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
The Minnesota Twins announced late yesterday that they acquired right-handed pitchers Sergio Romo and Chris Vallimont, along with a player to be named later from the Miami Marlins, in exchange for first baseman Lewin Diaz.
Twins acquire Sergio Romo, Chris Vallimont and a PTBNL from Miami in exchange for Lewin Diaz
Some time ago I saw that Derek Falvey was quoted as saying and I translate loosely here that-
At the trade deadline you are required to make some moves. If you are out of the race you should make some trades to improve your team by acquiring young talent. If you are in the race you need to make some moves to make your team better for the push to the play-offs and beyond. Standing-pat is not an option.
To me that makes perfect sense and I don’t know why every team does not do this. Now in the next handful of days we will see if Falvey and his partner-in-crime Thad Levine will walk their talk. The Twins are surely in the race and since no team is perfect, there is always room for improvement. Pitching is always in demand and the Twins bullpen has been purged lately of relievers Adalberto Mejia, Mike Morin, Matt Magill and Blake Parker. The starting rotation is starting to wobble as of late and the Twins could use an ace to lead their rotation and take some pressure off Jose Berrios.
But as the old saying goes, you have to give up something to get something and that is always tough. Personally I have no issue with trading prospects for a proven commodity that will stay in your organization. I am not a fan of trading for a short-term rental player. Having said that, I would not consider trading a number one overall pick like Royce Lewis. Keep in mind though that there are always new and better prospects. Prospects don’t always come to fruition and players you did not see as a prospect develop over-night and become big leaguers.
There are also certain players like Luis Arraez that I wouldn’t trade unless the deal was a real steal. Arraez is the kind of player that the Twins need in the long run, a young guy that can get on base, the Twins don’t have many of these kinds of players and they don’t come around often.
The next week or so will be interesting for sure, bring it on Mr. Falvey and Mr. Levine.
Pressly’s Tear: RHP Ryan Pressly has been scoreless in his last 32 games (30.1IP), the longest scoreless appearance streak in club history and the longest scoreless innings streak by a reliever in club history. Overall, Pressly’s streak of 30.1 consecutive scoreless innings is the fourth-longest in club history, behind a 32.1 IP streak by RHP Roy Oswalt in 2008
and two separate 31.0-inning streaks put together by RHP J.R. Richard (1979-80 and in 1980).
At the trading deadline last season, Houston acquired RHP Ryan Pressly from Minnesota
in exchange for RHP Jorge Alcala and OF Gilberto Celestino…since the trade, Pressly has posted a 0.50 ERA (2 ER/35.2IP) in 37 games as the Astros setup man. Source: Astros GameNotes
We will have to wait and see if Alcala or Celestino can save Derek Falvey’s and/or Thad Levine’s bacon.
The Twins announced today that they have traded first baseman Tyler Austin to the San Francisco Giants and received 22-year old minor league outfielder Malique Ziegler in return.
Ziegler was a Giants 22nd round pick in the June 2016 amateur draft and started his pro career that same year in the Arizona Rookie League. Ziegler a right-handed outfielder started this season with the Advanced A league San Jose Giants but the Twins have not announced as yet where he will play. Speed seems to be Ziegler’s game but you can’t steal first base and his career .245 average needs to improve.
Austin who is 27, was acquired from the New York Yankees along with pitcher Luis Rijo at the trade deadline last season in the Lance Lynn trade. Austin appeared in 35 games in 2018 and in 2 games this season for the Twins and hit for a .236 average with 9 home runs while striking out 45 times in 127 AB’s.
The Twins made a very nice addition to their starting rotation when they acquired pitcher Jake Odorizzi from the Tampa Rays for minor league shortstop Jermaine Palacios yesterday. Odorizzi, 27, has a career 3.83 ERA in 129 appearances (126 starts) since 2012 and he has struck out 643, walked 232 and allowed 101 homers in 705 1/3 innings. The 21-year-old Palacios played shortstop for A ball Cedar Rapids and High A Ft. Myers in 2017. Most of the experts had Palacios ranked somewhere between the 20th and 30th best Twins prospect. Palacios is known more for his hitting than he is his fielding
This will be the fourth big league organization for Odorizzi who was a first round pick by the Brewers in 2008 but was traded to the Royals in 2010. The Royals traded Odorizzi to the Rays in 2012. Odorizzi will make $6.3 million this year and can become a free agent in 2020.
Kind of an unusual footnote here is that having back to back zz’s in your name isn’t all that common yet Jake Odorizzi joins former Twins Steve Lombardozzi, Sam Perlozzo, Buzz Stephen, Mauro Gozzo and Keith Garagozzo in this unusual club.
I am not one to usually comment about trade rumors but this one peaked my interests because it involves one of the Twins starting outfielders, Max Kepler. Rumor has it that the Tampa Rays have stated they are interested in Kepler in any trades for Rays pitchers like Chris Archer or Jake Odorizzi, both right-handed.
I have been a Kepler fan since the Twins signed him back in 2009. Kepler made his big league debut as a September call-up in 2015 and appeared in just three games but became a regular in 2016. Kepler, who will turn 25 in a few days has appeared in 263 games, mostly in right field and hit 36 home runs and posted a .239 average but has sometimes struggled against lefties. Defensively Kepler is above average and plays in center now and then. I am a bit baffled so far by Kepler’s average because this guy should be hitting closer to .300 but he has changed his swing working to get more elevation, I am not sure this is the right approach for Kepler who has a great level swing and will hit around 20 home runs just because he is that strong. Kepler has a history of needing a bit of time to adapt to new leagues and he could have a break-out year in 2018, then again he might not and his value will tank.
The Twins tasted the playoffs in 2018, maybe a little earlier than they should have and now everyone thinks they are well on their way but the Twins have serious starting pitching deficiencies and so far have done nothing to fix that problem and just yesterday they announced that Ervin Santana had surgery on his pitching hand and will be out 10-12 weeks. That means that by the time he comes back and gets in pitching shape the season will be 1/3 over.
So what do you do? Possibly mortgage the future by trading Kepler for Chris Archer or Jake Odorizzi? Odorizzi who will turn 28 in late March has pitched in the big leagues for the last six seasons and was originally a Brewers first round selection in 2008 but was traded to the Royals in the Zack Greinke trade and then traded to Tampa in the Wil Myers trade. Odorizzi made $4,1 million last year and will not be a free agent until 2020. Odorizzi strikes out 8.2 batters per nine innings and would be a great fit in the Twins rotation.
Archer is 29 and also has pitched in the big leagues for six seasons, all for Tampa and his history is similar to Odorizzi but he was a fifth round pick by the Indians and traded to the Cubs who then traded him to Tampa in the Matt Garza deal in 2011. Archer is a two-time All-Star who strikes out batter at a clip of 9.7 per nine innings. He is signed through 2020 for about $14 million with team options for 2021 and 2022 for $20 million.
If I am going to trade for one of these guys and I have a choice, I take Chris Archer but I would love to see either one of these guys in the Twins rotation and as much as I like Kepler I would trade him for either one of these pitchers straight up. Why? Because the Twins have a history of finding and developing hitters, pitchers not so much. It is about time the Twins pushed some of their chips to the middle of the table and take some calculated risks. You have a known weakness, you at least have to try to fix it. Sitting back and waiting is not the answer. It is time for Derek Falvey and Thad Levine to show us their hand.
The MLB non-waiver trade deadline of July 31 is coming up fast, just slightly over a month away. I am an old-timer, I admit it, I miss the good old days when baseball trades were made based on the skills of the players and the needs of your ball club. Today it is about the money, how long you can control the player, no trade clauses, free agency and who knows what else. Today’s star players are often traded for minor league players with potential for the future. I hate those kind of trades because you are giving up a known commodity for a player or players that might be a star in the future, you are giving up a sure thing for a maybe. But that is baseball today so we need to accept it and move on.
What about our Minnesota Twins, what will they do? I think the Twins find themselves in a very difficult position. The team is winning just enough to stay in the weak AL Central Division race but yet I think management realizes that this is not a playoff team. On the other hand, their attendance and fan interest has been falling since 2010 and they can ill afford to send up the white flag and signal the start of another rebuild process. So what do you do, buy, sell, or do nothing? So what are the odds that the team will make some moves prior to the trade deadline?
This will be the first trade deadline for the Twins under the Derek Falvey and Thad Levine regime so there is no real track record to go on. The Twins have players that would interest other teams and they also have players like Miguel Sano, Max Kepler and Jose Berrios that they won’t trade. The team listened to offers for second baseman Brian Dozier all winter and when all was said and done and decided to keep him. The ace of the starting staff Ervin Santana, 34, would be a nice pick-up for a contender but can a team as pitching starved as the Twins afford to give him up? Some would argue that the Twins can’t afford not to trade him because he is having a great season, maybe a career season and he is signed at a very team friendly deal through 2018 with a team option in 2019.
No matter who the team trades they need to get pitching in return and acquiring pitching is such a risky proposition. It is almost a damned if you do and damned if you don’t scenario.
So what is my best guess? I would say that the team will move Ervin Santana, Robbie Grossman and probably some minor league players for pitching. If you go by what Falvey and Levine did this past winter, they will do nothing and wait for their young players to get better.
The rumors of the Minnesota Twins trading their 29 year-old power hitting second baseman have been flying this entire off-season but here it is mid-January and Brian Dozier is still part of the Twins organization. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining that he has not been traded, right now Dozier is the heart and soul of the Minnesota Twins and I would hate to see him go unless the Twins can get major league ready players in return. I am getting real tired of all the talk about the future, I want to see some players that can play today. Prospects are nice but why trade an All-Star power hitting second baseman for more prospects. There is no guarantee with prospects, with Dozier you have a known commodity.
The problem I see here now is that the Twins have gone so far down the road with all this trade talk is the possible repercussions that may occur in not trading Dozier. No one likes to hear their name bandied about in trade talks and all this chatter about being traded may have negative impacts on Dozier’s play this season even if he tries to make it a non-issue. Dozier is no different from the rest of us, the more comfortable and happy you are in your work environment the better work you will perform.
I blame the Twins for Miguel Sano‘s poor season in 2016 by sending him to the outfield with little or no experience. Sano with just 80 games of big league experience all at third base or DH was forced to try to learn how to play the outfield while learning how to play in the big leagues. Sano did his best but the pressure of learning the outfield and playing in the big leagues was just too much for the then 22 year-old.
I know that Dozier is more experienced but I can see a similar scenario playing out with Dozier. Starting the season with Minnesota but waiting for the hammer to drop in a trade deadline deal might just cause him to struggle and the more he struggles the worse it would get and then his value plummets. Will Brian Dozier hit 42 home runs again? No one knows the answer to that but he is at peak value now, either trade him or just say he will not be traded and move on. End this thing with the Dodgers once and for all, either they give us what we want or we move on, this limbo business helps no one. Personally I am not a fan of Jose De Leon so a deal for De Leon and another prospect doesn’t spin my wheels so moving on from the Dodgers would be a blessing in my eyes. Whats wrong with keeping Dozier and building around him?
The time has come for Derek Falvey and Thad Levine to make a decision, so let’s move on boys, spring training is just around the corner.
The Minnesota Twins have a long history of problems developing starting pitching. Using 100 starts as a barometer, since 1961 the Twins have signed and developed just 11 pitchers in their system that have gone on to get 100 or more starts in a Twins uniform. The only first round pick in the bunch is Pete Redfern, three round tw0 picks, two round three picks, one fourth round pick, one fifth round pick, Brad Radke was an eighth round pick, one 29th round pick and an amateur free agent (Dave Boswell).
Since the June amateur free agent draft started in 1965 the Twins have drafted 31 pitchers in round 1 or as round 1 supplementary/compensation picks. Actually part of the Twins issues with starting pitching relates to spending money or the lack there of. The first two right-handed pitchers drafted by the Twins in round 1 were Dick Ruthven in 1972 and Tim Belcher (first overall pick) in 1983 who both refused to sign with Minnesota and went on to have long careers in MLB. The first left-handed pitcher drafted in round 1 to start any games was Eddie Bane and his Twins career lasted 25 starts. As I mentioned earlier, the draft started in 1965 but the Twins only drafted starting pitching in round 1 twice (Ruthven in 1972 and Bane in 1973) between 1965-1981. The first RHP that they drafted in round 1 that actually started a number of games (45 in Twins career) was Willie Banks who the team drafted in 1987. Since 2000 they have drafted a pitcher in round 1 a total of 17 times.
| Rk | Player | GS | From | To | Age | G | W | L | IP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Brad Radke | 377 | 1995 | 2006 | 22-33 | 378 | 148 | 139 | 2451.0 | 4.22 |
| 2. | Bert Blyleven | 345 | 1970 | 1988 | 19-37 | 348 | 149 | 138 | 2566.2 | 3.28 |
| 3. | Frank Viola | 259 | 1982 | 1989 | 22-29 | 260 | 112 | 93 | 1772.2 | 3.86 |
| 4. | Dave Goltz | 215 | 1972 | 1979 | 23-30 | 247 | 96 | 79 | 1638.0 | 3.48 |
| 5. | Scott Baker | 159 | 2005 | 2011 | 23-29 | 163 | 63 | 48 | 958.0 | 4.15 |
| 6. | Scott Erickson | 153 | 1990 | 1995 | 22-27 | 155 | 61 | 60 | 979.1 | 4.22 |
| 7. | Dave Boswell | 150 | 1964 | 1970 | 19-25 | 187 | 67 | 54 | 1036.1 | 3.49 |
| 8. | Nick Blackburn | 137 | 2007 | 2012 | 25-30 | 145 | 43 | 55 | 818.2 | 4.85 |
| 9. | Allan Anderson | 128 | 1986 | 1991 | 22-27 | 148 | 49 | 54 | 818.2 | 4.11 |
| 10. | Pete Redfern | 111 | 1976 | 1982 | 21-27 | 170 | 42 | 48 | 714.0 | 4.54 |
| 11. | Roger Erickson | 106 | 1978 | 1982 | 21-25 | 114 | 31 | 47 | 712.0 | 4.10 |
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If you can’t find, sign, and develop your starting pitching, you only have a few options at your disposal, you could make a trade, you can sign a free agent, or you can find one on the waiver wire (ha, ha, ha).
The option I want to write about here is the Twins attempts to trade for starting pitching since the turn of the century, a total of 17 years. Trading for starters hasn’t exactly gone as planned either.
The new Minnesota Twins brain trust got some Twins fans a bit riled up when Brian Dozier was on the WCCO radio Sports Huddle show this past Sunday with Sid Hartman and Dave Mona. Mona asked Dozier if he has been in communication with Derek Falvey and Thad Levine and Dozier’s response was that he has not talked with either one since they were hired but he did his best to sugar-coat the fact that he was disappointed it hasn’t happened so far.
The rumors since the season ended have been that Brian Dozier will be traded. When I first heard the rumor I thought, that is a bunch of crap, why would they want to trade one of their best players?
But let’s get back to Falvey and Levine not communicating with Dozier, to me that is just plain wrong. Here is my thinking, when new management takes over the first thing they should do is listen, listen to what your players and staff have to say. Management needs to get buy-in from everyone, I know it is a new regime but why create problems when you don’t have too. Dozier is a leader on this team and one of its best players, not to mention he still has a very reasonable contract for two more years. Why leave him in the dark even if you are looking to trade him? If a trade doesn’t happen then you have a player that was wronged and that doesn’t help anyone. This isn’t strike one on Falvey and Levine but it is a rookie mistake that they should rectify as soon as possible.
Brian Dozier is one of my favorite players to watch, he hustles and he wants to win, what more can you ask? The team needs a leader and Brian Dozier is the guy that fits that mold the best. I would hate to see Dozier traded but having said that, there is some logic in trading Dozier.
The team lost a team record 103 games and won only 59 times this past season after winning 83 games in 2015. That means they were 24 games worse in 2016 than they were in 2015. I think if you look over history in MLB you will see that it is not all that unusual for young teams to take a dive after taking a big leap forward before resuming their climb upwards. This Twins team still has a lot of holes, don’t get me wrong, but it is not a team that you totally dismantle and rebuild. Yes, the Twins organization is rebuilding the front office but that doesn’t mean a total rebuild is necessary on the field. This is a young team that I expect to be much better in 2017 even if there are no major changes made. They got sand kicked in their face and trampled on in 2016 and they will be out to prove they are not as bad as they appeared to be in 2016.
Since the Twins are really not rebuilding in the normal sense of the word, it is important to add quality players to the mix versus quantity that you might normally look for when trading for youngsters in a rebuilding mode. In rebuilding you want to get as many potential players you can in the hope that one or two hit it big but they are all a gamble for the future. In the current Twins situation if the Twins trade Dozier they are trading a relatively young proven power hitting second baseman who can handle a glove and still has two years left on a good contract and you must get proven big league talent in return. The Twins need players that can play at Target Field in 2017 and not potential players that might play in 2019 or 2020 or beyond. If the Twins trade Dozier for young talent 2 or 3 or more years away you might as will pack it in right now, Target Field will be a ghost town. The Twins have good young talent on the roster, they just haven’t figured out where they need to play to have a chance to be successful.
I know this team lost 103 games this past year but Derek Falvey and Thad Levine are in a good spot, they need to fine tune things, not blow things up.
If you want to listen to the Justin Morneau and Brian Dozier interviews on Sports Huddle you can listen by going here. Listen to the 10 AM portion of the interview.