Minnesota Twins pitchers have finished dead last in the American League in strikeouts the last three years and you all know where the team has finished in the standing during that time frame. When the Twins came into existence in 1961 the SO/9 average in the American League was 5.2 SO/9 and it slowly climbed to 6.1 SO/9 in 1967 but then started sliding down to under 5.0 SO/9 from 1974 to 1983. Since then it started climbing and for the first time in 2012 it went above 7.0 went it hit 7.4 SO/9 and in 2013 it hit 7.7 SO/9 which is a new high water mark.
From 2006 through 2013 only one team in the AL has finished above the .500 mark in the standings when their pitching staff has had under 1,000 strikeouts and guess who that was? It was the 2008 Minnesota Twins team that finished second to the Chicago White Sox in 2008 when Gardy’s boys went 88-75 and lost game 163 in Chicago. When Twins pitchers have 1,000 or more strikeouts the team won less than 79 games only once and that was the 2000 Twins when they finished the season with a 69-93 mark. Twins pitchers have struck 1,000 or more batters only 10 times in 53 seasons and peaked with 1,164 KO’s in 2006 when the team had a franchise high 7.28 SO/9.
The Twins can spew all the “pitch to contact” babble they want but striking out hitters and winning games goes together like peanut butter and jelly. We can only wait and see what the new Twins pitchers can do. Ricky Nolasco has a career 7.4 SO/9 and Phil Hughes is 7.6 SO/9 so they should help improve the Twins sad 2013 6.11 SO/9 team mark.
So looking back all the way to 1961 what Twins pitchers have had the best SO/9 ratio in a given season? The table below shows the highest SO/9 ratio with a minimum of 50 innings. Not many starters on this list.
| Rk | Player | IP | Year | G | GS | W | L | SV | SO | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Nathan | 12.51 | 68.1 | 2006 | 64 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 36 | 95 | 1.58 |
| 2 | Joe Nathan | 12.09 | 70.0 | 2005 | 69 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 43 | 94 | 2.70 |
| 3 | Joe Nathan | 11.67 | 68.2 | 2009 | 70 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 47 | 89 | 2.10 |
| 4 | Juan Rincon | 11.63 | 82.0 | 2004 | 77 | 0 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 106 | 2.63 |
| 5 | Johan Santana | 11.38 | 108.1 | 2002 | 27 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 137 | 2.99 |
| 6 | Joe Nathan | 11.07 | 72.1 | 2004 | 73 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 44 | 89 | 1.62 |
| 7 | Glen Perkins | 11.06 | 62.2 | 2013 | 61 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 36 | 77 | 2.30 |
| 8 | Francisco Liriano | 10.71 | 121.0 | 2006 | 28 | 16 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 144 | 2.16 |
| 9 | Tom Hall | 10.66 | 155.1 | 1970 | 52 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 184 | 2.55 |
| 10 | Casey Fien | 10.60 | 62.0 | 2013 | 73 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 73 | 3.92 |
| 11 | Johan Santana | 10.46 | 228.0 | 2004 | 34 | 34 | 20 | 6 | 0 | 265 | 2.61 |
| 12 | Ron Davis | 10.02 | 64.2 | 1985 | 57 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 25 | 72 | 3.48 |
| 13 | Glen Perkins | 9.98 | 70.1 | 2012 | 70 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 16 | 78 | 2.56 |
| 14 | Joe Nathan | 9.84 | 67.2 | 2008 | 68 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 39 | 74 | 1.33 |
| 15 | Juan Rincon | 9.82 | 77.0 | 2005 | 75 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 84 | 2.45 |
| 16 | Francisco Liriano | 9.81 | 100.0 | 2012 | 22 | 17 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 109 | 5.31 |
| 17 | Joe Nathan | 9.67 | 71.2 | 2007 | 68 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 37 | 77 | 1.88 |
| 18 | Johan Santana | 9.66 | 219.0 | 2007 | 33 | 33 | 15 | 13 | 0 | 235 | 3.33 |
| 19 | Johan Santana | 9.61 | 158.1 | 2003 | 45 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 169 | 3.07 |
| 20 | Tom Hall | 9.51 | 129.2 | 1971 | 48 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 137 | 3.33 |
Looking over the Twins history here the best Twins career SO/9 ratio’s with a minimum of 100 innings pitched. How many of these pitchers were originally signed by the Twins? That would be eight.
| Rk | Player | IP | G | GS | W | L | SV | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Nathan | 10.90 | 463.1 | 460 | 0 | 24 | 13 | .649 | 260 | 561 | 2.16 | .186 |
| 2 | Pat Neshek | 10.48 | 129.2 | 132 | 0 | 11 | 6 | .647 | 0 | 151 | 3.05 | .189 |
| 3 | Johan Santana | 9.50 | 1308.2 | 251 | 175 | 93 | 44 | .679 | 1 | 1381 | 3.22 | .221 |
| 4 | Francisco Liriano | 9.05 | 783.1 | 156 | 130 | 50 | 52 | .490 | 1 | 788 | 4.33 | .247 |
| 5 | Tom Hall | 8.52 | 455.1 | 139 | 44 | 25 | 21 | .543 | 13 | 431 | 3.00 | .212 |
| 6 | Juan Rincon | 8.41 | 441.0 | 386 | 3 | 30 | 26 | .536 | 3 | 412 | 3.69 | .248 |
| 7 | Ron Davis | 8.24 | 381.1 | 286 | 0 | 19 | 40 | .322 | 108 | 349 | 4.51 | .264 |
| 8 | Jared Burton | 8.16 | 128.0 | 135 | 0 | 5 | 11 | .313 | 7 | 116 | 3.02 | .216 |
| 9 | Juan Berenguer | 8.15 | 418.1 | 211 | 7 | 33 | 13 | .717 | 9 | 379 | 3.70 | .231 |
| 10 | Ray Moore | 7.95 | 159.2 | 126 | 1 | 13 | 10 | .565 | 25 | 141 | 4.90 | .252 |
| 11 | Gerry Arrigo | 7.93 | 131.2 | 54 | 15 | 8 | 7 | .533 | 1 | 116 | 4.31 | .245 |
| 12 | Eddie Guardado | 7.79 | 704.2 | 648 | 25 | 37 | 48 | .435 | 116 | 610 | 4.53 | .253 |
| 13 | Dennys Reyes | 7.77 | 126.1 | 191 | 0 | 10 | 1 | .909 | 0 | 109 | 2.14 | .238 |
| 14 | Rick Aguilera | 7.60 | 694.0 | 490 | 30 | 40 | 47 | .460 | 254 | 586 | 3.50 | .243 |
| 15 | Dan Naulty | 7.60 | 111.1 | 97 | 0 | 4 | 5 | .444 | 5 | 94 | 4.61 | .234 |
| 16 | Al Worthington | 7.59 | 473.1 | 327 | 0 | 37 | 31 | .544 | 88 | 399 | 2.62 | .221 |
| 17 | Dick Stigman | 7.52 | 643.2 | 138 | 85 | 37 | 37 | .500 | 7 | 538 | 3.69 | .229 |
| 18 | Dave Boswell | 7.51 | 1036.1 | 187 | 150 | 67 | 54 | .554 | 0 | 865 | 3.49 | .217 |
| 19 | J.C. Romero | 7.42 | 407.2 | 327 | 22 | 25 | 20 | .556 | 2 | 336 | 4.35 | .256 |
| 20 | Mike Trombley | 7.36 | 645.2 | 365 | 36 | 30 | 34 | .469 | 34 | 528 | 4.53 | .266 |
Good stuff 🙂
1969. The lowering of the mound. That’s why you see the K/9 drop in the 70s as well as a general deflation of the pitching numbers. I also suspect that the ball changes had some to do with it as well. Also I suspect that inter league play and pitching against pitchers as hitters increased the K/9 in the AL a bit the last few seasons.
Interesting to see those normalized for AL average K/9 per season.