VOTING ENDS MAY 8, 2015
Category: General Blogging
This is a general blogging category.
Shutouts – For and against the Twins
Twins shutout leaders (8 or more innings)
| Rk | Player | #Matching | W | L | GS | IP | H | BB | SO | SB | CS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bert Blyleven | 29 | 29 | 0 | 29 | 263.0 | 132 | 42 | 209 | 0.66 | 11 | 17 |
| 2 | Jim Kaat | 23 | 23 | 0 | 23 | 208.0 | 131 | 25 | 124 | 0.75 | 3 | 5 |
| 3 | Camilo Pascual | 18 | 18 | 0 | 18 | 162.0 | 78 | 33 | 144 | 0.69 | 5 | 1 |
| 4 | Jim Perry | 17 | 17 | 0 | 17 | 153.0 | 83 | 29 | 95 | 0.73 | 2 | 4 |
| 5 | Frank Viola | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 90.0 | 49 | 16 | 59 | 0.72 | 2 | 8 |
| 6 | Brad Radke | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 90.0 | 45 | 8 | 54 | 0.59 | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | Mudcat Grant | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 90.0 | 52 | 17 | 43 | 0.77 | 1 | 4 |
| 8 | Dave Goltz | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 90.0 | 37 | 19 | 67 | 0.62 | 3 | 3 |
| 9 | Dean Chance | 9 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 81.0 | 36 | 15 | 71 | 0.63 | 3 | 1 |
| 10 | Geoff Zahn | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 63.0 | 37 | 10 | 38 | 0.75 | 0 | 2 |
| 11 | Scott Erickson | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 63.0 | 18 | 15 | 31 | 0.52 | 1 | 0 |
A couple trivia questions for you today.
1. What two pitchers have shutout the Twins the most frequently and how many shutouts did they have against the boys from Minnesota?
2. What opposing pitcher threw the most shutouts against the Twins at Met Stadium and how many did he have?
3. What opposing pitcher threw the most shutouts against the Twins at the Metrodome and how many did he have?
The answers are:
1. Gaylord Perry and Steve Hargan each shut out the Twins five times.
2. Jim Bouton shut out Minnesota three times at the Met.
3. Scott Erickson shut out the Twins three times at the Metrodome.
Time to see what the baseball crystal ball has to say for 2015
The 2015 MLB season finally opens later today when the Chicago Cubs host the St. Louis Cardinals. So that means I had better get my predictions done here and now. Normally I try to do these predictions about a week or so before the season opens but the last couple of weeks I have had some computer problems and that has limited my postings on this site. This is my second hard drive crash in the last 11 months, what is up with that? Apparently just writing about the Twins brings bad luck. Luckily I have a back-up laptop with me but it doesn’t have all my images and tools that my original laptop has on it plus it is much sloooooower. So let’s get to it before something happens to this laptop.
The first thing we have to do of course is look at our Minnesota Twins. We have a new manager in Paul Molitor and a number of new coaches but we don’t have enough new and younger players. I think the Twins will break down and bring up Eddie Rosario, Trevor May, Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, and Jose Berrios before the All-Star game. Some may be just for a look-see but others won’t see the minor league busses again. Before the Ervin Santana suspension was announced I had the Twins finishing at 78-84, now I am not so optimistic. After consulting with the numbers experts here is what we came up with.
…………………………………..
NL East
1. Washington Nationals
2. Florida Marlins (wild card)
3. New York Mets
4. Atlanta Braves
5. Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central
1. Pittsburgh Pirates
2. St. Louis Cardinals (wild card)
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. Milwaukee Brewers
5. Chicago Cubs
NL West
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. San Francisco Giants
3. San Diego Padres
4. Colorado Rockies
5. Arizona Diamondbacks
AL East
1. Toronto Blue Jays
2. Boston Red Sox (wild card)
3. Baltimore Orioles
4. New York Yankees
5. Tampa Rays
AL Central
1. Cleveland Indians
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Kansas City Royals
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Minnesota Twins
AL West
1. Seattle Mariners
2. Los Angeles Angeles (wild card)
3. Texas Rangers
4. Oakland A’s
5. Houston Astros
World Series
Nationals over the Mariners
Santana suspension shock to Twins and to Twins fans
I was out on the back fields of the CenturyLink Sports Complex on Friday afternoon watching the Twins AA and AAA teams take on the Red Sox AA and AAA teams. Both games started about 1 PM but I was particularly interested in the AA Chattanooga game and was surprised to see Mark Hamburger start the game for Doug Mientkiewicz ‘s gang. I was disappointed that Miguel Sano was not playing but Byron Buxton, Adam Walker, and Max Kepler all played. Once of the hardest hit balls in that game was a bullet line drive over the head of the Red Sox minor leaguer center fielder off the bat of Max Kepler who was DHing in this game. I had asked Max earlier how his arm was doing and he said it was good but obviously management is still not ready to play him in the field, at least they didn’t on this particular day. Kepler has a beautiful level swing and line drives just shoot off his bat, with his size if he applied some lift to the ball he would hit a bunch of home runs.
The crowd watching the games was pretty small, the players not playing in either game and sitting in the stands watching the games out numbered the fans by about five to one. As normal GM Terry Ryan, with stop watch in hand was standing between the two fields and keeping an eye on both games. I decided to give the poor guy a break today and not bother him with my questions and comments. About 2 or 2:30 PM I looked over where Ryan had been standing and he was nowhere to be seen. That seemed very unusual to me because Ryan always seems to be out there when games are under way on the back fields, he seldom leaves before the games end. After a couple of hours in the hot sun I decided I had seen enough and headed home myself.
Around 5:30 PM I sat down on my PC to look at some of the pictures I had taken at the ballpark when I was shocked to see a report that Twins pitcher Ervin Santana had been suspended for 80 games for PED use. There was no chatter about this at the ballpark earlier and news like this would have spread like a wild-fire. Shortly there after Press Releases were flying in every direction. MLB had their PR announcing the suspension, the Twins had their PR statement on the suspension, The Twins sent out another PR on the recall of Aaron Thompson and of course Santana had his own PR through the players union which actually seemed to have a time stamp even before the official MLB PR regarding his suspension. I don’t know how the process works for these kinds of deals but MLB must give the player and team a heads up on what is coming in an upcoming PR and then at the agreed upon time everyone hits the send button on their press releases.
This suspension is a killer for everyone, Santana himself, the Twins team, and of course the fans. Santana loses about $6.5 million, the team loses a good starting pitcher, and the fans lose even more hope in a team that wasn’t expected to be in the playoff hunt but had hopes of at least making a run at .500 baseball.
Now as the new season is about to begin and fans all across Twins Territory prepare to watch their new team strut their stuff in 2015 this suspension strikes clear out of the blue and Twins haters come firing out of the woodwork to blame Ervin Santana and the Twins organization. I am not saying Santana is innocent here but who knows for sure if he took this on purpose or if he indeed did take it without knowing he did so. I haven’t heard any whispers about Santana and PED’s previously so I am willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt here. Still it hurts to lose a pitcher of his caliber for half the season.
How can you blame the Twins organization for this? They obviously would not have gone after Santana and paid him the money they did if they had any idea that something like this would happen. But yet it is another ding on team that has been barely treading water since 2010. The Twins have had their share of bad luck, injuries, and bad decisions by management. Twins fans are grasping for anything that will show them that there is reason for hope but it seems like when the Twins take a step forward they also take a step back and it is hard to get anywhere at that pace. The ballclub is mired in this muck and their only hope is their cadre of young future stars that are banging on the clubhouse door. The Twins have spent the last year or two bragging about the potential of their farm system and most everyone in baseball agrees that the Twins have some young stars in the wings but yet the Twins keep signing mediocre players to play at Target field and keep sending the young guns to Rochester and Chattanooga.
It is like a poker game, you can only bluff so long before you have to put your cards on the table and show us what you got. I think it is a bunch of BS that you can bring up a young player too soon and traumatize him to the point that he will never be the player that they could have been with another year or two in the minors. The guys have played baseball their entire lives and they have had their share of butt-kickings, losses, and lessons learned, another humiliation or two at the big league level won’t kill them. What is the old saying? What doesn’t kill you helps to build your character. Football and basketball have no problems bringing kids straight to the big leagues when warranted, why can’t baseball do more of this? I think it is time for the Twins to bring their young studs to the table and let Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Alex Meyer, Trevor May, and Jose Berrios play some ball at Target Field. Give us Twins fans a reason to come to the ballpark and see something new instead of the same old wait until next year crap. The Twins can’t spend $250 million dollars on player salaries so they have to look for new and creative ways to be competitive, maybe the old tried and proven older methods needs to be tossed out on their ear and some new radical ideas need to be tried. What have you got to lose? Loyalty and experience are great but if you have young players that appear to be better than what you have on the big league club, why not give the young guns a chance to prove they are what you think and say they are.
So Mr. Ryan, do yourself and all of us Twins fans a favor and bring up these young stars sooner than later because every hit they get at Chattanooga or Rochester is one less hit they will get in Minnesota. If these guys show us they can’t pitch or hit at the big league level then we are ahead of the game, we know something that we didn’t know before. Potential is worth nothing unless it can be realized. Taking Mike Pelfrey from the bullpen and putting him in the starting rotation again isn’t exactly trying something new, how can you expect something new and better when you keep doing the same old things?
How in the h*&@ does Herrmann make the 25 man roster?
The Twins 25 man roster appears to be set and Chris Herrmann is the back-up catcher. How does that happen? There is probably no nicer guy that Chris Herrmann but what is he doing making the Minnesota Twins 25 man roster going into the season opener just a few days away.
I need some help understanding how this could have happened. I know that the back-up catcher is not going to make or break the team in 2015 but I would like to understand the logic in this move. Nobody owes me an explanation, I understand that, but this move just seems like one of the dumbest moves the Twins have made in some time. I used to wonder if Nick Punto had some dirt on then manager Ron Gardenhire but now I have to wonder what Herrmann has on Paul Molitor and Terry Ryan. The other candidates for this role on the team were Josmil Pinto and Eric Fryer.
Eric Fryer is the oldest at 29 and he is primarily a catcher although Baseball-Reference lists him as a catcher/outfielder. That is kind of bogus as Fryer has appeared in just two games in the outfield for the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 2012 and the Twins have not used him as anything but a catcher. The case can be made that Fryer is the best catcher of the trio of candidates and he can hit a bit (career .246 average) but with little to no power. If the Twins brain trust were interested in just having a good back-stop then Fryer was their guy.
Josmil Pinto is already 26 and is by far the best hitter of the trio but pretty much everyone agrees that his work behind the plate still needs improvement, then again what players name could you bring up that doesn’t need improvement in some phase of his game. Pinto has a career average of .257 but he also has 11 home runs in just 78 games. Pinto has had injury issues this spring and that set him back for sure but unless the man is not in good enough shape to play, he should have been on the Twins roster.
The 27-year-old Chris Herrmann is a catcher by trade but the Twins also use him in the outfield and at first base. Herrmann has the most big league experience of this group having played in 97 games but his career average is .196 with four home runs. Herrmann’s is neither a good hitter nor a great defensive catcher but he brings flexibility to the table. But I have to ask you this, what good is flexibility in your back-up catcher when you carry only two catchers? The idea is that he is your back-up catcher, he is not going to play outfield or first base. The Twins have first base and the outfield covered, do you use him as the DH? Why? You have plenty of players that can be the DH that can hit better than Herrmann. There is ZERO logic in having Herrmann be the back-up catcher on this team.
I know that in a couple of weeks that Herrmann will be in Rochester and Pinto will be in Minnesota barring some kind of injury to Pinto but it drives me crazy when the Twins make cockamamy moves like this. I understand that this ballclub has far more serious issues than who the back-up catcher will be but this moves just jumps out at me and screams WHY? If you know why, tell me because I need help here.
Former Twins outfielder Riccardo Ingram passes away
Former Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers outfielder Riccardo Ingram passed away after a lengthy battle with brain cancer at the age of 48 on March 31. Ingram was born in Douglas, Georgia on September 10, 1966.
Riccardo Ingram was a fourth round selection by the Detroit Tigers in the 1987 June amateur draft and made his major league debut with the Tigers on June 26, 1994 in Oakland-Alameda County Stadium as a pinch-runner for Cecil Fielder as the Oakland A’s beat the Tigers 10-5. Ingram appeared in a dozen games for the Tigers that season and then left the Tigers organization as a free agent after the 1994 season and signed with the Minnesota Twins. Ingram’s time with the Minnesota Twins in July of 1995 was brief and he appeared in just four games and had one hit and one RBI in eight at bats. Ingram left Minnesota after the 1995 season and spent 1996 with the San Diego Padres AAA Las Vegas Stars team before retiring after the season ended.
Ingram was offered and accepted a minor league coaching position with the Twins organization after retiring as an active player and spent the next 18 seasons coaching and managing in the Twins system. Ingram managed the GCL Twins, Fort Myers Miracle, and the New Britain Rock Cats and was well liked by his players and members of the Twins organization. alike Ingram was apparently a great story-teller and fun to be around. In 2009 Ingram suffered from severe headaches and was diagnosed with a brain tumor, the prognosis was grim as doctors gave him just a year to live. Ingram battled the brain tumor for a year before returning to coaching in the Twins system. Ingram was a coach for the Fort Myers Miracle in 2014 but as the year progressed he learned that his cancer had returned.
“Every year, he used to meet with our pitchers,” said Eric Rasmussen, who was Ingram’s pitching coach with the Miracle in 2005 and is now the Twins minor league pitching coordinator. “He’d gather them all together, and he’d say: “You have got one job to do. Throw the ball over the plate.” “And then he’d leave.”
Before becoming a professional baseball player, Ingram was a star football and baseball player at Georgia Tech and is a member of the Georgia Tech’s Sports Hall of Fame. He was the first Georgia Tech player to be named the Atlantic Coast Conference’s male athlete of the year. He was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference defensive back in 1986 before leading the Yellow Jackets to the 1987 ACC baseball championship.
Riccardo Benay Ingram is survived by his wife, Allison, and their two children – Kacey and Kristen. RIP Riccardo Ingram, you will be missed.
The Twins shortstop dilemma
In 2014 Eduardo Escobar took over as the Twins regular shortstop in spite of team’s attempts to give the job to a number of other players. Escobar responded by playing well in the field and better than expected at the plate by hitting .275 with 35 doubles and six home runs in 433 at bats. Escobar does not steal many bases, not sure why that is, and his OBP was only .315. Escobar is a fun player to watch and when he plays he seems to make the team around him play better.
This spring the 26 year-old Escobar has the second most at bats of anyone on the team and he is hitting .319 with three home runs and a team leading 14 RBI but his OBP is only .313. What you see is what you get with the popular Escobar, he will never be an on base machine but he plays well in the field and he has some pop in his bat. Although Escobar prefers shortstop, he has also played 3B, 2B, and he can play some outfield in a pinch.
The Twins however; seem to have their heart set on Danny Santana becoming the teams regular shortstop. The 24 year-old Santana is also a natural shortstop but the Twins threw him out in to center field last year and he responded well by playing good defense for someone with so little outfield experience and with the stick he was even better with a .319 average and seven home runs, 40 RBI and 20 stolen bases in just 405 at bats at the big league level. When you add in his .353 OBP, primarily from the lead-off spot you are looking at a pretty nice rookie season for the young switch-hitter. I know manager Paul Molitor would like to see his lead-off hitter with a .370 or so OBP but Santana is still very young and he probably will raise his OBP as he matures.
Meanwhile, back in the black hole the Twins call center field no one has stepped up and taken the reins to win the job since the Twins traded both Denard Span and Ben Revere after the 2012 season. The team has tried to give the job to Aaron Hicks for the last several seasons and this year he was expected to at least play center in a platoon role but just the other day the team sent him packing to look for a home in AAA Rochester. Everyone knows that center field will be the new home of Byron Buxton in the very near future so the Twins are only looking for s place holder for that role until Buxton shows up to claim his spot. By sending Hicks down the Twins seem to be saying that Jordan Schafer and Shane Robinson will share the center field job. Personally, I think that by All-Star time Buxton will be patrolling center field at Target Field.
The Twins claim they want to be a better team, but who doesn’t. I am not sure I understand the Twins logic in playing Schafer/Robinson in center, Santana at short, and Escobar in a utility role. To me it makes more sense to play Santana in center five days a week and two days a week at short and play Escobar at short when Santana is in the outfield. It seems to me that I would prefer Escobar in the line-up most of the time over a Schafer or Robinson. I understand that Santana needs to continue playing some shortstop if that is going to be his long-term position. I love Santana in my line-up but has he proven he can play short in the big leagues? Not on a long-term basis. Assuming that Buxton really is the knight in shining armor and will coming riding in to Target Field on his white horse before September of 2015 why not get the best sticks in the line-up.
Both Danny Santana and Eduardo Escobar deserve and have earned more playing time than Jordan Schafer and Shane Robinson and it’s time for the Twins to man up and put their best players on the field. It will be best for the team and for us fans that pay good money to buy the tickets to watch this team play ball.
One things that really bugs me is when Twins management and Twins fans complain that this player can’t do this and he can’t do that. Everyone is always looking for a player with all five tools. What the hell are they thinking? How many five tool guys are there in the big leagues playing ball today? They are rare as hen’s teeth, they are perennial all-star’s and future Hall of Famers, they don’t grow on trees. If you find one each decade you are doing great. Most big league players have flaws, canker sores, warts and other issues. We all have to quit thinking that every player the Twins bring up has to be the next Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Jim Kaat, Johan Santana, or Kirby Puckett.
There is nothing wrong with good baseball players that have some warts. Twins management needs to realize that it is OK for some of these young players to come up to Minnesota with shortcomings in their game that they can improve on and learn from while they earn big league dollars. Not everyone can do it all, so don’t keep waiting on perfection.
Twins Hodgepodge
The blog C70 at the Bat has an annual event where they check in with bloggers from other teams to talk about the past off-season and the up-coming season which they call Playing Pepper. This has been going on for a number of years and I have participated for the last few year. Here is what a number of Twins bloggers had to say in Playing Pepper 2015 – Minnesota Twins.
I know that spring training stats don’t mean squat but if you go by the numbers they have put up so far this spring the Twins bullpen is in for a long season and pitching coach Neil Allen and manager Paul Molitor will wear a path from the dugout to the pitching mound. Hopefully they are not nearly as bad as they have shown us so far this spring.
The Twins keep playing the 27-year-old Chris Herrmann this spring and the way I see it they are showcasing him and trying to do him a favor and move him. I have talked with Herrmann a number of time over the last few years and you could not meet a nicer guy. The Twins are using Herrmann in the outfield, first base, DH and at catcher. It is good to be able to play a variety of roles but it is the catchers gear that will prolong Herrmann’s career in the big leagues and he wants to be considered a catcher because he understands that ordinary utility players are a dime a dozen. I believe the Twins feel that Herrmann has no future with the Twins but they want to reward him for his loyalty but showcasing him and moving him this spring to a team that is looking for a back-up catcher that can also play several other positions. Herrmann is what he is and his skills are not going to change at this point in his career, he just needs to find a team looking for his skills. I wish Chris the best but baseball can be cruel.
I am disappointed in how little the Twins have run this spring under their new skipper. The team stolen base leaders so far are Aaron Hicks and Eduardo Nunez with two and the team has stolen a total of seven bases in 11 attempts. Oddly enough speedster Jordan Schafer has been caught three times in four attempts.
My biggest disappointment so far this spring? That would be reliever Tim Stauffer, I expected a lot more but it is still early.
I still have hope that the Twins will some how find a way to take a serious look at Eddie Rosario as the Twins center fielder in 2015.
One of Twins top prospects shut down
This past Wednesday I heard that one of the Twins top prospects, Max Kepler had injured his arm during a morning workout. The early diagnosis was a Flexor Pronator Strain and a MRI the following day confirmed the diagnosis. The good news is that there is no tear but the bad news is that Max had a similar arm injury last season. Kepler works very hard to stay in shape year round but has had some bad injury luck the last couple of years that have limited him to 61 games in 2013 and 102 games last season. When I asked Twins management about the injury to Kepler their comment was “just a tight forearm”.
Kepler, who turned 22 recently was signed by Minnesota in 2009 and can play all three outfield positions as well as first base has been in the Twins minor league system since 2010. Kepler was hoping to start this season with Chattanooga and is very disappointed with his latest injury. A lot of people including myself were expecting a breakout season from Max in 2015 and he may still have that but it will start later than he would have wanted. I understand that Kepler has been shut down and will start rehabbing his injury this coming week but expectations are that he could be out 3-4 weeks. A very tough break for one of my favorite players in the Minnesota Twins system.
Checking in with the Twins
When you visit the CenturyLink Sports complex when there are no games going on it can be kind of boring. I know, I know, I have nothing to complain about as I watch the Twins prepare for a new season in the 80 degree sunshine that SW Florida provides. When I got to the ballpark I ran into Seth Stohs from Twins Daily who had just arrived a day earlier and we chatted for a while. The Twins were playing the Pirates up in Bradenton so the remaining crew of Twins players back in Fort Myers was made up primarily of starting pitchers and a few position players that didn’t make the trip like Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter and Eduardo Nunez.
The minor league players hadn’t reported yet although I believe they are scheduled to report today. With the minor league group reporting it would mean that it is time for the Twins to announce their first group of cuts which I believe will be announced later today.
As I was leaving the minor league fields I happened to see former Twins skipper Tom Kelly sauntering back from the minor league complex to Hammond Stadium bat in hand. I said hello and asked about his health as we walked back. TK told me he was not 100% as yet but was getting stronger everyday. He told me about how his doctor had literally “gotten in his face” and told him to rest and do nothing after he was released from the hospital. Of course TK being who he is couldn’t sit still for long but he found out quickly that the doctor knew what he was talking about and since then TK has listened to the doctor and abided by his wishes. The doctor told him it would probably take about 6 months to get back to where he was before the stroke and the 6 month mark is coming up soon. As we got closer to the stadium more fans recognized TK and soon a group had gathered for pictures and autographs with the Twins legend. I continue to be amazed at how Tom Kelly has mellowed over the years. Good for you TK, stay healthy because the Twins and their fans need you.
As always I managed to get some pictures of the action for you down here and you can check them out on the right hand side of the page under the 2015 Spring Training link.