Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

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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Twins make-over at Target Field continues

According to a recent Minnesota Twins Press Release the following changes will take place at Target Field not to mention a new and much larger scoreboard that had been announced earlier.

Click on this link to see what it should all look like https://fb.watch/iqCv4uRNfV/

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins, in partnership with Dimensional Innovations, today unveiled designs for the newest, technologically-enhanced additions to the Target Field experience: An updated Minnie & Paul celebration sign with the words “Win! Twins!” rising above the ballpark in centerfield, and the club’s “TC” mark encased in a revolving, illuminated baseball medallion sitting atop the rightfield tower. These two elements, both featuring design and technology elements unique to the Twins and Target Field, will be put into place over the next two months and make their official debut during Minnesota’s 2023 Home Opener on Thursday, April 6.

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Mudcat Grant didn’t put up with racial bigotry

Jim “Mudcat” Grant

Jim Grant was generally considered an easy going likable person, but as the 1960 season drew to a close, his refusal to tolerate bigotry, more than a decade after Jackie Robinson had reintegrated the major leagues, had costly consequences as written about in the September, 28 1960 issue of The Sporting News by Hal Lebovitz who covered the Cleveland Indians for the baseball’s bible at the time.

Mudcat Grant SN 092860.pdf


The Indians held their minor-league camp in Daytona Beach and offered Grant a tryout. It was here that Mudcat became his name. “A guy named Leroy Bartow Irby saw me, decided I was from Mississippi and called me ‘Mudcat,’” recalled Grant. The nickname stuck and Grant came to embrace the name. Jim Grant signed with the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent prior to the 1954 season and started his career in C ball with the Fargo-Moorhead Twins (an omen?) at the age of 18. In his first four minor league seasons from 1954-1957 he started 95 games, pitched 828 innings, had 63 complete games and posted a record of 70-28 earning him a trip to Cleveland in 1958. Grant pitched for the Indians into the 1964 season, then spent 3-1/2 years with the Twins including posting two of Minnesota’s three wins over the Dodgers in losing the 1965 World Series. In the last four years of his major league career he pitched for the Dodgers, Expos, Cardinals, Pirates and A’s, leaving the big leagues after the 1971 season.

After his playing days, Mudcat was a television broadcaster for the Indians, Dodgers and A’s. Grant also wrote a book called The Black Aces: Baseball’s Only African-American Twenty-Game Winners. He has given back to baseball by serving on the board of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, on the Baseball Assistance Team and on the Major League Baseball Alumni Association. Jim Grant passed away on June 11, 2021 in Los Angeles at the age of 85.

Twins ticket prices up in 2023

Minnesota Twins single game tickets for the entire 2023 home schedule went on sale in mid-January and for the first few days the Twins even waived all ticket buying fees. Nice gesture but the fee gouging on ticket sales needs to stop. It is not just the Twins, it is across the board, selling tickets is a part of doing business and it should not be an extra charge thrown on top of already high ticket prices. Maybe the fee waiver for that short span of time was to try to cover the Minnesota Twins embarrassment for their ticket price increase of about 4.29% after a 2022 season in which they finished in third place with a 78-84 and 14 games behind the division winning Cleveland Guardians. Prices in 86 categories of 93 categories across all three tiers went up by anywhere from $1 to $5. The Twins are coming off their lowest attendance since 2001 excluding the the 2020-2021 season impacted by COVID.

Single Game Tickets

Tiered ticket pricing for single game tickets first started in Minnesota back in 2006 and over the years the Twins have had anywhere between two to five ticket tiers. In 2019 the Twins dropped back to three price tiers and that policy remains in place in 2023. Assuming, that all goes as planned there will again be 81 home games in Target Field, 65 of the 81 games (including the Home Opener) have been designated as “select” or middle of the road games while the “value” and “premium” tiers which each had 16 games last season dropped to 8 each in 2023.

The Twins continue to use demand-based ticket pricing that they implemented in 2012 and that means that ticket prices will fluctuate based on a variety of factors but will not drop beneath a floor price that season ticket holders pay. Some people call this variable or dynamic ticket pricing and is used by many sports teams but whatever you call it, it means digging deeper in your pocket for a ticket to the ballgame. Some folks look at it as scalping your own tickets. This process kicked in the day after single game tickets went on sale.

Average ticket prices for the various tiers in 2023

As I mentioned earlier Minnesota Twins single game ticket prices for 2023 went up in most (86 of 93) ticket categories. When all is said and done an average ticket price for 2022 was $38.94 and in 2023 the average ticket price is $40.61, an average increase of $1.67 per ticket or 4.29%.  Ticket prices in 2023 went up 4.71% in the “value” category, 4.29% in the “select” category and 4.04% in the “premium” category. If you want to see the details, stop by our Twins Ticket Price History page.

Minnesota Twins and the playoffs

The Twins have been playing baseball in Minnesota for 62 seasons and have played 9,803 games, winning 4,867 games and losing 4,936 games for a winning percentage of .496 and have advanced to the playoffs 14 times or 22.6% of the time.

Maybe we should not be that surprised, the Washington Senators who moved from Washington D.C. after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins had a .465 winning percentage. Year after year, the Senators were a laughingly bad team, prompting famed sportswriter Charley Dryden to joke: “Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.” The Senators played in Washington for 60 seasons and won 3 pennants (1924, 1925, & 1933) and won one World Series title in 1924. In that regard the Twins it seems are not much better having played for 62 seasons and won 3 pennants (1965, 1987, & 1991) but they have won two World Series titles, in 1987 and again 1991.

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Twins announce 2023 Spring Training invites

The Minnesota Twins announced today that 25 players on minor league contracts have been invited to major league spring training in 2023.

Joining the Twins will be nine pitchers: left-handers Danny Coulombe and Evan Sisk; right-handers José De León, Randy Dobnak, Blayne Enlow, Cody Laweryson, Patrick Murphy, Austin Schulfer and Brock Stewart; six catchers: David Bañuelos, Jair Camargo, Chance Sisco, Grayson Greiner, Chris Williams and Tony Wolters; seven infielders: Andrew Bechtold, Michael Helman, Austin Martin, Brooks Lee, Aaron Sabato, Elliot Soto and Tyler White; and three outfielders: Willi Castro, Mark Contreras and Ryan LaMarre.

Of the 25 players invited to camp, 13 have major league service time: Willi Castro (Detroit), Mark Contreras (Minnesota), Danny Coulombe (Los Angeles-NL, Minnesota and Oakland), José De León (Cincinnati, Los Angeles-NL and Tampa Bay), Randy Dobnak (Minnesota), Grayson Greiner (Arizona and Detroit), Ryan LaMarre (Boston, Chicago-AL, Cincinnati, Minnesota, New York-AL and Oakland), Patrick Murphy (Toronto and Washington), Chance Sisco (Baltimore and New York-NL), Elliot Soto (Los Angeles-AL and Minnesota), Brock Stewart (Los Angeles-NL and Toronto), Tyler White (Houston and Los Angeles-NL), and Tony Wolters (Chicago-NL, Colorado and Los Angeles-NL).

Twins pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report on Wednesday, February 15, while position players are scheduled to report on Sunday, February 19. The first full-squad workout is scheduled to take place on Monday, February 20.

Former Twins “fireman” Bill Campbell passes away at the age of 74

Bill Campbell took a last look around Met Stadium in 1976 before leaving the Twins as a free agent. Star Tribune File Photo

Bill Campbell was born on August 9, 1948 in Highland Park, Michigan. Campbell passed away on January 6, 2023 in the Chicago, Illinois area where he was under hospice care after a long battle with brain cancer.

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Twins players that left us in 2022

As another year goes in the books we need to look back and remember the Minnesota Twins players that left us this past year. The players may be gone but the memories will always be there.

Fred Lasher

Fred Lasher was born in Poughkeepsie, NY on August 19, 1941 and passed away at the age of 80 in Altoona, Wisconsin on February 27, 2022. As a youngster, Fred played various positions and was a fine hitter. He batted and threw right-handed. But while at Poughkeepsie High School, Fred began to concentrate on pitching. Ultimately, he became a star pitcher for the Poughkeepsie High School baseball team. Major League Baseball had not yet conducted its inaugural free agent draft of amateur baseball players. As a result, Fred was free to sign with any professional team after graduation from high school. At 6-foot-4 and a hard thrower, he attracted the interest of numerous MLB teams. Eventually, in 1960 he signed with the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent. The Senators eventually became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. Lasher pitching for Wytheville, a Class D Appalachian League team. Lasher made his major league debut at age 21 at Memorial Stadium in Kansas City on April 12, 1963. The Twins lost the game, but Lasher contributed by pitching a scoreless inning. Lasher pitched 9.1 innings for the Twins, but control issue brought about his demotion to the Charlotte Hornets in the South Atlantic League. It turned out that his Twins carrer was over after the 1963 season in which he appeared in just 11 games and had a 0-0 won/lost record. Lasher went on to play with the Tigers, Indians and very briefly with the Angels and his big league career was over after six seasons in 1971. After retiring from baseball, Fred operated a drywall company and served as a recreation therapist for youth with drug and alcohol problems. His obituary in Ripbaseball.com is an interesting read.

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Where is that pitching that Falvey was going to fix?

Falvey and Levine with credit to MN Twins

Doing a little research on the state of Minnesota Twins pitching under the Derek Falvey & Thad Levine regime from 2017 to current. These gents were brought in because they were supposedly going to turn around the Twins pitching woes. Let’s see how they are progressing.

There is never any “perfect” way to compare players or teams but I use WAR for other comparisons and I will use it again here. Here is how the Twins pitching staff compared to other pitching staffs across MLB. Keep in mind we are ranking entire pitching staffs and not starting rotations here.

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Top 20 pitching seasons by a Twins pitcher

Bert Blyleven

The Minnesota Twins have played baseball for 62 seasons and they have had 273 different pitchers start one or more games for them. The number drops to 26 pitchers having started 100 or more games, just six having started 200 or more, three at 300 or more and only Jim Kaat started over 400 or 422 to be exact.

Pitching has not exactly been the Twins strength over the years, the team has been known for producing hitters. But the Twins have had a number of very good pitchers with Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat in the MLB Hall of Fame. The Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame includes pitchers Blyleven, Kaat, Frank Viola, Rick Aguilera, Brad Radke, Jim Perry, Camilo Pascual, Eddie Guardado, Johan Santana and Joe Nathan. Three of the inductee’s were relievers.

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