Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Chris Colabello

Only one player made his major league debut as a Minnesota Twins player on May 22.

Minnesota first baseman Chris Colabello walks back to the dugout after striking out against Oakland relief pitcher Ryan Cook for the final out of the game in Monday’s Home Opener at Target Field in Minneapolis, April 7, 2014. The Twins lost 8-3. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)

Chris Colabello (1B) – May 22, 2013 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on February 2, 2012 – According to B-R Colabello is the 18,000 player to debut in the majors but his debut was not much to write home about. Colabello has quite a story to tell, check it out.

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MLB Pension Injustice – Bill Dailey and many others

I wonder how many long-time baseball fans are aware that there are 500 or so former MLB players, being hosed out of pensions by the league and the players’ association.

All these men have been getting since 2011 are non qualified retirement payments of $625 per quarter, up to 16 quarters, or a maximum payment of $10,000 per year. Meanwhile, the maximum IRS pension limit per year is $210,000.

One of these men is Dublin, Virginia’s Bill Dailey. Born in Arlington, Virginia in March 1935, Mr. Dailey recently turned 82.

Bill Dailey – Twins pitcher 1963 – 1964

A pitcher who played for the Cleveland Indians, in 1961 and 1962, and the Minnesota Twins, in 1963 and 1964, Mr. Dailey appeared in a total of 119 games, all in relief. He notched 10 victories in 185 and two-third innings. In 1963 in what was probably Dailey’s best season, he appeared in relief 66 times for the Twins pitching a total of 108.2 innings and saved 21 games while winning 6 games and posting a 1.99 ERA.

Mr. Dailey had a career year for the Twins in 1963, when he appeared in 66 games, went 6-3, had a brilliant 1.99 Earned Run Average and recorded 21 saves. In that magical season, when the Twins were home and the opposing team was threatening, the organist for the Twins would play a parody of “Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home” called “Bill Dailey Won’t You Please Come In?”

The union representing the players, the MLBPA, doesn’t have to be the legal advocates for these men, the league doesn’t have to negotiate about this matter and the alumni association is too busy putting on golf outings.

Neither the league nor the union want to retroactively restore these men into pension coverage; instead, taxes are taken out of the nonqualified retirement payment, which cannot be passed on to a surviving spouse or designated beneficiary. So when Mr. Dailey passes on, the payment he is currently receiving is not passed on to any of his loved ones, including his wife, Anne. They are also not eligible to be covered under the league’s umbrella health insurance plan.

Former pitcher Steve Rogers is a special assistant to Tony Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. He is the players’ pension liaison; his email address is stever@mlbpa.org and his telephone number is 646-430-2112.

If you believe that these former big league ballplayers are being treated unfairly please give Steve Rogers a call or send him an e-mail and let him know that this is totally unfair. 

This article was submitted by Doug Gladstone, Author
“A Bitter Cup of Coffee; How MLB & The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve”

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – May 21 – Plouffe, Bonser, L Rodriguez, Larkin, Eufemia, Boris & Crider

The following seven players made their major league debuts in a Minnesota Twins uniform over the years on May 21.

Trevor Plouffe

Trevor Plouffe (SS/2B/OF/3B) – May 21, 2010 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (20th) of the 2004 MLB June Amateur Draft. A nice debut at shortstop for Trevor going 2 for 5 with a run scored and two RBI.

 

Boof Bonser

Boof Bonser (P) – May 21, 2006 – Traded by the San Francisco Giants with Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan to the Minnesota Twins for A.J. Pierzynski and cash on November 14, 2003. A solid major league debut in his six inning start but the Twins bullpen let him down and cost him his first big league win. Boof? Twins Know What It Means

 

Luis Rodriguez

Luis Rodriguez (2B/3B/SS) – May 21, 2005 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent on June 1, 1997

 

Gene Larkin (1B/OF) – May 21, 1987 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 20th round of the 1984 amateur draft. Going 2 for 4 with an RBI in your first big league game is pretty nice.

 

Frank Eufemia

Frank Eufemia (P) – May 21, 1985 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 18th round of the 1982 amateur draft. Debut not too shabby considering he was pitching in a blow-out loss, 3.1 innings and no runs allowed.

 

Paul Boris (P) – May 21, 1982 – Traded by the New York Yankees with Ron Davis and Greg Gagne to the Minnesota Twins for Roy Smalley on April 10, 1982. Boris’s major league debut was one he would like to forget.

 

Jerry Crider (P) – May 21, 1969 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1962

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Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – May 20 – Thielbar & Stevens

The following players made their major league debuts wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform on May 20.

Caleb Thielbar (P) – May 20, 2013 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on August 18, 2011

Dave Stevens (P) – May 20, 1994 – Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Matt Walbeck to the Minnesota Twins for Willie Banks on November 24, 1993.

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According to ELIAS – Kennys Vargas & Jorge Polano

Twins come back late against Royals

Kennys Vargas

The Twins improved to 6–0 against the Royals this season after walking off with a victory over Kansas City last night. Jorge Polanco’s sacrifice fly drove in the winning run for the Twins in the 10th inning after Kennys Vargas hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to force extras. Entering Friday, the Twins had lost their last 138 games in which they trailed in the ninth inning or later, which was by far the longest such active losing streak in the majors. The Braves now own the longest active losing streak of that kind, having lost their last 58 games in which they trailed in the ninth inning or later.

How the Minnesota Twins can shock MLB

The 2017 June amateur draft is just around the corner and our hometown Minnesota Twins have the first overall pick. Sometimes there is a clear number one choice to take, this is not one of those years. When you have the top pick on the draft you had better hit the bull’s eye and then sign that player or you will pay for your mistake for years to come.

The top players rated by many (in no particular order) are Hunter Greene, a RHP/SS from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, Brendan McKay, a LHP/1B from Louisville University and  Kyle Wright, a RHP from Vanderbilt University. Let’s assume for the moment that these players are indeed the cream of the crop and that the Twins will select one of these players.

Several mock drafts have the Twins snapping up the LHP/1B prospect Brendan McKay from Louisville with the initial pick in the draft come June 12. Baseball America states that:

Meanwhile, McKay has changed in the last month, adding a cut fastball and pitching with diminished velocity. Against Georgia Tech on April 13, he pitched much of the game at 88-91 mph but one-hit the Yellow Jackets over eight shutout innings. Then last weekend against Clemson, in five shutout innings, McKay threw plenty of cutters—a pitch he just broke out April 28 against Toledo—as his fastball dipped into the 88-90 range. Despite that velocity drop, McKay is striking out more batters than ever, ranking eighth nationally with 12.4 strikeouts per nine innings and 110 strikeouts overall.

You have to wonder if you should take a pitcher with the first pick in the draft that throws only in the 88-91 MPH range? Now days with the need for speed, it has to raise some serious question marks. When you pick a player that is both a pitcher and a position player are you hedging your bet or are you going to waste a few years if you choose the wrong position for McKay. If he turns out to be a first baseman, do you want to have selected him number one over all?

Some feel that the right-hander from Vanderbilt, Kyle Wright has the highest upside with lowest risk. He supposedly has four plus pitches at times and is trending towards being the top pick.

Then last by certainly not least we have the high schooler from Sherman Oaks, California, Hunter Greene. He is a RHP and a shortstop who has already reached 101 MPH on the mound but has been shut-down as a pitcher this spring and is playing shortstop full-time. The next coming of Babe Ruth some say… The rumors are that he wants to be a San Diego Padre. No RHP out of high school has ever been drafted number one over-all.

I am not sure if there is any good way to rank the 52 (actually 51 because Danny Goodwin was drafted number one twice) over-all number one picks selected over the years so I will use WAR (B-R) in the list below to rank them, If you look at the 52 number one over-all picks rated by WAR, the top seven are all high school picks and all position players. As mentioned earlier, no RHP has been picked number one over-all out of high school. 

First over-all picks since 1965

Published
Categorized as MLB Draft

According to ELIAS – Jose Berrios

Berrios pitches deep into another victory

Jose Berrios

Jose Berrios allowed two hits over 7.2 innings to earn his second win is as many starts this season as the Twins defeated the Rockies, 2–0, to gain a split of their doubleheader yesterday. Berrios, who allowed only one run in 7.2 innings in his season debut against the Indians last weekend, is only the third Twins pitcher in the last 30 seasons to pitch into the eighth inning and win each of his first two appearances of a season. The others were Brad Radke (2001) and Andrew Albers (2013).

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – May 19 – Buchanan & Strickland

Brian Buchanan

Brian Buchanan (OF) – May 19, 2000 – Traded by the New York Yankees with Cristian GuzmanEric MiltonDanny Mota and cash to the Minnesota Twins for Chuck Knoblauch on February 6, 1998.

 

Jim Strickland (P) – May 19, 1971 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970 minor league draft. Starter Jim Perry didn’t have it in his start against the California Angels at Anaheim Stadium so manager Mele called on Jim Strickland to show what he could do to stop the bleeding with the Twins down 5-4 and Angels runners at first and second with two out in the bottom of the third. Strickland retired Sandy Alomar on a grounder to third and he was out of the inning. In the fourth inning he struck out the side (Alex Johnson, Tony Conigliaro, and John Stephenson) and in the top of the fifth the Twins scored three runs and went ahead 7-6. Strickland stayed in the game and retired the Angels on one hit and no runs. Mele brought in Tom Hall and he earned the save by pitching four perfect innings with six strikeouts and the Twins won the game 12-6 and Jim Strickland notched his first big league win in his major league debut.

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The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 8 – Chance, Ollom, Carew and cold weather

AL Standings as of April 15, 1967

 

On Monday, May 15, 1967 the Minnesota Twins found themselves on the way to Chicago to play the 18-7 first place Chicago White Sox. Sam Mele’s bunch had just completed a two-week home stand in the cold Minnesota weather and the team played 6-5 baseball. But now the Twins were now on a three-game losing skid and their record stood at 11-15, tied for eighth place and 7 1/2 games out of the league lead. The highest attendance at any of the 11 home games in early May against the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Senators and Athletics was just 11,864.

One of the highlights of their recent home-stand was watching Rod Carew go 5 for 5 on May 8 against the Washington Senators but unfortunately the Senators scored six in the top of the seventh inning and won the game 7-4. Carew became the first Twins player to go 5 for 5 at Met Stadium.

The Twins were struggling, they had five hitters (Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Russ Nixon, Rich Rollins, Early Battey) hitting under 2.25. Starter Dave Boswell had a 9.50 ERA in four starts. Rumors were flying that manager Sam Mele’s job was at risk.

Sporting News May 20, 1967 P21

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

Major League debut as a Minnesota Twin – David McCarty

Only one player made his major league debut as a Minnesota Twin on May 17 and he is one of former manager Tom Kelly‘s all-time favorites. NOT!

Dave McCarty (1B) – May 17, 1993 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the 1991 amateur draft. Kind of an odd first round in 1991, the Yankees pick as number one over-all was LHP Brien Taylor who never pitched in the big leagues and number 13 pick Manny Ramirez who was selected by the Indians may have been the best of the first rounders.

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