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
With the Minnesota Twins having 57 MLB seasons in the rear view mirror, the Houston Astros winning the World Series in 7 games, the temperatures in the mid 40’s and with no snow on the ground it is a good time to look back on and revisit the hitters that have found Twins pitching to their liking over the years.
Today we are going to take a look at Twins opponents that have 200 or more hits against the Twins, there are 23 players who fit this criteria. 200 hits is a lot of hits. Six of the 23 hit from the left side, 13 were right-handed hitters and just four (Vizquel, Martinez, Wilson and Murray) of them were switch-hitters. Just missing out on this list were Frank Thomas with 194 hits, Al Kaline with 192 and Sal Bando with 190 hits.
One oddity that I noticed when looking over this data was that only two players got their 200 or more hits from one spot in the batting order. Ricky Henderson had 214 out of his 215 hits against Minnesota hitting lead-off while Carl Yastrzemski had 228 of his 321 hits out of the three-hole.
WOW! Look at the Hall of Famer’s on this list plus some of the others will be in shortly. Anyone on this list surprise you? How about players that you thought would be on the list but are not?
The Twins haven’t signed any free agents this off-season but it is only a matter of time before they do. One of the relief spots they need to fill is the closer role. The Twins traded Brandon Kintzler, their closer to the Washington Nationals this past summer for 20 year-old left-handed starter Tyler Watson and some international bonus slot cash. Watson pitched in class A ball for both the Nats and Twins.
Brandon Kintzler earned $2.925 million last year and saved 28 games in Minnesota during the four months he was a Minnesota Twin in 2017. In 2016 he saved 29 games. Although not a prototypical closer, he got the job done for the Twins for a modest price on a team in 2016 that lost 103 games. After the Twins traded Kintzler, reliever Matt Belisle received the most save opportunities and he notched 9 saves.
Let’s take a look at the Twins last 12 seasons and see how their closers did and how much they were paid.
If you look at the percentage of games closed for the top three Twins closers over the last 12 seasons you end up with a save percentage of 90.3 for Joe Nathan, 86.8 for Glen Perkins, and 86.5 for Brandon Kintzler. In 2017 the average closer had 25 saves in 29 opportunities and saved 86.7% of games they were asked to save.
The Twins called Met Stadium home from 1961 through 1981 before moving into the HHH Metrodome in 1982. Today we are going to look at the starting pitchers that pitched at the Met for the Minnesota Twins and for their opponents and determine who won the most games.
The opposing pitcher that won the most games at Met Stadium pitched for the Yankees his entire career from 1964 to 1974 and it is Mel Stottlemyre. Not many people remember Mel Stottlemyre but he was what we would consider “a horse” today but his big league career ended way too early due to injury. Here is how his SABR Bio starts out:
A baseball lifer, Mel Stottlemyre burst on the scene as a midseason call-up for the New York Yankees in 1964, helping the club win its fifth consecutive pennant and starting three games in the World Series. One of the most underrated and overlooked pitchers of his generation, Stottlemyre won 149 games and averaged 272 innings per season over a nine-year stretch (1965-1973) that corresponded with the nadir of Yankees history. Only Bob Gibson (166 victories), Gaylord Perry (161), Mickey Lolich (156), and Juan Marichal (155) won more during that period; only Perry tossed more innings, and only Gibson fired more shutouts (43) than Stottlemyre’s 38. Stottlemyre was the “epitome of Yankee class and dignity,” wrote longtime New York sportswriter Phil Pepe. “[He was] a throwback to a winning tradition in those years of mediocrity.” After a torn rotator cuff ended his playing career at the age of 32 in 1974, Stottlemyre embarked on a storied career as a big-league pitching coach.
You can read the rest of his SABR Bio by going here. No opposing pitcher won more games than the 13 that Mel Stottlemyre did at the Met.
Opposing pitchers that won the most games at Met Stadium
Mel Stottlemyre of the New York Yankees pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx, New York 8/25/1968
Phil Hughes delivers to the Chicago White Sox Sunday, June 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)
Phil Hughes will start his fifth year in Minnesota in 2018 and he makes about $13.2 million a season, the third highest on the team as it stands today behind Joe Mauer and his $23 million deal and Ervin Santana and his $13.5 million contract. The Twins signed Hughes as a free agent starter in December 2013 and then gave him an extension through 2019 after a very good 2014 season.
After his extension, Hughes went on to have a mediocre 2015 season and then had physical ailments in 2016-2017 that limited him to just 26 starts and ERA’s of 5.95 and 5.87. The last two season have seen him pitch just 112.2 combined innings while giving up 148 hits and 23 home runs. Hughes had two trips to the Disabled List this past season for 104 days and in 2015 his trip to the DL cost him 100 days. Even back in 2014 he visited the DL once for 32 days.
So the Twins are on the hook for the next two seasons for $26+ million, not exactly a lot of money for a good starter but Hughes has not proven to be a reliable starter by any means. As the old hunter that coached the Minnesota Vikings once said, ability is great but without durability, it is wasted.
There are a lot of teams out there looking for pitching and his salary is not prohibitive so I would try to trade Phil Hughes in a deal where both teams take a calculated risk while trading pitchers that have under performed for what ever reason. After the 2018 season Hughes becomes a 10/5 guy and that limits team options and puts Hughes in the driver’s seat.
Failing to find a new home for Phil Hughes I would make him a reliever, a task that is not entirely new to Hughes and one that he had done OK in over the years but his trip to the pen in 2017 was not one of his better ones. If the Twins don’t land a closer in some other fashion I would even throw his hat in that ring even though Hughes gives up a lot of hits.
If the Twins can’t trade Hughes and the bullpen role doesn’t work out, then I would trade him for whatever I can get at the 2018 trading deadline, why pay him another $13 million in 2019? Phil Hughes has done basically nothing for the Twins in 2016 or 2017 and if his performance in 2018 is substandard then he should be jettisoned because the Twins won’t miss someone who has not contributed in the last few years. The Minnesota Twins have moved their play to another level, one that does not afford them the luxury of carrying dead weight and anything they get from Phil Hughes or for Phil Hughes is just gravy.
A lot of our readers are not only interested in the Minnesota Twins history but also want to know something about the Twins future, so now and then we throw them a bone and point them to a story that caught our fancy and maybe it is something they too might enjoy.
In the “Down on the Farm” section on the right hand side of the home page is a headline that reads “Twins’ Gonsalves, Curtiss ready to contribute“, it is nice piece by MiLB.com about Minnesota Twins prospects that are getting close to putting on a Twins uniform or may have already worn out briefly. The article puts together a Twins organization All-Stars about players in the Twins farm system that have stood out in 2017. If you have any interest in the Twins future you might want to check this story out.
If you want to check out Organization All-Stars for the other MLB teams, go here. The “Down on the Farm” headlines are often very interesting and it might be something that you might enjoy looking at if you have not done so.
The Minnesota Twins announced today that their radio broadcast have returned to WCCO, 830 on your AM radio dial after an 11 year absence. The 50,000 watt WCCO was the radio home of the Minnesota Twins from the time they moved to Minnesota in 1961 through the 2006 season. The Midwest “Good Neighbor” was outbid for the rights to Twins games after the 2006 season and the Twins switched to KSTP 1500 AM where they stayed for six seasons. KSTP had a decent signal but the station seemed to have no clue on how to promote Minnesota Twins baseball and their in-house broadcasters for pre and post game shows sounded like a bunch of clowns doing rookie league baseball.
The Pohlad family then switched the Twins radio broadcasts to a FM station at 96.3 (that the family bought back in 2007) starting with the 2013 baseball season. Switching MLB broadcasts from AM to FM seemed to be a hot trend at the time. The greedy Pohlads jumped on the bandwagon and figured that they could make more money from ad revenue rather than by selling the rights to Twins radio broadcasts. The Pohlad owned radio station changed call signs over the next few years more often than Paul Molitor brought in relief pitchers and their promotion of Twins games was non-existent on a station that features alternative rock music when the Twins weren’t playing. If the Twins were not playing, there was no baseball talk on the station. The station signal was so weak you had to almost stand next to the radio station itself to get a signal. It was almost as if the Minnesota Twins had no radio outlet at all.
The wheels in the Minnesota Twins organization turn ever so slowly and the rights to their radio broadcasts seem to fit right in, it took the organization 11 years to correct their original mistake and make things right again. When the Twins left WCCO it was like their team had lost its major league status and was sent to the minors. Eleven seasons of bush league baseball and now the Minnesota Twins have been upgraded to the major leagues once again, it’s about time. The Minnesota Twins radio “Dark Ages” have finally ended.
WCCO is expected to retain the current Twins broadcasting team of Cory Provus and Dan Gladden who are actually Minnesota Twins employees.
We are going to close out our Twins all-opponent team series today by naming the teams closer. I will tell you up front that the best closer I have seen in the 60 years I have followed major league baseball is Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees. Watching Rivera close out a game was almost like watching a machine, as near perfection as you can get. You all know my history with the Yankees, I have always disliked them since I was a pup, but in this case greatness needs to be recognized for what it is. If Mariano Rivera is not a first ballot Fall of Fame baseball player then no one is.
Mariano Rivera
Now that my praise for Mariano Rivera is out-of-the-way we will go on to name the Twins all-opponent team closer and he is Troy Percival. Percival closed games for the Angels for 10 seasons before moving on to close for the Tigers, Cardinals and Rays. Percival was an All-Star four times and had 358 career saves over his 14 years in the big leagues.
Troy Percival
In 47 games against our Minnesota Twins he pitched 47.2 innings giving up just 19 his while striking out 56 batters and notched 23 saves. The man gave up just two earned runs against Minnesota (none as an Angel pitcher) and one of those was on the only home run that a Twins batter (Justin Morneau) hit off him. Fittingly it seems, he earned the win in that game when the Tigers came back to win the game in 10 innings 5-4 at Comerica Park. His career ERA against Minnesota? Make that 0.38 .
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.
