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
Terry Ryan continues in his quest to find just the right man to become the Minnesota Twins thirteenth manager. Ryan has not had to perform this task since late in 2001 and this will only be his second hire of a Twins manager so he doesn’t have a lot of experience with the process but that is a good thing I think.
According to recent reports the list of potential candidates has been reduced to the final three, Paul Molitor, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Torey Lovullo. But who knows, the Twins keep their cards close to their vest so there is no way to know how accurate these reports are. If these indeed are the finalists I am fine with it.
Who would I hire if I was in Terry Ryan’s shoes? For me it would be between Mientkiewicz and Lovullo. I would eliminate Molitor because of the baggage he brings and the fact that he has been part of the Twins organization off and on for a number of years. My perception is that I don’t see Molitor as really wanting the job, I see him as thinking he is entitled to the job because he is a Hall of Fame player and that in his mind he is the most qualified. I don’t see him as having earned a big league managers job and I don’t see any passion from him for getting the job. I don’t see him as the “guy” that will lead the Twins back to respectability, I see him as the old guy that will bring more of the same.
I like Doug Mientkiewicz very much and think that down the line he will be a wonderful manager either here in Minnesota or somewhere else but right now I have to pass. I love his passion for the game and the fact that he is managing in the minor leagues, earning his stripes so to speak. But in the end it is his inexperience and the fact that he is part of the Twins organization right now that works against him.
I think it is great that the Twins have always rewarded loyalty but every now and then you have to bring in new blood to make your herd that much stronger and to look at things from a different perspective. Think about it, in each of our lives we have taken a new job at some point in time where we first felt that maybe we were not qualified, then over time we became more comfortable in the job as we learned the tricks of the trade. As we were learning we were open to suggestions on how to do the job but as time went along and as we gained confidence in our roles we tended to start to ignore or blow off suggestions because we have been doing this job for some time and no one knows how to do this job better than I, just ask me. Things get done the same way because that way has worked for me in the past and besides, it has always been done that way.
Change is difficult but life and baseball are all about change, once you quit changing you die and the Twins organization is on life support. It is easy to be comfortable because you have no assurance that the new will be better than the old, why go out on that scary limb when you can stay in your safe place? But staying in your safe place does not make you a leader or a winner, it keep you average at best. When change is instituted it will either make the situation better or worse, it will work or it won’t. There is a 50% chance that it will make things better. The Twins have lost 90 or more games for four consecutive seasons, how much worse can it get?
Torey Lovullo
Bringing in Torey Lovullo as the Twins new manager along with a brand new coaching staff will bring new thinking into the organization and give the team a chance to break free of the bonds that have held them going down the same path for years. Why wouldn’t you bring in someone new, why should Twins fans have to continue to endure the same old boring brand of bad baseball the Twins have shown us since 2011? Give us a break, show us you are at least willing to try a new approach.
I know that hiring from the outside will have consequences, Molitor will probably leave the Twins organization and that Tom Kelly‘s may also cut back on his active role with the team as the new regime takes over. But is that all bad? Sometimes the best addition is through subtraction.
Terry Ryan and the Twins are at the fork in the road, will they take the same old path home they always do or will they try that other path that they have not traveled for a long time? The last time the team tried a new path they ended up in Ray Miller land and that was not fun. The newer path probably has some bumps and unexpected surprizes but who knows what they may find, maybe it is a shortcut to the promised land of playoffs and a World Series. I for one can’t wait to see what the Twins choice will be.
I was driving up to Duluth to enjoy a short two-day getaway when I heard the first reports over the radio that Ron Gardenhire was going to be dismissed as the Twins manager after 13 seasons at the helm of the Minnesota Twins. Gardenhire has a 1,068-1,039 won/lost record as the Twins skipper and he led the team to 6 division titles in his first nine years before the team fell on hard times between 2011-2014 when they lost 90 or more games each season. Although Gardenhire led his team to the playoffs six times, his teams have had little success in post-season play as they only advanced past the first round once and the team had a 6-21 playoff record. Gardenhire’s 1,068 wins place him second on the Twins all-time manager win list trailing only the legendary Twins skipper Tom Kellywho has 1.140 victories to his credit. When Gardenhire won his 1,000 game earlier this season he became only the 10th manager in MLB history to win that many games with just one team.
The announcement of the Twins management change was made by GM Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire was in attendance which in itself was kind of unusual but yet I would not have expected anything different from Gardenhire who I think is a class act all the way. It was who wasn’t there that really stood out to me, where was team president Dave St. Peter and owner Jim Pohlad? Yes, I saw a replay of the press conference and I heard Terry Ryan say that both had conflicts and would be available for questions later. What a bunch of BS that is. The team manager is the face of your baseball team and yet the owner and team president don’t attend the press conference? How ridiculous is that? If they had conflicts on Monday then schedule the press conference for another day, firing the manager a day or two later will not change the Twins record. It is all about perception and to me it appears that Jim Pohlad and Dave St. Peter don’t want to be associated with Gardenhire being relieved of his duties. It is as if they told Terry Ryan that you can stay on as the Twins GM but first you have to send Ron Gardenhire packing. Pohlad himself said in so many words that the GM was responsible for making the final call on the manager’s job. Get real Mr. Pohlad, how dumb do you think we are? I know some teams don’t have their team presidents and owners attend these kind of press conferences but the Twins usually do and when there is good news to be shared, you can count on seeing the smiling faces of Jim Pohlad and Dave St. Peter behind that table.
On one hand I hate to see Ron Gardenhire go as the Twins manager because I believe that for the most part he did a good job as the team skipper based on the players he had and I liked his attitude and how he interacted with the fans. He seemed like one of us even though he was a major league manager and only 30 people in this world can say that. On the other hand the Minnesota Twins organization has to make some kind of a statement to the dwindling Twins fan base that something is being done to try to get the good ship U.S.S. Twins back out to deeper water and back on course after they had scrapped the bottom for the last four years. Fans are jumping overboard in record numbers and the Twins crew is trying to throw a life preserve over the side to get some fans back on board but it may be too little to late. Gardenhire has been offered some type of job within the organization that as yet is not defined and Gardenhire is pondering his options but it is obvious the man wants to get in the managers seat again and I think that some organization will probably give him that opportunity in the not too distant future. I hope so, I want to see Gardenhire charging out of that dugout again with his face red with disgust and his cap hand in hand telling the umpires that “they missed that one”.
The entire Twins coaching staff were on the last year of their contracts so they are all out of work unless the new Twins manager chooses to bring them back. But who will be the new Twins manager? Around the middle of August Terry Ryan stated to Sid Hartman at the Star Tribune that Gardenhire still had a year left on his contract and he expected him to be back in 2015. The again what was he going to say, I am going to fire Gardy after the season ends? Ryan has stated that the Twins will look inside the organization and outside the organization to find the right man for the job. The leading candidate according to the press and the general public in some of those “who should the new Twins manager be” polls appears to be Paul Molitor. Even Sid Hartman is campaigning hard for Molly.
I just don’t see Molitor as the right fit for the Twins managers job. I know he is a hall of fame player, played for the Twins, and coached for the Twins but these are not necessarily working in his favor right now. Great ball players have historically not made good managers. Molitor’s personality more closely resembles Tom Kelly in his prime than it does Ron Gardenhire. Molitor seems more like the old school gruff and tough manager and with all the young players that the Twins will have on the roster I am not sure this is a good fit. Molitor has been a Twins coach all season and how many times have you seen him interviewed or quoted in the past year about Twins play? Not many, Molitor seems to prefer a low profile and if the Twins are looking for a manager that will help to market the team, Molitor is not the guy. Another thing working against Molitor is that he is a Twins insider and fans are looking for changes in the organization and next man up internally is not what the fans want. The fans don’t want to see the same old thinking and if the team hires another Twins insider it is unlikely that much will change.
GM Terry Ryan
So who is going to be the new Twins manager? I don’t know the answer to that, no one does right now. But I would be willing to bet it is not Molitor or anyone else in the current Twins organization. If an internal candidate was going to manage the Twins in 2015 I think that Terry Ryan would have pulled the trigger at the end of August and brought him in as an interim manager so that he could test drive the Twins for the rest of the year and management could evaluate the new skipper at the same time. That didn’t happen so I see it as a sign that the new Twins manager is working in another organization at the present time. Ryan has been in baseball a long time and he knows a lot of people, this will come in handy now.
I will miss Ron Gardenhire and I wish him the very best but I am glad that this change was made and I am looking forward to seeing who will be managing the Minnesota Twins in 2015 and beyond.
MLB president Bud Selig after finding out that Nelson Cruz was voted a starter for the AL All-Star team.
Is baseball sending another mixed message by naming Orioles outfielder Nelson Cruz to the American League All-Star team? I know, the fans elected Cruz to be the AL starting DH but Bud Selig and MLB could have stopped that dead in it tracks last season by simply stating that any player caught cheating and is suspended for any length of time is not allowed to participate in the All-Star game and is not eligible to win any post season awards for the next three years. A repeat offense and you are out for good. When is MLB going to get its act together?
I have heard former Twins manager Tom Kelly and other All-Star managers state that MLB has a lot more to say about who the make-up of the reserve players on the All-Star squads than what is generally believed. Is that why Brewer outfielder Ryan Braun is not an All-Star this year even though he was fifth in NL outfield voting? If so, score one for the good guys.
Nelso Cruz
I won’t be in the stands at Target Field for the All-Star game but if I was, I would give a resounding “BOO” to Nelson Cruz when he stepped to the plate. I hope other baseball fans at the game don’t have a short memory.
Chris Colabello drove in four runs in Minnesota’s win in Cleveland yesterday, increasing his total this season to 11 RBIs. That’s the most RBIs any Twins player has had in the team’s first six games of a season since Bobby Darwin had the same total at the same point in 1972.
The Twins won 7-3 at Cleveland on Saturday, giving manager Ron Gardenhire his 1,000th win as a major-league manager, all for Minnesota. Gardenhire is third skipper in Senators/Twins franchise history to reach 1,000 wins, joining Bucky Harris (1336 wins for the original Washington Senators) and Tom Kelly (1,140 wins for Minnesota). The only other franchises that have had three different managers each lead them to 1,000 or more wins are the Yankees (four: Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Joe Torre) and Dodgers (Wilbert Robinson, Walter Alston and Tom Lasorda).
Ron Gardenhire
Gardy became just the second manager in club history to reach 1,000 victories, the other being Tom Kelly who went 1,140-1,244 from 1986-2001. Kelly earned his 1,000th win on May 7, 2000 with a 4-0 victory over Detroit in his 2,093rd career game as a Manager, Saturday marked Gardy’s 1,950th career game.
Gardy becomes the 60th manager to win 1,000 games, 24 of these managers have won 1,000 games with one team but only 10 have won 1,000 games while managing only one team and both Ron Gardenhire and Tom Kelly belong to this exclusive club.
The Twins have had a reputation for protecting their starting pitchers for many years and their method of choice for accomplishing this is to limit the number of pitches that their starters throw in a game. The Twins are not alone in counting pitches, all teams do it these days and a 100 pitch per game seems to be the “gold standard” that most teams follow.
Before pitch counts started to become prominent in the 1980’s ball clubs expected their starting pitcher to pitch a complete game unless he was injured during the game or just could not get anyone out. In days gone by relievers were often starters that were past their prime and were finishing their careers, being a reliever was looked upon as a step down from being a starter. In some ways it is not really that different today, hardly anyone comes out of high school or college hoping to be a reliever but there have been a few exceptions over the last couple of years. For the most part, relievers are still failed starters and yet baseball managers bring in these guys that are not good enough to start for his team to bail out the starter after the starter gets in trouble or reaches his pitch limit.
So what brought on this change? When I first started following baseball in the 1950’s teams usually had four starters and these starters were now and then called upon to pitch in a few games in relief each season as needed. Then baseball evolved from four to five starters, the Twins joined that bandwagon in 1963. As baseball payrolls started to escalate and pitching talent became diluted due to expansion, starting pitchers became a more valuable commodity. I don’t have good Twins payroll data prior to 1980 but it appears that the Twins highest paid player was always a position player until 1986 when Bert Blyleven became the first Twins pitcher to lay claim to that title and to make over a million dollars a season when he pocketed $1,450.000. In the last 28 years the Twins highest paid player has been a position player 16 times, a starting pitcher 11 times and a closer on one occasion. You can see the numbers and the names at http://wp.me/P1YQUj-22 . I am not sure anyone knows for sure but somewhere along the line, either the players agents or team management (I doubt it was a player) decided that starting pitchers needed to be protected and that limiting the number of pitches thrown was the best way to accomplish that goal. Counting pitches isn’t very scientific but it is easy to do and that might by why pitch counts were chosen as the tool of choice. The stress of the game, if there are runners on base, the weather and many other variables are not taken into consideration when all you do is count pitches to determine how hard a pitcher worked on any given day.
One way to make a case for pitch counts is that you can argue that each pitcher has only so many “bullets” to throw before his arm or elbow gives out. I have always found the concept that pitch counts limit injuries to be kind of a strange notion because when we want to strengthen a muscle or ligament we do what? We exercise it and work it. After a knee or arm or elbow surgery we do what? We exercise it to make it stronger and that just seems to go against the grain of limiting pitchers throwing.
Have pitch count really limited injuries? I don’t think anyone knows for sure but the thinking must be that it has because pitch counts are becoming more entrenched than ever before. Let’s take a look at this from the Twins historical perspective. From 1994 through 2013 the Twins have played 3,173 games, during that time frame Tom Kelly/Dick Such and Ron Gardenhire/Rick Anderson have allowed their starting pitcher to throw 100 or more pitches in a game 1,134 times or in 35.74% of the games the Twins have played. Over the last 20 years Minnesota Twins managers and their pitching coaches have allowed their starters throw 100 or more pitches fewer times than any team in the American League and it is not even close. Have Twins starters suffered fewer injuries then all the other teams, I don’t think so. Heck, even the Tampa Rays have 1,259 games with 100 or more pitches and they have been in existence in only the 16 of the 20 years I am looking at here.
AL games with starter going 100 or more pitches 1994-2013
(Houston excluded since they have been in AL only one season)
Team
Total
Avg games per year
1
WSox
1711
85.55
2
Angels
1668
83.4
3
Yankees
1621
81.05
4
Mariners
1597
79.85
5
Rays
1259
78.69
6
BJays
1548
77.4
7
Orioles
1482
74.1
7
Indians
1482
74.1
9
Rangers
1476
73.8
10
RSox
1470
73.5
11
Tigers
1458
72.9
12
A’s
1434
71.7
13
Royals
1403
70.15
14
Twins
1134
56.7
So why the huge disparity in how often the Twins starters throw 100+ pitches and the rest of the American League? The time period covers two different Twins managers along with their personal choices as pitching coaches. The Twins have not always had bad starting pitchers when you look back over the years covered here. With that big a difference it has to be some type of organization philosophy to keep the starters limited in the number of pitches they throw. For the most part relievers are cheaper and more expendable then starters, would the Twins rather burn out the bullpen staff then their starting pitchers?
It seems to me that the Twins are sending a bad message and doing a disservice to their starters when they don’t allow them to throw more pitches. Who wants to come to pitch in Minnesota for an organization that pulls you at the first sign of trouble and does not allow you to work out of your own jams. Pitchers can only get better if they learn how to extricate themselves from predicaments they find themselves in. For the most part Twins teams have had decent bullpens, it would seem logical that they might be even better if they were not over worked.
What have the Twins gained by keeping the number of pitches down for their starters? Who knows, I don’t see it. In the last 20 years the Twins have had the least 100+ pitched games by starters four times, as a matter of fact they have not once in the last 20 years even reached the AL average of starters with 100+ pitches. That is just plain amazing. The chart below shows in a graphic form how the Twins starters compare to AL league high, average, and low in games that starters threw 100 or more pitches.
Brad Radke
In the past 20 years only four Twins starting pitchers have averaged 100+ pitches a game for the entire season and they were Brad Radke with 103.7 in 2000, Joe Mays with 100.2 in 2001, Johan Santana in 2004 with 100.8, in 2005 with 101.1, in 2006 with 101.5, in 2007 with 101.4 and Carl Pavano in 2011 with 102.5 and their innings pitched fell between 219 and 233.2 per season. The Twin leader in average pitches per game in 2013 was Samuel Deduno with 96.8 in 18 starts.
The intent of this piece is not to say that the Twins pitching would better if Kelly and Gardenhire had allowed them to throw more pitches, it is more for pointing out the peculiarity of how the Twins handle their starters versus how the rest of the AL league does.
Yesterday the Minnesota Twins announced that they have added Minnesota native and former Twins player Paul Molitor to their major league coaching staff. Molitor will oversee base running, bunting, infield instruction and positioning, plus assist with in-game strategy from the dugout for manager Ron Gardenhire. I don’t consider this as any kind of bold move by the Twins and I don’t see it adding any wins to the Twins victory total but with the way the Twins have run the bases the last few years it can’t hurt. Molitor served as a bench coach under Tom Kelly back in 2000 and 2001 and coached for the Seattle Mariners in 2004. Despite what has been written over the last couple of years, I still don’t see Molitor as a strong candidate to replace Gardenhire when he vacates the managers seat. I don’t think it is a secret that Molitor covets a big league managers job but teams have not exactly been knocking down his door to discuss a possible managers position with him. I find it interesting however; that Molitor has turned up as a coach with the Twins when TK was nearing the end of his tenure and with Seattle in Bob Melvin‘s final season at the helm in Seattle. Molitor isn’t exactly “Mr. Personality” so I will be interested to see how he interacts with the Twins fans in Ft. Myers come February.
Wilkin Ramirez
Outfielder Wilkin Ramirez was activated from the 60-day disabled list and then outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. Ramirez may exercise his right to declare free agency and determine if anybody else wants him or he can choose to resign with Minnesota as Doug Bernier did recently. The Twins 40 man roster is 36 but is expected to go to 37 when Samuel Deduno is taken off the 60-day disabled list.
Glen Perkins
The Twins also announced yesterday that Twins closer Glen Perkins underwent arthroscopic surgery two days after the 2013 season ended, but he should be ready for spring training in February. Perkins, who saved 36 games in his first full season as the Twins’ closer, had the procedure to repair the meniscus in his right knee. So why did the Twins wait so long to announce this? What would they have to gain? The Twins continue to keep team medical issues close to the vest.
Darin Mastroianni
Outfielder Darin Mastroianni underwent surgery last week to have the pin in his left ankle removed. The hardware, removed last Wednesday, had been inserted during his May surgery to repair the broken bone in his foot, suffered during the final week of spring training. He too also is expected to be fully healed by spring training.
Minor League Baseball and the Topps Company announced on October 22nd that outfielder Byron Buxton, the second overall pick in the June 2012 Draft by the Minnesota Twins, is the 2013 winner of the 54th annual J.G. Taylor Spink Award as the Topps/Minor League Player of the Year. Buxton finished among the top 12 MiLB™ players in six offensive categories, including a Minor League-best 18 triples. His 109 runs ranked second.
Lincecum
The San Francisco Giants announced that they have agreed to sign free agent to be RHP Tim Lincecum to a two-year $35 million no-trade deal pending a physical. The 29-year-old Lincecum just completed a $40.5 million, two-year contract that paid him $22 million this past season, that come out to $1.2 million per win this past season. Lincecum has a career record of 89-70 with a 3.46 ERA but that is not the whole story. After posting a 40-17 record with a 2.90 ERA in his first three seasons in the majors, his last four seasons have been a different story. During the last four seasons in which the Giants have won the World Series twice, Lincecum has won 49 games while losing 53 and his ERA has jumped to 3.87 and if you look at the last two years, he has a 4.76 ERA. His KO/9 have dropped from a league leading 10.5 in 2008 to 8.8 in 2013 and his velocity has dropped noticeably. This deal is just plain outlandish and will make this years off season hunt for free agent starters even that much more difficult for teams like the Twins that are desperate for starting pitching. I know Lincecum has won two Cy Young‘s and has thrown a no-hitter but there are many people out there that feel that Lincecum is sliding quickly and he may spend more time in the near future coming out of the bullpen then he will as a starter. This is a bad signing for the Giants and for baseball in general, the only winner here is Tim Lincecum.
The Cardinals and the Red Sox play game 1 of the 2013 World Series starting tonight and I really have no clear cut preference as who wins the Series but it might be an interesting series to watch. I am leaning a bit towards the Red Sox to win but we will have to wait and see how it turns out. Here is a little something fun for you to look at to see how the Cardinals and Red Sox regular season prices compared at the register courtesy of Team Marketing Report FactBook.
Some days home plate seems the size of a postage stamp to Twins pitchers and here are some of those days. The most walks a Twins pitcher has issued in one game stands at nine and five Twins pitchers have met that fate. The last time it happened was back in 1987, I can just see TK and pitching coach Dick Such in the dugout now. Maybe that is when the Twins implemented their pitch to contact plan. What I think is odd is that in four of the five instances the Twins ended up winning the game. The only time it happened in a home game was Jim Hughes effort in 1975 at the Met. One of the games, the Jim Roland effort was a shutout. Baseball is a strange game!
On the other hand, the Twins record for most consecutive games without issuing a free pass belongs to Joe Nathan who did not issue a base on balls for 27 consecutive games (25.1 innings) between 9/2/2004 – 5/7/2005. The record holders for this feat within a single season belongs to Casey Fien who went 20 games (18.2 innings) without a walk from May 28th through July 13th earlier this season and Rick Aguilera who went 20 games (19 innings) from 4/25/1994 – 6/24/1994. The major league record holder in this category is Dennis Eckersley who went 41 games and 50 innings without a free pass from 8/17/1989 – 6/10/1990.
Each year after the June amateur draft is completed I try to put together a draft summary that shows at a quick glance how the Twins drafted. The Twins first pick (fourth over-all) this year is RHP Kohl Stewart from Houston, Texas St. Pius High School. Stewart is a consensus four-star prospect as a quarterback and has a football scholarship waiting for him at Texas A&M. But according to numerous reports Stewart feels that his future is with baseball and he is expected to sign with the Twins in the next few days. Several reports have Stewart as “the highest ceiling pitcher” in this years draft. Keith Law, ESPN states that: “He hit 96 mph and sat 92-94 consistently, showing a plus slider at 85-88, a hard curveball at 79-82, and even a few change-ups at 83-84 with decent arm speed.” With their second pick the Twins continued taking pitching and selected RHP Ryan Eades from LSU.
When the smoke cleared after three days of drafting the Twins had selected 40 players and will probably sign about 30 of them. Between 1998 and 2009 the Twins signed an average of 23.41 drafted players per year but between 2010 and 2012 they signed an average of 30.33 drafted players per year so it looks like the team realized they need to bring new blood into the organization the last few years.
Although the Twins history in drafting pitching is atrocious, that does not stop them from trying and this year they used 24 of their 40 picks on pitchers. Seven are lefties and 17 throw from the right side. Based on the Twins drafting history, I think I might have a better chance of winning the Powerball then the Twins do of drafting an “ace” pitcher but you have to give them credit for trying. It will only cost me $2 to try to win the Powerball but the Twins will have to shell out about $4.5 million this year to see if they hit the jackpot with Kohl Stewart.
The Twins drafted zero first baseman this year. If you are a first baseman and looking to be drafted, you don’t want the Twins to select you because since 1990 the Twins have drafted and signed only three first baseman that have worked their way up the minor league ladder to wear a Twins uniform. In 1999 the Twins selected Terry Tiffee in round 26 and he played in just 17 games at 1B for Minnesota. In 1995 the Twins picked Doug Mientkiewicz in the fifth round and he played first base in 628 games as a Twin. In 1991 the Twins used their first pick to select Dave McCarty and he played a total of 86 games at first base for Tom Kelly before he was sent packing. Previous to that you had first baseman like Dan Masteller and Steve Dunn. You have to go all the way back to 1978 when the Twins took Minnesota native Kent Hrbek in round 17 to find a top-notch first baseman that the Twins drafted. For those of you wondering about Justin Morneau, he was drafted in round 3 in 1999 but he was drafted as a catcher. It seems a lot easier for the Twins just to “create” first baseman from players that fail to meet expectations at other positions or when size or age catches up with them rather then waste a draft choice trying to find one.
Twins 2013 draft
Position
College
High School
Bats Right
Bats Left
Switch Hitter
LHP
RHP
C
3
1
3
1
0
n/a
n/a
1B
0
0
0
0
0
n/a
n/a
2B
1
0
1
0
0
n/a
n/a
SS
2
1
1
2
0
n/a
n/a
3B
1
0
0
1
0
n/a
n/a
OF
6
1
5
2
0
n/a
n/a
P
17
7
n/a
n/a
n/a
7
17
Totals
30 (75%)
10 (25%)
10
6
1
7
17
rookie card
According to Baseball America, the Minnesota Twins 1989 draft is rated in the top ten drafts that any team has ever had. That year the Twins drafted two AL Rookies of the Year in Chuck Knoblauch (first round) and Marty Cordova (tenth) as well as two 20-game winners in Denny Neagle (third) and Scott Erickson (fourth). And 52nd-rounder Denny Hocking—drafted as a catcher— became one of the lowest-drafted players to reach the majors. What team had the best draft ever? To find out, you need to check out a great piece called “The History and Future of the Amateur Draft” by John Manuel on the SABR site that I know you will enjoy if you have any interest in the draft process at all.
UPDATE as of June 19 – Twins sign first-round draft pick RHP Kohl Stewart and also sign 22 other players from the 2013 First-Year Player Draft completed earlier this month. Press Release can be found here.
The Twins played their 50th game of the season last night when they beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-1 at Target Field and their record now stands at 22-28. Last night they struck out 7 times, the night before they struck out 14 times in 14 innings and the day before that they struck out 7 times. I don’t know how many of you have noticed but Twins batters are striking out at a record-breaking pace.
The 1997 Twins struck out a team record 1,121 times in 5,634 at-bats. That equates to batters striking out once every 5.03 at-bats which also is a team high. If you spread that out over the 162 games they played that season it comes out to 6.92 strikeouts per game. That 1997 Twins team finished with a 68-94 record under manager Tom Kelly. That team had two hitters strike out more than 100 times, Rich Becker had 130 and Terry Steinbach contributed 106.
This years Twins have struck out 418 times in 1,718 at-bats through 50 games. That means that batters are striking out once every 4.11 at-bats, almost a full at-bat worse than they have ever done. If you prorate that over 162 games at their current pace, they will strike out 1,354 times in 5,566 at-bats which blows away their 1997 high water strikeout mark. If you look at it at a strikeouts per game, their current running rate is 8.36 KO’s per game. Again blowing away their historic worst 1997 mark of 6.92 KO’s per game.
Excluding any strike shortened season, the 1978 Twins struck out the fewest times. That group of hitters struck out just 684 times in 5,522 at-bats or once every 8.07 at-bats. That comes out to only 4.22 strikeouts per game. Danny Ford led that team in strikeouts with 88 and no one else had more than 70.
The most strikeouts that a Twins batter has had in a single season is 145 and both Harmon Killebrew (1969) and Bobby Darwin (1972) share that honor. Killebrew led the Twins in strikeouts seven times and Gary Gaetti is next on the list having led the team in strikeouts six times. This years team is on pace to have five hitters with 100 or more KO’s, Josh Willingham, Aaron Hicks, Joe Mauer, Chris Parmelee and Brian Dozier all have a solid shot. Both Willingham and Hicks are on pace to set a new Twins season high strikeout mark with 159 and 147 respectively.
Things can certainly change as some of these young hitters hopefully improve as the year moves along but if their play to date is any indication, you had better hang on to your hat if you are sitting near home plate when the Twins are batting because some of those whiffs may send your hat flying.
Back in December 2010 I did a post about Twins player ejections and determined that the Twins all time leader in player ejections was Torii Hunter with five. I mentioned in that article that I would look at manager ejections in the future and I have finally gotten around to doing it. Torii was ejected for the sixth time as a Twin on June 10, 2015 (updated 6/11/2015).
The Twins have had 12 managers since 1961 with some serving in that role for as little as 66 games but in the last 16 seasons they have had just two managers, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire. According to the Twins, each player or manager ejected has to pay their own fines but I personally have my doubts about that. So let’s take a closer look at these managers and see how many times they ran afoul of an umpire. We will start at the bottom and work our way up the list of Twins managers career ejections.
0 – Cookie Lavagetto managed in the majors for all or parts of five different seasons with the Washington Senators and the Twins managing a total of 657 games and during that time he was never ejected. Cookie was ejected once as a player (10 seasons) and twice as a coach (12 seasons).
1 – Johnny Goryl managed the Twins for just 73 games in the latter part of 1980 and early portion of 1981 and got the “out” sign from the umps just once as the Twins manager but he was ejected once as a player (6 seasons) and three times as a coach (13 seasons).
2 – You wouldn’t expect to find the fiery Billy Martin this low on the ejection list but he only stayed around for one season as the Twins skipper and the umpires gave him the heave-ho just twice as the Twins manager but he was ejected a total of 46 times in his 16 seasons as a major league manager but he doesn’t even make the top 10 list. Billy also had 6 ejections during his 11 years as a player but as a coach (4 seasons) he never had to leave the game early.
3 – The mild-mannered players manager Sam Mele took the Twins to the 1965 World Series and was the Twins manager for all or parts of seven seasons. Mele hit the showers early just three times as the Twins manager and he did not have any run-ins with the umps during his 10 seasons as a player or two years as a coach.
4 – The only managing gig that Cal Ermer ever had was with the Twins for part of 1967 and all of 1968 and he had disagreements with umpires on four occasions that called for an early dismissal. Ermer spent 7 seasons in the minors as a player but never got the call to the big leagues as a player. Ermer coached for four seasons and was asked to leave the premises early in two games.
4 – Ray Miller was another Twins manager that didn’t last a full season, managing part of 1985 and most of 1986 but during that time he managed to find himself in the umpires cross-hairs four times and he clocked a total of 10 career ejections during his four seasons as a big league manager. Since he never played in the big leagues he had no ejections as a player but did get thrown out of one game while serving as a coach.
4 – Bill Rigney was a big league manager for 18 season between 1956-1976 and has notched 49 manager ejections, four of them were with the Minnesota Twins. Rigney was in the big leagues as a player for eight seasons and the umpires had him end his day early five more times. (SABR now has Rigney with 51 career ejections.)
5 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected. Last ejection April 20, 2017.
5 – Tom Kelly was named the Twins skipper late in 1986 and hung on to that role through the 2001 season before resigning. TK ended up winning two World Series and winning 1,140 of the 2,385 games he managed. During this stretch TK was booted out of only 5 games, once each in 1987, 1990, 1998, 1999, and in 2000. He was sent packing for disagreeing on calls at first base twice and arguing balls and strikes three times. Kelly played in the big leagues during one season and coached for four more but he didn’t have any issues with the umpires that called for his dismissal.
5 – Frank Quilici took over from Bill Rigney as the manager about midway in 1972 and had that role through 1975. During Frank’s managing career the umpires asked him to head for an early shower five times. Frank played in the bigs during five different seasons and coached for two more without irritating any of the umpires, at least to the point of ejection.
7 – Gene Mauch managed for 26 seasons winning 1,901 of the 3,940 games with stops in Philadelphia, Montreal, Minnesota and California. The umpires saw fit to send Mauch packing a total of 43 times, seven of these early exits came as the Twins skipper. Mauch played in the majors for nine seasons and had a number of disagreements and the men in blue saw to it that Mauch was neither seen nor heard five times.
10 – Who would have thought that Billy Gardner would be so disagreeable that in his six seasons as a big league manager (five in Minnesota and one in KC) that umpires would send him home early 10 times (all as a Twins manager). I guess it was the fact that Gardner managed some pretty bad teams including the 1982 60-102 bunch that maybe drove him over the edge at times. It is Gardner however that is credited with molding these youngsters into ball players that would help the Twins win it all in 87 and 91. Gardner played big league ball in 10 different seasons and coached in five more but he never was ejected from a game until he became a manager.
Gardy is on his way to an early shower in 2006 as NIck Punto looks on.
63 – That bring us to the current Twins manager, Ron Gardenhire. Gardy is a player and fan friendly manager that has had more than his share of disagreements with major league umpires, so many in fact that he has now moved up to a tie for 10th on the list of all-time MLB career manager ejections list. With just four more “your outta here” by the umpires Gardy will pass Joe Torre and have 9th place all to himself. The only active manager ahead of Gardenhire is Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland with 68 and you have to figure he will keep adding to his ejection total. As Gardy prepares for his 12th season as the Twins manager he already had 63 ejections on his resume as a manager plus one additional early exit as a coach back in 1998. One of Gardy’s 63 ejections was during game 2 of the 2010 ALDS against the New York Yankees at Target field. The Twins have played in Minnesota for 52 seasons and had eleven managers prior to Gardenhire and when you add up all those manager ejections you get a total of 45. Gardy has managed a total of 1,773 Twins games so that means he gets ejected once every 28.14 games and averages just under 6 early showers a season. Gardenhire has a high of 8 ejections in a season twice and his low was just 3 ejections and that was in 2012, maybe Gardy is starting to mellow or he just realized he had a bad team last year and didn’t want to waste his energy arguing with the umpires.
Hunter Wendelstedt III
So who is the man who has sent Gardy to the showers the most frequently over the years? The one and only Hunter Wendelstedt III has called for an early exit by Gardy on five occasions and he only has 63 career ejections so Gardy has 12.6% of Wendelstedt’s ejections. Isn’t it strange that Gardy has been ejected 63 times and Wendelstedt has 63 ejections on his career resume too. Next on the list are Chris Guccione and Gerry Davis with four Gardenhire ejections each. The first time that Gardy was run by Wendelstedt was on July 18, 2005 in a 3-2 loss at the Metrodome. Gardy was not pleased and had this to say after the game but I should warn you that if you have young children near by you might want to “eject them from the room” before you hit the play button. If you are listening to this at work you might want to turn the volume down.
By the way, the umpire with the most career ejections is Bill Klem with 256 but he umpired 5,369 games between 1905-1941 and is in the Hall of Fame. The active umpire with the most career ejections is Bob Davidson with 156.
If you look back in franchise history the Washington Senators had 18 different managers from 1901 -1960 (Bucky Harris served in that capacity three different times) and these managers were ejected a grand total of 43 times with Bucky Harris leading the pack with 12 heave-ho’s but he managed the Senators for 18 seasons and 2,776 games.
The best manager meltdown I think I have ever seen has to be Phillip Wellman on June 1, 2007 when he was the skipper for the AA Mississippi Braves. Here is a video clip of the epic ejection, Wellman ended up with a 3 game suspension for his efforts.
Looking through various MLB record and stats and getting some help from David Vincent at SABR I was able to get a list of MLB managers that have been thrown out of a game at least 50 times during their career’s. I added in the number of games they managed and came up with a ratio of how often they get ejected. The lower the “games per ejection” the more often the manager has been ejected. You can see that Ron Gardenhire is in some pretty select company.
Managers with 50 or more ejections (through 2014 season)
Ejections
Manager
Games Managed
Games per Ejection
1.
161
Bobby Cox#
4,501
27.96
2.
118
John McGraw#
4,768
40.41
3.
94
Earl Weaver#
2,541
27.03
3.
94
Leo Durocher#
3,738
39.77
5.
86
Tony LaRussa#
5,094
59.23
6.
80
Paul Richards
1,837
22.96
6.
80
Frankie Frisch#
2,246
28.08
8.
72
Jim Leyland
3,496
48.56
8.
72
Ron Gardenhire
2,107
29.26
10.
66
Joe Torre#
4,292
65.03
11.
63
Lou Piniella
3,544
56.25
12.
63
Bruce Bochy*
3,222
51.14
13.
58
Clark Griffith#
2,917
50.29
14.
52
Charlie Manual
1,794
34.50
15.
51
Bill Rigney
2,561
50.22
16.
50
Mike Hargrove
2,350
47.00
* = active managers
# = in Baseball Hall of Fame as managers except for Frisch who is in as a player and Griffith who is in as an Executive
Let’s take a look at each baseball franchise and see which of their managers has the most ejections to his credit. You might note that some of these managers made the list more than once. Data is current through the 2013 season.
Rank
Team
Manager
Ejections
Games managed that team
1
Braves
Bobby Cox
140
3,860
2
Giants
John McGraw
105
4,424
3
Orioles
Earl Weaver
94
2,541
4
Twins
Ron Gardenhire
72
2,107
5
Pirates
Frankie Frisch
47
1,085
6
Dodgers
Tom Lasorda
43
3,040
7
Cardinals
Tony LaRussa
39
2,591
8
Phillies
Charlie Manual
41
1,415
9
Angels
Mike Scioscia
36
2,430
10
Padres
Bruce Bochy
33
1,926
11
Indians
Mike Hargrove
29
1,312
12
White Sox
Jimmy Dykes
28
1,850
12
White Sox
Paul Richards
28
774
12
Mariners
Lou Piniella
28
1,551
12
Blue Jays
Cito Gaston
28
1,731
16
Rays
Joe Maddon
27
1,134
17
Tigers
Jim Leyland
30
1,294
18
Red Sox
Terry Francona
25
1,296
18
Brewers
Phil Garner
25
1,180
18
Brewers
Ned Yost
25
959
21
Yankees
Ralph Houk
23
1,757
21
Reds
Sparky Anderson
23
1,450
21
Mets
Joe Torre
23
709
24
A’s
Tony LaRussa
22
1,471
24
Rockies
Clint Hurdle
22
1,159
26
Rangers
Bobby Valentine
20
1,186
27
Nationals/Expos
Buck Rodgers
18
1,020
28
Cubs
Leo Durocher
17
1,065
29
Diamondbacks
Bob Melvin
15
677
29
Royals
Buddy Bell
15
436
31
Astros
Phil Garner
13
530
32
Marlins
Fredi Gonzalez
11
555
I need to thank David Vincent from SABR and retrosheet.org for providing material for this article.
UPDATE April 28, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Rangers game earlier today giving him 64 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 63.
UPDATE May 25, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Tigers game earlier today giving him 65 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 64.
UPDATE July 13, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Yankees game earlier today giving him 66 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 65.
UPDATE August 29, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Royals game earlier today giving him 67 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 66.
UPDATE September 12, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/A’s game last night giving him 68 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 67.
UPDATE May 11, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Tigers game today giving him 68 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 69.
UPDATE June 22, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/White Sox game at Target Field giving him 69 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 70.
UPDATE July 5, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/Yankees game at Target Field giving him 70 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 71.
UPDATE July 30, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Kauffman Stadium giving him 71 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 72.
UPDATE August 19, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Target Field giving him 72 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 73. This ejection moved Gardy into a tie with Jim Leyland for 8th place on the all-time manager ejection list
Update June 11, 2015 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected.
Update July 26, 2015 – Paul Molitor earned his second managerial career ejection at Target Field yesterday when he was ejected by umpire Jeff Nelson for arguing an Aaron Hicks checked swing that was called strike three.
Update August 23, 2015 – Paul Molitor was ejected for the third time in his managerial career, this time in Camden Yards in a Twins win against the Orioles. Molitor loss his cool when Miguel Sano was called out on a check swing. Funny thing was that Molitor was sent packing twice because the home plate umpire ejected him when Molly came out to argue and the home plate umpire was not aware that the first base umpire had already ejected him.
Update May 4, 2016 – Paul Molitor ejected by Scott Barry for arguing balls and strikes at Minute Maid Park in a 16-4 loss to the Astros.
Update April 20, 2017 – Paul Molitor ejected by Alan Porter in the ninth inning for arguing balls and strikes at Target Field in a 6-2 loss to the Indians.
