Month: January 2012

Camilo Pascual elected to Twins Hall of Fame

The Minnesota Twins announced yesterday that former pitcher and five-time All-Star Camilo Pascual has been elected to the club’s Hall of Fame. Pascual will become the 24th member of the Twins Hall of Fame when he is inducted during a special on field pre-game ceremony July 14, when the Twins host the Oakland Athletics at Target Field.

Pascual, one of the “Twins 50 Greatest Players” made his major league debut on April 15, 1954 as a Washington Senator with 3 innings of scoreless relief at Fenway Park in a 6-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox. Pascual went on to pitch in 529 big league games over 18 seasons and posted a 174-170 won/lost record while pitching for the Washington Senators from 1954-1960, The Minnesota Twins from 1961-1966, the Washington Senators from 1967-1969, the Cincinnati Reds in 1969, the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1970 and the Cleveland Indians in 1971.

1955 Topps card

Camilo was the first ever Twins All-Star in 1961 and has appeared in more All-Star games than any pitcher in franchise history since 1950, playing in five of six games from 1959-64 and in four straight from 1959-61. He went 145-141 with a 3.66 ERA during his time with the Twins and Senators, ranking second on the franchise All-Time list in shutouts (31), third in strikeouts (1,885), fourth in innings pitched (2,465.0) and fifth in wins (145) and starts (331). He went 88-57 with a 3.31 ERA in six seasons in a Twins uniform from 1961-66, ranking third in shutouts (18), seventh in strikeouts (994), and eighth in wins (88), innings pitched (1284.2) and starts (179). He was the Twins first ever 20-game winner, recording 20 victories in 1962 and 21 in 1963, while leading the American League in complete games, shutouts and strikeouts in nearly every season from 1959-63.

Camilo Pascual is the younger brother of former major league pitcher Carlos Pascual, whose nickname of “Potato” earned Camilo the nickname of “Little Potato”. The “Little Potato” was a workhorse pitcher for the Washington/Minnesota pitching staffs and he possessed good control with an excellent fastball but it was his outstanding curveball that was his signature pitch. Ted Williams was quoted as saying that it was easily the best curveball in baseball at the time. Although Pascual was a workhorse, stories have been told that Camilo enjoyed taking an annual “mini vacation” via the DL each season. Pascual also served as the Minnesota Twins pitching coach from 1978-1980. Pascual has lived in Miami since 1960 and since 1989 he has worked as international scout for the Oakland Athletics, New York Mets, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom he currently scouts Venezuela. Among the major leaguers Pascual has signed are Jose Canseco, Alex Cora, Omar Daal, Miguel Cairo, and Franklin Gutierrez.

Pascual is one of only five players to have played against the Athletics in Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland. Harmon Killebrew is another member of that select group. Camilo is also one of only seven players to play for both the original and expansion Washington Senators teams. The others were Don Mincher, Pedro Ramos, Johnny Schaive, Roy Sievers, Zoilo Versalles, and Hal Woodeshick.

The Havana-native ranks 55th on baseball’s All-Time wins list and is a member of the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame and Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, ranking second to only Luis Tiant in strikeouts among Cuban born major leaguers. In addition to being selected as a member of the Twins 50 Greatest Players in 2010, Camilo was also selected to the Twins 25th anniversary team in 1986 and the 40th anniversary team in 2000. At 74, Pascual, one of the original Minnesota Twins becomes the oldest living member of the Twins Hall of Fame. The Twins Hall of Fame membership is permanently displayed in the Hall of Fame Gallery on the Target Field Suite Level as well as on Target Plaza.

This selection of Pascual to the Twins Hall of Fame is well deserved and it should have taken place a long time ago. We at Twins Trivia would like to add our congratulations to Camilo on this great honor. Good things come to those who wait but Camilo should not have had to wait this long. You can check out the entire Twins Hall of Fame here.

I grew up listening to WCCO as they broadcast Minnesota Twins games and Camilo Pascual was always one of my favorite players because you knew when Camilo pitched that the Twins had a good chance of winning the game. Back then I could not attend many games in person and hardly any games were on TV so the radio was the place to be if you followed baseball and the Minnesota Twins.

Big leaguers don’t hitch hike

 

Tom Lundstedt with the Chicago Cubs in 1973

Thomas Robert Lundstedt was born on April 10, 1949 in Davenport, Iowa . Tom grew up in Illinois and played the three major sports in high school and was a good enough basketball player to earn a scholarship to the University of Michigan where he played basketball for 2 years and baseball for three years. Tom was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1967 in the 65th round as a catcher but he chose not to sign. In June of 1970, Lundstedt was again drafted, this time by his home town Chicago Cubs in the first round and 17th pick overall and he was on his way to pro ball. Lundstedt worked his way up through the Cubs minor league system and on August 31, 1973 found himself in a Cubs uniform behind the plate catching future Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins at Three Rivers Stadium. Tom played for the Chicago Cubs in 1973 and 1974. In December of 1974 the switch-hitting 6’4” Lundstedt was traded by the Cubs to the Minnesota Twins for outfielder Mike Adams. Tom ended up splitting the 1975 season between AAA Tacoma and the Twins and ended up only playing 18 games for Minnesota that season. After playing winter ball in Venezuela, Tom had a Minnesota Twins contract waiting for his signature for the 1976 season but the 26-year-old Lundstedt walked away from baseball to open the next chapter in his life.

Are you still baffled by my title of “Big leaguers don’t hitch hike”? If you want to know what that is all about, you will just have to listen to the interview and let Tom tell you that very funny story. Oh, you have to check out that picture that Tom shared with me with he an Tony LaRussa. Today Tom and his bride of 41 years, Char are enjoying life in Door County, Wisconsin. I really enjoyed my time talking with Tom and I hope that you enjoy listening to the interview as much as I did doing it.

If you want to know more about Tom Lundstedt and listen to the interview, just click here.

Home run combo’s

A couple of days ago it was reported that the Detroit Tigers have reached an agreement with free agent 1B Prince Fielder on a 9 year $214 million deal. This deal took place just a couple of days after the Tigers reported they may have lost C/1B/DH Victor Martinez for the season due to a torn ACL. Martinez only hit 12 home runs for Detroit last year but he knocked in 100 runs and he hit .330 while Miguel Cabrera hit .344 with 30 home runs while knocking in 108. The top two home run hitters for the Tigers were Cabrera with 31 and SS Jhonny Peralta who hit 21 long balls. Fielder, playing with the Milwaukee Brewers last season hit 38 while teammate Ryan Braun hit 33 for a total of 71 long balls between them. The big question is how do you keep both of these first baseman in the line-up, Cabrera has already been reported as saying that he can move to 3B but having Fielder at 1B and Cabrera at 3B seems like a real stretch, teams would be bunting left and right. Sure one of these guys can DH but both Fielder and Cabrera are over weight and playing in the field helps to control that to some degree, have one sitting on the bench can’t be a good thing. A home run combo like Cabrera and Fielder made me wonder what kind of power combinations the Twins have fielded over the years. Here is what I found.

Rank Year # Home Runs Player Player
1 1964 81 Killebrew – 49 Allison/Oliva – 32
2 1963 80 Killebrew – 45 Allison – 35
3 1962 77 Killebrew – 48 Allison – 29
4 1961 75 Killebrew – 46 Allison – 29
5 1969 73 Killebrew – 49 Oliva – 24
6 1967 68 Killebrew – 44 Allison – 24
7 1986 65 Gaetti – 34 Hrbek – 31
7 1987 65 Hrbek – 34 Gaetti – 31
7 2006 65 Morneau – 34 Hunter – 31
8 1966 64 Killebrew – 39 Oliva – 25
8 1970 64 Killebrew – 41 Oliva – 23
9 2009 62 Cuddyer – 32 Morneau – 30
10 1984 59 Brunansky – 32 Hrbek – 27
10 2007 59 Morneau – 31 Hunter – 28

 

Twins roster make-up over the years

Major league baseball roster rules have changed now and then over the years. Beginning in 1957, teams were required to reduce their active rosters to 28 players by opening day, with the final reduction to 25 players coming 30 days later. Starting 1968, the 25 man limit was in effect from opening day, although teams were allowed to carry 40 players after August 31. There was an exception in 1990 due to the spring training lock-out and that year teams were allowed 27 players until May 1 and then had to reduce the roster to 25 through August 31.

In today’s game we know that teams often carry more pitchers on the 25 man roster that they have in the past.  I was curious to see what impacts we could find on Twins rosters going back to 1961. Would I find the Twins carrying more pitchers now then they did back then? Would I find any correlation to roster make-up based on if the team did well in the standings or had a bad year? Did certain managers want more bench players versus pitchers? What did I find?

I found that in the 51 years that the Twins have played ball that the least amount of hitters that the team has had in a single season on the active roster is 17 and that occurred in 1978 and again in 1994, the most hitters that the Twins have had on the active roster in any single season was 25 in 1993. That averages out to 21.18 different hitters/position players each season. As for the pitchers, the fewest pitchers the Twins used any season was 12 back in 1967 and again in 1972. The most pitchers taking the mound in any season in a Twins uniform was 24 and that happened twice, in 2009 and 2011. The average number of pitchers used by the Twins since 1961 is 16.92 per season. If you look at the chart below you can make a case that the number of hitters/position players used each season is staying relatively constant but the pitchers line seems to clearly indicate that the numbers of pitchers that major league clubs (at least the Twins) need each season is a steady upward trend.

Between 1965-1981 the Twins always used between 12 to 15 pitchers with one exception and that was 1978 and that year they used 16 pitchers. The DH came into play in 1973 but that rule change had very little to no impact on Twins pitchers. The Twins used just 16 pitchers each season from 1973-1977.

Why is the number of pitchers needed each season going up? Your guess is as good as mine. Is it pitchers pitching less innings? Are pitchers getting hurt more often? Are managers giving pitchers fewer opportunities to work themselves out of jams? Are teams just less patient with pitchers now then they were in the past? Is it pitch counts? Does it have to do with how the pitchers work out in the off-season? Who knows.

I find it interesting too that there have only been three years when the Twins have had more pitchers on the roster that hitter/position players and that was in 1989 and again in 2009 and 2011. In 2010 the Twins used 21 pitchers and 21 hitters.

Another thing that comes to mind is that “back in the day” there were double-headers being played all the time and the number of pitchers the teams used was down compared to now when there are no schedule double-headers. Strange but true.

So what conclusion can I draw here? Not much other than the fact that the numbers of pitchers used by teams today is greater than what was used in the past but we already knew that, didn’t we?

Something else that we can take away from this is that we need to understand that no matter what the 25 man roster may look like on Opening Day, you can be assured that by the time the season comes to and end, regardless if the Twins finish first, last, or somewhere in between that the Twins roster will change as the Twins use an average of 38.09 players each season.

Still, it was a fun thing to research on a cold January day as the snow falls on the great state of Minnesota. We have not had very much snow or cold weather for that matter so I have little to gripe about there.

Former Twins infielder Bud Bloomfield passes away

Clyde Stalcup "Bud" Bloomfield in 1964

I found out recently that former Twins and Cardinals infielder Clyde Stalcup “Bud” Bloomfield, 75, passed away on December 21, 2011 at the Countryside Retirement Center in Huntsville, Arkansas after a short illness.

Bloomfield was born on January 5, 1936 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and attended the University of Tulsa and the University of Arkansas where he played baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals signed Bloomfield as an amateur free agent prior to the 1957 season. Bloomfield, an Army veteran, worked his way up through the Cardinals minor league ladder and finally made his major league debut on September 25, 1963 at Wrigley Field as a defensive replacement for 3B Ken Boyer and was waiting in the on-deck circle when the game ended. It turns out that was Bud’s only Cardinal big league appearance.

In December of 1963 the Minnesota Twins acquired Bloomfield from the Cardinals in the minor league draft. Bloomfield spent most of the 1964 season playing for the Twins AAA affiliate Atlanta Crackers but he did appear in seven games for the Twins playing at 2B, SS, and 3B. Bud had one hit as a Minnesota Twin, his only major league hit in his 7 plate appearances. When the 1964 baseball season ended, so did Bud Bloomfield’s professional baseball career.

We at Twins Trivia would like to pass on our condolences to Bud Bloomfield’s family and friends during this difficult time.

Bloomfield’s obit can be found here.

What is the Twins plan?

GM Terry Ryan

What exactly is the Twins plan going forward? In the past, the Twins have always stressed pitching and fielding. The Twins went into 2011 saying that they wanted to improve their defense and their speed. This past off-season the Twins signed Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit and Jamey Carroll and none of these players can be seen even remotely as defensive stars or speed demons. On the pitching side they resigned Matt Capps to be their closer and signed Jason Marquis as another “innings eater” starter to replace Brian Duensing whom they want to move to the bullpen.  For middle relief they went after quantity versus quality hoping to catch “lightning in a bottle” by claiming or signing relievers such as Jason Bulger, Jared Burton, Samuel Deduno, Matt Maloney, Aaron Thompson, Daryl Thompson, Casey Fien, PJ Walters, Brendan Wise and Joel Zumaya. GM Terry Ryan also signed players with big league experience such as 3B Sean Burroughs, 1B Steve Pearce, OF Wilkin Ramirez, and catcher JR Towles.

In the past, Twins management has stated that they didn’t want to start camp too early because the players just got bored and burnt out waiting for the real games to begin. The Twins have historically been one of the last teams to report to and start training camp, this year they are one of the first teams to report and start work-outs.

This year the Twins will have at least 25 non-roster spring training invites this year, there will be more players out there than you can shake a stick at. In the past the Twins position has been not to invite too many players in spring camp because there was just not enough playing time and they wanted to give everyone a chance to showcase their talents.

Ron Gardenhire

This year the Twins seem to be desperate, picking up some veteran hitting help even though their defense and speed will suffer, they picked up a slew of relievers hoping that one or maybe two can find their way north to Minnesota. Speed? Gardy felt a need for speed going into 2011 but I have not heard him mention speed once this off-season. When you sign a 38 year old Jamey Carroll who has never had a full-time starting role to be your regular shortstop you are indeed close to a panic situation. Yep, these are desperate and trying times in Twinsville as the team tries to regroup from a horrendous 63-99 2011 season and the team is taking desperate steps to right a ship that is on the shoals of a major rebuilding effort. The problem they have is that Joe Mauer is making a ton of money and they haven’t a clue as to what will happen with 1B Justin Morneau who is coming off his seventh career concussion. Without big comebacks from both of these Twins stars the team has no chance at even finishing near the .500 mark. Ron Gardenhire will have to do his best managing act ever to get this team to win half of their games.

So it will be an interesting spring in Ft. Myers this year and I would expect to see a number of intrasquad and “B” squad games taking place on the back fields of Hammond Stadium. I will be there to watch the action and it should be fun. The beauty of this time of the year is that we all have hope and no one has lost a game as yet. It just seems to me that the Minnesota Twins are changing gears this year and things are going to be a lot different going forward into 2012 and beyond. So make sure you buy a scorecard when you attend your first Twins game this year.

I miss the old days of baseball

Francisco Liriano

I know I am getting older but I miss the old days of baseball especially when I hear things like todays announcement by ESPN that the Twins have avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Francisco Liriano by signing him to a $5.5 million deal for 2012. Liriano was terrible in 2011 pitching a total of 134.1 innings and putting up a 9-10 won/lost record with a 5.09 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. Now days that earns him a $1.2 million raise, in the good old days this would have earned him a 25% cut. That is the way things are today I guess, not only do we accept mediocrity, we actually reward people for it. Sad, just plain sad…..

Twins take a chance on Joel Zumaya

Joel Zumaya

According to several reports, the Twins have reached agreement, pending a physical of course, with former Detroit Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya on a deal that will give Zumaya anywhere between $800 and $1.7 million depending on him reaching certain incentives. Zumaya worked out for about 20 teams in December and a Twins official told Phil Mackey of 1500espn.com that they had clocked Zumaya throwing 92-94 during the work-out session. Zumaya drew interest from several teams but according to at least one report I saw Zumaya took the Twins offer because it was a major league contract, was guaranteed money and had an invite to spring training. Other reports indicate that the money is not guaranteed so we will see as the details become available. Although the money is not a huge sum, the Twins did not get a “steal” here as Zumaya made $915,000 in 2010 and $1.4 million in 2011 although he sat out the entire season due to injury. With his huge injury risk, I sure would not guarantee $800K.

Guaranteed money or not, this is an interesting signing by the Twins. The injury risk is certainly there but the upside reward if Zumaya can stay healthy is very tantalizing. We need to keep in mind that Zumaya is very injury prone even though several of his injuries are not baseball related and we should not set our expectations too high. I have already hear some comments that Zumaya can slide into the Twins closer role. I would say the chances of that are slim to none and I would be very happy to just get 60 innings out of Zumaya in 2012 and if Zumaya is pitching well and the Twins are not going anywhere come July, I would have no issue sending Zumaya to a contender for a good young prospect.

UPDATE JANUARY 19 – The Twins announced today that the Zumaya deal is official. There are reports floating around the internet that $400K of Zumaya $850K base are guaranteed and if Zumaya makes the 25 man roster out of spring training, he gets the entire $850K. Then there are still incentives Zumaya can reach to get up to $1.7 million based on innings pitched.

This Day in Twins History – January 16, 2001

In their first year of eligibility,  Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield are elected to the MLB Hall of Fame. The former Twins are the fourth pair of teammates selected by BBWAA in the same year.

Kirby Puckett who spent his entire career as a Minnesota Twin was a Twins icon from the day he was called up in 1984 until he lost sight in his right eye and had to leave baseball after the 1995 season at the age of 36. Puckett, a fan favorite where ever he went led the Minnesota Twins to World Series championships in 1987 and 1991 and was an All-Star for 10 consecutive years. Kirby Puckett suffered a massive stroke and died on March 6, 2006.

Dave Winfield

Dave Winfield is a Minnesota native and attended the University of Minnesota where he was a star in both baseball and basketball. In 1973, he was named All-American and voted MVP of the College World Series as a pitcher. After his college eligibility was concluded, Winfield was drafted by four teams in three different sports. The San Diego Padres selected him as a pitcher with the fourth overall pick in the MLB draft and both the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) and the Utah Stars (ABA) drafted him and though he never played college football, the Minnesota Vikings selected Winfield in the 17th round of the NFL draft. Winfield signed with the San Diego Padres and the Padres immediately put Winfield in right field and Winfield was on his way to a Hall of Fame career with not a single day of minor league baseball on his resume. Winfield’s 22 year career also included stops with the Yankees, Angels, Blue Jays, Twins, and the Cleveland Indians. Winfield had 3,110 career hits with hit number 3,000 coming at the Metrodome in a Twins uniform.

This Day in Twins History – January 16, 1986

The Twins trade 2B Tim Teufel and outfielder Pat Crosby to the New York Mets for outfielder Billy Beane and pitchers Bill Latham and Joe Klink.

Billy Beane, yes the same Billy Beane who went on to become the Oakland A's GM and main character in the movie Moneyball.

They also trade catcher Dave Engle to the Tigers for infielder Chris Pittaro and outfielder Alex Sanchez.  Engle, a .305 hitter as a 26-year-old catcher for the Twins in 1983 and an AL All-Star the following season. Engle came up as an outfielder but was converted to a catcher.

Engle started having throwing issues and his troubles appeared to have begun during batting practice one day when one of his throws glanced off the top of the protective screen and broke his pitcher’s nose. Engle then began lobbing his throws with a pronounced arc. Engle had the misfortune of having a base runner (Alfredo Griffin) stealing a base on one of his tosses back to the mound. He remained in the majors from 1985-89 but caught just 38 more games.