Month: December 2018

Quality Starts and the Minnesota Twins

Regardless if you believe in Quality Starts (QS) or not, the term is used now days in MLB. A QS is defined as pitching six innings or more while allowing three or fewer earned runs. I would be happier if a QS was seven innings and two or fewer earned runs but that is just my age showing. The new “opener” strategy could put a kink in QS but I don’t think the opener strategy is a fit for most teams and will not be a big deal down the line.

Today we are taking a look at consecutive QS for Minnesota Twins starters and we have one pitcher that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the Twins pitchers in QS and that is Johan Santana who had 21 QS in a row in 2004. Impressive or not? You bet your bippy it is, no American League pitcher between 1961-2018 has thrown that many QS in a row. In the National league only four pitchers have thrown that many QS in a row since 1961, Bob Gibson leads with 26 in 1967, Jacob deGrom (2018) and Jake Arrieta (2015) have 24 and Chris Carpenter has 22 in 2005.

The closest to Santana’s streak of 21 in Minnesota is Bert Blyleven who had 12 in 1972 and Jim Merritt who also had 12 in 1967. The biggest surprise on this list to me is Rick Aguilera with 10 QS in 1989. I certainly remember Aggie starting for Minnesota when they first traded for him but I don’t remember him as pitching that well, maybe it was the fact that his record was only 3-4 during the streak.

Johan Santana
Results
Rk Name Strk Start End Games W L GS CG SHO IP H ER BB SO ERA
1 Johan Santana 2004-06-09 2004-09-24 21 18 2 21 1 1 154.1 77 23 30 199 1.34
2 Bert Blyleven 1972-08-19 1973-04-06 12 8 3 12 7 1 99.0 82 19 24 87 1.73
3 Jim Merritt 1967-06-25 1967-08-18 12 5 3 12 4 1 101.1 77 18 8 64 1.60
4 Frank Viola 1987-06-26 1987-08-16 11 8 2 11 4 1 87.0 69 19 21 70 1.97
5 Dick Woodson 1972-07-11 1972-08-28 11 6 4 11 7 2 90.1 61 14 26 43 1.39
6 Eric Milton 2000-09-23 2001-05-13 10 5 3 10 1 1 68.1 67 20 16 45 2.63
7 Scott Erickson 1990-09-23 1991-05-17 10 8 2 10 3 2 77.1 53 10 28 36 1.16
8 Rick Aguilera 1989-08-08 1989-09-26 10 3 4 10 3 0 71.2 61 22 16 55 2.76
9 Roger Erickson 1980-08-01 1980-09-17 10 3 4 10 4 0 80.0 71 18 16 42 2.03
10 Lee Stange 1963-08-06 1963-09-15 10 7 2 10 5 1 83.0 65 16 19 55 1.73
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/31/2018.

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The Minnesota Twins longest streak of QS as a team is 13 QS in a row in 1969. The pitchers in that streak were Dean Chance, Dave Boswell, Jim Perry, Dick Woodson, Tommy Hall and Jim Kaat.

Minnesota Twins Top 10 Left Fielders

Between 1961-2018 there have been 70 players that have played at least 10 games in left field for our Minnesota Twins. However, to qualify for this list which ranks them in Baseball-Reference WAR order the player must have played left field in at least 51% of their games while wearing a Twins uniform. This eliminates players like Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Tony Oliva, Gary Gaetti, Torii Hunter and Cesar Tovar who played left field at different points in their careers. Dan Gladden is the Twins all-time leader in games played in left field.

 

Shane Mack

 

Results
Rk Player WAR/pos From To G AB R H HR RBI BA OPS
1 Shane Mack 19.6 1990 1994 633 2161 351 668 67 315 .309 .854
2 Larry Hisle 17.2 1973 1977 662 2437 369 697 87 409 .286 .811
3 Gary Ward 10.6 1979 1983 417 1543 216 439 51 219 .285 .794
4 Eddie Rosario 8.8 2015 2018 503 1889 278 529 74 237 .280 .784
5 Marty Cordova 5.8 1995 1999 628 2322 336 643 79 385 .277 .799
6 Dan Gladden 5.7 1987 1991 644 2470 358 661 38 238 .268 .700
7 Shannon Stewart 4.9 2003 2006 333 1373 179 404 29 162 .294 .772
8 Josh Willingham 4.8 2012 2014 324 1132 161 263 61 192 .232 .799
9 Delmon Young 1.0 2008 2011 497 1845 233 530 47 273 .287 .753
10 Brant Alyea 0.5 1970 1971 173 416 47 103 18 76 .248 .753
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/22/2018.

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Twins Top 10 Catchers

Twins Top 10 First Baseman

Twins Top 10 Second Basemen

Twins Top 10 Third Baseman

Twins Top 10 Shortstops

Twins Top 10 Right Fielders

Twins Top 10 Center Fielders

Twins Top 10 Left Fielders

Top Twins DH

This decade has been tough for Twins fans

Target Field on March 23, 2010 and baseball is just around the corner

The Minnesota Twins opened the decade in a new ballpark over at Target Field in 2010 and everyone was excited about Twins baseball. Why not? The Twins had won 87 games in 2009, drawn 2.4 million fans in their last season calling the Metrodome as home and advanced to the playoffs and now the team would finally play outside for the first time since the 1981 season at Met Stadium allowing fans to get to enjoy the sunshine and oh yes, the rain, snow and cold too.

Continue reading This decade has been tough for Twins fans

Swing and a miss……..

Willians Astudillo swung and missed only 8.3% of the time in 2018.

Putting the ball in play is important but it seems like it is less important in today’s version of baseball than it was in the past. As I watched Twins batters flail away the last few years I realized how much I valued players that could put wood on the ball versus those that struck out a high percentage of the time. A home run is nice now and then but for me there is a lot more to baseball than just the home run.

The other day I ran across a tweet that stated that Micheal Brantley saw 1,008 pitched and swung and missed 92 times. So naturally that got me to think about the how Twins hitters did. It this case I looked at Twins hitters that saw at least 100 pitches during the 2018 season and here are the results from Statcast Search. Any surprises here?

 

2018 Twins info.pdf

If I had a MLB Hall of Fame vote:

If I had a MLB Hall of Fame vote (which I don’t) I would vote for the following players this year. The players are listed in no particular order.

  1. Mariano Rivera
  2. Edgar Martinez
  3. Fred McGriff
  4. Mike Mussina
  5. Billy Wagner
  6. Larry Walker
  7. Manny Ramirez
  8. Todd Helton
  9. Roy Halladay
  10. Omar Vizquel

Good Luck guys, you were all certainly fun to watch and in my opinion worthy of a plaque in Cooperstown.

Opener Strategy Not an Open or Close Case

You don’t need a fancy new opener when the tried and proven old one will work

The Tampa Bay Rays were the first team to experiment with an Opener during the 2018 season when they had reliever Sergio Romo start the game on May 19. Romo pitched in the role again on May 20, 25 and 27. In those four “Opener roles” he pitched a total of 3.1 innings going 1 inning, 1.1 innings, .2 innings and .1 innings giving up no runs in starts one and two and one run in his third start and 3 runs in his final start. Seven of the 10 outs he recorded were by strikeouts. During his time as an opener Romo did not pitch in any other games between May 19 and May 27.

The Dodgers, Twins, Athletics, and Rangers also used the opener strategy at different points during the 2018 season. 

Continue reading Opener Strategy Not an Open or Close Case

Is Bryce Harper the biggest Scott Boras flimflam ever?

Scott Boras and Bryce Harper – Credit Getty Images

 

I know this won’t be popular but I will say it anyway, Bryce Harper is not worth $350 to $400 million and any team that signs him for that amount will pay dearly and not only from a financial perspective.

I grant you that Harper is just 26 years old and baseball wisdom says that his best years are ahead of him. However; you would be a fool to ignore history, Harper has played for Washington for seven seasons and he has averaged 132 games a year, (81% of the schedule) he has exceeded 150 games twice. His 2015 MVP season was his one great season and Harper has hit 30+ home runs just twice, has 100 RBI once and he has a .279 career average. If you look at 2015 as an outlier season in which his WAR was 10.0, his other six seasons average out to a WAR of 2.9. 

Harper is an above average player but he has not shown that he is the super-star that the experts predicted so why pay him like he is a player like no one before him? Harper’s work ethic has also been questioned in the past. Harper is player that plays for Harper and the team is secondary, the Washington Nationals will be a better team without him and they won’t be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars to boot. A win-win situation for the Nationals and their fans.

Scott Boras will find a way to make Bryce Harper a richer man, he always does, because there is a sucker born every minute, but this might be the best hustle ever by today’s version of P.T. Barnum.

Keep the “shift” in baseball and quit crying about it

(Original Caption) This photo diagram shows the positions of the Cleveland infield and outfield in the so-called “Cleveland Shift” defense against terrible hitting of Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox during the game in Boston. This photo was made after Williams had found a chink in the defense and slapped one to the left for a single. Left fielder case of the Indians recovered the ball to hold Williams on first. The Indians won the game 6-3.

I am not a huge fan of the shift in baseball but now that it is here and used as often as it is, MLB should keep its hands off of it. I know there a lot of players that don’t like it and there are rumors floating around that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred would like to see it be eliminated. I have no idea if this rumor is real or just fake news but I think baseball should just let it be.

As a long time fan I think it is odd to see the team in the field set up so different then I have normally seen baseball played but we all need to be willing to see our game change. Some changes are for the better and maybe some are not but that is how life goes.

The pitching mound was lowered in the past and the strike zone has been adjusted several times. Players in the field used bigger and better gloves now then they had in the past.

The bottom line in a baseball game is that you need to score more runs than the other team to win the game. The players in the field should be allowed to line up any way they want to best get the batter out. 

Hitters need to adjust and learn how to counteract the different shifts. MLB players are professionals, they need to quit crying and start learning how to hit the ball the other way or maybe just bunt now and then. Baseball is not just about hitting the ball over the fence. What happened to “there is no crying in baseball”?

Why Baseball Revived A 60-Year-Old Strategy Designed To Stop Ted Williams