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
Justin Verlander had a 6.6 pitching WAR, the best in baseball in 2016.
Now that the 2016 regular season is over it is time to take a look at the American League starting staffs and see how the teams acquired their starting pitchers. In this case I am only going to look at pitchers that started 10 or more games for their teams. Several of the pitchers appear on more than one team.
This past season there were 95 pitchers in the American League that started 10 games or more games for their teams. The wild card winning Baltimore Orioles and the worst team in baseball Minnesota Twins each had eight pitchers with at least 10 starts, on the other end of the spectrum the wild card winning Toronto Blue Jays and the 69 win Oakland A’s each had only five starters with 10 or more starts.
The Minnesota Twins officially announced with a Press Release what has been rumored for some time and that is that Derek Falvey will fill the new role of Chief Baseball Officer. Here is the official Press Release:
The 1982 Minnesota Twins 60-102 season has been on the books for a long time as the Twins team with the most losses but that does not necessarily make them the worst team in Twins history. The Twins 2016 team is almost a cinch to break the record of 102 losses in a single season but like the 1982 team that does not mean they are the worst Twins team ever. Both teams had some very good players but in both cases their pitching staff was substandard or young and the position players were just starting to come into their own as major league players. The average age of the 1982 team was just barely over 25 years of age, the 2016 team by comparison has the youngest average position players in the league at 27 but the pitching staff is middle of the pack with and average age of just over 28.
Tonight the Twins are in Kansas City to play the Royals and they have a chance to lose game number 102 but the Twins will send their best pitcher (Ervin Santana) to the mound so they can put off the inevitable for another day.
The Twins loss number 102 back in ’82 took place on the final day of the season, Sunday, October 3 with White Sox starter LaMarr Hoyt facing off against Twins starter Brad Havens. The Chicago White Sox were in third place and the Twins occupied the cellar of the AL West a full 32 games out of first. Only 5,085 Twins fans paid t0 enter the Metrodome that day to watch this meaningless game but how many were actually there is probably another story.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth inning when the Tony La Russa led mighty whities put three runs on the board against the lefty Brad Havens on a home run by Tom Paciorek and a single by Marc Hill that scored two more. Havens day ended in the top of the sixth after he gave up a walk, a double and a ground out that scored the fourth run for the Sox. Twins manager Billy Gardner had seen enough and brought in reliever Paul Boris who got of the inning but allowed another run to score on a ground out and going into the bottom of the sixth inning the home town Twins were down 5 to zip. The Twins finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning when Gary Ward had an infield single that scored Bobby Mitchell who had singled to lead off the inning. The White Sox added a run in the top of the eighth inning when Twins killer Harold Baines took Paul Boris deep to lead off the inning. Hoyt who would go on to pitch a complete game and win his league leading 19th game retired the first two Twins in the ninth before Greg Wells tripled bringing DH Randy Bush to the plate but he grounded out to the second baseman and Brad Havens and the Twins took the defeat. The game lasted all of 2 hours and 5 minutes and it was “wait until next year” for the Twins and their fans.
LaMarr Hoyt
The bearded LaMarr Hoyt was an interesting player to be sure, the following season he went on to win a league leading 24 games and take home the 1983 Cy Young award. In 1985 he found himself in San Diego where he was named the NL starting pitcher in the 1985 All-Star game at the Metrodome that the NL won by a 6-1 score and Hoyt was credited with the victory by allowing no earned run in 3 innings. By 1987 the 32-year old Hoyt was out of professional baseball due to problems with drugs. More info on Hoyt.
Rusty Kuntz who was the White Sox center fielder that day went on to play for the Twins in 1983 and tonight you will find him in Kansas City coaching for the Royals, I wonder if he remembers this day from back in 1982?
By the way, September 28 has been a very interesting day in Minnesota Twins history so please don’t forget to check it out on our This Day in Twins History page before you leave.
The rumors started Monday afternoon and Rhett Bollinger posted on Twinsbaseball.com that Cleveland Indians assistant GM Derek Falvey is headed to Minnesota to become the teams new Head of Baseball Operations. Nothing is official as the Twins organization has made no announcement but with the Indians clinching the AL Central title last night the official announcement could be imminent.
I was listening to Pat Reusse yesterday afternoon on AM 1500 when he had Indians broadcaster Tom Hamilton on as a guest and they talked about Derek Falvey. Since the deal is not official Hamilton could obviously only speak from a what if scenario. He did say however; that Falvey works very closely with manager Terry Francona and his staff and would be a great fit for the Minnesota job. Then again, what would you expect him to say?
Here is what the Cleveland Indians 2016 media guide has on Derek Palvey.
Derek Falvey
Derek Falvey is 33 and is in his ninth season as a member of the Cleveland Indians organization and first since being appointed Assistant General Manager on Oct. 6, 2015. He spent the previous four seasons as Director of Baseball Operations after being named to the position in December of 2011.
As Assistant General Manager, Derek assists Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff in all areas of baseball operations, including financial, statistical, and contractual dealings, and contributes to all aspects of professional and amateur player procurement and development. He also oversees the Advance Scouting process and works closely with Terry Francona and the Major League Coaching Staff to assist in the day-to-day management of Major League operations.
Falvey’s tenure with the organization started in November 2007 when he began an internship in Baseball Operations. In his first three years with the club, Derek assisted both the Amateur and International Scouting Departments before spending the 2011 season as Assistant Director of Baseball Operations.Derek played baseball at Trinity College in Hartford, CT where he earned a degree in economics in June 2005. After graduating, Falvey returned home to the Boston, MA area where he worked until joining the Indians in the fall of 2007.
Derek Falvey is married (Meghan) and they have a son named Jack.
The Miami Marlins announced yesterday that 24-year-old pitcher Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident in Miami. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Fernandez family and friends at this sad time. RIP Jose Fernandez and thank you for the memories.
The Twins will be giving away Twins Stocking Caps this evening to help Twins fans get through the tough upcoming winter prior to facing the Seattle Mariners at Target Field in game number 155 of the 2016 season. The Twins record stands at 55-99 (35.5 games out of first) as the team tries to wrap up what will probably be the teams worst season ever since they started play in Minnesota in 1961.
The Twins have lost 100 or more games just once and that was their 60-102 season in 1982. The ’82 Twins lost game number 100 in their 159th game of the year at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto on September 30th by a 6-4 score. The following season, 1983, the Twins went on to win 70 games and finally reached the .500 mark in 1984.
Sadly today’s Twins have a chance to lose game 100 sooner than the 1982 team and in all likely hood will lose more than 102 games. With no Head of Baseball Operations nor a General Manager yet hired all we fans can do is sit and wait to see what happens next. Wait, how is that different then what we have done all season?
A bad job to have about now? Minnesota Twins season ticket sales, if you have that job make sure you get paid by-the-hour versus on a commission basis.
UPDATE – Twins lost game number 100 on Sunday, September 25 in their final home game by a 4-3 score to the Seattle Mariners and they still have six games to play, all on the road.
With a few exceptions the Minnesota Twins appear to have gone belly up and are just walking through the motions as they continue their march to 100 or more losses. There isn’t much good news coming out of Target Field lately so we have to search for some to watch and cheer for and one of those items is Brian Dozier‘s hitting streak which has now hit 22 games. The Twins have a dozen games left to play in 2016, the first six are at home against the Tigers and the Mariners and the next six are on the road at Kansas City and in Chicago against the the White Sox.
If Dozier plays in every game and his hitting streak continues he could tie the Twins hitting streak record of 31 in Kansas City and then go for the record in Chicago. That would be pretty awesome since we plan to be in Chicago that final baseball week-end of the season catching a few Twins games at US Cellular Field which is a field I have never been at, but I have watched a game at White Sox Park back in 1965.
Keep it up Brian Dozier, we need something exciting to watch and the 2016 season winds down for us Twins fans.
UPDATE: September 21, 2016 – Dozier’s hit streak now stands at 23.
UPDATE: September 23, 2016 – Dozier’s hit streak comes to an end at 24 games in game 2 of a DH against the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander on 9/22/2016. Nice run by Mr. Dozier.
The end is quickly approaching to what may be the Minnesota Twins worst season in history. The team fired GM Terry Ryan back in July and has been looking to revamp the front office ever since. The recent chatter coming out of the organization is that the team hopes to have a head of Baseball Operations hired by the end of September while at the same time stories have come out that a number of people who the ballclub was interested in hiring have no interest in coming to Minnesota. Owner Jim Pohlad did say back in July when Ryan was let go that manager Paul Molitor would be back in 2017 for his third and final year of his contract.
Paul Molitor
If I am Paul Molitor, why would I come back in 2017? What manager worth his salt manages in his final year of a three-year deal? What kind of message does that send to the players not to mention the fans? Why come back and work for a GM or Head of Baseball Ops who didn’t hire him? An extension looks extremely unlikely after a season of 100 or so losses while working for someone who did not hire him in the first place. The easiest way out for everyone is for Paul Molitor to resign after the season ends and for the new Head of Baseball Ops to hire his own field staff.
I ran across this story that was published that R.J. Anderson did for CBS yesterday. I can’t say I agree with him 100% but he makes a number of good points. You can see the story at:
