Month: February 2013

Twins career best K/9

I watched Clubhouse Confidential on MLB TV yesterday and in one of the segments host Brian Kenny talked about the climbing rate of the strikeout per 9 innings ratio (K/9) over the years. It was a very interesting piece and Kenny pointed out how last year the leader was Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel who had an amazing 16.66 strikeouts for every nine innings pitched, that is a truly crazy number and he accomplished that while throwing  14.9 pitches per inning. The top starter K/9 ratio belonged to Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg who had a mark of 11.13 and he was followed closely by Detroit Tiger starter Max Scherzer who posted a 11.08 mark. The best K/9 ratio for a Twins pitcher in 2012? That honor goes to closer Glen Perkins at 9.98.

The Twins top ten career K/9 leaders with a minimum of 500 innings pitched are:

Johan Santana pitched for Minnesota from 2000 -2007. Santana is tied for third most wins in Dome history (46) and second-most strikeouts (754). Johan was a three-time All-Star and won Cy Young Awards in 2004 and 2006. Won 17 consecutive games in the Dome from 2005-2007.
Johan Santana pitched for Minnesota from 2000 -2007. Santana is tied for third most wins in Dome history (46) and second-most strikeouts (754). Johan was a three-time All-Star and won Cy Young Awards in 2004 and 2006. Won 17 consecutive games in the Dome from 2005-2007.
Rank Name W/L Innings K/9
1. Johan Santana 93-44 1,308.2 9.50
2. Francisco Liriano 50-52 783.1 9.05
3. Eddie Guardado 37-48 704.2 7.79
4. Rick Aguilera 40-47 694 7.60
5. Dick Stigman 37-37 643.2 7.52
6. Dave Boswell 67-54 1,036.1 7.51
7. Mike Trombley 30-34 645.2 7.36
8. Scott Baker 63-48 958 7.23
9. Bert Blyleven 149-138 2,566.2 7.14
10. Jim Merritt 37-41 686.2 6.91

The players on the above list that were originally drafted or signed by Minnesota are Guardado, Boswell, Trombley, Baker and Blyleven, the remainder were acquired in some fashion.

Mark Hamburger suspended for 50 games

Hamburger, MarkFormer Minnesota Twins minor league pitcher and Minnesota native Mark Hamburger has been suspended without pay for 50 games without pay after a second violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program for a drug of abuse according to the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. The suspension of Hamburger who is currently a free agent will start immediately upon his signing with another Major League organization.

The Twins had signed Hamburger as an amateur free agent in 2007 after he attended one of their open tryout camps. Hamburger pitched in the Twins minor league system in 2007 and part of 2008 before the Twins traded him to the Texas Rangers  for Eddie Guardado. Hamburger made his big league debut with the Rangers in August 2011 and pitched in 5 games for the Rangers and posted a 1-0 record with a 4.50 ERA in just 8 innings. In June of 2012 he was picked up by the San Diego Padres on waivers and then just a month later he was again waived and this time he was picked up by the Houston Astros only to be released by the Astros this month.

Twins forgotten man?

 

Eduardo Escobar
Eduardo Escobar

The Twins plan for an infield consisting of Justin Morneau, Brian Dozier, Pedro Florimon and Trevor Plouffe may not yet be set in concrete but the forms are in place and the Cemstone truck is coming up the street. Jamey Carroll has a tight grip on one of the utility spots and now Gardy is making noise that he wants more power on his bench then he had last year and that would not bode well for Drew Butera as a third catcher. But I have my doubts that Gardy will make his wish a reality because he is just too concerned about getting a catcher hurt and losing his DH for the rest of the game. I just don’t understand his hang-up about that, if he lost his DH for the rest of a particular game who cares, it is just one game, big deal.

Most of the media and blog buzz is about the Twins starting pitching or who will play centerfield and almost everyone on the 40 man roster seems to have been put through the shredder, analyzed and re-analyzed except for one guy, nobody ever talks about Eduardo Escobar. I think Escobar is an interesting player and I have not seen him play very much but he can play 2B, short, and 3B and I keep seeing reports that he can also play the outfield but all I have found is that he played the outfield once in his seven minor league seasons and once with the White Sox last season before being traded to Minnesota as part of the Francisco Liriano trade. Escobar is still only 24 but he has over 600 minor league games and 59 big league games on his resume. Hitting is not Escobar’s strength as his career average in the minors is .267, it is his glove and his flexibility that will make him a valuable tool in Gardy’s arsenal. Escobar can steal some bases, can hit it out of the park a couple of times a year and the man is a switch-hitter. Everything I heard and saw after the trade to Minnesota last year indicated that he was a popular presence in the White Sox clubhouse and all the players hated to see him go. I am not saying that Escobar should be a starter, I am just saying that we should not over look him, I think he can fit a role on this team. I have always liked the under-dog and Eduardo Escobar seems to fit that role for me. Getting a couple of hits in his first spring game today was nice to see.

It has been a long winter and it was good to be able to listen to a Twins baseball game again today. I will say however; that it didn’t take long for Dan Gladden to get on my nerves. the man is there to broadcast a baseball game and not to tell me about his personal life and where he likes to stop and have a cold drink and feed his face. Describe the baseball action Gladden and try to act like a professional announcer you are paid to be.

First Twins player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated

SI -08231965On August 23, 1965 the Twins were in their fifth season in Minnesota ready to take on the New York Yankees in a 3:10 start at Met Stadium in front of 37,787 fans that wanted another Twins win over the hated Yankees. The Twins had a 7.5 game lead and were well on their way to their first World Series. That same day Tony Oliva became the first Twins player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. I would urge you to take a few minutes and read a story about the Twins in that SI issue called “Everybody Pick up a Drum” by William Leggett. It is a nice piece of writing about the Minnesota Twins and it mentions a huge trade that owner Calvin Griffith had cooked up with the New York Mets that was all but signed sealed and delivered prior to the 1965 season but the Mets backed out at the last-minute and the rest is history as they say. Had that trade gone through, you can bet your bippy that the Twins history would show the Minnesota Twins appearing in only two World Series (1987 and 1991) versus three. It just goes to show that some of the best trades are the ones that you don’t make, I can attest to that with my experiences with trades in fantasy baseball over the years. If you care at all about Twins history you will check out this story.

By the way, you can read this issue of Sports Illustrated cover-to-cover by clicking on the SI magazine cover above.

Who am I?

Cummings, MidreI was the Minnesota Twins first ever first round supplemental pick but I played for three other big league teams before I played for the Minnesota Twins,  who am I? For extra credit name the player the Twins lost to free agency to get this pick. Come on now, no cheating by looking it up…….

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It wasn’t just the bad pitching in 2012

The Twins finished the 2012 season in last place in the AL Central division with a 66-96 record and the Twins pitching staff took the brunt of the blame for the Twins poor showing. The pitching staff was kind of a house divided with the relievers doing a pretty decent job taking into account that they threw the second most innings (558.2) in the league trailing only the Royals that pitched 561.1 innings. The Twins bullpen put up a respectable 3.77 ERA ranking 9th out of 14 teams. Opposing batters hit .246 off the Twins relief staff making them the fourth worst in the league. Then there were the starters….. The starting staff was dismal pitching only 880 innings for an average of 5.43 innings per game and only 61.19% of the innings pitched. The Seattle Mariners starters threw a league leading  1002.1 inning for an average of 6.19 innings per start, a difference of .76 innings per game. The Twins also had a league worst 5.40 ERA and opposing hitters played like all-stars hitting the starters at a .291 clip. Twins starters posted a 39-75 record and the Royals were next worse and they had 47 wins. Nothing really new here right?

But how does the 2012 Twins staff with Twins staff’s in the past, after all, only three Twins teams in their history have lost more games in a single season, the 1982 team lost 102, the 2011 boys lost 99 and the 1999 team walked off the field with their heads hanging down 97 times.

The 2012 Twins pitching staff allowed 5.14 runs per game, seven other Twins staff’s allowed more including the 1995 Twins who allowed 6.17 runs per game.

Thirteen Twins pitching staff’s gave up more hits than the 2012 staff did including the division winning 2009 crew.

The 2012 Twins staff allowed 198 long balls ranking 8th worst in their history. Did you know the 1987 World Series champion Twins gave up 210 home runs?

Last years Twins pitchers struck out 943 batters, the 1965 World Series team struck out 934 and the 1991 World Series champion Twins pitchers struck out just 876 opposing hitters.

At least 20 Twins staff’s over the years had a worse WHIP then the 1.39 that the 2012 staff had.

So when you read this you have to wonder why the Twins were so bad last season. Let’s take a look at run differential, the Twins scored 4.33 runs per game last season and gave up 5.14 runs per game, a differential of a minus .81 runs per game, seventh worse in team history. No Twins team that has had a negative run differential of a minus .50 or higher has ever won more that 71 games in any season. Everyone was all over the Twins pitching staff in 2012 and deservedly so but no one complained about the Twins runs scored issue. In the Twins 52 year history only 16 teams have had a lower runs per game total than last years Twins.

In order for the Twins to even think about playing .500 baseball, they need to drop their runs allowed and improve their runs scored to about 4.52 runs per game. The poor starting pitching also put the Twins in a deep hole, last season the Twins were out-scored 236 to 162 after the first two innings were played. That put the Twins run differential after 2 innings at a -74 and when you compare that the division winning Tigers +32 you come up with a difference of 106 runs in just the first two innings. When the Twins were trailing after two innings, they won 23% of those games. The Twins have work to do on both sides of the ball.

How the AL Central is reacting to the Tigers

Today we have a guest post written by FanDuel.com.

After a somewhat slow start a season ago, the Detroit Tigers really hit their stride and put away the Chicago White Sox in a two-team race in the AL Central. The Royals, Indians and Twins all finished well below .500 and the due to that the division continues to be labeled as one of the weakest in baseball. With Detroit looking like the clear-cut favorites again in 2013, how have the other four teams tried to improve?

Both Cleveland and Kansas City have both made some moves to improve their 2013 squads, making some key free agent signings as well as some trades they felt confident about. The biggest names are James Shields and Wade Davis, who should both help the Royals pitching staff quite a bit this upcoming season. Most of their offensive firepower has been homegrown, but their luck with starting pitching has not worked out too well. Some criticized them for giving up Wil Meyers to get these guys, but it’s an interesting move by the Royals.

Cleveland has been busy as well, but most of their noise comes from the free agent market. Signing fantasy baseball favorites Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher will give them two guys to hit near the top of their lineup. They are also great veteran leaders who will fit in nicely with new manager Terry Francona. The Indians have also taken low risk, high reward flyers out on the likes of Jason Giambi, Mark Reynolds, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. They were able to pull all this off without sacrificing any of their top prospects. In fact, they picked up a good one along the way, getting Trevor Bauer to bolster their pitching staff.

Minnesota might not be making the type of noise fans were hoping for, but their more long-term approach could pay off in the upcoming seasons. The Twins have farm system rich with talent, headlined by the likes of Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Kyle Gibson and Aaron Hicks. All of those guys project to be above-average MLB players, but for right now, the Twins might still be a year away from truly competing for the playoffs again. The health of Mauer and Morneau is always going to play a major role for them, but the talent they have in their farm system is reason enough to be optimistic about the future.

Finally, the White Sox were the only legitimate contenders with the Tigers a season ago, and they figure to be their biggest threat this year as well. The problem is, a lot of people feel as though they haven’t done enough to make their team better in the offseason. A few under the radar moves like signing Matt Lindstrom for the bullpen and Jeff Keppinger to play third base might be the little tweaks they need. If Alex Rios, Jake Peavy and Adam Dunn can all provide the same type of value as they did a year ago, the Tigers will not simply coast to the title. In fact, all four teams, albeit by different methods, are going after the current top team in the division.

Twins tickets today and yesterday

Twins ticketsTarget Field still has a layer of snow and the temperature will reach only 17 degrees today here in Minnesota but in Ft. Myers the Twins pitchers and catchers have already started daily workouts and the position players will be reporting soon. On Saturday, February 16th the Twins will begin selling single-game tickets. The last couple of years when the Twins opened single-game ticket sales the phone lines and web site got over-run and there were sometimes long delays in getting your tickets purchased. Based on the Twins poor showing the last two seasons and low expectations for 2013 I would not expect long waits to purchase your tickets this year.

To me, the question is should you buy your single-game tickets when they go on sale on Saturday or do you wait? The current quoted price for single-game tickets is only good from February 16 through February 22 because on February 23 demand-based pricing kicks in. Haven’t heard about demand-based pricing?  The Twins actually started that policy in 2012 and here is how it plays out in 2013. Beginning February 23, single game ticket prices in all seating sections will be determined on a daily basis according to current market demand. Prices may fluctuate upward or downward based on real-time market conditions. So the question is, will I get better value by purchasing my tickets now or will I be able to get a better price once the season begins. I guess it all depends on how well the Twins play and what the weather is like. Personally; I just find it irritating that the published single-game ticket price is only good for 1 week before the first spring training game is even played. I guess I am old school.

On the other side of the coin you can certainly argue that it is better to sell more tickets even if you have to sell them at a discount than to not sell them at all at full price. The customer benefits because he gets to see the baseball game and the team benefits because they get the fan in the ballpark where it is likely he will spend additional dollars on food and possibly merchandise. Where the rub comes in is that going to a baseball game is getting to be like buying an airline ticket, each person on that flight is going to go to the same destination on that particular flight but each of them may have paid a different fare to get there. I have a problem with that.

The other issue I see is that in order to keep the season ticket holder base happy the team has to sell the demand-based tickets at a higher price than what the season ticket holders pay or that becomes a huge issue in itself. Thus the demand-based tickets can only be lowered to a certain price base level but on the other side if all is going great, the team can jack up the price of the ticket to whatever the market will pay. I see little risk and high reward for the team with demand-base pricing and to me it is another gimmick that costs the fans.

The Minnesota Twins have been here since 1961 and over 81 million fans (through 2012)have come through the turnstiles at the Met, the Metrodome and now Target Field to watch the Twins play ball and most of them have bought tickets. I thought it would be fun to take a look at Twins ticket prices going back to 1961 when the ballclub played their first game at Metropolitan Stadium. I did a lot of research on Twins ticket prices and here are some interesting nuggets that I found.

In 1961 the Twins had 3 price categories, a box seat went for $3, reserved grandstand went for $2.50 and general admission was $1.50. In spite of owner Calvin Griffith’s miserly reputation he did not raise ticket prices until 1968, his eighth season here and he only increased box seats by 50 cents and reserved grandstand by a quarter. Keep in mind that the Twins played in the 1965 World Series during this period and still did not raise ticket prices. Think that would happen in todays world? Not a chance.

By the time the Twins were getting ready to move into the brand new Metrodome in 1982 they had completed 21 years at Met Stadium and the team had implemented ticket price increases just 8 times with the cheapest ticket going from $1.50 to $3.00 and the highest priced ticket jumped from $3 to $7.

In the 23 full seasons that Griffith owned the Twins from 1961 to 1983 (1984 does not count as the team was sold mid-season) he raised ticket prices 9 times (39%) and kept ticket prices at the previous rate on 14 (61%) occasions. During Griffith’s reign the average ticket price went from $2.33 to $6.00, an increase of 157.51%.

The Twins were sold to the Pohlad family in mid-season in 1984. Pohlad’s first full year as team owner was 1985 and his teams played in the Metrodome for 25 years from 1985 through 2009. During the Pohlad era in the Metrodome the Twins raised ticket prices 18 times or 72% of the time. They made no change to the ticket price 4 times, 16% of the time and they lowered ticket prices on 3 occasions or 12% of the time. The first drop took place in 1987 when the ticket price dropped 4% as the average ticket price went from $6.25 to $6.00 based on a $1.00 drop in lower left field seats. The second average ticket price drop occurred as the team entered the 1996 season when the average ticket went from $10.86 to $8.67 but this is kind of deceiving because the Twins added one new ticket category and dropped two high-priced categories and sold them as season tickets only and these category changes dropped the average ticket price when the ticket prices never actually changed. The third drop in average ticket price occurred as the Twins went into the 2002 season fresh off the “contraction” fiasco. The contraction business may have played a role in the ticket price reduction but what about the outrageous 53.58% average ticket price increase that took place prior to the 2001 season? Maybe the Twins realized that they over did it the year before, who knows? Bottom line, from 1985 through the 2009 season in the Metrodome under the Pohlad umbrella the average Twins ticket price went from $5.50 in 1985 to $30.25 which is an increase of 450%.

Between 1961 and 2005 the Twins had anywhere from 2 to 7 different pricing categories each season. Dynamic/variable pricing showed up in 2006 and the price categories jumped to 16, in 2009 it jumped to 24, in 2010 with the move to Target Field it more than doubled to 57 , in 2011 it crept up to 60 and in 2013 it jumps to 95.

I set up a new page called Twins Ticket Price History so if you want to see a year by year look at Twins ticket prices, some charts and tables showing ticketing information, and some ticket images including some interesting “phantom” tickets, check it out.

This and That

Max Kepler in WBC in 2012There was a nice piece written about Twins outfield prospect Max Kepler the other day by MiLB.com and if you get a chance, check it out here. The article talks about Kepler’s childhood, the choices he has made and the road that he has taken to try to become a major league player with the Minnesota Twins. The path to the majors for a ballplayer from Germany is a long and difficult one and not just for Max but for his family as well. I have watched Max work hard to improve his skills and I will tell you this, don’t bet against this young man, he is dedicated to be the best he can be and one day he will be a major league ball player, mark my words.

Football season has ended and baseball is just around the corner but March Madness will be starting soon and everyone will fill out one or more “brackets” hoping to cash in either financially or in term of bragging rights. Some fans may even want to wager a few dollars in support of their favorite teams. For all types of sports betting including NCAA College Basketball Betting just follow the link.

The MLB Fan Cave is back for its third season in 2013 and the 50 finalists have been named. The Twins representative is 25-year old St. Paul native, Michael McGivern, an ardent Minnesota Twins fan with broadcasting, social media, and marketing experience. The first round of voting ends on February 13th so take a minute to support your Twins  representative by voting for Michael at http://mlbfancave.mlb.com/fancave/vote.jsp?fliqzid=75d1a1fb9d2844bfba9497e98bde25c8

Tony Oliva with Rod Carew
Tony Oliva with Rod Carew

When I was at TwinsFest recently I ran across a young lady that was part of a campaign to get Tony Oliva elected to the MLB Hall of Fame in 2014. The group has set up a web site at www.votetonyo.com in hopes of accomplishing their goal. I truly believe that Tony deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and I will do whatever I can to help. I would urge all the Twins fans out there to do whatever they can to make this happen. I would love to see all the Twins blog sites out there post a link to the votetonyo.com site to help drive traffic to the site. Stop by the site and see what you can do to help make Tony Oliva a Hall of Famer! I recently did an interview with Eddie Bane who played with Tony and has been around the big leagues since 1973 and this is what Eddie had to say about Tony: “By the way, one additional thought on some of the old-time baseball guys from the 60’s and 70’s. I have asked a lot of former major league pitchers who the best hitter they ever faced was. Of the more than 20 pitchers I asked at least half of them said Tony Oliva. Tony never gets his due as far as the Hall of Fame goes, but those pitchers all remember that swing that I can still picture in my mind. Without those lousy knees that he had Tony O would certainly be a Hall of Fame player”. Thanks Eddie, another reason to vote Tony to the Hall!

This Day in Twins History – February 5

Freddie Toliver1988 – The Twins trade for pitcher Freddie Toliver and send catcher Chris Calvert to Philly. The right-handed Toliver spent parts of 1988 and 1989 pitching for the Twins mostly as a starter and he had a 8-9 record with a 1.55 WHIP and a 4.95 ERA in 143.2 innings. The string bean Toliver (6’1″ and 165 lbs) always had control issues and in mid-1989 the Twins traded him to the Padres for Greg Booker. Calvert never advanced past AA ball. Booker a big 6’6″ right-handed pitcher appeared in 6 games in a Minnesota uniform in 1989 and had no record and the Twins let him go after the season ended.

2002 – MLB owners postpone contraction until the 2003 season; a day after the Minnesota Supreme Court refuses to hear their appeal of the injunction that forces the Twins to honor their Metrodome lease for the 2002 season.

The Minnesota Twins and litigation have not exactly been strangers over the years and this April 2010 article on mnbenchbar.com by Marshall Tanick highlights some of the brushes that the Minnesota Twins and their players have had with the courts over the years. There are several other cases of Twins players or ex-Twins players that have run afoul of the law that are not mentioned in this story.