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
The following players made their major league debuts in a Twins uniform.
Danny Valencia (3B) – June 3, 2010 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 19th round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. Who can complain about a 1 for 3 debut in the big leagues?
J.T. Bruett (OF) – June 3, 1992 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 11th round of the 1988 amateur draft. Born a Badger, then became a Gopher and a Minnesota Twin.
In the top of the ninth inning last night in La La land, Jason Castro delivered a two-run single that turned a Twins’ 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead; Minnesota went on to defeat the Angels, 4-2. Entering Thursday, Los Angeles was 28-0 when leading in the ninth inning or later and 13-0 at home when leading after eight innings this season. Since the start of the 2016 season, Minnesota had won only one other game in which the team trailed in the ninth inning or later and that was just last month (May 19 vs. Kansas City).
BONUS: Before Thursday’s game against the Angels, Twins third baseman Miguel Sano worked on his defense with third-base coach Gene Glynn with an emphasis on fielding grounders while positioned near the third-base bag.
Sano gleefully predicted to all that would listen that he would turn a triple play later in the night. And sure enough, just a few hours later, the Twins turned their first triple play in over a decade, as rookie left-hander Adalberto Mejia got the Angels’ Jefry Marte to ground into a 5-4-3 triple play that was started by Sano in a 4-2 win at Angel Stadium. Sano also hit a home run.
Third base is known as the “hot corner”, because the third baseman is relatively close to the batter and most right-handed hitters tend to hit the ball hard in this direction. Now days the third base position is expected to provide power. There are fewer third basemen in the Baseball Hall of Fame than there are Hall of Famers’ of any other position.
The Twins have had their share of good players at that position and the list below shows Twins players that have played in at least 200 games and played at least 51% of their games at third base from 1961 through 2016. Current Twins third sacker Miguel Sano will be moving up this list very quickly.
Gary Gaetti has always been one of my all-time favorite Minnesota Twins. I enjoyed watching him play third base and the man got his uniform dirty, he went all out all the time. Plus, he was a very good hitter. If I was asked for my Twins top 10 list, he would be near the top.
| WAR/pos | G | From | To | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | 1 | Gary Gaetti | 27.1 | 1361 | 1981 | 1990 | 4989 | 646 | 1276 | 252 | 25 | 201 | 758 | 74 | .256 | .744 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Corey Koskie | 22.1 | 816 | 1998 | 2004 | 2788 | 438 | 781 | 180 | 13 | 101 | 437 | 66 | .280 | .836 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | John Castino | 15.1 | 666 | 1979 | 1984 | 2320 | 293 | 646 | 86 | 34 | 41 | 249 | 22 | .278 | .727 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Rich Rollins | 11.8 | 888 | 1961 | 1968 | 3048 | 395 | 830 | 117 | 20 | 71 | 369 | 15 | .272 | .727 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Eric Soderholm | 10.2 | 407 | 1971 | 1975 | 1345 | 184 | 345 | 56 | 7 | 36 | 161 | 14 | .257 | .725 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Trevor Plouffe | 8.1 | 723 | 2010 | 2016 | 2638 | 332 | 651 | 148 | 10 | 96 | 357 | 11 | .247 | .727 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Mike Cubbage | 6.9 | 555 | 1976 | 1980 | 1681 | 195 | 447 | 66 | 18 | 29 | 226 | 6 | .266 | .715 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Scott Leius | 4.9 | 476 | 1990 | 1995 | 1373 | 201 | 346 | 58 | 10 | 26 | 155 | 15 | .252 | .693 | |||||||||||||
| 9 | Mike Pagliarulo | 4.0 | 246 | 1991 | 1993 | 723 | 79 | 197 | 40 | 4 | 9 | 68 | 8 | .272 | .693 | |||||||||||||
| 10 | Danny Valencia | 0.8 | 273 | 2010 | 2012 | 989 | 106 | 257 | 52 | 4 | 24 | 129 | 4 | .260 | .695 | |||||||||||||
| 11 | Brent Gates | 0.8 | 217 | 1998 | 1999 | 639 | 71 | 161 | 28 | 2 | 6 | 80 | 4 | .252 | .656 |
The Astros routed the Twins at Target Field yesterday, 17–6, completing a three-game sweep in which they scored 40 runs (16, 7 and 17). That is a franchise record for runs scored in a regular-season series of any length. Houston’s previous highest run total in a single series was 39–– in a four-game set at San Francisco in 1995 and a four-game matchup with the Pirates in 2000.
The Astros’ victory improved their record this season to 38–16, which is the most games over .500 for any major league team through the end of May since 2001, when the Mariners were 40–12 to that point.
The only player to have his major league debut as a Minnesota Twin on June 1.
Kevin Slowey (P) – June 1, 2007 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd round of the 2005 MLB June Amateur Draft. A very nice big league debut for Slowey albeit a no decision, only one earned run in six innings against the Oakland A’s at McAfee Coliseum.