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
If you get a few minutes you need to check out these behind the scenes pictures of the Chattanooga Lookouts taken by Twins photographer Bruce Hemmeigam over the span of four days and posted on MiLB.com. Some great shots of players that we hope to see in Minnesota Twins uniforms soon.
By the way, May 20th is an very interesting day in Twins history, take a few minutes and check out our Today in Twins History page.
The Houston Astros had the first overall pick in the 2012 June Amateur Draft and they used that pick to select 17 year-old Puerto Rico Baseball Academy shortstop Carlos Correa. The Minnesota Twins had the second choice and they used it to draft 18 year-old outfielder Byron Buxton from Appling County High School in Baxley, Georgia. Both players are currently rated as the top prospecst in their organizations and Buxton has been rated as baseball best overall prospect two years running. Both players have had injuries delay their arrival in the major leagues.
Carlos Correa is 6’4″ and 210 pounds and is a right-handed hitter and missed all but 62 games in 2014 due to injury. Correa was recently promoted from AA Corpus Christi to AAA Fresno and is holding his own in six games in the PCL after tearing up AA to the tune of a .385 average with seven home runs, 32 RBI, and 15 stolen bases (with zero caught stealing) in just 29 games. To this point Correa has 264 minor league games and 1,180 plate appearances under his belt.
Byron Buxton is 6’2″ and 190 pounds and also bats from the right side and as we all know all too well, missed all but 14 games in 2014 due to several injuries. Buxton too started this season in AA with the Chattanooga team but got off to a dismal start but has caught fire and is hitting .241 with seven triples, four home runs, 25 RBI, and 10 stolen bases in 11 attempts in 36 games. To this point Buxton has 240 minor league games and 1,061 plate appearances under his belt.
The fans for both teams are anxious for Correa and Buxton to be promoted to the big club. In recent years both the Astros and Twins have been their divisions cellar dwellers but both teams have played surprisingly well in 2015. Does the fact that their teams are playing good baseball slow down or speed up the process of reaching the big leagues for these two future stars?
Being the top picks in the 2012 does not guarantee that you will be up to the bigs sooner than players that are drafted further down the list. Todate there are eight other players drafted later in the first round of the 2012 draft that have tasted a sip of life in the major leagues, but all but one, Cubs shortstop Addison Russell (11) were drafted out of college (by the A’s and traded to the Cubs). Other 2012 first rounders that have reached the majors are catcher Mike Zunino (3), RHP Kevin Gausman (4), LHP Andrew Heaney (9), RHP Michael Wacha (19), RHP Marcus Stroman (22), catcher Kevin Plawecki (35) and RHP Eddie Butler (46). There are also two second round, three third round, two fourth round, two fifth round, one sixth round, one seventh round, and two ninth round selections that have spent time in the major leagues.
So when will Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton get that call to report to Houston or Minnesota? Which one of these future super stars will get the call first? These two players will be compared to each other from years to come, it will be interesting to see how their careers compare over time.
UPDATE: Carlos Correa was called up by the Astros on June 8th.
UPDATE: Byron Buxton was called up by the Twinss on June 14th.
Archer on target against Twins
Chris Archer is now 4-0 with a 0.74 ERA in four starts against the Twins after throwing six superb innings for the Rays on Sunday. The only other active pitcher to win his first four starts versus Minnesota is the Mariners’ Hisashi Iwakuma, who is 5-0 in five starts versus the Twins and has yet to allow an earned run in 33? innings against them (though he surrendered an unearned run in two of those contests). Besides Archer and Iwakuma, the only other pitcher since 1961 (which marked the Twins’ first year in Minneapolis) to post a 4-0 record with an ERA under 1.00 in his first four starts against Minnesota is Sidney Ponson (4-0, 0.96 ERA through four starts). Source: ELIAS
Chattanooga (AA) infielder Miguel Sano is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Sano played in eight games for the Lookouts, hitting .379 (11-for-29) with four doubles, three home runs, eight RBI, three walks and a .438 on-base percentage. After hitting .159 (10-for-63) in 18 April games, he has hit .321 (18-for-56) in 16 May games getting his average up to .235.
Sano just turned 22 a few days ago but he has been in the Twins minor league system since 2010 and is coming off Tommy John surgery which caused him to miss the entire 2014 season. It is good to see the Dominican born Sano start to hit because Twins fans here in Minnesota are still hoping to see the big guy in a Twins uniform sometime this season, hopefully by the time the All-Stars gather in Cincinnati.
Previous winners of Twins POW this season are right-handed pitcher Tyler Duffey, left-handed pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, Byron Buxton and infielder Trey Vavra.
Escobar goes four for four
Eduardo Escobar went 4-for-4 in the Twins win over the Rays yesterday afternoon. It was the second time in his major-league career that Escobar went 4-for-4 or better in a game as a shortstop with the other such game coming on April 30 of last season against the Dodgers. No other player has more than one game of 4-for-4 or better as a shortstop over the last two seasons. Source: ELIAS
As we get to the middle of May it is time once again to revisit the 1965 Twins. The attached page of the May 15, 1965 Sporting News has a nice story on how Twins trainer George Lentz suggested that Tony Oliva use a knobless bat to lessen the pain that he endured with his knuckle on his right hand when swinging the bat. There is also a short piece on bench players Sandy Valdespino and Rich Reese.
Sporting News May 15, 1965 P11
The Twins on-going hunt for starting pitchers never seems to change and Twins skipper Sam Mele had the same issue back in 1965. The May 22, 1965 issue of the Sporting News has a nice spread on Twins starter Jim Grant and a new pitch he learned form pitching coach John Sain. There is also mention of the May 6 Twin Cities infamous tornado outbreak that did some relatively minor damage to the homes of Howard Fox and owner Calvin Griffith. Just as an FYI, the Lake Minnetonka former home of Griffith was bulldozed a couple of months ago for what I would expect will be a new McMansion.
On May 15, 1965 the Twins record was 18-8 having won seven out of their last eight games and they were in second place just a half game out of the league lead. As good as the team was, the fans were not coming out to watch them play at Met Stadium. The biggest home crowd they had to date was 17,664 for a Sunday afternoon game against the Mighty Whitey’s which the Twins won 6-1 when Camilo Pascual pitched a complete game bringing his record to 4-0 and hitting a home run to boot. Their home opener on April 12 albeit in bad weather had a crowd of only 15,388.
As well as the Twins were playing, they would throw in a clinker now and then, for example, a 13-5 loss to the White Sox on May 7 when the Twins gave up 10 unearned runs due to seven errors in a game at the Met.
Mauer clears the bases
Joe Mauer‘s three-run triple last night highlighted the Twins’ 6-2 win over the Tigers. It was Mauer’s first triple in 88 career at-bats with the bases loaded, but the seventh time he drove in all three runners on base in that situation (three grand slams and a trio of three-run doubles). Source:ELIAS
I thought that with all the attention this year on the length of games that it would be fun to take a look at some of the quickest nine inning games in Twins history in terms of wall clock time. The fastest game turned out to be a Twins 3-0 loss at Exhibition Stadium to the Toronto Blue Jays as starter Jim Clancy and his Twins counterpart Frank Viola faced off.
| Rk | Date | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | Attendance | GmLen ? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1982-09-28 (1) | TOR | L 0-3 | 28 | 27 | 0 | 93 |
| 2 | 1973-07-01 | CAL | W 2-1 | 32 | 31 | 27,068 | 100 |
| 2 | 1968-09-13 | BOS | L 0-3 | 31 | 31 | 23,171 | 100 |
| 4 | 1968-08-22 | NYY | W 3-1 | 31 | 26 | 15,898 | 102 |
| 5 | 1979-08-12 | OAK | W 1-0 | 30 | 27 | 14,500 | 103 |
| 5 | 1974-06-17 | BAL | L 0-1 | 31 | 29 | 7,157 | 103 |
| 7 | 1975-09-26 | CHW | W 2-1 | 33 | 29 | 2,769 | 105 |
| 7 | 1966-04-12 | KCA | W 2-1 | 29 | 26 | 21,658 | 105 |
The fastest Twins nine inning game in this century you ask? That would be a 1-0 loss to the Oakland A’s in McAfee Park on June 2, 2007 when Joe Blanton beat Carlos Silva in one hour and 49 minutes. Since the 2000 season began, the Twins have played in only nine complete games that lasted two hours or less.
The Twins longest game in terms of time was a 17 inning six-hour and 36 minute affair back on May 7, 1995 when the Indians beat the Twins 10-9 at Jacob’s Field. I suspect that the 39,431 fans at the ballpark got their money’s worth that day. I wonder what Tom Kelly’s temperament was like after that game? The Twins used nine pitchers and the Indians used eight. Oddly enough, the Twins have played only two games that lasted six or more hours and they were both against the Cleveland Indians. The other long game against the boys from Cleveland was a six-hour and 17 minute affair at the Metrodome but this time the Twins came out with a 5-4 win in 22 innings on August 31, 1993.
I also took a look at the length of an average Twins game in 1961 versus an average Twins game in 2014. Back in the Twins initial season an average Twins game took two hours and 40 minutes, last year an average Twins game took three hours and 7 minutes.
Salazar stingy after allowing a homer to lead off the game
Danny Salazar retired every one of the 21 batters he faced (including 11 strikeouts) after he allowed a first-inning leadoff home run to Brian Dozier in the Indians’ 8-2 win over the Twins in Cleveland yesterday. Salazar became the first major-leaguer to win a game in which he pitched at least seven innings with the only hit against him being a home run to lead off the first inning since Jack McDowell tossed a complete game in the White Sox’ 15-1 victory at Milwaukee on July 14, 1991. The Brewers’ only hit in that game was a home run by Paul Molitor to lead off the bottom of the first inning.
Hunter dials back the years
Torii Hunter followed his 4-for-4 performance on Friday with hits on each of his first three at-bats in the Twins’ 7-4 win at Cleveland. Hunter, whose first hit on Saturday was a home run, became the first 39-year-old with hits on seven straight ABs since Chili Davis did it for the Yankees in 1999. Hunter’s current manager, Paul Molitor, also had seven straight hits at age 39 for the Blue Jays in 1995. Source: ELIAS