Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

Jorge Polanco suspended for 80 games

MLB announced yesterday that Minnesota Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco has received an 80-game suspension from Major League Baseball for a performance-enhancing substance. Polanco tested positive for Stanozolol, per MLB, which is a violation of the league’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. His suspension will begin at the start of the regular season.

“We were disappointed to learn of the suspension of Jorge Polanco for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program,” the Twins said in a statement. “We fully support Major League Baseball’s policy and its efforts to eliminate performance-enhancing substances from our game. Per the protocol outlined in the Joint Drug Program, the Minnesota Twins will not comment further on this matter.”

“Today, I have regretfully accepted my 80-game suspension for testing positive for Stanozolol,” Polanco said in a statement. “To be clear, I did not intentionally consume this steroid. I now know, however, that my intention alone is not a good enough excuse, and I will pay the price for my error in judgment. The substance that I requested from my athletic trainer in the Dominican Republic and consented to take was a combination of
vitamin B12 and an iron supplement, something that is not unusual or illegal for professional athletes to take. Unfortunately, what I was given was not that supplement, and I take full responsibility for what is in my body.”

Another March and more bad news for the Minnesota Twins. Polanco came on strong at the tail-end of last season and the Twins will miss him for a variety of reasons. You hate to lose a middle-infielder because of the impact it has on your double-play partner and how cut-offs are handled. Players learn each others habits, the sound of their voice, etc. and losing Polanco will hurt the Twins defense. 

The other problem with losing Polanco is the impact it will have on Miguel Sano who is facing his own possible suspension from MLB for some legal issues. Sano and Polanco go back a long ways and have been almost like family to each other since they were 12 years old. If you watch Sano and Polanco you will almost always find them together and in BP most days they are in the same group and often have their own home run derby. Not having Polanco in the clubhouse for 80 games could hurt Miguel Sano’s performance this season. Hopefully that will not be the case.

 

Twins pitchers with 15 or more K’s in a game

Historically the Minnesota Twins have not had a lot of pitchers that were strikeout pitchers. I was curious as to just how many times a Twins pitcher has struck out 15 or more in a single game. Turns out that a Twins pitcher has accomplished this feat just six times in 9,095 games from 1961-2017 and no Twins pitcher has done it more than once.

Johan Santana
Results
Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R SO Pit Str
1 Johan Santana 2007-08-19 MIN TEX W 1-0 GS-8, W 8.0 2 0 17 112 83
2 Francisco Liriano 2012-07-13 MIN OAK L 3-6 GS-8, L 8.0 4 4 15 112 75
3 Bert Blyleven 1986-08-01 MIN OAK W 10-1 CG, W 9.0 2 1 15    
4 Jerry Koosman 1980-06-23 MIN KCR W 4-1 CG, W 9.0 10 1 15    
5 Joe Decker 1973-06-26 MIN CHW W 4-0 SHO, W 9.0 4 0 15    
6 Camilo Pascual 1961-07-19 (1) MIN LAA W 6-0 SHO, W 9.0 5 0 15    
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/11/2018.
Francisco Liriano
Bert Blyleven
Jerry Koosman
Joe Decker
Camilo Pascual

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look at the entire American League during the time period of 1961 to current the leaders are Nolan Ryan with 23 such games, Randy Johnson with 17, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens with 10 and Sam McDowell with 6, no one else had done it more than three times. 

Twins starters back in 1970

The Minnesota Twins had a pretty good team back in 1970, good enough to win 98 games and finish first in the AL West under skipper Bill Rigney. The team was either in first or second place all year long and was never more than a game out of the lead. The Twins were beaten (pretty badly) three games to none in the ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles for the second year in a row.

L-R We have Dave Boswell, Jim Perry, Jim Kaat and Luis Tiant posing for a photo during spring training 1970 in Orlando. Bert Blyleven was part of that starting rotation but for some reason is not in the picture. Credit: Getty Images – Bruce Bennett

The Twins top pitcher was Jim Perry who led the league with 40 starts completing 13 of them and won a league leading 24 games which earned him the American League Cy Young award after the season ended. In addition to the above pitchers, only two other Twins pitchers started games that season, Bill Zepp and Tommy Hall. The Twins pitching ranked second in 1970.

 

Minnesota Twins Single-Game Ticket Prices Rise for 2018

Spring Training exhibition games start today with the Twins taking on the Minnesota Gophers in Ft. Myers and the Minnesota Twins made single-game tickets available for sale February 17 for all their home games. Tickets for Opening Day had been available for some time. I haven’t seen much chatter about Minnesota Twins ticket prices for 2018 so that can only mean one thing, it appears that Twins ticket prices have gone up once again. I bet that comes as a real shocker to most of you. When the team gets better the ticket prices go up but when the team goes in the tank prices normally stay the same from the previous year.

The Twins had five tiers of tickets in 2017 called extra value, value, select, premium and elite and that has stayed the same in 2018 but the number of games in each tier has changed slightly. This year there will be only 79 home games in Target Field as the two games that the Twins will play in Puerto Rico are officially Twins home games. The elite tier has only two games and the extra value tier has just four games (two in April and two in September). The middle of the road or select tier has 39 games, the premium tier has 18 games and the value tier has 15 games.

The Twins continue to use demand-based ticket pricing that they implemented in 2012 and that means that ticket prices constantly go up or down to a floor price based on demand for tickets for that game. Some people call this variable or dynamic ticket pricing and is used by a number of teams but what ever you call it, it means digging deeper in your pocket for a ticket. Some folks look at it as scalping your own tickets. The floor price is based on the price of a season ticket for the same seat.

Continue reading Minnesota Twins Single-Game Ticket Prices Rise for 2018

Baseball and the Tomato

Just makes my mouth water looking at these.

I love baseball and I love gardening. There is nothing in this world that tastes better than a freshly picked tomato off the vine on a warm summer day. There was a lot of fun at Met Stadium back in the early 60’s and some of it was not on the diamond. In today’s world we take too many things too seriously and neglect to stop and smell the roses tomato’s. We forget sometimes that baseball was meant to be a game but over the years it became a business. We don’t have the “characters” in baseball anymore like we once had and players work at the game year-around. I miss the game of baseball the way it used to be but baseball is still a great game no matter what. Here is a fun column by Dick Cullum about the Metropolitan Stadium tomato growing contest. Maybe they should come up with something similar now that the Twins are playing outdoors again. Sounds like a great marketing gimmick to me.

This clipping is from the June 24, 1964 Star Tribune.

Here is what Amanda Fiegl wrote on Smithsonian.com back in March of 2008 in her article called “Tomatoes in the Bullpen”. Obviously she never heard of what went on at Met Stadium.

Greenest Bullpen
Shea Stadium, Queens, NY: Home of the Mets
Shea is a place of many firsts. When it opened in 1964, it was the first stadium capable of hosting both baseball and football events. The Jets stopped using it in 1984, and soon the Mets will too, with the new Citi Field set to open next year.

Shea was the site of the longest extra-inning doubleheader in baseball history (10 hours and 32 innings, against the San Francisco Giants) in May 1964, and hosted the Beatles’ first U.S. outdoor stadium show a year later. It also hosts some uninvited guests–The New York Times reported in 2007 that a colony of several dozen feral cats lives at the stadium, sometimes making surprise appearances on camera. In the one YouTube-celebrated instance last season, a startled kitten popped out of a tarp being unfurled by and even more startled groundskeeper.

But Shea has another unique claim to fame as well–the majors’ first bullpen vegetable garden. The tradition is said to have started with a few tomatoes planted by bullpen coach Joe Pignatano in 1969, which groundskeepers turned into a full-fledged garden in later years. By 1997, the corn and sunflowers in the Mets’ bullpen grew so high that the visiting Phillies actually complained that the greenery obstructed their view of warm-ups. Now, teams including the Red Sox, Braves and Detroit Tigers also have bullpen gardens.

 

 

Dropping by the ballpark before Twins spring training cranks up

Trevor May (click on picture to make it larger)

I went out to the CenturyLink Sports Complex on Friday to see who was out there before the pitchers and catchers report early next week. I got there about 8:45 am and there wasn’t a player in site and the fields were all empty, as a matter of fact I was the only fan out there for about 15 or 20 minutes. About 9AM or so the players started drifting out to the field with the big grassy knoll, I would guess there were about 25 or so and they did some stretching and running before moving on. Fans started arriving about 9:30 or so.

It was fairly quiet at the complex, pretty much what I expected at this time of the year. I was hoping to see Miguel Sano but I didn’t spot him at all. I took a few pictures that are posted under “2018 Spring Training” on the right-hand side of the page. It is hard for me anyway, to identify the players, particularly the minor leaguers’ without names on their uniforms.

I see that the Twins missed out on Yu Darvish when he agreed to a deal to become a Chicago Cub. I know that the Twins are in desperate need of starters but I am happy they didn’t spend $126 million on Darvish over the next 5 years, there are other and I think better options out there that will be a better fit. I applaud the Twins decision not to give in to a player and give him an opt-out in his contract. An opt-out is a one-way benefit for the player and is a dumb idea for baseball teams and those that fall for that agent trick deserve what they get.

Baseball is just around the corner and I can’t wait to see the pitchers and catchers in action next week.

PLAY BALL!!!

The Twins Trivia Best Minnesota Twins of the 60’s

The Washington Senators franchise moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. From 1961 through 1969 the Twins had a record of 789-666 and played .542 baseball.

During that time period the Minnesota Twins worst season was their first when the team went 70-90. In 1962 the team improved dramatically and won 91 games but finished second, five games behind the New York Yankees. In 1963 the team won 91 games again but this time finished in third behind the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. In 1964 dropped off dramatically and finished in 6th place with a 79-83 record and as usual the Yankees won the AL Pennant. In 1965 the Twins roared back with 102 wins, a franchise high that stands to this day and they played the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series but lost in seven games. 1966 found Minnesota winning 89 games while losing 73 but that was only good enough for second place, nine games behind the Baltimore Orioles. 1967 is remembered as one of the greatest pennant races in baseball history and the Twins came up short when the lost their final two games of the season to the Boston Red Sox and finished one game out with a record of 91-71 and tied the Detroit Tigers for second place behind the pennant winning Red Sox. The following season, 1968, saw the Twins fall back to a 79-83 record and seventh place as the Tigers hoisted the AL pennant in Detroit. 1969 saw expansion and the first time that the AL was split into two Divisions. The Twins won the West Division with a 97-65 mark and played the East Division winning Baltimore Orioles who were 109-53 and the Twins came up short in the ALCS losing 3 games to zip. So in nine seasons of play in the 60’s, the Twins had just three losing seasons. During this era pitchers were also hitters, the DH did not come into play until 1973.

So who were the best Twins position players in that era? Let’s look back and see who they were by position.

Harmon Killebrew

C – Earl Battey with a WAR of 14.3

1B – Harmon Killebrew with a WAR of 42.7

2B – Rod Carew with a WAR of 10.1

3B – Rich Rollins with a WAR of 11.9

SS – Zoilo Versalles with a WAR of 15.2

LF – Bob Allison with a WAR of 30.3

CF – Cesar Tovar with a WAR of 15.1 (why is this guy not in the Twins Hall of Fame?)

RF – Tony Oliva with a WAR of 31.9

P – Jim Kaat with a hitting/fielding WAR of 4.3 

Hitting Stats

 

Let’s take a look at Twins pitching in the 60’s. The biggest surprise on this list is Jim Merritt who I always liked but his numbers are better than I remember.

Jim Kaat

SP – Jim Kaat with a WAR of 23.7

SP – Jim Perry with a WAR of 20.5

SP – Camilo Pascual with a WAR of 18.4

SP – Dean Chance with a WAR of 13.0

SP – Dave Boswell with a WAR of 12.8

SP – Jim Merritt with a WAR of 11.2

Al Worthington

RP – Al Worthington with a WAR of 10.0

 

Pitching Stats

For more information about Minnesota Twins from the 1960’s, please go to Twins Heroes

Back in Time to June 1967

What we have here is a clipping from the Sunday, June 4, 1967 Star Tribune Sports section and a story about the up-coming June free agent draft with assistant farm director George Brophy.

You have to love Brophy’s best picks going into the draft being listed in the local paper. Was Brophy being honest or just blowing smoke? You sure don’t see things like that now days. Let’s take a closer look.

The first guy on the list is Terry Hughes and he was the second overall pick by the Cubs. Next on the list was Mike Garman and he was the third overall pick by the Red Sox. Don Blemberg was the next player on the list but the name was incorrect, it was really Ron Blomberg and he was the first overall pick in the draft by the Yankees. Fourth on the list is Wayne Simpson and he was the eighth overall selection by the Reds. Phil Meyer was next on the list he went number 14 overall to the Phillies but never made it to the big leagues. Mike Nunn is next and the Angels used the ninth overall selection to draft this catcher who would never reach the majors. Next on the Brophy list is Brian Bickerson who was really Brien Bickerton who was taken seventh overall by the Athletics but he too never had a big league appearance. Next up, Larry Keener who turned out to be a round two pick by the Phillies and he too spent his big league career in the minors. Next up is catcher Ted Simmons and he was taken tenth overall by the Cardinals and he went on to have a long 21-year big league career. Larry Matlock is the tenth guy on the list and he is really Jon Matlack who was picked by the Mets as the fourth overall selection and he had a very nice career. Up next was Jim Feer but he turns out to be Jim Foor and he was picked 15th overall by the Tigers and he had a brief big league career. The last player on this 12-man list is a pitcher by the name of Dave Kingman. The Angels got Kingman in the middle of round two and turned him into a position player that some of you might know as Kong Kingman. Yes, he is the same guy that put a ball into the Metrodome ceiling. Actually the best player (by WAR) selected in the first round (or any round) that year was shortstop Bobby Grich who was taken 19th overall by the Orioles.

So, what did the Twins do with their 17th pick? The Twins chose third baseman Steve Brye who became the first ever Twins first round pick to put on a Twins uniform when he debuted with Minnesota in September of 1970. Brye went on to spend all or parts of seven seasons with Minnesota but only appeared in 100 or more games twice. The best players the Twins drafted in 1967 turned out to be pitcher Dave Goltz a fifth round pick and catcher Rick Dempsey a 15th round pick who went on play in the big leagues for 24 years but the Twins traded him early on to the New York Yankees for Danny Walton.

As far as the players names being misspelled is concerned, it is not all that unusual for that time period for the scouts and teams to have incorrect spelling of prospect names and every now and then the same player was picked by two different teams because of the spelling of their names.

The Twins longest hitting streak goes back to 1980

Joe DiMaggio‘s 56-game hitting streak in 1941 is the longest in Major League Baseball history.

In baseball, a hitting streak is the number of consecutive official games in which a player appears and gets at least one base hit. According to the Official Baseball Rules, such a streak is ended when a player has at least one plate appearance and no hits. A streak shall not be terminated if all official plate appearances result in a base on balls, hit by pitch, defensive interference or a sacrifice bunt. The streak shall terminate if the player has a sacrifice fly and no hit.

Ken Landreaux

The Minnesota Twins longest hitting streak, a 31 gamer by Ken Landreaux took place in 1980 starting in a 17-0 loss to the California Angels at Met Stadium on April 23 and ended on May 31 in an 11-1 loss to the Orioles at Met Stadium. During his streak Landreaux had 49 hits in 125 at bats and hit for a .392 average with a .937 OPS.

31 game hitting streak

 

 

Brian Dozier

The longest streak by a current Twins player belongs to Brian Dozier who had a 24 hitting streak at the tail end of the 2016 season. The longest hitting streak in MLB history belongs to Joe Dimaggio who has the famous 56 game streak on the books, a record set in 1941 that most folks say will never be broken.