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
Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton was honored as the American League’s top defender on October 10, receiving the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award at the Gold Glove ceremony in New York. Buxton is the first Twins player to win a Platinum Glove, an award established in 2011. The National League Platinum Glove winner was third baseman Nolan Arenado from the Colorado Rockies.
In 2011, Rawlings unveiled the first-ever Rawlings Platinum Glove Award, a new fan-centric platform asking the game’s avid fans who the best defensive baseball player is among that season’s Rawlings Gold Glove Award® winners. To determine the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners, fans can only select one player among the Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners from each League.
Rawlings Platinum Glove Award voting – and its open and spirited debate on social media – proved what many believed to be true: fans have a very vocal opinion on who they believe is “the best of the best”, and they understand the defensive nuances enough to back their favorite player’s candidacy from the point-of-view of a scout and an advance analytics sabermetrician.
In 2013, a new sabermetric component from the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award’s new presenting sponsor, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and its new SABR Defensive Index™ (SDI™) joined the international fan vote to determine the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners from each league. The SDI’s ability to accurately compare players from different positions helped establish the “science” behind the evolving Award platform.
Buxton was also named the 2017 Wilson Defensive Player of the Year on Friday. Buxton and Brian Dozier won Gold Gloves for the first time this year.
Now it is time to look at the pitchers. Who have been the toughest starting pitchers that the Twins have faced over the last 57 seasons. The criteria just to make this list is very high, pitchers have had to start at least 25 games and pitched 150 innings during their career against the Minnesota Twins between 1961 and 2017 just to show up on this list.
First we are going to look at the right-handed starters and 30 pitchers make the list. Who is the best right-hander that has pitched against the Twins over the years? It is an almost impossible task but I am going to go with Jim Palmer and here is my reasoning.
I have to admit, if not for all the chatter surrounding Roger Clemens about his cheating I would probably have selected him as the guy, but right or wrong I am disqualifying him in my mind as a cheat. Don’t forget that I also consider Hank Aaron as the legitimate home run champion. The starter that I am going with as the best right-handed starter as the Twins is Hall of Famer Jim Palmer.
BALTIMORE, MD – CIRCA 1970s: Pitcher Jim Palmer #22 of the Baltimore Orioles pitches during circa early 1970s Major League Baseball game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Palmer played for the Orioles from 1965-84. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Palmer started 39 games against Minnesota, all with the Baltimore Orioles colors on his back and put up a 20-10 record with an 2.64 ERA with 14 complete games and four shutouts. In 280 innings pitched he struck out 161 batters and allowed just 238 hits.
Check out the list of right-handed starters below and tell me who you would pick as the top guy if you don’t agree with my selection. It is not an easy pick at all.
FT. MYERS, FL – MARCH 01: Bullpen Coach Rick Stelmaszek #43 of the Minnesota Twins poses during photo day at Hammond Stadium on March 1, 2010 in Ft. Myers, Florida. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Rick Stelmaszek, a fixture on the Minnesota Twins coaching staff from 1981-2012 passed away at the age of 69 after a courageous battle with cancer. His 32 seasons as a coach with one team (Twins) are the third longest such stint in major league history, and he had the longest tenure of any uniformed employee in Twins history.
Richard Francis Stelmaszek known to all his baseball friends as “Stelly”, was born in Chicago, IL on October 8, 1948 and passed away in the city where he was born on November 6, 2017.
According to baseball-reference.com Rick’s father, Raymond Stelmack was a pitcher and outfielder that played in the Yankees, Cardinals, White Sox, and Cubs farm systems from 1939 to 1946 but he never reached the big leagues.
Rick Stelmaszek was drafted after graduating from high school by the Washington Senators as a catcher in round 11 of the 1967 amateur draft and started his professional career in 1968 with the “A” ball Salisbury Senators in the West Carolinas League. Although not a great hitter by any means, Stelmaszek reached the big leagues in 1971 at the age of just 22 and made his big league debut on June 25 at Yankee Stadium when he entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter for catcher Paul Casanova and finished the game going 0 for 2. The visiting Senators lost that game 12-2 and it was one of the six big league games he played in 1971.
Note that long-time Twins pitching coach Dick Such is also on the card.
The Washington Senators left Washington after the 1971 season and moved to Arlington, Texas where they became the Texas Rangers. Stelmaszek spent all of 1972 in the minors perfecting his trade. In 1973 in his seventh game in a Ranger uniform and 0 for 17 in his big league career, Stelly finally got off the snide with a single off of future fall of famer Nolan Ryan of the California Angels for his first big league hit.
That hit must have impressed the Angels because the next day they acquired him in a five player trade with the Rangers. Stelmaszek spent the rest of 1973 with California but found himself in AAA when the 1974 season started. In July of 1974 Stelmaszek was packing his suitcase again, this time he was off to his home town of Chicago where he appeared in 25 games for the Cubs. Stelly hit his first and only major league home run wearing a big league uniform when hit the “tater” off future hall of famer Don Sutton in an 18-8 Cubbies loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field. Stelmaszek went 2 for 4 with a double when he played in his final big league game at the age of 25, a 3-2 loss at Wrigley to the Montreal Expos.
Stelmaszek spent all of 1975 with the Cubs AAA team and in January of 1976 he was on the move again, this time he was headed for the bright lights of New York City to play with the Yankees. However; Stelly never got to wear the Yankee pinstripes and he spent 1976 with the Yankees AAA team and in 1977 he was playing in AAA for the Rangers.
1978 found him with the Minnesota Twins organization as a player manager for the “A” ball Wisconsin Rapids Twins in the Midwest League. His record that season was only 62-76 but the only player that ever reached the big leagues that played on that team was Mark Funderburk and he only played in 31 major league games for the Twins. Stelmaszek retired as a player after the 1978 season but he continued managing at Wisconsin Rapids through the 1980 season.
After winning the Midwest League Manager of the Year award in 1980, Stelly joined the Twins big league coaching staff in 1981 as the bullpen coach under manager Johnny Goryl and continued in that roll for 32 years and coached under five managers, Goryl, Billy Gardner, Ray Miller, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire.
When the Twins finished 2012 with the worst record in baseball, Rick Stelmaszek was one of the coaching casualties and lost his long time coaching job with the Twins. Stelmaszek was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2016. The Twins talked him into returning to Target Field to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day in 2017. He also made it back to Target Field for the 30-year anniversary celebration of the 1987 World Series team in July. The team recently announced that Stelmaszek would receive the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented in January.
Here is the Twins’ statement after learning that their long time coach had passed away.
“The Minnesota Twins are deeply saddened by the loss of Rick Stelmaszek. A true Twins legend, “Stelly” was widely respected throughout baseball. He was a professional who dedicated his life to Twins baseball and instilled a winning culture into generations of Twins players. The club, like many of his friends throughout the game, is thinking of his wife and son, Kathy and Michael, and the entire Stelmaszek family during this difficult time.”
Thank you for the memories Rick Stelmaszek and we here at Twinstrivia.com would also like to pass on our condolences to the Stelmaszek family and friends.
DH – Edgar Martinez – What? Not who you thought? You probably forget about this All-Star third baseman turned DH but this man was a hitting machine. Martinez started his career at the hot corner in 1987 but didn’t get a full-time gig until 1990 when he was 27. In 1995 he became a full-time DH after numerous injuries kept him from playing full-time. During his 18 year big league career he won two batting titles, five Silver Slugger awards and was a seven time All-Star.
He appeared in 2,055 games and had a career average of .312 and an OPS of .933. Martinez had 2,247 career hits and 514 of them were doubles and 309 were of the long ball variety.
Edgar found hitting against the Twins to his liking, in 436 PA’s he hit .353 with an OPS of 1.044 with 27 doubles, 25 home runs and 78 RBI and he crossed the plate 80 times. He also walked 58 times and struck out just 60 times. Twins managers had him walked intentionally eight times, more often than any other DH.
Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton and second baseman Brian Dozier have been named recipients of the 2017 American League Rawlings Gold Glove Award at their respective defensive positions. This marks the first time that either player has earned the award.
The only other Twins second baseman to win a Gold Glove was Chuck Knoblauch in 1997 and the last time a Twins outfielder won a Gold Glove was Torii Hunter in 2007. Previous to Buxton and Dozier winning Gold Glove awards this season, you have to go all the way back to 2010 when Joe Mauer won it as a catcher.
You can view all the previous Minnesota Twins Gold Glove winners on our Twins Awards page.
Pat Neshek was born in Madison, Wisconsin but attended Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota where he was an all-state pitcher. The Minnesota Twins drafted Neshek in round 45 after Neshek graduated from high school in 1999 but he said no to pro ball and went on to attend Butler University. The Twins drafted him again in 2002, this time in the sixth round and this time the Twins got their man.
Like a lot of Twins before him, Neshek started his pro career in Elizabethton and worked his way up the big league ladder until he made his major league debut on July 7, 2006 at Ameriquest Field in a 9-4 Twins loss to the Rangers. Pat pitched the final two innings for the Twins keeping the Rangers off the board allowing just one hit and striking out one of the seven batters he faced.
Neshek pitched for the Twins from 2006-2010 but missed the entire 2009 season due to injury. The Twins lost Neshek in March 2011 to a waiver claim by the San Diego Padres. Since then Neshek has been in high demand as a reliever pitching for the Padres, The A’s, the Cardinals, and this past season for the Phillies and the Rockies. Neshek, now a two-time all-star has 11 big league seasons in the books and expects to pitch in the majors in 2018 barring anything unforseen.
Todate Neshek has pitched in 494 games and has a 33-22 record with an outstanding 2.75 ERA. In 445.2 innings Neshek has struck out 447 batters…. The Twins could use him in their bullpen in 2018.
Neshek is an avid card collector and has his own website at www.patneshek.com .
Ordonez played in the bigs for all or parts of 15 seasons splitting his time with the White Sox (8 years) and Tigers (7 years) before retiring after the 2011 season. In 2007 while playing for the Detroit Tigers, Ordonez hit a league leading 54 doubles and his .363 average was the best in the league earning him runner-up (to A-Rod) in the AL MVP voting. Magglio Ordonez was a six-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger award winner.
Ordonez played 181 games against Minnesota and hit .326 with an OPS of .919 in 746 PA’s. Throw in his 44 doubles, 36 home runs and 136 RBI and you have one tough hombre.
Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team
Nope, the Twins all-opponent CF is Fred Lynn. Lynn was originally a New York Yankee third round selection in 1970 but he said no and went on to USC. In 1973 the Red Sox selected Lynn in round two, six picks after the Twins chose shortstop Ed McMahon, a Sporting News All-American out of the University of Massachusetts who they started out in AAA Tacoma in 1973 with the likes of Tom Kelly (I bet that was interesting). Then the Twins sent him to A ball in 1974 and after that season he was history. Did Ed McMahon going on to fame on the Johnny Carson TV show, no, that would be another Ed McMahon. Our man Fred Lynn however; had a cup of coffee with the Red Sox in 1974 and then went on to win the ROY award in 1975. In his first game against the Twins he went 2 for 4 with a run scored, and hit a two-run home run off Dave Goltz. 1975 turned out to be a pretty good season for Lynn, in addition to his ROY award he was also the AL MVP, an All-Star and a Gold Glove winner. During his 17 year career with five different teams he went on to be a nine-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glover and for good measure he won the AL batting title in 1979.
Against the Minnesota Twins Lynn played in 130 games and hit .331 with an OPS of 1.054. Lynn had 160 hits against Minnesota pitching with 33 doubles, 38 home runs and 122 RBI. As a Baltimore Oriole in 1985 he walked-off the Twins on successive nights. On May 10 he hit a walk-off home run off Twins closer Ron Davis and on May 11 he hit another walk-off home run, this time off Twins reliever Curt Wardle who was brought in to replace Ron Davis on the mound.
According to the ever humble Fred Lynn,
“I really didn’t have any holes in my game other than the fact that I couldn’t stay on the field for the second half of my career.”
If you are a Twins fan you just gotta hate a guy like that…..
Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team
Left Fielder –Jim Rice is my choice here but it just as easily have been Carl Yastrzemski, Rickey Henderson, Alex Gordon or Joe Rudi. Rice, a Hall of Famer was a Boston first round selection in 1971 as a high school outfielder and debuted in 1974. Rice was the 1978 AL MVP, an eight-time All-Star and he won two silver slugger awards. Rice wasn’t known as the friendliest player around but we are not giving away any congeniality awards here, we are looking for the Twins all-opponent team and Rice fits that description well. Did I mention that he walked off the Twins twice during his career?
In 470 PA’s against Minnesota scored 83 times and hit .335 with an OPS of .975. Twenty seven of his home runs came off of Twins pitchers as he notched 94 RBI against Minnesota.
Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team
