Month: December 2015

Some historical Twins pitch to contact pitchers

The pitchers on this list had to have pitched at least 25 innings during their stay in Minnesota and it is sorted in “on base %”  (OBP) order.

Johnson, Adam ML debut 07162001

Rk Player OBP IP From To G GS W L SV H BB SO ERA BA
1 Adam Johnson .450 26.1 2001 2003 9 4 1 3 0 40 14 17 10.25 .360
2 Brett Merriman .445 44.0 1993 1994 34 0 1 2 0 54 37 24 8.39 .314
3 Bryan Oelkers .437 34.1 1983 1983 10 8 0 5 0 56 17 13 8.65 .376
4 Sean Bergman .436 68.0 2000 2000 15 14 4 5 0 111 33 35 9.66 .374
5 Jason Marquis .434 34.0 2012 2012 7 7 2 4 0 52 14 12 8.47 .371
6 Vance Worley .427 48.2 2013 2013 10 10 1 5 0 82 15 25 7.21 .381
7 Greg Harris .415 32.2 1995 1995 7 6 0 5 0 50 16 21 8.82 .355
8 Steve Carlton .411 52.2 1987 1988 13 8 1 6 0 74 28 25 8.54 .332
9 Sidney Ponson .409 37.2 2007 2007 7 7 2 5 0 54 17 23 6.93 .335
10 Scott Klingenbeck .408 77.0 1995 1996 28 7 1 3 0 111 34 42 8.30 .339
11 Bob Gebhard .408 39.0 1971 1972 30 0 1 3 1 53 24 26 6.00 .317
12 Erik Bennett .402 27.1 1996 1996 24 0 2 0 1 33 16 13 7.90 .306
13 John Pacella .402 51.2 1982 1982 21 1 1 2 2 61 37 20 7.32 .299
14 Dan Perkins .401 86.2 1999 1999 29 12 1 7 0 117 43 44 6.54 .326
15 Jack Savage .397 26.0 1990 1990 17 0 0 2 1 37 11 12 8.31 .339
16 Pedro Hernandez .392 56.2 2013 2013 14 12 3 3 0 80 23 29 6.83 .338
17 Mike Lincoln .391 97.0 1999 2000 26 19 3 13 0 138 39 42 7.70 .335
18 Erik Schullstrom .387 60.0 1994 1995 46 0 0 0 1 79 27 34 6.00 .317
19 Dan Schatzeder .386 54.0 1987 1988 40 1 3 2 0 72 23 37 5.50 .321
20 Danny Fife .385 56.1 1973 1974 14 7 3 2 0 64 33 21 5.43 .286
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/30/2015.

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Looking back at the pace of play in 2015

Clock tickingOn February 20, 2015, MLB announced a series of initiatives aimed at quickening the pace of play in Major League games, the key changes were:

  • Umpires will enforce Rule 6.02(d), which requires hitters to keep one foot in the box during an at-bat, subject to certain exceptions.
  • Timers will be used to ensure that the game resumes promptly at the end of inning breaks.
  • Managers will no longer come out of the dugout to initiate a replay challenge. A manager will also keep his challenge after each call that is overturned. Last year, a challenge was retained only after the first overturned call.

So how did those changes pan out for you? Did you notice if the pace of play sped up? Did the pace of play speed up at all? I can’t say that I noticed if a game was any quicker or not, I did notice the new rule about stepping out of the batters box because the announcers kept harping on it. I also became aware of the clock between innings when I missed a home run because the game resumed before the television was back to the game from its barrage of commercials.

So I decided to dig in to the matter and see what Baseball-Reference could tell me. That is such a great site for research with a lot of great stuff out there but sometimes I just have trouble figuring out how to get what I want. I am an American League fan so I will spend more time looking at AL data then I will at the NL data. Having said that we will take a look at the National League first.

NL in 2015

RANK TEAM AVG GAME TIME GAMES OVER 3 H
1 Marlins 2h 51m 51
2 Nationals 2h 54m 64
3 Braves 2h 55m 65
4* Mets 2h 56m 59
5 Phillies 2h 58m 63
6* Cardinals 3h 00m 74
7 Padres 3h 01m 81
7 Brewers 3h 01m 82
9 Reds 3h 02m 69
9 Giants 3h 02m 78
9* Cubs 3h 02m 88
12* Dodgers 3h 04m 78
13* Pirates 3h 06m 79
13 Rockies 3h 06m 98
15 Diamondsbacks 3h 10m 91
 The Cardinals won the most games and the Phillies lost the most games. The * indicates a playoff team.

Only five of the twelve NL teams had an average game time of under three hours. If you wanted to take in a quick game you needed to make sure that the Marlins were involved and if you wanted to get more baseball for your buck than you need to make sure that you were watching the Diamondbacks. The difference between the quick pace of Marlins play versus the snail’s pace of the sidewinders from the desert was 19 minutes a game on average.

Comparing AL 2014 to 2015

RANK TEAM 2014 AVG GAME TIME 2014 GAMES > 3H 2015 AVG GAME TIME 2015 GAMES > 3H % IMPROVE IN GAME TIME
1 Blue Jays* 3h 01m 77 2h 53m 65 4.4%
2 Orioles 3h 08m 96 2h 55m 61 6.9%
3 Twins 3h 07m 94 2h 57m 65 5.3%
4 Indians 3h 12m 109 2h 59m 71 6.8%
4 Rays 3h 19m 119 2h 59m 78 10.05%
6 White Sox 3h 08m 95 3h 0m 68 4.3%
6 Angels 3h 15m 69 3h 0m 69 7.7%
6 Royals* 3h 02m 87 3h 0m 70 1.1%
9 A’s 3h 05m 88 3h 01m 71 2.2%
9 Mariners 2h 59m 68 3h 01m 73 -1.1%
11 Astros* 3h 10m 106 3h 03m 84 3.7%
12 Rangers* 3h 07m 97 3h 04m 89 1.6%
13 Red Sox 3h 17m 116 3h 06m 88 5.6%
14 Yankees* 3h 13m 110 3h 08m 92 2.3%
15 Tigers 3h 14m 113 3h 09m 94 2.6%

The Royals won the most games and the A’s lost the most games. The * indicates a playoff team.

Just like in the NL the AL had five teams in 2015 that averaged under 3 hours a game. The fastest pace games on average were played by the Bluejays and they were about two minutes longer than games by the speedy NL Marlins. The slow-paced Tigers had the longest on average games in the AL but they were a minute quicker than the NL Dbacks. The one team that stands out is the Seattle Mariners who are the only AL team to have played longer games on average in 2015 than they did in 2014. The Rays deserve mention for having been the slowest paced team in the AL in 2014 with games averaging 3h 19m with 119 games over 3 hours and in 2015 they took MLB game pace guidelines to heart and cut 20 minutes off an average game and reduced their games of over 3 hours from 119 to just 71.

When you compare averages for 2014 to 2015 for the entire AL the numbers show that in 2014 a game lasted about 3h 9m and teams played an average of 99 games over 3 hours. In 2015 the average game time dropped to 3h 1m and the number of games over 3 hours dropped to 72. The number of games over 3 hours dropped by a little over 27% but the pace of the game only dropped by just over 4%.

What about of you compare the pace of play in the NL to the AL you ask? The two leagues play a different style of baseball but when all the haze faded away both leagues averaged a 3h 1m pace of play.

I think it is ironic that the only sport that doesn’t use a clock is so worried about how long their games take to play.

Just for fun – The Twins Joe Mauer makes $23 million a year. Let’s say he plays 162 games at 3 hours a game, we come up with 486 hours during the season. But let’s say that with workouts and other things he works a total of 8 hours a day for 162 games, that comes out to 1296 hours. Divide $23 million by 1,296 hours and you get an hourly wage of $17,747 an hour. Oh my goodness! I know that is being over simplistic but still…… I like Joe Mauer but this was just too good to pass up.

I am working on a longer term project that will take a historical look at the Minnesota Twins and their game times over the years so stay tuned for that.

 

Merry Christmas

We at Twins Trivia want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas !!!

Merry Christmas 2015-animation980by300We hope that you get to enjoy this wonderful holiday with your family and friends and please don’t forget all those that are serving our country and can’t get home this holiday season.

This Day in Twins History – Baseball Forever Changed – December 23, 1975

Messersmith, AndyMcNally, Dave 2In a decision announced on December 23, 1975, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that pitchers Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith were free agents because the reserve clause could not bind them to a team forever. David McNally actually retired after the 1975 season and never played baseball again while Messersmith became a free agent and signed a three-year deal with the Atlanta Braves for a grand total of $1 million that included a $400,000 signing bonus.

Several court appeals were rejected, forcing the owners into collective bargaining on the issue. Take a moment to read “The Demise of the Reserve Clause” by Stew Thornley.

Baseball-reference.com write-up on the reserve clause

How Curt Flood Changed Baseball and Killed His Career in the Process

On this Day in Twins History – Metrodome groundbreaking – December 20, 1979

June 12, 1980: The domed Hubert H. Humphrey Stadium in downtown Minneapolis is beginning to take shape as construction continues on schedule. The 65,000-seat facility, scheduled to open in April of 1982 is about $11.7 million below budget. (Pioneer Press file photo)
June 12, 1980: The domed Hubert H. Humphrey Stadium in downtown Minneapolis is beginning to take shape as construction continues on schedule. The 65,000-seat facility, scheduled to open in April of 1982 is about $11.7 million below budget. (Pioneer Press file photo)

December 20, 1979 – With the official groundbreaking taking place, construction began on the Metrodome and it was built by the state of Minnesota at a cost of approximately $68 million. The Metrodome becomes baseballs’ third domed facility when it opened in 1982.

The Minnesota Twins moved out of the Metrodome after the 2009 season and moved across town to their new digs at Target Field. The last season that the NFL Minnesota Vikings played there was in 2013.

Metrodome late March 2014
Metrodome late March 2014

The Dome was then gutted and almost completely torn down starting in January 2014 and the new Minnesota Vikings $1+ billion US Bank Stadium is being built and will be ready for the Vikings 2016 season.

This is what the site of the Metrodome looks like now as the new US Bank rises from the ashes of the old dome. The old dome cost $68 million and the shiny new US Bank Stadium comes in at a price tag of well over a billion dollars and will be the home of the Minnesota Vikings.
This is what the site of the Metrodome looks like now as the new US Bank rises from the ashes of the old dome. The old dome cost $68 million and the shiny new US Bank Stadium comes in at a price tag of well over a billion dollars and will be the home of the Minnesota Vikings.

The US Bank construction cam can be seen here. Metrodome on Wiki.

Opt-out clause is a black eye for baseball

soap-boxopt-out clause – a clause that permits signatories to a contract to opt out of particular provisions, or to terminate the contract early.

I make no bones about it, I abhor the opt-out clauses that are being given to major league players today. MLB players today make millions of dollars a year and still they ask for and get opt-out clauses in their contracts. What is up with that?

To my way of thinking it is simple out and out GREED on the part of players and their agents. An opt-out clause in a baseball contract makes it totally one sided in favor of the player. The plan probably was originated by an agent that realized that there was more money to be made by negotiating more contracts. The players today have no loyalty to their teams or their fans what so ever and their single focus is putting more money in their pockets. They claim that they are doing all they can for the team but that is all BS, or they wouldn’t bail out of a contract if it was advantageous to them.

The players and agents aren’t the only ones to blame here, today’s baseball team owners must be the stupidest in sports. Why would you pay out hundred’s of millions on a long term contract and take all the risk that entails and still give the player an opt-out?  If the players plays like crap then he stays in the contract and you have to pay him, but if he feels he is in position to make an even better deal for himself he bails and says thank you very much sucker.

Why would you do something like that? Because players and their agents demand long term contracts to and must be smarter than most baseball owners. How can players that sign long term deals with an opt-out clause stand up before a microphone as they try on their new uniform for the first time and say with a straight face how excited they are to join this new team that they have admired from afar and now get a chance to help take them to the promised land? Why don’t they just look into the camera and say, “I signed to play with this team because they agreed to pay me the most money this year but if team X offers me more in 2019, I am outta here”. Wouldn’t play well with the fans you say? Get real!

Back in the old days before free agency players were tied to their teams for life but then free agency and arbitration came along and now the players and their agents are in the drivers seat. The pendelum has swung too far the other way. Players used to take pay cuts when they had a bad season and got raises for good seasons. When was the last time you heard of a player getting a pay cut because he had a bad year?

How is an opt-out different from investing money in the stock market and being given your investment back if the stock you bought goes down in price, who does that? No one, we would all love to have that option but no one is dumb enough to give that to us. Baseball is a unique business I know, but I don’t understand for the life of me why owners put up with this. If the owners band together and put a stop to this silly practice I’m sure they would get sued for collusion so the only way to put a stop to it is to negotiate it out of existence. Surely we will see more of these opt-out deals in the near future but hopefully the owners will come to their senses and negotiate this out of existence in future league/player contracts at their first opportunity.

Owners need players and players need owners for the great game of baseball to flourish but it has to be a level playing surface for both sides, Opt-outs are totally unfair, it is embarrassing that baseball allows this to keep happening.

UPDATE – A different opinion of the opt-out clause can be seen here.

1965 American League Champions crossword puzzle – Part 36

crossword image

The snow is falling and it is a bit chilly outside as you rush around preparing for the up-coming holiday season. Presents to buy, decorating to do and all that baking is still to be done or maybe you are just at the office looking to kill some time before your next meeting so maybe you should sit down for a bit and forget all the pressures of your life and think back 50 years to the summer of 1965 and the great pennant run of Minnesota Twins.

I have been doing a series on the 1965 American League champions all season long in this the 50th anniversary of that great season. This is the 36th and final installment of that series and it is in the form of a crossword puzzle. It will hopefully bring back some wonderful memories of the year when the Minnesota Twins won 102 games and advanced to the 1965 World Series only to lose in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The puzzle contains the names of all the players and coaches (some more than once) that were on the 1965 roster and many other interesting facts about the 1965 Twins team.

Once you have brought the puzzle up and are ready to print the puzzle, do a right-click with your mouse and you might want to do a print preview first to get the puzzle the right size to fit on a single page. The clues for the puzzle will print on page 2.

1965 American League Champions crossword

Answers? You want answers? Probably just to double-check your work because if you are checking out this site you are probably a big Twins fan and will not need any research to complete the puzzle. If you do need help answering some, the answer might be found else where on this site. If you must see the answers, you can find them on the link below but only do so as a last resort. Thanks, I hope you enjoy it.

1965 American League Champions crossword answers

These guys seldom hear “He gone” or “Grab some bench”

The other day I was having lunch and reading my newest Memories and Dreams magazine put out by the Hall of Fame. There are always good stories in this magazine and in this edition there was a short one page article by Marty Appel called A Second Look at Hall of Famer Nellie Fox.

Fox, NellieI am old enough to have seen Nellie play second base for the Chicago White Sox in early 60’s although by then he was on the down-hill side of his amazing career that started back in 1951. Not only was the man a twelve time all-star but he was the American League MVP in 1959.

Fox was one tough dude to strike out, in over 10,000 plate appearances he struck out just 216 times, that is incredible. He once had a record 98 straight games without being retired on strikes.

That got me to thinking about the Twins and how often they strike out. Now days players strike out more frequently then they once did and baseball and teams just kind of wink and say “yes, he strikes out but look at all those home runs”. If Nellie went 98 games with striking out what is the Twins longest streak of games without striking out.

Rk Name Strk Start End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB BA OBP OPS
1 Earl Battey 1965-08-02 1965-09-05 35 110 7 28 9 1 0 18 12 .255 .323 .677
2 Brian Harper 1989-04-11 1989-05-31 28 74 9 17 4 0 3 15 4 .230 .294 .700
3 Glenn Adams 1980-05-24 1980-07-04 27 71 8 23 5 0 0 13 5 .324 .354 .749
4 Sandy Valdespino 1965-07-07 1965-08-15 27 46 7 16 1 0 0 6 4 .348 .400 .770
5 Hal Naragon 1961-08-26 1962-06-05 27 55 1 15 1 0 0 3 5 .273 .328 .619
6 Rich Chiles 1977-07-08 1977-08-21 25 55 6 11 0 0 1 6 7 .200 .302 .556
7 Mickey Hatcher 1983-08-23 1983-09-19 24 90 11 32 4 0 3 15 2 .356 .366 .866
8 Vic Power 1962-04-15 1962-05-20 24 89 10 27 2 0 3 14 4 .303 .333 .760
9 Chip Hale 1996-04-02 1996-05-21 23 26 4 10 3 0 1 6 3 .385 .448 1.064
10 Frank Kostro 1967-06-22 1967-09-17 23 21 3 8 0 0 0 1 2 .381 .435 .816
11 Jerry Terrell 1976-07-25 1976-09-05 21 50 7 14 0 1 0 4 3 .280 .327 .647
12 Leo Cardenas 1971-04-27 1971-05-20 21 76 12 25 5 1 3 13 7 .329 .381 .920
13 Brian Harper 1988-07-03 1988-08-12 20 66 5 25 6 0 2 8 2 .379 .391 .952
14 Dave Meier 1984-08-23 1985-06-10 20 45 5 8 1 0 0 4 2 .178 .213 .413
15 Jose Morales 1979-09-25 1980-05-20 20 39 5 11 1 0 1 5 3 .282 .326 .710
16 Rod Carew 1974-09-29 1975-05-10 20 66 11 26 5 1 0 5 9 .394 .461 .961
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/11/2015.
Credit to Steve's Baseball Photography Pages
Credit to Steve’s Baseball Photography Pages

Are you kidding me, Earl Battey with a 35 game streak of no strike outs during the 1965 pennant race? Wowsers, that is amazing. I sure don’t remember Battey having such a good eye at the plate but when you look at his numbers you will find out he never struck out more than 75 times in a season. Brain Harper is on the list twice, with a 28 game streak and a 20 game streak. I used to love watching Harper bat, he always seemed to make contact and what I remember most about him was how he followed each and every pitch all the way to the catchers glove.

You will notice that the most recent Twins streak of at least 20 games with out striking out goes back to 1996 when Chip Hale had a 23 gamer, today Chip Hale manages the Arizona Diamondbacks.

 

Aoki as a KC Royal in 2014
Aoki as a KC Royal in 2014

Who had the longest streak of this kind in 2015 you ask? That would be Nori Aoki from the San Francisco Giants with a 22 game streak from June 6 to August 5 and that was after he had a 20 game streak from May 5 to May 31. He must have had something in his eye because he struck out once a game on June 1, 2 and 3. That means from May 9 to August 5, Aoki had 187 plate appearances and struck out 3 times. Nice! Aoki just signed to play with Seattle a week or so ago.

How about the Minnesota Twins in 2015? The most games streak with out a strikeout was 10 by catcher Kurt Suzuki.

To me one of the oddest things about the above list is that catchers make up the top three streaks and Jose Morales is a bit further down the list and he played a handful of games behind the plate too. Now in 2015 Suzuki has the longest streak. Why is that?

Is it because catchers just naturally have a better eye for the strike zone? I doubt it. Do catchers learn as the game goes along how the umpire is calling balls and strikes and they can put that information to use? Are catchers skillful enough to do that? Or is it that maybe umpires have a certain degree of empathy for catchers and build friendships with them over time that causes them subconsciously not to call strikes on them as often? You gotta wonder… or is it just a quirk that three Twins catchers are on top of this list?

Twins games to be streamed in Minnesota

FOXSportsNetsI guess I missed this short story in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal back in November but it is kind of a big deal depending on how Fox Sports North rolls it out. As they say, the devil is in the details. Why is this not being promoted more? I wonder too how and if this will impact Minnesota Twins ticket sales.

 Fans will finally be able to stream Minnesota Twins games in Minnesota

Manfred Announces 3-Year Deal With FOX To Have MLB Games Streamed In-Market

Quality starts were not my forte

In my short Minnesota Twins career which was spread over two seasons I started a total of seven games but had zero quality starts. No other pitcher in Twins history can say that. Who am I?

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