The Twins and Terry Ryan have put in a lot of time this off-season to try to round up some pitchers that they can put in the starting rotation so that manager Gardenhire can hopefully call on each of them to start 30-35 games each. That will be no easy task as last season the team leader in pitching starts was Scott Diamond with 27 and he didn’t even join the starting rotation until May 8th.
If you look back through franchise history you will find that the great Hall of Fame pitcher Walter (The Big Train) Johnson pitched for the Wasinhton Senators for 21 seasons from 1907-1927 and he started 666 games, that is an average of 31.71 starts each year for 21 years. He set the the franchise games started in a season record with 42 in 1910. Twins lefty Jim Kaat equalled that mark of 42 starts in the Twins 1965 AL Championship season and followed that up with 41 starts in 1966 making him the only pitcher in franchise history to have back-to-back 40+ starts seasons.
I thought it would be interesting to review the Gardenhire era from 2002 through 2012 to see how many pitchers he has had that have started 30 or more games in a season for the Twins.
2002 – Rick Reed and Kyle Lohse
2003 – Brad Radke, Kyle Lohse, Kenny Rogers, Joe Mays (and Rick Reed chipped in 27 starts)
2004 – Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, Brad Radke, and Kyle Lohse
2005 – Johan Santana and Brad Radke
2006 – Johan Santana and Carlos Silva
2007 – Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, and Boof Bonser
2008 – Nick Blackburn
2009 – Nick Blackburn and Scott Baker
2010 – Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano
2011 – Carl Pavano
2012 – None, Scott Diamond led the pack with 27
In this 11 year time frame the Twins have had 12 different pitchers provide 30 or more starts in a single season and only three of them were actually drafted by the Twins, the rest were acquired in another manner. Radke was an 8th round pick in 1991, Blackburn was a 29th round pick in 2001, and Scott Baker was a 2nd round pick in 2003.
Chart showing numbers of pitchers with 30 or more starts
(Central Division champs marked with an *)| YEAR | Twins | Tigers | Indians | WSox | Royals | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 2* | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 2003 | 4* | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 12 |
| 2004 | 4* | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| 2005 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4* | 2 | 16 |
| 2006 | 2* | 4 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 14 |
| 2007 | 3 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 1 | 13 |
| 2008 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4* | 3 | 11 |
| 2009 | 2* | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| 2010 | 2* | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 2011 | 1 | 4* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| 2012 | 0 | 3* | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| Totals | 23 | 31 | 22 | 35 | 17 | 128 |
How big a deal is it to get 30 or more starts out of your starting pitchers? I will let you be the judge of that but the chart seems to indicate that the numbers of pitchers you have starting on a consistent basis will determine where you finish in the standings. The Twins seem to buck the trend a bit as they are the only team to win the Central Division title with fewer than 3 starters taking the mound 30 or more times and they did it 3 times with just 2 starters taking the mound 30 or more times.
All this research made me curious as to who the Twins pitchers were over the years with the most starts in a Minnesota Twins uniform and here is what I dug up. There have only been 14 Twins pitchers that have toed the pitching rubber in the first inning in a Twins uniform 150 or more times. Some of these pitchers may have started a number of games in different uniforms including the Washington Senators prior to becoming the Twins but I am only looking for starts while wearing “Minnesota” on their chest. Of these 14 pitchers, only six (Blyleven, Viola, Goltz, Baker, Erickson, and Boswell) were actually drafted by the Minnesota Twins. The only pitcher on the list to spend his entire career as a Minnesota Twin? Brad Radke.
| Pitcher | # of starts | Years Pitched | Avg. # of starts per season | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jim Kaat | 422 | 1961-1973 | 32.46 |
| 2. | Brad Radke | 377 | 1995-2006 | 31.42 |
| 3. | Bert Blyleven | 345 | 1970-1976 & 1985-1988 | 31.36 |
| 4. | Frank Viola | 259 | 1982-1989 | 32.38 |
| 5. | Jim Perry | 249 | 1963-1972 | 24.90 |
| 6. | Dave Goltz | 215 | 1972-1979 | 26.88 |
| 7. | Kevin Tapani | 180 | 1989-1995 | 25.71 |
| 8. | Camilo Pascual | 179 | 1961-1966 | 29.83 |
| 9. | Johan Santana | 175 | 2000-2007 | 21.88 |
| 10. | Eric Milton | 165 | 1998-2003 | 27.50 |
| 11. | Scot Baker | 159 | 2005-2011 | 22.71 |
| 12. | Scott Erickson | 153 | 1990-1995 | 25.50 |
| 13. | Kyle Lohse | 152 | 2001-2006 | 25.33 |
| 14. | Dave Boswell | 150 | 1964-1970 | 21.43 |