mantle with 536. So a case can certainly be made for Eddie Murray being the best switch hitter in MLB history.

Read more: Twins Switch Hitters
Roy Smalley

The Minnesota Twins have had their fair share of switch hitters over the years. Who was their best switch hitter? That would depend on what you are looking for in a hitter but you have to start with Roy Smalley. Up until this past season Roy Smalley led Twins switch hitters with 110 career home runs in a Twins uniform but this past season in 2023 Jorge Polanco took over the team lead in switch hitter home runs with 112. Lets take a look at the Twins switch hitters from 1961 to 2023 at https://stathead.com/tiny/hYPg4. The list shows us the Twins have had 77 switch hitters (both position players and pitchers) over the years but only 68 of them had a plate appearance and 66 of them had at least one hit while 44 of them slugged at least one home run.

Cy Young winner Jim Perry was the Twins best switch hitting pitcher hitting 5 home runs and getting 46 RBI with 117 hits and hitting .191 in 613 AB’s over 380 games in his Twins career. Pitcher Pedro Ramos was no slouch with the stick for Minnesota as he hit three home runs in his one season (1961) pitching for Minnesota in just 93 AB’s. Ramos was the Minnesota Twins very first switch hitter to appear in a game and get a hit with two RBI off future Hall of Famer Whitey Ford when he batted on Opening Day in 1961 at Yankee Stadium. He also became the first Twins switch hitter to hit a home run when he hit one out on May 12 at Met Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels pitcher Eli Grba in a 5-4 Twins victory.

Jim Perry
Pedro Ramos

I have written some previous articles about Twins switch hitters that you can check out at Twins switch-hitters and Twins switch-hitters from 1961-2015

SABR 52 will be in Minneapolis in 2024

SABR will be heading to the Twin Cities for our 52nd annual convention on August 7-11, 2024, at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis hotel in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Hyatt Regency Minneapolis is conveniently located at 1300 Nicollet Mall in the heart of downtown Minneapolis’s core shopping, restaurant, and entertainment district. Target Field will host a weekend series between the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians during SABR 52.

This will be SABR’s third convention held in Minneapolis, and the first since 2012. Learn more about SABR’s convention history by clicking here.

If you have questions about SABR or the Minneapolis Halsey Hall Chapter please feel free to drop me a line. I am a member and have been for some time and will either answer your question or forward you to someone who can. The Halsey Hall Chapter’s 2023 Fall meeting will be held on Saturday, November 18 at Faith Mennonite Church in south Minneapolis. Read the current newsletter for more details.

State of the 2023 Twins at the half-way pole

Derek Falvey and Thad Levine – credit MN Twins

I have followed the Minnesota Twins since 1961 (with the exception of my Navy years 1965-1968) but very few Twins teams have frustrated me as much as this season has. I have never been one to sugar-coat the Twins performance and I think I have done my share of ripping the Twins organization over the years. My site, Twinstrivia.com is intended to be a Minnesota Twins historical website so I try to not spend a lot of time writing about my personal feeling regarding the Twins although I do not hide the fact I am a huge Twins fan and watch them when ever I can, more so on TV now days than in person. But this 2023 Twins team is getting to me.

The Minnesota Twins coming off a three-game series in which they went 0 for 23 with RISP and were outscored 13 to 3 and swept by the high flying Atlanta Braves. After the series-sweeping 3-0 loss manager Rocco Baldelli had another closed-door meeting with his team in which he told them that they were playing was unsatisfactory baseball. I would have paid good money to sit in on that meeting.

The Twins have been in first place for the majority of the 2023 season but have played uninspiring baseball for most of the year. The starting pitching has been good but the bullpen has been less than stellar and the hitting has been abysmal, particularly situational hitting.

Continue reading State of the 2023 Twins at the half-way pole

Former Twins pitcher George Frazier passes away at the age of 68

George Frazier

George Frazier was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on October 13, 1954 and passed away on June 19, 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 68 from an undisclosed illness.

The lanky, 6-foot-5 right-hander, Frazier was a star at Hillcrest High School in Springfield, Missouri where he played alongside two other future major leaguers in Bob Detherage and Keith Drumright. before attending the University of Oklahoma from 1973-76. 

Frazier was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 13th round of the 1972 June free agent draft but turned that offer down to attend the University of Oklahoma. George Frazier, who was a member of two College World Series teams in the 1970s playing at Oklahoma in 1975 and ’76 for legendary coach Enos Semore and was a member of the final two of five straight CWS appearances from 1972-76. After completing his college career Frazier was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 9th round of the 1976 MLB June Amateur Draft.

Continue reading Former Twins pitcher George Frazier passes away at the age of 68

Cotton Nash passes away at age 80

Cotton Nash

Charles “Cotton” Nash, a three-time All-American men’s basketball player and a University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Famer, died May 23, 2023 in Lexington, Kentucky at the age of 80. Nash was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 24, 1942.

Hollywood handsome with a distinctive thatch of blonde hair (the inspiration for his nickname), Nash was a star from the moment he joined Adolph Rupp’s varsity in 1961-62. Nash (1962-64) appeared in 78 for the Wildcats and averaged 22.7 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. He was a member of two Southeastern Conference championship squads and was tabbed an All-American during all three seasons of his basketball career. Nash earned All-SEC Eastern Division honors as a member of the baseball team, and also participated in track and field as a discus thrower.

Continue reading Cotton Nash passes away at age 80