Category: General Blogging

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Twins fun facts from Twins 3/13 & 3/14 ST notes

SPRING FLING: Today the Twins will play the 18th and 19th of 32 scheduled Grapefruit League games. The Twins also played one World Baseball Classic exhibition against Team Dominican Republic March 9. After today, seven more games will be played at Hammond Stadium and six more games will be played on the road. The Twins will enjoy their second scheduled off-day of the spring tomorrow before hosting the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon at Hammond Stadium.

WE DO TALK ABOUT JOSE: Jose Miranda is batting .429 (6-for-14) with two doubles, three home runs, five RBI, four walks, a .556 on-base percentage and a 1.770 OPS in six games this spring. Miranda is in his second major league spring training with the Twins after making his major league
debut on May 2, 2022 at Baltimore. He became one of four rookies in club history (since 1961) with at least 100 hits, 25 doubles, 15 home runs, 60 RBI and 25 walks in rookie season, joining Tony Oliva (1964), Gary Gaetti (1982) and Marty Cordova (1995).

OBER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS: Bailey Ober is making his third spring start today. He tossed 1.0 scoreless inning, with one walk and three strikeouts, in his first outing March 1 vs. Philadelphia and worked 2.0 perfect innings, with two strikeouts, in his last start March 8 at Toronto. Ober is in his third spring training with the Twins (also 2021-22). He re-claimed the jersey number 17 in the offseason, when Chris Archer departed via free agency; Ober debuted wearing uniform number 82, switched to 17 prior to 2022 spring training and had it for about a month until the Twins signed Archer, moving Ober to 16. Ober likes the number 17 because his dad wore it in college, playing
Division III basketball at Champlain College. Ober made the Twins Opening Day roster for first time in career in 2022 going 2-3, 3.21 ERA (56.0 IP, 20 ER) with 11 walks and 51 strikeouts in 11 starts. Missed time on the 15-day Injured List with a right groin strain from April 30-May 21 and went back
on the IL with the same injury from June 6-September 16.

The Twins had a sellout crowd of 8,568 at Hammond Stadium yesterday to watch the visiting New York Yankees. I’m always amazed at big crowds like that here in Florida for Spring Training games when everyone knows that visiting teams seldom if ever bring any “starters” to play. Yesterday’s Yankee visit was no exception with their starting line-up being Peraza, Volpe, Cabrera, Calhoun, Hicks, Ortega, Chaparro, Florial, and Narvaez. No exactly a “Murders Row”.

Twins fun facts from Twins 3/11 ST notes

YESTERDAY’S RECAP: The Twins and Baltimore Orioles tied, 5-5, in Sarasota last night. Twins entered the top of the ninth down by two runs and scored one on Danny De Andrade‘s RBI single. With runners at the corners and two outs, De Andrade stole second base and Ben Ross stole home to score the game-tying run. Dennis Santana then worked a one-two-three ninth inning to secure the tie. Joe Ryan made the start for the Twins and tossed 3.0 scoreless innings, with two hits allowed and four strikeouts.

Today the Twins will played the 15th of 33 scheduled spring training games (32 Grapefruit League contests and one World Baseball Classic exhibition)…after today, nine more games will be played at Hammond Stadium and seven more games will be played on the road.

FARMER AT THE FORT: Kyle Farmer is in his first spring training with the Twins, after being acquired via trade from Cincinnati last November, is hitting .385 (5-for-13) with one double, one home run, four RBI and two runs scored in six games so far. Twins are his third organization (Los Angeles-NL – 2013-18 & Cincinnati – 2019-22), was Cincinnati’s Opening Day shortstop in 2022. Led the Reds in games (145), multi-hit games (36), four-hit games (3), hits (134), doubles (25), total bases (203), RBI (78) and starts at SS (97). Received the Ernie Lombardi Award as the Reds’ Most Valuable Player and the Joe Nuxhall Good Guy Award from the local chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The Minnesota Twins announced today that they have optioned right-handed pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson to Triple-A St. Paul.

The Twins now have 63 active players in camp (26 non-roster): 31 pitchers (11 non-roster), eight catchers (6 non-roster), 12 infielders (5 non-roster) and 12 outfielders (4 non-roster), plus two players on the 60-day Injured List.

Tomorrow’s pitchers against the Detroit Tigers are Minnesota: Aaron Sanchez (R), Jhoan Duran(R), Jorge Alcala (R), Griffin Jax (R), Jeff Hoffman (R), Oliver Ortega (R).

Twins fun facts from Twins 3/5 ST notes

CoolToday Park in North Port

YESTERDAY’S RECAP: The Twins fell to the Atlanta Braves yesterday, 7-5, in North Port. Louie Varland was the starter and took the loss, allowing five runs on six hits (2 HR), with one walk and three strikeouts in 2.0 innings of work; became the first Twins starter to work in the third inning this spring. The Twins’ bench came through for the club, recording five of the club’s eight hits on the afternoon – all during a five-run, eighth-inning rally. Chris Williams went 1-for-1 with a two-run double, while Yoyner Fajardo, Jose Salas and Jake Rucker all had RBI singles.

GLOBAL GAME: The 2023 World Baseball Classic starts this week, with pool play in Taichung, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; Phoenix, Arizona; and Miami, Florida. The Twins will be well-represented, with 16 players and staffers from across the organization partaking. Here’s the full list: José De León (Puerto Rico), Edouard Julien (Canada), Jorge López (Puerto Rico), Pablo López (Venezuela), Jovani Moran (Puerto Rico), Emilio Pagán (Puerto Rico), Dereck Rodríguez (Puerto Rico), Christian Vázquez (Puerto Rico), Bert Blyleven (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Julio Borbón (Dominican Republic), Ramon Borrego (Venezuela), Tony Diaz (Dominican Republic), Rudy Hernandez (Venezuela), Dustin Morse
(Kingdom of the Netherlands), Luis Ramirez (Venezuela) and Martijn Verhoeven (Kingdom of the Netherlands).

Twins fun facts from Twins 3/4 ST notes

Louie Varland

THIS LAND IS VARLAND: Louie Varland is in his first career spring training, making his second start…tossed 2.0 scoreless inning with one hit allowed and one strikeout February 25 at Baltimore…went 8-5, 3.06 ERA (126.1 IP, 43 ER), 42 walks, 146 strikeouts, a 1.26 WHIP and a .242 (117-for-484) opponent batting average in 24 minor league games (23 starts)…named Jim Rantz Award winner as Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive season, joining José Berríos (2014-15) as the only pitcher to win the award in back-to-back seasons…led all Twins minor leaguers in strikeouts (146) and innings pitched (126.1), was tied for first in games started (23) and was second in ERA (3.06), second in winning percentage (.615), fourth in opponent batting average (.242) and WHIP (1.26), and tied for fifth in wins (8)…made major league debut on September 7 at New York-AL, striking out seven in 5.2 innings pitched, fanning Aaron Judge in the first inning for his first career strikeout…went 1-2, 3.81 ERA (26.0 IP, 11 ER) in 5 starts with the Twins.

I was at CoolToday Park as the Atlanta Braves beat the Minnesota Twins today by a score of 7-5 and it was not as close as the score indicates. The Braves took Varland behind the woodshed and put a serious beating on him right from the get-go. The Twins trailed 7-0 before they scored all five of their runs in the top of the eighth inning with little to no help from the big leaguers (Christian Vazquez & Ryan Jeffers) that were in attendance. The game lasted 2 hour and 33 minutes but it seemed like it went on for four hours. We were supposed to check out CoolToday Park last Spring but the game we were going to attend was called off due to the lockout. It is a beautiful ballpark with lots of parking available. It is about 75 miles north of Fort Myers in North Port. The only complaint I would have is that it kind of a pain getting from one level to another primarily because the signage is non-existent telling you where the stairs are.

Sandy Valdespino a member of 1965 Twins team dies at age 84

Sandy Valdespino

Hilario “Sandy” Valdespino was born on January 24, 1939 at San Jose de las Lajas, Mayabeque (Cuba) and died on February 26, 2023 in Moultrie, Georgia at the age of 84. A Cuban native, Sandy Valdespino signed with the Washington Senators in 1957 and played in the Senators — and then Twins — farm system until 1965. He won the International League batting title in 1964 with the Atlanta Crackers, earning a promotion to the big leagues the following season.

Valdespino, a short but stocky 5’8″ and 170 pounder played for the Minnesota Twins for three seasons from 1965-1968 primarily in left field and as a pinch-hitter but never could earn a full-time role. During his time in Minnesota he appeared in 259 games but had only 450 AB’s hitting .220 with 4 home runs.

Valdespino is best remembered for a great catch he made on June 18, 1967 against the Cleveland Indians. You can read more about Valdespino’s great catch and his relationship with other Twins players here in SABR’s Bio on Valdespino.

Valdespino also played for Atlanta, Houston, Milwaukee, Kansas City and the Seattle Pilots in his 382-game major-league career. He played 1,446 minor league games before finishing his career in the Mexican League in 1974.

Survivors include his wife, Esperanza Valdespino; his daughter, Esperanza Valdespino; and grandchildren, Hillary Williams, Norman Williams Jr., Ashley Valdespino, Terrance Valdespino and Bianka Valdespino. He was preceded in death by a son, Hilario Valdespino Jr. We here at Twinstrivia.com pass on our condolences to the Valdespino family, friend and all his fans. Thank you for the great memories.

Star Tribune Obituary

Twins fun facts from Twins ST notes

Credit – FOX 9

Since the Twins are publishing their Twins Notes for each Spring Training game I thought that I would pick out one item from each days notes and pass it along here. Today’s note is from March 2.

This season marks Rocco Baldelli’s fifth as the Twins’ manager, he will enter the regular season with a career managerial record of 288-258 and two division titles (2019 and ’20). Baldelli is one of eight managers in team history (since 1961) with 250 victories. Rocco’s coaching staff for 2023 includes: first base/catching coach Hank Conger, quality control coach Nate Dammann, assistant bench coach Tony Diaz, hitting coach Rudy Hernandez, pitching coach Pete Maki, bullpen coach Colby Suggs, hitting coach David Popkins, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez, assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon, bench coach Jayce Tingler and third base/outfield coach Tommy Watkins.

My day at the ballpark today

I went out to the Lee County Sports Complex this morning and there was not much going on. There were a couple of players doing some special work with a couple of coaches but when I left around Noon there were no other Twins players working out. Not sure where everyone was.

I wandered off to the minor league side where there was more activity but still a relatively small group of pitchers going through fielding drills. I watched for awhile and decided that I had enough and wandered over to my car. As I was putting my camera equipment away I heard a loud bang on the top of my car, what the heck? It turned out one of the players had hit a long foul ball that hit my car. Fortunately it caused no damage but it did attract a lot of attention from bystanders. A Twins employee saw it happen and picked up the ball that had rolled about 10 yards away and gave it to me saying “here is culprit that hit your car”.

I left a few minutes later and exited the back way onto Plantation Boulevard. Right after I made a right turn on to Plantation a long home run ball from one of the adjacent fields came flying over the fence and netting and bounced in my lane about 20 yards in front of my car just missing my car. Had I been about a second or two quicker a ball would have hit my car for the second time in less than 5 minutes. What the heck is up with that? Of all the times I have gone to the complex my car has never even been close to being hit and here it almost happened twice in 5 minutes. I am sure the players got a kick out of it but I didn’t have time to look and see.

That is my excitement for today. The good news is that exhibition games start tomorrow. I was able to pick up a schedule of the minor league games that will be played at the complex and a first copy of the Twins Minor League Spring Training Roster. There are a handful of players on the roster born in 2004, my goodness. We will take the week-end off and go back again next week.

What’s up at the ballpark you say?

Taking down Luis Arraez

I made my first trip out to the Lee County Sports Complex Tuesday morning to see what is going on out there before Spring Training starts. I had hoped to get out there back in early January to take in some of the Twins Fantasy Camp games and chat with some former Twins players that serve as team managers and coaches but I had a nasty cold for about two weeks that just didn’t want to go away so I thought it best to stay away.

When I got out to the complex today it was a beehive of activity from trucks delivering office equipment, landscaping activities going on around the complex (which actually withstood Hurricane Ian back in late September fairly well), a cherry picker taking a huge Luis Arraez images down from above the ticket office, to major and minor league players working out on numerous fields.

Louie Varland

On my walk to the back fields I noticed a player heading towards me and he looked familiar but I just couldn’t place him, it turned out to be Louie Varland and I got his picture, wished him good luck and embarrassingly I forget to introduce myself. How dumb is that? I didn’t make that mistake on all the other players I met today. This time of the year no one is wearing uniforms with numbers so it is often very hard to know who is who. What surprised me I guess is how many players are already here with pitchers throwing on at least three fields. Catchers all over the place and one of those catchers was Christian Vazquez. Looks to me like Vazquez is going to be an easy player to like as today he signed autographs for a group of people and posed for a picture for me, even went to the trouble of taking off his catching gear first. He reminded us “that I am number 8 and not number 7” and everyone got a good laugh including Christian in an obvious reference to Joe Mauer.

I met a gentleman on the back fields from Indiana by the name of Robert McCammon who is a retired school teacher and now spends winters in Florida and works part-time at Hammond Stadium during Spring Training. He grew up a Washington Senators fan and is now a Twins fan and last year he published a book called Walter Johnson Had No Idea. Twins President Dave St. Peter wrote the Forward for the book. I have a copy of the book and am anxious to read it since I just wrapped up my latest Baldacci novel yesterday.

It was so nice to be at the complex on a nice sunny day with temperatures in the low 70’s and watching people catching and throwing a baseball around again. It is a fun time of the year, no one has lost a game, no one is injured yet, no pressure on anyone to make the team, no trade rumors flying around and everyone is happy and in a good mood. How can you not love baseball at this time of the year. I took a number of other pictures that I will share with you in the next few days.

Update on 2/8 – You can see the rest of the 2023 Spring Training pictures here.

Twins and postseason play

Jack Morris

Here it is early February and Spring Training hasn’t even begun and I am writing a piece on the Minnesota Twins and the postseason. Believe me, I have no magic 8-ball and I am not here to predict the future, I am here to share some Twins postseason history with you and give you a chance to look and see who the Twins best and worst postseason players have been over the years. It can help fill some of your time before Spring Training starts.

The Minnesota Twins have not had much success in postseason play of late, but that is not news, is it? The Twins have been in the playoffs in 2020, 2019, 2017, 2010, 2009, 2006 and have not won a single game. I am not going to remind you here how many games in row that the Twins have lost in the playoffs. The last time they won a playoff game was in 2004 and the last time they won a playoff series goes back even further, not in 2004, or 2003 but in 2002 when they beat the Oakland A’s three games to two in the ALDS before losing to the Anaheim Angels in the ALCS four games to one.

Back in the old days there were no playoffs and the teams with the best records in each league (AL & NL) advanced to the World Series to determine the MLB champions. Who knows, maybe that was really the best and fairest way to crown a worthy MLB champion. It seems to me that the more teams that are in the playoffs, the lesser the chance, that the best team comes out the winner. But we are not discussing the merits of the playoffs here because as we know back in 1969 the playoffs came into existence and they have been changing and growing ever since and now we are at a point that six out of the 15 teams in each league make a playoff appearance and if it was up to Commissioner Rob Manfred there would be even more teams in the playoffs.

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