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
I don’t think that Willie Nelson and Jimmy Nelson are related but Jimmy made things tough for the Twins last night. Willie’s song “On the Road Again” should be added to all the Twins players listening lists so they can start to enjoy being on the road again.
The Twins are 0-7 on the road this season but that is a long ways from their longest losing streak that the team has encountered as road warriors. Back in 1961 the Minnesota Twins lost 14 road games in a row between May 16 and June 7 against the White Sox, Senators, Indians, Tigers and Yankees before finally breaking the road losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Orioles in Baltimore. Road woes are nothing new to the Twins, over the years they have lost 8 or more consecutive games away from the home confines 19 times. Let’s hope that we don’t make it 20 today.
Ft. Myers (High A) infielder Nick Gordon is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. Gordon played in six games for the Miracle, hitting .444 (12-for-27) with five doubles, one home run, four RBI, five runs scored, one walk and two stolen bases. Gordon spent 2015 with Cedar Rapids (Low A), hitting .277 (133-for-481) with 23 doubles, seven triples, one home run, 58 RBI, 79 runs scored and 25 stolen bases. The 20-year-old is the younger brother of Dee and the son of Tom “Flash” Gordon and was drafted by the Twins in the first round (5th overall) of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of Olympia (FL) High School and was signed by Minnesota for $3,851,000. Gordon entered the season as the Twins fourth best prospect by Baseball America.
The Braves and Twins both improved their records to 3-9 Sunday by completing three-game sweeps of the Marlins and Angels, respectively. Atlanta and Minnesota are the first teams in major-league history to win three straight games immediately after starting a season with nine or more consecutive losses.
Noonie is earning respect in Minneapolis
Eduardo Nunez continues to make it look easy, going 2-for-4 in the Twins’ 7-4 win over the Brewers. That dropped-yes dropped-Nunez’ batting average to .545 this season, with 12 hits in 22 at-bats. Over the last 25 years, only one other Twins player maintained a batting average above .500 at least 20 ABs into a season. Josmil Pinto was 13-for-25 to start his brief MLB career in 2013, Kirby Puckett did it twice in the 1980’s (a 14-for-27 start in 1984, and 13-for-25 in 1987).
Eduardo Nunez contributed three hits to the Twins’ first win of the season yesterday and he is 7-for-7 over his two starts this season. Nunez is the first Twins player since David Ortiz in July 2000 to go 7-for-7 (or better) over a span of two starts.
The Braves and Twins both lost Thursday, dropping their records to 0-9. It’s only the third time in major-league history that two teams started 0-9 or worse in the same season. It also happened in 1884 when Detroit of the National League and Altoona of the Union Association did it; and in 1988 when Baltimore and Atlanta did it.
The Twins scored only one run in their loss to the White Sox yesterday and have scored only 14 runs in nine games this season. That matches the fewest runs scored over the first nine games of a season in Twins franchise history. The 1949 Washington Senators also scored only nine runs over the first nine games of the season. That team finished with a 50-104 record. The last major-league team to have that offensive futility over its first nine games of a season was the 2004 Expos (10 runs), the last American League team was the 2003 Tigers (14).
The Twins are the second team in major-league history to lose each of their first nine games, and score three or fewer runs in each. The other was the 1988 Orioles, who lost a record 21-straight games to start the season. Baltimore failed to score as many as four runs in any of the first 12 games that season.
The Twins fell to 0-8 when they dropped a 3-0 decision to the White Sox yesterday in which he managed only four hits while striking out nine times. In fact, the Twins are the first major-league team to have more strikeouts than hits in each of their first eight games of a season since the pitching distance was established at 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893. Source ELIAS
But that is not all, the Twins losing streak stands at 8 games in 2016 but when you add-on three straight losses to the Kansas City Royals at the end of 2015 and you have a 11 game losing streak on your hands, tied for the third longest losing streak in Twins history. The longest losing streak of course belongs to the 1982 Twins that lost 14 in a row and finished the season with a 60-102 mark.
My patience with this team is starting to wear thin but there are too many players sleep-walking through the beginning of this season to change out a player or two to send a message. Where is that tirade of a veteran player to wake this team up? Yes, I am looking at you Joe Mauer, Trevor Plouffe and Brian Dozier.
Can horrendous starts two years in a row just be a coincidence? I have never believed in coincidences. It is time for Dave St. Peter, Terry Ryan, and Paul Molitor to show that they can turn a ball club around that is sinking faster than Justin Spieth did at the Masters this past Sunday.
Six games out with just eight games played? This can’t be real, what a nightmare!
Twins strikeouts versus runs scored history. Feel free to click on the chart to make it larger and easier to see.
Our Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves both stand at 0-7 and the race is on to see can win a game first. It is tough when you have just played seven games into a new season and find yourself five games out of the division lead. Never-the-less, Paul Molitor‘s gang will try again tonight.
The Twins might have to consider changing their name to the Minnesota Flailers. Joe Mauer is hitting .375 and Eduardo Escobar is hitting .370 but the rest of the line-up is hitting between .125 and .192 with a combined team OBP of .290. Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano and Byung-ho Park have each struck out in 50% of their plate appearances.
OH! but the strikeouts. Needless to say the team is on a record pace and after seven games, admittedly a small sample size, they have struck out once every 3.29 PA’s and 11.29 times a game. It is hard to miss the ball that often. Their previous worst for strike-outs per PA was 4.34 in 2013, that same Twins team struck out an all-time franchise high of 1,430 times. But if you use the current running rate of 11.29 strike outs per game the 2016 Twins will strike out a record-breaking 1,829 times. I know that is unlikely to happen but right now that is exactly what is happening.
Paul Molitor and Terry Ryan have a huge mess on their hands but things can’t stay this bad for ever. Can they? Everything levels out so we all need to be patient and ride this storm out.
Let’s talk about strikeouts, how bad are they really? We could discuss the pro’s and con’s of strikeouts forever and cases can be argued that a strikeout by a batter is terrible and you could argue that there are worse things than a strikeout. Teams usually tolerate high strikeout rates if power is also involved but what if a batter has mediocre power and still strikes out frequently? What impact do strikeout really have on runs scored? After all, that is the object of the game isn’t it? Score more runs than the opponent and you win the game assuming your pitchers do their jobs.
Let’s take a look at the previous 55 seasons of Twins play. If you look at the numbers nothing really jumps out at you to tell you that strikeout are OK or horrendous. The Twins had an OK season by some standards last year and yet they still struck out 1,264 times and in 2002 they won 94 games and still struck out 1,089 times. On the other side of the coin the Twins only struck out 684 times in 1978 and still only won 73 games. Strikeouts in themselves will not determine if your team will win or not.
The Twins have only scored more runs than they have had strikeouts on four occasions in 55 seasons, in 1976 when they finished 85-77, in 1977 when they finished 84-77, in 1979 when they finished 82-80 and in their 1995 championship season when they were 95-67. Twins history seems to indicate that if you score more often than you strike out than you will have a winning season.
I think it is interesting to note here that Gene Mauch managed the Twins from 1976-1980, none of his team struck out more that 754 times. Just a coincidence or was it his managing style? Yet only three of those five years that Mauch managed the Twins, did they have a winning record and they never won more than 85 games under his leadership.
Strikeouts are obviously up across the board for a variety of reasons, since 2000 the Twins have played 15 seasons, during 11 of those they struck out over 1,000 times, the only other season they struck out of 1,000 times was in 1964.
During the Twins AL championship season of 1965 they struck out 969 times, in 1987 they struck out 898 times, and in 1991 they struck out only 749 times. The Twins have made the playoffs 11 times and they averaged 944 strikeouts during those years. Keep in mind too that six of those 11 playoff years were on this side of 2000.
If you added in the running rate of strikeouts in 2016 after just seven games you would see a sharp dive of that blue line to 3.29.
The Twins have started their 2016 season with games in Baltimore and Kansas City and are coming home to play their home opener today at Target Field with a 0-6 record against those hated Chicago White Sox who are 4-2. The Twins are the only team in the American League that has yet to win a game in 2016. No Minnesota Twins team has started a new season this poorly.
Never-the-less it is good to see the Twins again and I think that the team will turn things around and play better than it has so far. The Twins have numerous returning players and they have some new players for you to get to know. Today it is time to see how well you know the 2016 team and the Twins organization as a whole with the attached crossword puzzle. Have fun!
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.
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.
The Twins will open their seventh season in Target Field on Monday and the biggest changes are noted here.
Minnie & Paul’s
The newest renovation is the replacement of seating in the centerfield area, below the Minnie & Paul Celebration sign and above the “batters-eye”. The upper level (Club Level) will be named Minnie & Paul’s and will be open to all fans. Minnie & Paul’s, a Twins-themed pub will feature Minnesota-branded food options while serving as a stylish gathering space for fans of all ages.
CATCH
The lower tier (Mezzanine Level) will be known as CATCH, an intimate all-inclusive club with limited access for approximately 120 season ticket members. This new premium space will be all-inclusive with beverages and a variety of tapas-style foods included in the season ticket price.
Safety Netting
New safety netting to comply with Major League Baseball’s Fan Safety Recommendations. Target Field’s current backstop net is in compliance with the stated MLB recommendations, which call for netting to protect seats between the dugouts within 70-feet of home plate. In contrast to other MLB ballparks, Target Field’s dugouts are the closest to home plate of any in the league, because of the proximity of seats within the dugout box seating sections (sections 3 through 6 and sections 11 through 14), the Twins will add protective netting above the dugouts in advance of the 2016 season. This new safety netting will extend approximately seven-feet high and run the length of the first and third base dugouts.
April 8, 1969 – The Royals play their first game in the history of the franchise and joins the winner circle along with the other three new clubs making their debuts today. Reliever Moe Drabowsky picks up the win as Kansas City beat the Twins in 12 innings, 4-3 in Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
Losing to a lowly expansion team in the first game he ever managed must have really stuck in Twins skipper Billy Martin‘s craw. Who had the first ever Royals hit? That would be our old friend Lou Piniella, check out the boxscore for more interesting names that you might remember from that era. Boxscore
The Twins will play the World Champion Kansas City Royals later today at Kauffman Stadium looking for their first win of the season. Over the years the Twins and Royals have hooked-up 733 times and the Twins have beaten the Royals 380 times and lost 353 times for a .518 winning percentage. Even though the Twins have beaten KC 27 more times than they have lost the run differential favors the Twins by only 15 runs so many of the games over the past 47 years have been close ones. The Twins have a 199-166 record at home against the Royals and on the road they are 181-187.
If you want to see a history of all the Twins/Royals match-ups you can go here.
I don’t think that Willie Nelson and Jimmy Nelson are related but Jimmy made things tough for the Twins last night. Willie’s song “On the Road Again” should be added to all the Twins players listening lists so they can start to enjoy being on the road again.
