Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

Twins all-opponent team shortstop

Shortstop – Cal Ripken was the Orioles second round selection (48th overall) in the 1978 June amateur draft. With the Twins first round pick (16th overall) in that same draft the Twins chose shortstop Lenny Faedo. But don’t feel bad because in the first round the Orioles chose infielder Robert Boyce who only reached as high as “A” ball.

You might think that picking the shortstop for this team would be easy but you would be wrong, it was difficult and I almost selected Omar Vizquel but finally decided on Ripken primarily because of his power and ability to show up and play every day. The numbers that Ripken and Vizquel put up against Minnesota were almost identical except in power and speed. They were both great players.

Ripken a Hall of Famer was the 1982 ROY award winner beating out Kent Hrbek and Wade Boggs. During his 21 year career he was a two-time MVP, 19 time All-Star (every year except his rookie season), 8 time Silver Slugger, and a 2 time Gold Glove winner not to mention a host of other awards.

But what did Ripken do against Minnesota that earns him the right to be a part of the Twins all-opponent team? Well, he went to the plate 725 times and had a .307 average with 197 hits, 47 doubles, 24 home runs, 105 RBI, with an OPS of .874. Not too shabby for a shortstop, plus the Twins decided to give him 15 IBB to make sure he didn’t do even more damage.

Looks like it is time to look at the outfielders.

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

Second Baseman – Lou Whitaker

Third Baseman – Wade Boggs

 

The Twins all-opponent team third baseman

Third Base – Wade Boggs is my pick today but when you have to choose among players like Brooks Robinson, George Brett, Sal Bando, Graig Nettles, Buddy Bell, Doug DeCinces, Carney Lansford, Adrian Beltre, and Josh Donaldson it is no easy task and on another day it might have been one of the others. It is tough to go wrong here.

Boggs who many knew as the chicken man played in the big leagues for 18 season with the Red Sox (1982-1992), the Yankees (1993-1997) and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998-1999). Boggs was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005, selected as an All-Star 12 times, won five batting titles, eight Silver Slugger awards, and was a two-time Gold Glove winner.

He showed the Minnesota Twins no mercy in the 162 games he played against them hitting .344 with an OPS of .870. In his 730 PA’s against Minnesota he had 220 hits of which 42 were doubles, 7 triples, 5 were home runs and he walked 82 times to boot. In his 162 games against the Twins he went hitless just 24 times and on May 20 and May 31 of 1986 he had five hits in each game.

Wade Boggs is an interesting person and was a very good baseball player, if you would like to learn more about him, check out his SABR Bio.

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

Second Baseman – Lou Whitaker

The Twins all-opponent team second baseman

Second Base – Lou Whitaker was the Tigers fifth round in the 1975 draft and went on to become the 1978 AL Rookie of the Year, a five-time All-Star, a four-time Silver Slugger winner, and a three-time Gold Glove winner. Sweet Lou played in the big leagues for 19 years, all with the team that drafted him and in his 2,308 games, all but 32 (DH) were as a second baseman.

Whitaker played 162 games against the boys from Minnesota hitting .298 with an OPS of .832. His 172 hits included 34 doubles, seven triples and 14 home runs. Whitaker walked off the Twins twice, both times with singles off of closers Mike Marshall and Ron Davis. To show the respect that Twins managers had for Whitaker, you don’t need to look any further than the 10 IBB that Twins pitchers issued to Whitaker. Whitaker is one of only 15 players to have been given 10 or more IBB by Twins pitchers since 1961.

The runner-up for this spot is Roberto Alomar who put up similar numbers against the Twins over the years. I could have gone either way with these two players, one is a Hall of Famer and the other should be a Hall of Famer. Whitaker has a career WAR of 74.9 and Alomar has a WAR of 66.8. To be honest and fair, I see each player with a strike against them in the fact that one spit in an umpires face and the other didn’t stand for the national anthem. I know it has nothing to do with their play against the Twins but this Twins all-opponent team is strictly my opinion, my list and it is what it is. You are always welcome to express your opinion as well.

The unapproachable greatness of Sweet Lou

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

The Twins all-opponent team first baseman

First Base – Paul Konerko – He was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 13th pick in the first round of the 1994 amateur draft. In 1997, he was named the Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America and Baseball Weekly and was named Pacific Coast League MVP .

This 6 time All-Star spent 18 seasons in the big leagues starting his career as a Dodger in 1997 (55 games) before being traded to the Redlegs (26 games) for a brief stay and then again being traded, this time to the White Sox where he menaced the Twins for 16 years before he hung up his spikes after the 2014 season. He played 212 games against Minnesota reaching base via a hit 222 times with 31 doubles and 5 triples and hit .286 (OPS of .850) with 43 home runs and 110 RBI. Runner-up is Miguel Cabrera in a very close call.

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

The Twins all-opponent team catcher

The Twins have called Minnesota home for the past 57 seasons of major league baseball. You might argue that during some of those years the home town bunch wasn’t of major league caliber but the same can be said of some of the opposing teams.

Regardless of how good or bad some of the Twins opponents  have played, every team has had players that enjoyed hitting against Twins. These were the guys that killed the Twins in one fashion or another season after season and we hated seeing them step into the batters box because we know the results were not going to be pretty. We hoped that they would retire or be traded to the National League but then inter-league play came into existence and that option went away. 

Having said all that, if you are a baseball fan you can look back and say that “he might have been a thorn in the Twins side but he was one hell of a baseball player”. So here is the Twinstrivia.com Minnesota Twins all-opponent team catcher. We are going to do this one position at a time over the next week or two. I am certainly interested in your thoughts and opinions or share a memory or two and thanks for stopping by.

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez – This Hall of Famer spent 21 years in the big leagues and was an All-Star 14 times, he won 13 Gold Gloves, 7 Silver Slugger awards and was the American League MVP in 1999. His career caught stealing percentage was 46%. Rodriquez spent 13 years with the Texas Rangers but also played for the Tigers, Nationals, Yankees, Astros and Marlins. Rodriquez’s son Dereck was a Minnesota Twins sixth round selection in the 2011 draft as an outfielder but several years into his career the Twins persuaded Dereck Rodriguez to try pitching and this past season he pitched for AA Chattanooga.

So why did he make our Twins all-opponent team? Against Minnesota, “Pudge” played in 160 games, had 640 at bats and hit .313 with an OPS of .854. Rodriguez had 200 hits of which 28 were doubles, 5 triples, 29 home runs and 92 RBI. Runner-up is Carlton Fisk.

SABR article about Ivan Rodriguez by Steve West

 

Where did 2017 playoff teams get their players

There was an article written by Sam Dykstra on MiLB.com back on September 29th that I found really interesting that many of you may have missed titled “Toolshed: MLB contenders find help on the farm“. The article shows where and how 2017 playoff contending teams including the Minnesota Twins acquired their players. It might surprise you, check it out.

Minnesota Twins thank their fans

Here is a video put out by the Minnesota Twins thanking their fans for their support in 2017.

Watch Video

From all of us at the Minnesota Twins, we thank you, our fans, for your support throughout the 2017 season.

Thanks for being the greatest fans in the game! 

Will Paul Molitor be managing the Twins next year?

It has been a heck of a year for the Minnesota Twins organization as they bounced back from a 59-103 season in 2016 to a 83-76 season todate and became the first team in MLB history to make the play-offs after losing 100 or more games.

No one saw this coming, if they said they did they are BSing you. I though they would improve to an 80-82 mark and I thought that was optimistic on my part. The team has had a heck of a season but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

The guys at the top, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine with a few minor exceptions have sat back, watched, and learned in their first year at the helm of the good ship Minnesota Twins. Yes, they did make some trades at the deadline that indicated the Twins were out of playoff contention but maybe that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it seemed to rally the team and gave them a “we will show them” attitude.

Manager Paul Molitor found himself in a strange situation as he had just finished year two of a three-year deal when Falvey and Levine came on board with an edict from owner Jim Pohlad that Molitor stays as the Twins manager in 2017. I don’t think it was that big a deal for Falvey or Levine to have Molitor stay around for one more season as it appears that they had planned to sit back and watch in 2017 plus they had some don’t raid their previous organizations for one year stipulations they were abiding by. They sure weren’t expecting the Twins to make the playoffs in 2017 so they had to figure they could dump Molitor when the 2017 season ended with no problem. 

But now with the Twins heading for the playoffs and expectations even higher for the future, the pressure is going to be on Falvey and Levine to bring Paul Molitor back, after all, how do you fire a manager that took your team from 103 losses to the playoffs? A lot I think depends on the relationship that Falvey and Levine have with Molitor and I am not in a position to know how good or bad that relationship really is. But like everyone else, I have an opinion, and from where I stand, it seems that relationship is one of tolerance, as long as no one throws the first rock, the relationship will continue to co-exist.

The problem is that everyone in management wants to put their own people in positions that have an impact on their future employment. Who wants to stake their future on someone who you didn’t select for the job in the first place? On the other hand, if they send Molitor packing and the team doesn’t take the next step forward, then Falvey and Levine will find themselves with the creek rising and more rain predicted.

If Falvey and Levine decide to keep Molitor they need to give him a longer term deal after forcing Molitor to manage in his least year of a three-year contract. At least that is what I would ask for if I was Molitor. Having said, that I recently read a book by Ron Simon who was Molitor’s agent when he was a player and he stated in his book that Molitor was a very easy-going individual who was not necessarily all that confident in his ability (at least outwardly) and preferred to avoid conflict. 

So what will happen? Falvey and Levine find themselves in a damned if they do and damned if they don’t situation and we will just have to see what they do. It will be much easier to keep Molitor at the helm than it will be to fire him, that will tell us a lot about what these guys are made of. This duo has said all along that the number of wins will not be the decision maker but when it comes right down to it, what is more important than win and losses? Don’t they play this game to win?