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
C.J. Cron has 45 RBI this season, ranking second on the team to Eddie Rosario (52), his 15 home runs are half way to his single-season career-high of 30, done last season with Tampa Bay. As of Monday’s AL All-Star Game balloting, he ranked second among first basemen with 302,586 votes, trailing Luke Voit (393,356) and ahead of José Abreu (286,145).
Cron rankings among AL first basemen:
second in slugging percentage (.541)
third in RBI (45)
fourth in doubles (14), OPS (.878), wOBA (.380) and batting average (.275)
After signing their first round (13th overall) selection Keoni Cavaco on Tuesday, the Twins have now signed 16 of their 41 players from the 2019 First-Year Player Draft:
The Minnesota Twins have gone 24-12 on the road this season, the most road wins in baseball. The Twins went 29-52 on the road in 2018 and didn’t record their 23rd road win
in 2018 until August 29 and their 24th road win until August 31.
Where the Twins offense ranks among all of baseball on the road*
Jake Cave finished 4-for-5 with four doubles and increased his International League-leading hitting streak to 13. (Photo: Bare Antolos/Rochester Red Wings)
The Minnesota Twins have named AAA Rochester Red Wings outfielder Jake Cave and AAA Rochester Red Wings right-handed pitcher Sean Poppen as Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Jake Cave as we all know has spent a good portion of the 2019 season with the Twins. Since being optioned from Minnesota in mid-May, the 26-year old Cave has played in 27 games for the Red Wings, hitting .294 (32-for-109) with 11 doubles, two triples, three home runs, 21 RBI and a .861 OPS. In eight games for the Red Wings this week, Cave hit .417 (15-for-36) with seven doubles, two triples, one home run and nine RBI, which included a four-double game on Thursday at Syracuse.
Jake Cave was originally a 2011 6th round pick by the New York Yankees and was selected by the Reds in the December 2015 Rule 5 draft but was returned to the NYY in April 2016. The Yankees then traded Cave to the Twins for minor leaguer Luis Gil on March 16, 2018.
Sean Poppen a 25-year old right-handed pitcher started two games this week for the Red Wings, going 1-0, 0.75 ERA (12.0 IP, 1 ER) with five walks and 13 strikeouts. Poppen was promoted to Rochester on May 26 and has appeared in four games and started three of them and has a 3-0 record with a 1.57 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 23 innings and has allowed just 14 hits in 23 innings. The numbers he has put up in Rochester are much better then the numbers he put up in AA Pensacola where he was 2-3 with a 4.40 ERA and a .275 average against.
Poppen, 6’3″ was selected by the Twins in the 19th round of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of Harvard and is in his fourth pro ball season.
“Leader of the Pack” Eddie Rosario hits one out with credit to Michael Layton/Getty Images
In 1969 at the ripe old age of 33, Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew won the American League MVP award when he played in 162 games and led the league with 49 home runs, 140 RBI, 145 walks and a 1.011 OPS. All of these were career highs for the Killer.
Could current Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario be on his way to a season for the ages and bring home another MVP award? 48 games does not a season make but it is still fun comparing former Twins MVP winners to our current MVP candidate Eddie Rosario with about 30% of the season in the books.
On June 4, 1969 Killebrew had played in 48 games with 209 plate appearances and was hitting .269 with 12 home runs, 38 RBI, 39 walks and a .940 OPS.
On May 24, 2019 Eddie Rosario who is just 27 had played in 48 games with 204 plate appearances and was hitting .285 with 15 home runs, 42 RBI, 9 walks and a .868 OPS.
Other Twins MVP’s after 48 games
On June 8, 1965 at the age of 25 Zoilo Versalles had played in 48 games with 225 plate appearances and was hitting .269 with 6 home runs, 31 RBI, 11 walks and a .788 OPS.
On June 1, 2006 at the age of 25 Justin Morneau had played in 48 games with 195 plate appearances and was hitting .240 with 10 home runs, 36 RBI, 14 walks and a .760 OPS.
On June 24, 2009 at the age of 26 Joe Mauer had played in 48 games with 212 plate appearances and was hitting .394 with 14 home runs, 42 RBI, 27 walks and a 1.167 OPS.
The 2019 Minnesota Twins had scored three-or-more runs in 26 consecutive games, dating back to May 6 at Toronto, a single-season franchise record. The streak ended yesterday when the Cleveland Indians beat the Twins yesterday 5-2 in Cleveland.
The overall franchise record is 30 consecutive games, spanning two seasons, from September 14, 2003-April 23, 2004.
Ft. Myers Miracle Trevor Larnach (9) bats in the third inning of a baseball game against the Palm Beach Cardinals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., Sunday, May 5, 2019. (Gordon Donovan)
Ft. Myers Miracles (high A) outfielder Trevor Larnach and Ft. Myers Miracles right-handed pitcher Jhoan Duran have been named Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
In five games for the Miracle, Larnach hit .524 (11-for-21) with two doubles, two
home runs, seven RBI, four runs scored and a 1.427 OPS. The 22-year-old Larnach was drafted by the Twins 20th overall in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft and this marks his second POW honor this season (also May 12).
Jhoan Duran – credit Bill Parmeter of Ft. Myers Miracle
The right-handed throwing Duran made one start for the Miracle coming last Sunday at Daytona, allowing two runs (1 earned) on two hits in 6.0 innings pitched with 14 strikeouts (23 batters faced). Although Duran has an 0-5 record this season with the Miracles, he has started nine games and pitched 42.1 innings allowing just 31 hits and a 3.61 ERA. Duran has struck out 52 but also walked 15 batters.
The 21-year-old was acquired by the Twins at the trade deadline last season from Arizona, in exchange for Eduardo Escobar.
Jorge Polanco, who signed a five-year contract extension this offseason to remain with the organization through 2023, has established himself as one of the top offensive shortstops in Twins history. Ranking first in average (.284), slugging (.448), OPS (.791), wOBA (.345), Isolated Power (.164), BABIP (.319) and pitches-per-plate appearance (3.97).
He has the lowest percentage of swings at the first pitch (16.5%), and he has the second lowest at-bat/home run percentage (39.28 ABs).
He also ranks tied for third in 4+ hit games (7), fourth in percentage of swings with balls put in play (44.1%) and seventh in XBH (126).
Since his debut in 2014, Polanco ranks fourth among all Major League shortstops in batting average, sixth in on-base percentage, seventh in OPS and in swing-miss percentage (15.6). He’s also tied for the fourth-fewest strikeouts in that span (209) with Alexei
Ramirez, who hasn’t played since 2016, (the only active player with at least 300 games at shortstop and less strikeouts is Miami infielder Miguel Rojas, who has struck out 127 times in 338 games as a shortstop since 2014).
*All stats with minimum of 300 games as shortstop. Data courtesy of Twins GameNotes.
