2018 Twins Turkey of the Year is:

The 2018 baseball season is in the books, free agents everywhere are sitting back and waiting for the offers to pour in, a number of teams (including our Twins) have hired new managers. The temperature is 31 degrees outside and there is a slight coating of snow on the ground here in Plymouth so we know it is time to start sorting our candidates for the 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year.

The Twins finished in second place again this season behind the Cleveland  Indians. This past season the Twins were 78-84 as compared to 85-77 in 2017 and this year they were just 13 games back as compared to 17 games behind the year previous. Yet the 2018 Twins were looked on as failures as compared to the 2017 team that was a Wild Card participant albeit for just the one game against the New York Yankees. Manager Paul Molitor was the American League Manager of the Year in 2017 and after the 2018 season ended he found himself unemployed along with most of his coaching staff after signing a new three-year contract just a year earlier. Twins fans were unhappy and attendance dropped to its lowest point since 2004 at the Metrodome. Meanwhile the Twins Front Office added to staff and continued the “new ways of fielding a winning team” such as increasing the number of shifts, playing four outfielders here and there and jumping on the new “opener” strategy employed by teams such as Tampa Bay and Oakland.  

Who should be the next Minnesota Twins closer

The Twins haven’t signed any free agents this off-season but it is only a matter of time before they do. One of the relief spots they need to fill is the closer role. The Twins traded Brandon Kintzler, their closer to the Washington Nationals this past summer for 20 year-old left-handed starter Tyler Watson and some international bonus slot cash. Watson pitched in class A ball for both the Nats and Twins.

Brandon Kintzler earned $2.925 million last year and saved 28 games in Minnesota during the four months he was a Minnesota Twin in 2017. In 2016 he saved 29 games. Although not a prototypical closer, he got the job done for the Twins for a modest price on a team in 2016 that lost 103 games. After the Twins traded Kintzler, reliever Matt Belisle received the most save opportunities and he notched 9 saves. 

Let’s take a look at the Twins last 12 seasons and see how their closers did and how much they were paid.

YEAR NAME SAVES BS SAVE %
2017 Kintzler ($2.93 M) 28 4 87.5%
2017 Belisle ($2.05 M) 9 5 64%
2016 Kintzler ($507,000) 17 3 85%
2016 Jepsen ($5.31 M) 7 4 63.6%
2015 Perkins ($4.66 M) 32 3 91.4%
2015 Jepsen ($3.03 M) 10 1 90.9%
2014 Perkins ($4.03 M) 34 7 82.9%
2013 Perkins ($2.5 M) 36 4 90%
2012 Perkins ($1.55 M) 16 4 80%
2012 Capps ($4.5 M) 14 1 93.3%
2011 Capps ($7.15M) 15 9 62.5%
2011 Nathan ($11.25 M) 14 3 82.4%
2010 Rauch ($2.9 M) 21 4 84.0%
2010 Capps ($3.5 M) 16 2 88.9%
2009 Nathan ($11.25) 47 5 98.4%
2008 Nathan ($6.0 M) 39 6 86.7%
2007 Nathan ($5.25 M) 37 4 90.2%
2006 Nathan ($3.75 M) 36 2 94.7%

Interactive Whiteboards by PolyVision

If you look at the percentage of games closed for the top three Twins closers over the last 12 seasons you end up with a save percentage of 90.3 for Joe Nathan, 86.8 for Glen Perkins, and 86.5 for Brandon Kintzler. In 2017 the average closer had 25 saves in 29 opportunities and saved 86.7% of games they were asked to save. 

It was a bad beat, maybe one of the worst ever

Justin Upton flung the ball into the air and the bat out of his hands as his second walk-off homer of the year lifted the Detroit Tigers to a 12-11 win over Minnesota at Comerica Park last night. The home run was part of a six-run comeback Detroit compiled over the final three innings to stun the hot-hitting Twins and snap their season-high six-game winning streak.

Matt Belisle

The Tigers jumped on Jose Berrios and the Twins for a 5-0 lead after just one inning of play but then Paul Molitor‘s boys came back with all their bats blazing and put up 11 of the next 12 runs between the third and sixth innings to take a commanding 11-6 lead. Matt Belisle gave up the walk-off blast by Upton but the relievers before him, Trevor Hildenberger gave up 1 run and Dillon Gee gave up 4 runs of which 3 were earned. Only Ryan Pressly went unscathed in his 2/3 of an inning.

The hitters had a night to remember, 11 runs on 19 hits and a walk, a HBP and an error thrown in for good measure. Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler and Joe Mauer all hit home runs. Everyone that stepped to the plate for Minnesota had at least one hit and Brian Dozier and Jason Castro had 3 apiece.

It is tough to lose a nine inning game when you get 19 hits and score 11 runs, how tough is it? Not counting tie games the Twins have played 9,048 games since they started play in 1061. In those 9,048 the Twins have played 66 nine inning games when they have had at least 11 hits and scored 19 or more runs, their record in those kinds of games is now 64-2.

Willie Banks

Prior to last night the only time the Twins lost a game like this was on August 4, 1992 at Comiskey Park II. The Twins must like hitting against the pitchers from Chicago’s south side as the Twins have had 12 games like this against the White Sox and won 11 of them. The one loss was that game in 1992 when the White Sox blew out the Twins 19-11. This is a game that Willie Banks will never forget, Banks pitched 1.2 inning of relief and gave up 10 earned runs after relieving Twins starter Bill Krueger who lasted just 2 innings giving up 7 earned runs. This game was a blow out from the get-go and last night game was a back and forth affair that was won with a walk-off home run. Either way you have to put a game like this in the “bad beat” category.

According to ELIAS – Eddie Rosario

Twins top Brewers on balk

Eddie Rosario

Eddie Rosario scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on a two-out balk by Oliver Drake, and Ryan Pressly and Matt Belisle kept the Brewers off the board as the Twins took a 5-4 decision in Minneapolis. This was the first time since the franchise moved from Washington to Minnesota in 1961 that the Twins won a game with the go-ahead and final run coming home on a balk in the seventh inning or later. The last such win by any major-league team came on July 16 of last year, when the Padres won, 7-6, in 10 innings on a walk off balk by Giants reliever Santiago Casilla.

According to ELIAS – 11 runs in the 8th inning – Really?

Astros turn dial to 11 in comeback win over Twins

The Astros picked a good time for their highest-scoring inning in more than 20 years. Houston overcame a six-run deficit by scoring 11 runs in the top of the eighth inning in its 16–8 victory over the Twins at Target Field. Monday’s win marked the first time that the Astros won a game by at least six runs after overcoming a deficit of six or more runs. The only other team in the majors with a win of that kind over the past five seasons is the Blue Jays, who won a 12–6 decision at Yankee Stadium in August 2016.

Prior to Monday, the Astros had never won a game in which they trailed by six or more runs in the eighth inning or later. Houston was 0–921 in games with a deficit of that kind prior to the comeback victory on Monday. That leaves the Diamondbacks as the only active MLB franchise that has never fashioned a comeback of that kind; Arizona is 0–374 in games in which it trailed by six or more runs in the eighth inning or later. On the flip side, the Twins have lost 12 games in which they led by at least six runs in the eighth inning or later, which are the most such defeats for any major-league team.

Plethora of clutch hits by Houston’s hitters

The Astros entered Monday having completed a 10-game homestand in which they batted .169 with runners in scoring position, compiling 12 hits in 71 at-bats in that situation. Houston nearly equaled its RISP hit total from that 10-game span, going 11-for-17 with runners in scoring position against the Twins. Entering play on Monday, the only other team this season to produce at least 10 hits in a game with runners in scoring position was the Mets, who batted 12-for-20 in that scenario at Atlanta on May 3. (Later on Monday the Blue Jays became the third team this season to accumulate 10 or more RISP hits in a game, going 12-for-21 against the Reds.)

No relief in Minneapolis

Three Twins pitchers shared the misery in the Astros’ 11-run inning on Monday.Ryan Pressly, Craig Breslow, and Matt Belisle recorded one out apiece in the eighth inning with Pressly surrendering five runs and both Breslow and Belisle giving up three. There had been only one other game in the past 20 seasons in which three teammates gave up three or more runs with no more than one out recorded. Coincidentally, that game also featured an 11-run eighth inning for the victorious team. On Aug. 28, 2007, the Devil Rays defeated the Orioles 15–8, with three of Baltimore’s pitchers allowing runs in Tampa Bay’s 11-run eighth. Jim Hoey allowed the first five runs in that inning, Brian Burres was charged with the next three runs (without recording an out), and Chad Bradford allowed the final three. Kurt Birkins came on to relieve Bradford and record the final out of the inning.

Correa hits milestone homer

Carlos Correa cleaned up for the Astros on Monday, going 3-for-4 with a home run, three runs scored, and three RBIs. Correa’s first hit of the day – a solo homer to open the scoring in the fourth inning – was his 50th home run in an Astros uniform. Correa, who has 321 hits in 298 games for Houston, became the second player in franchise history to compile at least 300 hits and 50 home runs for the Astros within his first 300 major-league games. Lance Berkman was the first to do so for Houston, producing 313 hits, including 58 homers, in his first 300 major-league games.