Twins Turkey of the Year for 2016

Turkey Cartoon

First of all I would like to wish you and your families and friends a very happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving. Without further ado let’s cut to the meat of things.

There were so many options for the 2016 Twins Turkey of the Year that the following didn’t even make the final five this Thanksgiving. Players like Glen PerkinsTrevor Plouffe, Joe MauerJohn Ryan MurphyByron BuxtonMiguel SanoByung Ho ParkTyler DuffeyPhil HughesKevin Jepsen, and Trevor May all deserve to be on the list but this years field is just so packed with worthy candidates that all these guys can muster is an honorable mention.

Jim Pohlad
Jim Pohlad

Let’s cut to the chase and get right to it with our fourth runner-up, The Pohlad family, the 75th richest family in the US of A and Jim Pohlad serves as their spokesman. Mr. Pohlad watched this team deteriorate for six seasons before he finally realized that what we have here is a “total systems failure” when his team set a new record with 103 losses. Finally he told his GM Terry Ryan that his services were no longer needed as of the end of the season and Terry Ryan said OK and walked away in July. The team didn’t put a permanent replacement in place until after the World Series was over in early November although Rob Antony served as the interim GM. According to the new Chief of Baseball Operations for the Twins, he interviewed with brothers Jim, Bill, and Bob Pohlad and a host of other Twins organization members before getting offered the job. The one stipulation that Jim Pohlad put on the new CBO was that Paul Molitor manages the Twins in 2017. Why would you do that to a manager who is in the final year of his contract and why would Molitor stay on the job? Sounds like Pohlad doesn’t want to do the dirty work in dumping Molitor, that’s why he has employees like Derek Falvey.

Twins General Manager Terry Ryan (Pioneer Press: John Autey)
Twins General Manager Terry Ryan (Pioneer Press: John Autey)

Our third runner-up is former GM Terry Ryan. Terry Ryan was always one of my favorite people in the Twins organization. A very good down to earth baseball man who has watched how baseball has changed over the years but unfortunately I think that the pace of change within baseball caught up with him and made him one of baseball’s dinosaurs and you all know what happened to the dinosaurs. I think that there should always be a place in baseball for people like Terry Ryan. Ryan had either bad luck or bad input on many of his free agent signings over the last few years and his trades have not panned out either. One of his biggest mistakes was his decision this past season to try to make Miguel Sano an outfielder when he had never played there before, not only was Sano not able to play the outfield he was so confused and stressed by the position change that he was no longer the power hitter the Twins have been waiting for.

Neil Allen
Neil Allen

Second runner-up is our pitching coach Neil Allen. Allen talks a story about how he wants to change the pitching staff and make them better but so far we have not seen zilch. After two seasons at least show me a couple of pitchers that have improved under the tutelage of Allen because I sure have not seen them. Who really hired Neil Allen to be the pitching coach any way because Paul Molitor said that he never met Allen before Twins Fest in 2015. Add in the fact that Allen has been a recovering alcoholic since 1994 but fell off the wagon and was charged with a DWI and suspended by Minnesota on May 26 and you have a recipe for disaster. Allen was reinstated on July.

Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor

Our runner-up this year is Twins skipper Paul Molitor who will start year three of his three-year contract. I am still amazed that Molitor has hung on as the Twins manager going into the final year of his contract. Players in 2017 have no reason to buy into Molitor’s ideas and plans because the players will be here longer than Molitor will. What faith does management have in you when they force you to manage in this situation, they might as well tell him don’t buy any green banana’s and to go month to month on his rent payments. Molitor took over 70 win team and managed them to 83 win in his first year, then in year two he managed them to 59 wins. The honeymoon has worn off quickly and the sooner Derek Falvey gives Molitor the pink slip the better it will be for all concerned including Paul Molitor who looks like he has aged 20 years in his two season at the helm of the Minnesota Twins. For his own health and well being Paul Molitor should walk away sooner than later.

That of course bring us to this years winner of the Twins Turkey of the Year award. The 2016 Minnesota Twins season was so outrageously bad that it would not be fair to award this years honor to just one individual. Instead this years award goes to all the players, field staff, and front office personnel who made up the 2016 Minnesota Twins team. The team finished with the worst record in baseball at 59-103, a drop from 83 wins in 2015, a drop of 24 games in the win column. Yikes! The team was out scored 722 to 889, only the 1996 Twins gave up more runs. Twins hitters did hit 200 home runs led by Brain Dozier’s 42 but the pitching staff gave up 221 round-trippers. The Twins used 11 starting pitchers and the starter with the most wins had nine victories. Miguel Sano led the team in strikeouts with 178, oh wait, he is a hitter, on the pitching staff Ervin Santana had 149 K’s. The good news? The Minnesota Twins say they will not raise ticket prices in 2017, a good idea after going 407-565 (.418%) during the last six seasons. I know this is really a radical idea but maybe you should consider lowering ticket prices….. but then again that is not how you earned the 2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award.

2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award winners - the 2016 Minnesota Twins
2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award winners – the 2016 Minnesota Twins

 

Previous Twins Turkey of Year award winners

2015 – Pitcher Ricky Nolasco

2014 – Outfielder Aaron Hicks

2013 – Presdident Dave St. Peter

2012 – Owner Jim Pohlad

2011 – Catcher Joe Mauer

2010 – 3B Brendan Harris

2009 – Glen Perkins

Should the Twins President, GM and Manager keep their jobs?

When the Minnesota Twins hired Hall of Famer Paul Molitor to manage the Twins starting with the 2015 season they had to know that they were swimming up-stream and that the baseball gods were against them. The list of “modern” MLB Hall of Fame players that tried their luck as managers is relatively short and none of them have turned out to be Hall of Fame managers.

Frank Robinson

Robinson, Frank ExposFrank Robinson may have been the best of the skippers that had Hall of Fame on his resume. Robinson managed four different teams (Indians, Giants, Orioles, Expos/Nationals) over 16 seasons from 1975-2006. Robinson took over the Orioles manager duties in 1988 after they had an 0-6 record and he managed them to 15 more consecutive losses before they won their first game of the season after an 0-21 start. The next season (1989) Frank Robinson was selected as the AL Manager of the year after leading his team to a second place finish and a 87-75 record. Although he may have been the best manager of the Hall of Fame group, he finished his managing career with zero playoff appearances. His career mark as a manager was 1,065-1,176 (.475).

Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra managed for all or parts of five season with two New York clubs, the Yankees and the Mets. Although his career managing record was 484-444, he did take both the Mets and Yankees to a pennant.

Bob Lemon

Bob Lemon managed for all or parts of eight seasons between 1970-1982 and had a lifetime managing record of 430 and 403 with the Royals, White Sox  and Yankees. He does have two pennants and a World Series championship on his resume but in both of these cases he took over the job during the season and never managed a team to a pennant from start to finish.

Ted Williams

Ted Williams managed the Washington Senators from 1969 through 1972 when he called it quits. He led the Senators to a 86-76 record in his first season (1969) as the Senators skipper but in 1970 his team was 70-92, in 1971 the team was 63-96, and in 1972 he was 54-100. Do you see a trend here? His career mark as a manager was 273-364 (.429) and zero play-off appearances.

Ryne Sandberg

Ryne Sandberg took over as skipper of the Phillies 44 games into the 2013 season and left after a 26-48 start to the 2015 season. Sandberg had a 119-159 mark as a skipper during his Phillies tenure.

Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor was hired to be the Twins manager prior to the 2015 season and todate his record as a manager stands at 94-113 (.454). Molitor took over a team that had not won more games than it lost since 2010 and in 2015 he led them to a 83-79 record. At first glance does not seem that bad over all, but, there is always that but.  In May of 2015 the Twins were 20-7, if you subtract that month Molitor managed the team to a 63-72 record. This year Molitor’s record is 15-35, the team is playing at a lousy .300 winning percentage but even that starts to look good when you look at their road record of 7-20 (.259). You want to see more? The Twins are 0-6 against the White Sox, 0-6 against the Tigers, and 1-5 against the Royals but on the positive side they are 4-2 against the Indians. A record of 5-19 in your own division does not cut it, it is totally unacceptable even if you are playing just for fun and the Twins are certainly not playing for the fun of it.

Twins pitching coach Neil Allen charged with DWI and suspended

Twins pitching coach Neil Allen (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)
Twins pitching coach Neil Allen (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)

The Twins announced yesterday afternoon that pitching coach Neil Allen has been suspended indefinitely with pay after being arrested Thursday and charged with driving while impaired.

According to the incident report, three officers for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office stopped Allen for visually impaired driving at 1:59 a.m. Thursday. The stop took place in downtown Minneapolis at 6th Street South and Park Avenue.

Eric Rasmussen
Eric Rasmussen

Allen refused a field sobriety test after being stopped in his 2009 Infiniti QX56 and was arrested for third-degree driving while impaired. He was taken into custody at 3:48 a.m. Thursday and released without bail at 10:32 a.m., pending a complaint.

Eric Rasmussen, in his eighth season as minor league pitching coordinator for the Twins, was named interim pitching coach.

 

 

STATEMENT REGARDING PITCHING COACH NEIL ALLEN

 

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN – The Minnesota Twins issued the following statement on today’s arrest of Pitching Coach Neil Allen:

“The Minnesota Twins are aware of the pending DWI charge against Pitching Coach Neil Allen. Mr. Allen has been suspended, with pay, indefinitely and the matter will be handled in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club.”

In addition, Twins have named Eric Rasmussen interim Pitching Coach.  Rasmussen has spent the last eight-plus seasons as the Twins Minor League Pitching Coordinator.

There will be no further comment at this time.

UPDATE: Neil Allen was reinstated as the Twins pitching coach on Thursday July 7th as the Twins prepared to open a series in Texas against the Rangers. According to Allen, the Twins “probably saved my life” because the team rather than firing him signed him up for a six-week outpatient treatment program at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. Allen said that before May 26th he had not had a drink in 22 years. Legal charges against Allen are still pending.

When is enough, enough?

The Twins lost another game today by a score of 9-2 at Target Field to the Baltimore Orioles. That makes 7 losses in a row and 10 out of their last 11. Let’s look at some facts:

  • They have won twice in 17 games on the road.
  • They are 6-10 at their home park
  • In April they were 7-17
  • So far in May they are 1-8
  • They have been outscored 174-111 after 33 games
  • They are 2-13 against other Central Division teams
  • Starting pitchers are 3-15
  • The closer is 2-4 with 2 saves and a 5.40 ERA
  • Six relievers have appeared in 14 or more games
  • The pitching staff has the highest ERA in the league
  • Opponents are hitting .274 against Twins pitching
  • The Twins are hitting .236
  • Twins have made more errors than everyone except for Oakland

I could go on and on but what is the point, this team is playing horrendous baseball right now and they can’t catch any breaks either, that’s life. Believe me when I say that this team is not as bad as it is playing right now just like it was not as good as it played in 2015.

Do they miss Torii Hunter in the clubhouse? Sure they do but even Hunter couldn’t help this team play to the level that most people expected. So what is the problem? In 1982 the Twins lost 102 games and after 33 games they were 11-22, the Twins record this year after 33 games is 8-25.

owner Jim Pohlad
owner Jim Pohlad

I don’t care what Jim Pohlad has said publicly, GM Terry Ryan and manager Paul Molitor have to be on the hot seat right now. Hitting coach Tom Brunansky and pitching coach Neil Allen should not be buying any green banana’s either. My prediction for what is it worth is this. The Twins have a day off on Thursday and then play three games in Cleveland and three more in Detroit after that. If the Twins don’t play .500 on the road this week, Paul Molitor will not return to Minnesota with the team as the Twins manager.

Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor

Twins players may respect Paul Molitor as a Hall of Fame player but they don’t know how to play for him. In my opinion Molitor is a poor handler of the pitching staff and is on pace once again to burn out his bullpen. I don’t see anything that Molitor has done to motivate these players or to help them win games, he writes out a line-up by going with the hot bats and just lets them play. That probably works great for a veteran team but not for a team this young and inexperienced. Sometimes a team and a manager just do not mesh. Maybe it is not Molitor’s fault but life isn’t fair.

This team needs someone to get mad bust up some things, call out some players for their brain farts and put the whip to them. These players are young but this isn’t their first rodeo, they have played the game before and they are better than this. It is about time someone tells them that and also tells them that if they can’t play like major leaguer’s then they won’t be playing in Minnesota. See ball, hit ball. Baseball is baseball no matter what level you are playing it, this isn’t rocket science or brain surgery. The bases are still the same distance apart, the mound is the same distance from home plate. Sure the major leagues are tough but if you can’t compete, then pack your bags and go home. Fans are paying good money to watch the Twins play baseball st a high level, if they wanted to watch a bunch of minor leaguers play they would buy tickets to watch the St. Paul Saints play.

I am surprised more Twins fans aren’t madder than hell and telling Twins management that they aren’t going to take this crap any more. Why no fans burning their tickets or fans in the stands with paper bags on their heads? I love baseball but the Twins are squeezing the fun out of the game. Call the Twins and tell them what you think and what you expect. The Twins have no excuses as far as I am concerned, don’t play the “this is a young team card”, all I care about is seeing the number in the “W” column increasing.

No red carpet but the uniforms were red

IMGP8441cI missed the Minnesota Twins open house this past Sunday because I was feeling under the weather but I was feeling fine again on Monday so I headed out to the CenturyLink Sports Complex to check out the Twins pitchers and catchers on their first day at training camp under new manager Paul Molitor.

I don’t know why but I was surprised to see the Twins wearing their red jerseys during their first 2015 workout. The workout was already underway when I arrived. I believe that the Twins workouts normally start about 08:30 AM and finish up around 11:30 AM.

The Twins pitchers were broken into several different groups as they went through a variety of drills and took their turn in the bullpen to get some throwing in under the watchful eye of their brand new pitching coach Neil Allen. The catchers in camp this year are Kurt Suzuki, Josmil Pinto, Chris Herrmann, Eric Fryer, Mitch Garver, Tyler Grimes, Dan Rohlfing, and Stuart Turner.

It is great to see the Twins out on the field again and getting ready for their first season under the tutelage of Hall of Famer Paul Molitor but all in all it was a pretty quiet day. There were a number of fans but not as many as I might have expected checking out the action getting pictures and a few autographs when the players work for the day was over. The one observation I would make after watching the first day is that it seemed much quieter and more business-like then what I remember from previous sessions under the Gardenhire regime. I didn’t see any horsing around or players standing around laughing and telling tall tales from their off-season exploits. Maybe it was just day one jitters and everyone getting acclimated but it seemed different.

Molitor was kind of what I expected him to be, standing around and observing the action and now and then taking a player aside and talking with him one on one. Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see Molitor smile once during the morning work outs. It might be just his personality or maybe it struck him exactly what he had stepped into during his first venture in managing. It will be interesting to see how the Twins players react to a manager that I think is much more of a distant old school Tom Kelly type than a players manager like Ron Gardenhire who seemed to be more interested in being part of the gang. Time will tell.

I haven’t seen TK down here yet so I am not sure if he will report when the position players show up or if his health concerns will prevent him from taking part in spring training this season. It was kind of odd not seeing the long time Twins coaching staff and instead seeing Eddie Guardado out on the field helping with pitchers fielding practice.

Your fun fact for the day, Twins pitchers are “a tall glass of water”, at least ten of them are 6’4″ or taller.

I did get a few pictures that you can check out on the right hand side of the page under “2015 Spring Training”.

Remembering 1965 – considering a four man rotation – Part 5

The Minnesota Twins have a new pitching coach in Neil Allen this season.  Heading into the 1965 season the Twins also had a new pitching coach and his name was Johnny Sain. It turns out that both Allen and Sain were right-handed and both pitched in the big leagues during all or parts of 11 seasons. Allen is getting his first shot as a big league pitching coach in 2015 while Sain had already served as a pitching coach for the Kansas City A’s in 1959 and the New York Yankees from 1961-1963 before he joined Minnesota in 1965 where he would last for two years before going on to serve as pitching coach for the Tigers from 1967-1969, the White Sox from 1971-1975 and the Atlanta Braves in 1977 and again from 1985-1986. Most pitchers loved Sain as their pitching coach and Twins pitcher Jim Kaat was one of those. Matter of fact, when owner Calvin Griffith and the Twins let Sain go, Kaat went public about how stupid he thought that move was but that is a another story for another time.

The Twins had switched to a five man rotation in 1962 but new Twins pitching coach Sain thought that he had the pitchers in Minnesota to go back to a four man starting rotation and it was not a hard sell. Here is a piece that appeared in the Sporting News on  February 13, 1965. Feel free to click on the article a couple of times if your eyes are like mine and need a bit larger font.

 

1965 Twins to pitch on 3 day rest SN 02131965

 Here is how the Twins 1965 pitching stats turned out.

Twins add ex-Padre Tim Stauffer to bullpen mix

Tim Stauffer
Tim Stauffer

The Twins recently signed 32 year-old right-handed pitcher Tim Stauffer to a one year $2.2 million deal. Stauffer was a 36th round selection of the Baltimore Orioles in 2000 but he chose not to sign and went on to college. Stauffer then was selected in the first round by the San Diego Padres in the 2003 draft and was the 4th overall pick. Prior to signing with the Padres, Stauffer and his agent Ron Shapiro stepped up and notified the team that Stauffer was suffering from some arm weakness after his last collegiate start. According to reports the Padres eventually signed Stauffer for $750,000, far short of the slot for a fourth overall pick of $2.4 million and way under the $2.6 million the team originally offered. The Padres loved his make-up and honesty and praised his integrity and then gave him almost $2 million less to sign. I guess the old saying “that no good deed goes unpunished” is true, at least it was here.

Stauffer debuted with the Padres in May of 2005 and pitched in 18 games for the friars between 2005-2007 before running into elbow issues and ended up having Tommy John surgery in May 2008 and missed the entire season. Stauffer’s best season was probably 2011 when he started 31 games and had a 9-12 record with a 3.73 ERA in 185 innings. The elbow injury bug struck Stauffer again in 2012 and after pitching just five innings in one game in 2012 Stauffer decided to have elbow flexor surgery in August and was forced to sit out the remainder of the season.

With two elbow surgeries on his resume, the Padres sent Stauffer to the bullpen in 2013 where Stauffer may have found his niche. In the last two seasons Stauffer has gone 9-3 with a 3.63 ERA in which he has struck out 131 batters in 134 innings. Stauffer’s SO/9 ratio has jumped to 8.8 as a reliever after sitting at 6.2 as a starter. Stauffer throws five pitches, a sinker 36% of the time, a cutter 27%, fourseam fastball 16%, a change-up 11% and a curve with a knuckleball grip about 10% of the time. According to Brooks Baseball, Stauffer throws between 76-91 MPH and his change-up generates more strike-outs than an average change-up does. The fly in the ointment as far as Stauffer is concerned besides his injury history is that he has a career 3.0 BB/9 mark and a 1.31 WHIP which kind of goes against the Twins pitching grain but then again maybe the Twins will look at this stat differently under the new Paul Molitor and Neil Allen regime.

So where does Tim Stauffer fit in the Twins pitching staff if at all? The Twins aren’t paying Stauffer $2.2 million to pitch for the Red Wings. According to what I have read Stauffer likes starting and the Twins have promised him a chance to be just that but in reality his chances of starting are about as good as my chances are of starting for the Twins. The Twins have a spot on the bullpen bench with Stauffer’s name on it. The only question is what his role will be coming out of the pen. Some have said that he will get a shot at the set-up role replacing Burton but I don’t see that in the cards, at least not to start the season if at all. I see Stauffer taking over as an upgrade over Anthony Swarzak as the Twins long guy with emergency start potential. We will see how it all plays out this spring.