Minnesota Twins pitching leaders in games started

Back on December 19 in 2006 pitcher Brad Radke announced his plans to retire after 12 season of wearing the colors of the Minnesota Twins. That got me to wondering where the Twins pitchers with the most starts for Minnesota came from.

  1. Jim Kaat had 422 starts with the Twins and was signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent in 1957 long before the draft was instituted and was one of the original Minnesota Twins in 1961. Debuted August 2, 1959 with the Senators.
  2. Brad Radke had 377 starts with the Twins and was an eighth round pick in the June amateur draft in 1991. Radke debuted on April 29, 1995 in three not so stellar innings of relief and started every game that he appeared in after that.
  3. Bert Blyleven had 345 starts with the Twins after being drafted by Minnesota in round three of the 1969 June amateur draft. Bert debuted on June 5, 1970 and all his appearances but three were starts.
  4. Frank Viola had 259 and just one relief appearance with the Twins after being selected in round 16 of June 1978 amateur draft. Sweet Music debuted on June 6, 1982.
  5. Jim Perry had 249 start for Minnesota after being acquired in a trade on May 2, 1963 from the Cleveland Indians for pitcher Jack Kralick.
  6. Dave Goltz had 215 starts for the Twins after drafted in the round five of the 1967 June amateur draft. The Rothsay, Minnesota native debuted on July 18, 1972.
  7. Kyle Gibson had 188 starts with Minnesota after being drafted 22nd in round one of the 2009 June amateur draft. Gibson debuted on June 29, 2013.
  8. Kevin Tapani had 180 starts in 181 appearances in a Twins uniform after being acquired in a trade from the New York Mets in the Frank Viola trade on July 31, 1989. Tapani had debuted with the Mets on July 4, 1989.
  9. Camilo Pascual had 179 starts with Minnesota and was signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent prior to the 1952 season long before the draft was instituted and was one of the original Minnesota Twins in 1961. Pascual debuted on April 15, 1954.
  10. Johan Santana had 175 starts with the Twins after being drafted by the Florida Marlins from the Houston Astros in the 1999 rule 5 draft and then being traded to the Twins for Jared Camp who the Twins had originally drafted in the Rule 5 draft that year. Santana debuted on April 3, 2000.

The other players with 150 or more starts for Minnesota are Eric Milton with 165, Scott Baker with 159, Scott Erickson with 153, Kyle Lohse with 152 and Dave Boswell with 150.

The only pitchers mentioned here today to make a start for the Minnesota Twins at Target Field are Kyle Gibson and Scott Baker.

The only pitcher on this list to spend his entire career in Minnesota? That would be Brad Radke.

It is all uphill from here – tough starts by Twins starters

Since the Minnesota Twins started play here in 1961 they have played 9,451 games through August 31, 2020. The Twins obviously needed a starting or in recent times an opening pitcher for each of those games.

Sometimes the starts don’t go exactly as planned as the pitchers on the list included here can attest. If you watched one of these games you were probably saying “get him out of there” but did you know that you were watching something pretty rare? A Minnesota Twins starter getting pulled and sent to the showers before he hardly had a chance to work up a sweat doesn’t happen very often, as a matter of fact it hasn’t happened since 2012 when P.J. Walters was the unlucky victim. Just looking at Twins history, it has happened just 17 times in 9,451 games or in just .0017% of the starts.

If you take a closer look at the list you will see there are some pretty good starters on this list. One of these types of starts doesn’t always guarantee that the team would lose either, in four of the seventeen cases the Twins came back to win the game. In six of the seventeen cases shown here the starter didn’t walk away with the “L”.

Al Schroll
Results
Rk Player Date Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB HR UER BF
1 Al Schroll 1961-08-26 BAL L 4-7 GS-1, L 0.0 3 4 3 2 1 1 6
2 Jim Kaat 1962-04-19 CHW L 3-10 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 2 0 0 2 4
3 Ray Moore 1963-07-05 (1) BAL L 3-4 GS-1, L 0.0 2 4 3 2 0 1 5
4 Jim Roland 1964-08-06 BOS W 6-5 GS-1 0.0 2 4 2 2 1 2 5
5 Tom Hall 1968-08-09 NYY W 4-3 GS-1 0.0 2 3 2 3 0 1 6
6 Dave Boswell 1970-06-28 (2) CHW L 10-11 GS-1 0.0 1 2 2 1 0 0 2
7 Ray Corbin 1974-06-30 (1) CHW L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 0 0 0 4
8 Vic Albury 1974-07-19 DET W 7-5 GS-1 0.0 2 3 3 1 1 0 3
9 Ray Corbin 1975-06-30 CAL L 3-10 GS-1, L 0.0 6 6 6 0 1 0 6
10 Pete Redfern 1982-06-26 TOR W 4-3 GS-1 0.0 2 1 1 0 0 0 2
11 Bryan Oelkers 1983-06-21 TOR L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 1 1 0 5
12 Ken Schrom 1985-07-20 NYY L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 3 4 4 1 1 0 4
13 Frank Viola 1986-05-20 BOS L 7-17 GS-1, L 0.0 5 6 6 1 0 0 6
14 Roy Smith 1989-05-26 TEX L 3-5 GS-1, L 0.0 5 4 4 0 0 0 5
15 Kevin Tapani 1990-07-13 (1) BAL L 5-8 GS-1 0.0 2 2 2 0 0 0 2
16 Frankie Rodriguez 1996-07-30 BAL L 4-16 GS-1, L 0.0 2 5 3 2 0 2 5
17 P.J. Walters 2012-06-13 PHI L 8-9 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 0 0 0 4
Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 8/29/2020.

If you want to check out some Twins historically bad starts in terms of runs allowed, I did a piece on that called “Historically bad starts by Twins pitchers” back on 2015 that you can also check out.

Twins/Senators franchise leaders in games with 10> K’s

Walter Johnson
Results
Rk Player #Matching   W L W-L% ERA GS CG SHO IP HR BB SO Tm
1 Walter Johnson 46 Ind. Games 36 8 .818 0.51 45 45 13 441.1 1 92 513 WSH
2 Camilo Pascual 40 Ind. Games 27 11 .711 1.97 40 30 8 357.0 15 113 448 WSH,MIN
3 Johan Santana 39 Ind. Games 26 6 .813 1.93 39 2 1 289.0 34 45 442 MIN
4 Bert Blyleven 36 Ind. Games 21 12 .636 1.68 36 24 5 306.0 11 66 406 MIN
5 Jim Kaat 19 Ind. Games 17 1 .944 1.50 18 15 3 174.0 8 33 205 MIN
6 Dave Boswell 14 Ind. Games 12 1 .923 2.12 14 8 2 119.0 12 32 157 MIN
7 Frank Viola 12 Ind. Games 7 2 .778 2.23 12 2 0 93.0 8 23 124 MIN
8 Francisco Liriano 11 Ind. Games 6 2 .750 1.48 11 0 0 79.0 3 18 122 MIN
9 Dean Chance 9 Ind. Games 8 0 1.000 1.11 9 8 3 81.0 2 11 97 MIN
10 Jose Berrios 9 Ind. Games 8 1 .889 0.53 9 1 0 67.2 0 6 96 MIN
11 Eric Milton 8 Ind. Games 7 1 .875 1.89 8 2 2 62.0 4 8 88 MIN
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/14/2020.

Some pretty good pitchers on this list. One of the items that just jumps out at me is the fact that Walter Johnson gave up just one home run in the games that he pitched and struck out 10> while Johan Santana gave up 34 blasts during his 10> K games. Do you think that Bert Blyleven knows that Johan Santana has more 10 strikeout games in a Twins uniform then he does? If you want to see something interesting click on the Ind. Games link for Walter Johnson and check out how many of his complete games were extra inning efforts.

Quality Starts and the Minnesota Twins

Regardless if you believe in Quality Starts (QS) or not, the term is used now days in MLB. A QS is defined as pitching six innings or more while allowing three or fewer earned runs. I would be happier if a QS was seven innings and two or fewer earned runs but that is just my age showing. The new “opener” strategy could put a kink in QS but I don’t think the opener strategy is a fit for most teams and will not be a big deal down the line.

Today we are taking a look at consecutive QS for Minnesota Twins starters and we have one pitcher that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the Twins pitchers in QS and that is Johan Santana who had 21 QS in a row in 2004. Impressive or not? You bet your bippy it is, no American League pitcher between 1961-2018 has thrown that many QS in a row. In the National league only four pitchers have thrown that many QS in a row since 1961, Bob Gibson leads with 26 in 1967, Jacob deGrom (2018) and Jake Arrieta (2015) have 24 and Chris Carpenter has 22 in 2005.

The closest to Santana’s streak of 21 in Minnesota is Bert Blyleven who had 12 in 1972 and Jim Merritt who also had 12 in 1967. The biggest surprise on this list to me is Rick Aguilera with 10 QS in 1989. I certainly remember Aggie starting for Minnesota when they first traded for him but I don’t remember him as pitching that well, maybe it was the fact that his record was only 3-4 during the streak.

Johan Santana

Results
Rk Name Strk Start End Games W L GS CG SHO IP H ER BB SO ERA
1 Johan Santana 2004-06-09 2004-09-24 21 18 2 21 1 1 154.1 77 23 30 199 1.34
2 Bert Blyleven 1972-08-19 1973-04-06 12 8 3 12 7 1 99.0 82 19 24 87 1.73
3 Jim Merritt 1967-06-25 1967-08-18 12 5 3 12 4 1 101.1 77 18 8 64 1.60
4 Frank Viola 1987-06-26 1987-08-16 11 8 2 11 4 1 87.0 69 19 21 70 1.97
5 Dick Woodson 1972-07-11 1972-08-28 11 6 4 11 7 2 90.1 61 14 26 43 1.39
6 Eric Milton 2000-09-23 2001-05-13 10 5 3 10 1 1 68.1 67 20 16 45 2.63
7 Scott Erickson 1990-09-23 1991-05-17 10 8 2 10 3 2 77.1 53 10 28 36 1.16
8 Rick Aguilera 1989-08-08 1989-09-26 10 3 4 10 3 0 71.2 61 22 16 55 2.76
9 Roger Erickson 1980-08-01 1980-09-17 10 3 4 10 4 0 80.0 71 18 16 42 2.03
10 Lee Stange 1963-08-06 1963-09-15 10 7 2 10 5 1 83.0 65 16 19 55 1.73
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/31/2018.

.

The Minnesota Twins longest streak of QS as a team is 13 QS in a row in 1969. The pitchers in that streak were Dean Chance, Dave Boswell, Jim Perry, Dick Woodson, Tommy Hall and Jim Kaat.

Looking back at the Minnesota Twins in the 60’s

The Minnesota Twins started play in 1961 after moving from Washington D.C. where they were known as the Washington Senators. In their final year as the Senators in 1960 the team had a 73-81 record. Between 1946 and 1960 they had one, just one, winning season and that was in 1952 when they barely made it over the .500 mark with a 78-76 record.

Nevertheless the baseball fans of Minnesota were excited about getting a major league team (some might disagree with that description) to move to their state. Team owner Calvin Griffith felt he had some good young players that were just starting to make their mark.

The 1961 team was managed by Cookie Lavagetto until he was fired by Griffith after a 23-36 start and replaced by coach Sam Mele. The team went on to finish seventh in the ten team American League with a 70-90 mark and 38 games out of first place. The team won 91 games in both 1962 and 1963 but in 1964 they fell back to a 79-83 record and fans were calling for manager Mele to hit the road. However; Griffith stuck with his man and in 1965 Mele’s Twins won 102 games and found themselves in the World Series playing the Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale led Los Angeles Dodgers. The Twins came out on the short end of that Series losing four games to three but baseball was exciting in Minnesota. 

The 1966 Twins were not able to defend their 1965 pennant and finished with a 89 win season but they were nine games behind the Baltimore Orioles. The 1967 season saw the American League with a pennant race like none before it with the Red Sox, Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Angels battling down to the very end of the season. The Twins started the season at just 25-25 and that was not what the Twins owner was expecting so he fired Mele and brought Cal Ermer to lead his team. The team responded to Ermer and had a one game lead with two games to play with the Red Sox at Fenway Park and they lost both games allowing the Red Sox to win the 1967 AL pennant by one game over Minnesota and Detroit, three games over the White Sox and 7.5 games over the Angels.

The Twins started the 1968 season with six straight wins, five of them on the road but that was their high-water mark for the season and when the season ended so did the managing career of Cal Ermer. Less than two weeks later Calvin Griffith hired Billy Martin as his new manager.

1969 saw the AL break in two divisions with the Twins being part of the six team AL West along with the Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox, California Angels, Seattle Pilots, and the Kansas City Royals. 1969 was also the first season that had a best of five ALCS. In this case the West Division winning Twins played the East Division winning Baltimore Orioles and the Twins lost all three games. They lost the first game in Baltimore in 12 innings 4 to 3, the lost game two again in Baltimore in 11 innings 1 to 0 and their third and final game was a blowout 11-2 loss at the Met when Billy Martin went on a hunch and started Bob Miller, a part-time starter/reliever and he lasted just 1.2 innings. Martin’s decision to start Miller turned out to be one of the key reasons he would be fired by Griffith after just one season.

The Twins played winning baseball (.542) in the 60’s and had a record of 789-666. So who were the key Twins hitters and pitchers in the Twins first decade of baseball in the Minnesota? It is difficult to determine the value that a player brings to the team without being arbitrary so the best way that I know of to measure a players worth is WAR. I know of lot of you either don’t like it and don’t know how it is calculated exactly (either do I), but if we apply the same measurement to everyone it will serve our purpose here. The position player with the highest WAR for the period of 1961-1969 probably is no surprise to anyone, it is Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and the pitcher for that same time period is Jim Kaat.

We won’t see these kinds of starts again anytime soon

Today we are going to look at the Twins starting pitchers that went to the mound to pitch and they didn’t let pitch counts and innings pitched stop them. Here we have a list of Twins starting pitchers that started a game and pitched a minimum of 11 innings, Jim Merritt is the top man on the list and will probably remain there forever. 

Since 1961 starting pitchers have stayed in a game 11 or more innings on 430 occasions but the last pitcher to do so was Dave Stewart who went 11 very efficient innings throwing just 129 pitches in his start and complete game 1-0 shutout of the Seattle Mariners in August 1, 1990. Can it happen again? Sure, but the chances are slim to none with today’s coddled and pampered pitchers.

Jim Merritt

Results
Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER SO
1 Jim Merritt 1967-07-26 (2) MIN NYY W 3-2 GS-13 13.0 7 2 2 7
2 Camilo Pascual 1963-07-23 MIN CLE L 2-3 CG(13), L 12.2 7 3 3 11
3 Dave Boswell 1969-07-14 MIN CHW W 4-3 GS-12 12.0 10 3 2 7
4 Jim Kaat 1969-05-20 MIN BAL W 3-2 GS-13, W 12.0 8 2 1 4
5 Camilo Pascual 1964-10-01 MIN KCA L 4-5 CG(12), L 12.0 12 5 1 14
6 Jim Roland 1964-05-19 MIN NYY W 7-2 GS-12, W 12.0 7 2 2 8
7 Camilo Pascual 1962-09-12 MIN CHW L 1-2 CG(12), L 12.0 12 2 2 7
8 Dave Goltz 1977-07-25 MIN OAK W 2-1 CG(11), W 11.0 8 1 1 14
9 Bill Singer 1976-09-01 MIN MIL W 3-2 GS-11 11.0 6 2 2 3
10 Dave Goltz 1976-05-18 MIN OAK W 4-3 CG(11), W 11.0 7 3 3 7
11 Bert Blyleven 1975-08-27 MIN MIL W 1-0 SHO(11), W 11.0 6 0 0 13
12 Jim Kaat 1973-06-23 MIN CAL L 1-3 CG(11), L 11.0 11 3 3 6
13 Jim Kaat 1972-05-24 MIN KCR W 1-0 GS-11, W 11.0 5 0 0 7
14 Jim Perry 1970-08-07 MIN OAK W 2-1 CG(11), W 11.0 5 1 1 7
15 Jim Kaat 1969-04-09 MIN KCR L 3-4 GS-12 11.0 8 3 2 4
16 Jim Kaat 1964-04-26 MIN DET W 3-2 CG(11), W 11.0 7 2 2 11
17 Jim Kaat 1962-08-01 MIN BAL W 3-1 CG(11), W 11.0 9 1 1 12
18 Pedro Ramos 1961-04-28 MIN LAA L 5-6 GS-11 11.0 6 4 4 10
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/27/2018.

 Jim Kaat did it six times while wearing a Twins uniform and the all-time leader in these kinds of starts since 1961 is Gaylord Perry with 17 starts of 11 innings or more. Bill Singer (1973), Mickey Lolich (1971) and Mark Fidrych (1976) each did it four times in a single season.

Twins starters back in 1970

The Minnesota Twins had a pretty good team back in 1970, good enough to win 98 games and finish first in the AL West under skipper Bill Rigney. The team was either in first or second place all year long and was never more than a game out of the lead. The Twins were beaten (pretty badly) three games to none in the ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles for the second year in a row.

L-R We have Dave Boswell, Jim Perry, Jim Kaat and Luis Tiant posing for a photo during spring training 1970 in Orlando. Bert Blyleven was part of that starting rotation but for some reason is not in the picture. Credit: Getty Images – Bruce Bennett

The Twins top pitcher was Jim Perry who led the league with 40 starts completing 13 of them and won a league leading 24 games which earned him the American League Cy Young award after the season ended. In addition to the above pitchers, only two other Twins pitchers started games that season, Bill Zepp and Tommy Hall. The Twins pitching ranked second in 1970.

 

The Twins Trivia Best Minnesota Twins of the 60’s

The Washington Senators franchise moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. From 1961 through 1969 the Twins had a record of 789-666 and played .542 baseball.

During that time period the Minnesota Twins worst season was their first when the team went 70-90. In 1962 the team improved dramatically and won 91 games but finished second, five games behind the New York Yankees. In 1963 the team won 91 games again but this time finished in third behind the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. In 1964 dropped off dramatically and finished in 6th place with a 79-83 record and as usual the Yankees won the AL Pennant. In 1965 the Twins roared back with 102 wins, a franchise high that stands to this day and they played the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series but lost in seven games. 1966 found Minnesota winning 89 games while losing 73 but that was only good enough for second place, nine games behind the Baltimore Orioles. 1967 is remembered as one of the greatest pennant races in baseball history and the Twins came up short when the lost their final two games of the season to the Boston Red Sox and finished one game out with a record of 91-71 and tied the Detroit Tigers for second place behind the pennant winning Red Sox. The following season, 1968, saw the Twins fall back to a 79-83 record and seventh place as the Tigers hoisted the AL pennant in Detroit. 1969 saw expansion and the first time that the AL was split into two Divisions. The Twins won the West Division with a 97-65 mark and played the East Division winning Baltimore Orioles who were 109-53 and the Twins came up short in the ALCS losing 3 games to zip. So in nine seasons of play in the 60’s, the Twins had just three losing seasons. During this era pitchers were also hitters, the DH did not come into play until 1973.

So who were the best Twins position players in that era? Let’s look back and see who they were by position.

Harmon Killebrew

C – Earl Battey with a WAR of 14.3

1B – Harmon Killebrew with a WAR of 42.7

2B – Rod Carew with a WAR of 10.1

3B – Rich Rollins with a WAR of 11.9

SS – Zoilo Versalles with a WAR of 15.2

LF – Bob Allison with a WAR of 30.3

CF – Cesar Tovar with a WAR of 15.1 (why is this guy not in the Twins Hall of Fame?)

RF – Tony Oliva with a WAR of 31.9

P – Jim Kaat with a hitting/fielding WAR of 4.3 

Hitting Stats

 

Let’s take a look at Twins pitching in the 60’s. The biggest surprise on this list is Jim Merritt who I always liked but his numbers are better than I remember.

Jim Kaat

SP – Jim Kaat with a WAR of 23.7

SP – Jim Perry with a WAR of 20.5

SP – Camilo Pascual with a WAR of 18.4

SP – Dean Chance with a WAR of 13.0

SP – Dave Boswell with a WAR of 12.8

SP – Jim Merritt with a WAR of 11.2

Al Worthington

RP – Al Worthington with a WAR of 10.0

 

Pitching Stats

For more information about Minnesota Twins from the 1960’s, please go to Twins Heroes

Winningest pitchers at Met Stadium

Metropolitan Stadium

The Twins called Met Stadium home from 1961 through 1981 before moving into the HHH Metrodome in 1982. Today we are going to look at the starting pitchers that pitched at the Met for the Minnesota Twins and for their opponents and determine who won the most games.

The opposing pitcher that won the most games at Met Stadium pitched for the Yankees his entire career from 1964 to 1974 and it is Mel Stottlemyre. Not many people remember Mel Stottlemyre but he was what we would consider “a horse” today but his big league career ended way too early due to injury. Here is how his SABR Bio starts out:

A baseball lifer, Mel Stottlemyre burst on the scene as a midseason call-up for the New York Yankees in 1964, helping the club win its fifth consecutive pennant and starting three games in the World Series. One of the most underrated and overlooked pitchers of his generation, Stottlemyre won 149 games and averaged 272 innings per season over a nine-year stretch (1965-1973) that corresponded with the nadir of Yankees history. Only Bob Gibson (166 victories), Gaylord Perry (161), Mickey Lolich (156), and Juan Marichal (155) won more during that period; only Perry tossed more innings, and only Gibson fired more shutouts (43) than Stottlemyre’s 38. Stottlemyre was the “epitome of Yankee class and dignity,” wrote longtime New York sportswriter Phil Pepe. “[He was] a throwback to a winning tradition in those years of mediocrity.” After a torn rotator cuff ended his playing career at the age of 32 in 1974, Stottlemyre embarked on a storied career as a big-league pitching coach.

You can read the rest of his SABR Bio by going here. No opposing pitcher won more games than the 13 that Mel Stottlemyre did at the Met.

Opposing pitchers that won the most games at Met Stadium

Mel Stottlemyre of the New York Yankees pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium.
The Bronx, New York 8/25/1968

.

Results
Rk Player #Matching   W
?
L W-L% ERA GS IP HR Tm
1 Mel Stottlemyre 21 Ind. Games 13 5 .722 3.77 21 145.2 9 NYY
2 Wilbur Wood 32 Ind. Games 10 5 .667 2.68 16 147.2 15 CHW
3 Jim Palmer 18 Ind. Games 10 5 .667 2.97 15 115.1 10 BAL
4 Luis Tiant 22 Ind. Games 9 9 .500 4.65 20 127.2 12 CLE,BOS,NYY
5 Dave Wickersham 21 Ind. Games 9 5 .643 3.58 13 105.2 7 KCA,DET,KCR
6 Paul Splittorff 24 Ind. Games 8 7 .533 5.66 22 119.1 10 KCR
7 Clyde Wright 17 Ind. Games 8 5 .615 3.02 15 107.1 9 CAL,MIL,TEX
8 Nolan Ryan 14 Ind. Games 8 5 .615 3.27 14 118.1 5 CAL
9 Mike Cuellar 14 Ind. Games 8 6 .571 4.41 14 98.0 16 BAL
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/4/2017.

 

Twins pitchers that won the most games at Met Stadium

Jim Kaat

Results
Rk Player #Matching   W
?
L W-L% ERA GS IP HR
1 Jim Kaat 235 Ind. Games 93 76 .550 3.53 217 1508.0 151
2 Jim Perry 189 Ind. Games 74 35 .679 2.74 128 1020.0 83
3 Dave Goltz 124 Ind. Games 54 40 .574 3.11 106 861.2 65
4 Bert Blyleven 112 Ind. Games 49 40 .551 2.69 111 864.2 58
5 Camilo Pascual 89 Ind. Games 40 30 .571 3.39 85 624.2 62
6 Dave Boswell 89 Ind. Games 34 23 .596 3.34 69 509.0 60
7 Geoff Zahn 70 Ind. Games 26 28 .481 3.97 65 459.2 37
8 Mudcat Grant 68 Ind. Games 24 22 .522 3.61 59 409.1 50
9 Al Worthington 164 Ind. Games 23 13 .639 2.67 0 252.2 13
10 Dean Chance 48 Ind. Games 21 16 .568 2.79 44 326.0 21
11 Dick Stigman 68 Ind. Games 21 19 .525 3.54 44 345.2 57
12 Pete Redfern 73 Ind. Games 20 17 .541 4.00 49 335.0 23
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/4/2017.

 

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Restovich, Mientkiewicz, Garces, Veselic, Nieson, & Boswell

Major league debuts as Minnesota Twins on September 18th.

Michael Restovich (OF) – September 18, 2002 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd round of the 1997 MLB June Amateur Draft. Started as the Twins right fielder hitting seventh in his debut at Comerica Park but ended up going 0 for 4 in the Twins 2-0 shutout of the Tigers.

 

Doug Mientkiewicz

Doug Mientkiewicz (1B) – September 18, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 5th round of the 1995 amateur draft. O for 3 with a walk in his debut at Tiger Stadium while playing first base and hitting in the eight hole. The Twins lost this game to the Tigers by a 5-4 score in 11 innings.

Rich Garces (P) – September 18, 1990 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent on December 29, 1987. Pitched a scoreless final inning allowing a hit and a walk at the Dome as the Twins pounded the KC Royals 10-4.

 

Bob Veselic

Bob Veselic (P) – September 18, 1980 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (9th pick) of the 1976 amateur draft (January). Debuted at County Stadium with 4 innings of relief allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk while striking out 2 batters but his team was shutout by the Brewers 5-0 in game 2 of a DH for a sweep.

Chuck Nieson (P) – September 18, 1964 – Signed as an amateur free agent in 1962. Big league debut was at Fenway Park as a reliever in a Twins 7-6 loss to the Red Sox. Nieson pitched one scoreless inning striking out two and walking one. Chuck only pitched in one other big league game which was the next day against the Red Sox again and he gave up his only big league hit, a home run to Frank Malzone. Nieson debuted in the same game as Dave Boswell did.

 

Dave Boswell

Dave Boswell (P) – September 18, 1964 – Signed as an amateur free agent in 1963. Debuted as the starting pitcher in the same game that Chuck Nieson did at Fenway Park and his pitching line was 3 innings pitched, 3 runs on 4 hits and 5 walks with 5 strikeouts but at least he avoided getting the “L”. Boswell’s big league career lasted a lot longer than did Mr. Nieson’s.

 

You can check out other Major League Debuts as Twins that I have done by going here.