TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
Regulars that stop by this site know that I am a fan of La Vida Baseball. There is a new post out the site called THE LEGACY OF A JEWELER ON LATIN AMERICAN BASEBALL. One of the players that Andres Reiner signed was Johan Santana. The posting includes a short video called “Johan Santana 1995 scouting report“. It is very interesting and talks about how Reiner had the vision to see a pitcher in Johan Santana when he was a first baseman/outfielder with no power. Check out the story and the video.
Historically the Minnesota Twins have not had a lot of pitchers that were strikeout pitchers. I was curious as to just how many times a Twins pitcher has struck out 15 or more in a single game. Turns out that a Twins pitcher has accomplished this feat just six times in 9,095 games from 1961-2017 and no Twins pitcher has done it more than once.
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | SO | Pit | Str |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johan Santana | 2007-08-19 | MIN | TEX | W 1-0 | GS-8, W | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 112 | 83 |
| 2 | Francisco Liriano | 2012-07-13 | MIN | OAK | L 3-6 | GS-8, L | 8.0 | 4 | 4 | 15 | 112 | 75 |
| 3 | Bert Blyleven | 1986-08-01 | MIN | OAK | W 10-1 | CG, W | 9.0 | 2 | 1 | 15 | ||
| 4 | Jerry Koosman | 1980-06-23 | MIN | KCR | W 4-1 | CG, W | 9.0 | 10 | 1 | 15 | ||
| 5 | Joe Decker | 1973-06-26 | MIN | CHW | W 4-0 | SHO, W | 9.0 | 4 | 0 | 15 | ||
| 6 | Camilo Pascual | 1961-07-19 (1) | MIN | LAA | W 6-0 | SHO, W | 9.0 | 5 | 0 | 15 |
If you look at the entire American League during the time period of 1961 to current the leaders are Nolan Ryan with 23 such games, Randy Johnson with 17, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens with 10 and Sam McDowell with 6, no one else had done it more than three times.
Congratulations to Johan Santana on his election to the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame even though he is not officially retired. Santana’s induction will take place on August 4 at Target Field.
The only American League teams that finished the regular season with winning percentages of .500 or higher are the five A.L. teams that qualified for the playoffs, all of which had winning records (the Indians, Astros, Red Sox, Yankees and Twins). It is the first time that either the American or National League had as few as five teams finish a season with as many or more wins than losses since the major leagues expanded to 30 teams in 1998.
Brad Ausmus will not be returning as the Tigers’ manager in 2018, nor will Pete Mackanin for the Phillies, and although their fates were sealed earlier last week, they both finished the season for their respective teams. Terry Collins announced his resignation as the Mets’ manager after Sunday’s season finale. Every major-league manager who began the 2017 season spent the entire season in that position. There have been only two other seasons over the last 75 years in which the manager of every major-league team went “wire-to-wire” in that position: 2000 and 2006.
The Diamondbacks defeated the Royals in the final interleague game of the year. The American League took the season series from the National League, 160–140. This was the 14th consecutive year in which the A.L. had the upper hand in interleague play.
It is obviously important for pitchers to keep base runners as close to the base as possible to prevent them from getting a good jump and stealing a base. What Twins pitchers were the best at this seemingly lost art? Jon Lester (Cubs) doesn’t even throw the ball to first any more for fear of throwing the ball away. As you might guess most of the pitchers on this list are lefties but a few right-handed pitchers are sprinkled in.
| Rk | Player | PO | Year | G | W | L | W-L% | SV | IP | SO | ERA | SB | CS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jerry Koosman | 14 | 1979 | 37 | 20 | 13 | .606 | 0 | 263.2 | 157 | 3.38 | 7 | 16 |
| 2 | Mark Guthrie | 11 | 1990 | 24 | 7 | 9 | .438 | 0 | 144.2 | 101 | 3.79 | 17 | 12 |
| 3 | Roger Erickson | 10 | 1978 | 37 | 14 | 13 | .519 | 0 | 265.2 | 121 | 3.96 | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | Allan Anderson | 8 | 1990 | 31 | 7 | 18 | .280 | 0 | 188.2 | 82 | 4.53 | 10 | 11 |
| 5 | Jerry Koosman | 7 | 1980 | 38 | 16 | 13 | .552 | 2 | 243.1 | 149 | 4.03 | 7 | 10 |
| 6 | Mark Guthrie | 6 | 1989 | 13 | 2 | 4 | .333 | 0 | 57.1 | 38 | 4.55 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | Frank Viola | 6 | 1988 | 35 | 24 | 7 | .774 | 0 | 255.1 | 193 | 2.64 | 7 | 8 |
| 8 | Dave Goltz | 6 | 1977 | 39 | 20 | 11 | .645 | 0 | 303.0 | 186 | 3.36 | 18 | 16 |
| 9 | Vic Albury | 6 | 1974 | 32 | 8 | 9 | .471 | 0 | 164.0 | 85 | 4.12 | 12 | 13 |
| 10 | Eddie Bane | 6 | 1973 | 23 | 0 | 5 | .000 | 2 | 60.1 | 42 | 4.92 | 3 | 8 |
| 11 | Jim Merritt | 6 | 1968 | 38 | 12 | 16 | .429 | 1 | 238.1 | 181 | 3.25 | 8 | 2 |
| Rk | Player | PO | From | To | G | W | L | W-L% | SV | IP | SO | ERA | SB | CS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Viola | 27 | 1982 | 1989 | 260 | 112 | 93 | .546 | 0 | 1772.2 | 1214 | 3.86 | 70 | 69 |
| 2 | Jerry Koosman | 24 | 1979 | 1981 | 94 | 39 | 35 | .527 | 7 | 601.1 | 361 | 3.77 | 15 | 33 |
| 3 | Mark Guthrie | 20 | 1989 | 1995 | 240 | 29 | 27 | .518 | 8 | 489.2 | 388 | 4.19 | 50 | 30 |
| 4 | Francisco Liriano | 17 | 2005 | 2012 | 156 | 50 | 52 | .490 | 1 | 783.1 | 788 | 4.33 | 67 | 23 |
| 5 | Roger Erickson | 17 | 1978 | 1982 | 114 | 31 | 47 | .397 | 0 | 712.0 | 321 | 4.10 | 23 | 32 |
| 6 | Allan Anderson | 15 | 1986 | 1991 | 148 | 49 | 54 | .476 | 0 | 818.2 | 339 | 4.11 | 54 | 38 |
| 7 | Dave Goltz | 15 | 1972 | 1979 | 247 | 96 | 79 | .549 | 3 | 1638.0 | 887 | 3.48 | 111 | 76 |
| 8 | Johan Santana | 14 | 2000 | 2007 | 251 | 93 | 44 | .679 | 1 | 1308.2 | 1381 | 3.22 | 28 | 29 |
| 9 | Geoff Zahn | 14 | 1977 | 1980 | 133 | 53 | 53 | .500 | 0 | 852.0 | 348 | 3.90 | 30 | 42 |
| 10 | Jim Kaat | 14 | 1961 | 1973 | 468 | 189 | 152 | .554 | 5 | 2959.1 | 1824 | 3.28 | 115 | 47 |
| 11 | Bert Blyleven | 11 | 1970 | 1988 | 348 | 149 | 138 | .519 | 0 | 2566.2 | 2035 | 3.28 | 221 | 111 |
| 12 | Vic Albury | 11 | 1973 | 1976 | 101 | 18 | 17 | .514 | 1 | 372.2 | 193 | 4.11 | 24 | 27 |
| 13 | Jim Merritt | 11 | 1965 | 1968 | 122 | 37 | 41 | .474 | 6 | 686.2 | 527 | 3.03 | 14 | 13 |
| 14 | Jim Perry | 10 | 1963 | 1972 | 376 | 128 | 90 | .587 | 5 | 1883.1 | 1025 | 3.15 | 43 | 66 |
| 15 | Kyle Gibson | 9 | 2013 | 2017 | 110 | 36 | 43 | .456 | 0 | 632.2 | 428 | 4.78 | 33 | 11 |
Note that current Twin pitcher Kyle Gibson made the career list.
Just the one player with a big league debut as a Minnesota Twins on July 20.
Kevin Mulvey (P) – July 20, 2009 – Traded by the New York Mets with Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra and Philip Humber to the Minnesota Twins for Johan Santana on February 2, 2008. Mulvey’s debut was a short one, facing just one batter and retiring him on four pitches to close out the 14-13 loss to the Oakland A’s in Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
The season opener for your favorite team is always a special day and that day has arrived for my favorite team the Minnesota Twins. I won’t be at the game in person as I am still in Florida but you can bet your bippies that I will be watching the Twin take on the Royals.
I have high hopes for this team, no, not playoff type hopes but I want to see this team breakout and take a giants step forward and show all those baseball experts that they are a team that will need to be reckoned with in the near future. The team is due to hit on some players that they didn’t expect to be stars, it happens all the time but it hasn’t happened in Minnesota since Brian Dozier came on the scene.
The Twins have suffered some bad luck since they moved into Target Field and some folks still say it was those 13 trees that were removed from Target Field after the inaugural 2010 season that started the down hit slide. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t, but this spring like every spring brings new hope, even for us old-timers that got to go to Met Stadium and the HHH Metrodome to see the Killer, Carew, Puckett, Hrbek, and Santana take the Twins to heights that today’s fans can old dream about.
But our team this season is the 2017 version of the Minnesota Twins, how much do you know about these guys? I have put together a little quiz for you to test your knowledge about this years team and staff. Have fun and good luck.
Know your 2017 Twins
Here is a 25 question quiz to see how well you know your 2017 Minnesota Twins players and staff. The information is based on the Opening Day roster and includes players that start the season on the DL. Give it a shot, it is multiple choice so if nothing else you can always guess. Most of all have fun!
The Minnesota Twins have a long history of problems developing starting pitching. Using 100 starts as a barometer, since 1961 the Twins have signed and developed just 11 pitchers in their system that have gone on to get 100 or more starts in a Twins uniform. The only first round pick in the bunch is Pete Redfern, three round tw0 picks, two round three picks, one fourth round pick, one fifth round pick, Brad Radke was an eighth round pick, one 29th round pick and an amateur free agent (Dave Boswell).
Since the June amateur free agent draft started in 1965 the Twins have drafted 31 pitchers in round 1 or as round 1 supplementary/compensation picks. Actually part of the Twins issues with starting pitching relates to spending money or the lack there of. The first two right-handed pitchers drafted by the Twins in round 1 were Dick Ruthven in 1972 and Tim Belcher (first overall pick) in 1983 who both refused to sign with Minnesota and went on to have long careers in MLB. The first left-handed pitcher drafted in round 1 to start any games was Eddie Bane and his Twins career lasted 25 starts. As I mentioned earlier, the draft started in 1965 but the Twins only drafted starting pitching in round 1 twice (Ruthven in 1972 and Bane in 1973) between 1965-1981. The first RHP that they drafted in round 1 that actually started a number of games (45 in Twins career) was Willie Banks who the team drafted in 1987. Since 2000 they have drafted a pitcher in round 1 a total of 17 times.
| Rk | Player | GS | From | To | Age | G | W | L | IP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Brad Radke | 377 | 1995 | 2006 | 22-33 | 378 | 148 | 139 | 2451.0 | 4.22 |
| 2. | Bert Blyleven | 345 | 1970 | 1988 | 19-37 | 348 | 149 | 138 | 2566.2 | 3.28 |
| 3. | Frank Viola | 259 | 1982 | 1989 | 22-29 | 260 | 112 | 93 | 1772.2 | 3.86 |
| 4. | Dave Goltz | 215 | 1972 | 1979 | 23-30 | 247 | 96 | 79 | 1638.0 | 3.48 |
| 5. | Scott Baker | 159 | 2005 | 2011 | 23-29 | 163 | 63 | 48 | 958.0 | 4.15 |
| 6. | Scott Erickson | 153 | 1990 | 1995 | 22-27 | 155 | 61 | 60 | 979.1 | 4.22 |
| 7. | Dave Boswell | 150 | 1964 | 1970 | 19-25 | 187 | 67 | 54 | 1036.1 | 3.49 |
| 8. | Nick Blackburn | 137 | 2007 | 2012 | 25-30 | 145 | 43 | 55 | 818.2 | 4.85 |
| 9. | Allan Anderson | 128 | 1986 | 1991 | 22-27 | 148 | 49 | 54 | 818.2 | 4.11 |
| 10. | Pete Redfern | 111 | 1976 | 1982 | 21-27 | 170 | 42 | 48 | 714.0 | 4.54 |
| 11. | Roger Erickson | 106 | 1978 | 1982 | 21-25 | 114 | 31 | 47 | 712.0 | 4.10 |
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If you can’t find, sign, and develop your starting pitching, you only have a few options at your disposal, you could make a trade, you can sign a free agent, or you can find one on the waiver wire (ha, ha, ha).
The option I want to write about here is the Twins attempts to trade for starting pitching since the turn of the century, a total of 17 years. Trading for starters hasn’t exactly gone as planned either.
There is a nice piece over at MLB.com that you might enjoy taking a look at called “The Nats are the first team since the ’06 Twins to have a finalist for all four major BBWAA awards“. If you have a few minutes, check it out. The Twins traded or fired all four.
In baseball, a pickoff is an act by a pitcher, throwing a live ball to a fielder so that the fielder can tag out a baserunner who is either leading off or about to begin stealing the next base.
| Rk | Player | PO | G | W | L | SV | IP | BF | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Viola | 27 | 260 | 112 | 93 | .546 | 0 | 1772.2 | 3.86 | 7450 |
| 2 | Jerry Koosman | 24 | 94 | 39 | 35 | .527 | 7 | 601.1 | 3.77 | 2527 |
| 3 | Mark Guthrie | 20 | 240 | 29 | 27 | .518 | 8 | 489.2 | 4.19 | 2101 |
| 4 | Francisco Liriano | 17 | 156 | 50 | 52 | .490 | 1 | 783.1 | 4.33 | 3341 |
| 5 | Roger Erickson | 17 | 114 | 31 | 47 | .397 | 0 | 712.0 | 4.10 | 3074 |
| 6 | Allan Anderson | 15 | 148 | 49 | 54 | .476 | 0 | 818.2 | 4.11 | 3474 |
| 7 | Dave Goltz | 15 | 247 | 96 | 79 | .549 | 3 | 1638.0 | 3.48 | 6887 |
| 8 | Johan Santana | 14 | 251 | 93 | 44 | .679 | 1 | 1308.2 | 3.22 | 5281 |
| 9 | Geoff Zahn | 14 | 133 | 53 | 53 | .500 | 0 | 852.0 | 3.90 | 3621 |
| 10 | Jim Kaat | 14 | 468 | 189 | 152 | .554 | 5 | 2959.1 | 3.28 | 12385 |
| 11 | Bert Blyleven | 11 | 348 | 149 | 138 | .519 | 0 | 2566.2 | 3.28 | 10542 |
| 12 | Vic Albury | 11 | 101 | 18 | 17 | .514 | 1 | 372.2 | 4.11 | 1630 |
| 13 | Jim Merritt | 11 | 122 | 37 | 41 | .474 | 6 | 686.2 | 3.03 | 2760 |
| 14 | Jim Perry | 10 | 376 | 128 | 90 | .587 | 5 | 1883.1 | 3.15 | 7791 |
Four time Cy Young award winner and Hall of Famer Steve Carlton pitched for the Minnesota Twins in a total of just eight games in his short stint in Minnesota in 1987-1988 and he had one pickoff and that was the last one in his illustrious career in which he picked off a MLB career leading 144 runners.
Tippy Martinez pitched for Minnesota in his final season in the big leagues in 1988 after pitching for the Yankees in 1974-1976 and the Orioles in 1976-1986. According to Wikipedia:
“Martinez may be best known for picking off three Toronto Blue Jays at first base in one inning during an August 24, 1983 game at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The Orioles, having replaced both their starting catcher and his backup while rallying to tie the game in the ninth inning, entered the tenth with reserve infielder Lenn Sakata in the game at catcher. Three consecutive Blue Jays hitters reached first base and each one, thinking it would be easy to steal a base on Sakata, took a big lead. Martinez picked off all three baserunners, then became the winning pitcher when the Orioles won the game on Sakata’s home run in the bottom of the tenth.”
Korean pitcher ordered to do community service for firing a pickoff throw at opponent’s head.
In 2014 Jon Lester of the Red Sox finishes his year having faced 346 batters with at least one runner on base, yet without having attempted a single pickoff throw.