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 Twins announced after yesterday’s game in Chicago that they had traded infielder Jamey Carroll to the Kansas City Royals for a PTBNL or cash. The 39-year-old Carroll wasn’t have a great season in 2013 hitting just .230 in 59 games and 191 at bats and the Twins weren’t going to resign him after this season anyway. The Twins will not get much of a player if they get one at all from Kansas City but it is a nice move by the Twins to send Carroll to a winning team that needs some infield help for the stretch run for a playoff spot. The Royals are at best a fringe team in the hunt for the wildcard spot but it will still be more enjoyable for Carroll playing there then playing out the string in Minnesota in what may well be his last season as a player in the major leagues. But I would not be surprised at all if we see Carroll in the big leagues again in the years to come as a coach or manager. I was not a fan when Terry Ryan signed Carroll to be the Twins shortstop prior to the 2012 season at the age of 38 but I had no issue with Carroll filling a utility role with the Twins. I never met Carroll but he seemed like a true professional who went about his business every day and never had a bad thing to say about anyone and was always willing to help the Twins youngsters learn the tricks of the trade. Carroll’s 59 game appearances this season is the fewest he has had in the major leagues since his rookie season as a Montreal Expos player in 2002. When 2013 comes to an end, Carroll will have 12 big league years in the books, not a bad ride for someone who has 13 career home runs and never had 500 at bats in a big league uniform during any season. The Twins will save a couple of million dollars a season with Carroll moving on and someone like Doug Bernier taking his place.
As I write this I still have not heard what roster move the Twins will make to replace Carroll on the 25 na roster but it seems like Gardy could use another infielder but then again there outfield situation is not that great either. The Twins don’t have that much to pick from in Rochester as far as infield help is concerned with Eduardo Escobar probably the best candidate but maybe they want to take a look at someone like James Beresford.
By the way, did you know that Carroll scored the final run in Montreal Expos history, scoring on a Terrmel Sledge RBI single in the 1st inning of their final game on October 3, 2004? Good luck in Kansas City Jamey!
When I listened to the Twins radio broadcast of their game against the Astros on Sunday while waterproofing my deck I found it amusing that Dan Gladden and Cory Provus seemed to be making fun of the Astros high strikeout total this season. I guess they both forgot that the Twins batters are no slouches themselves when it comes to not making bat contact. As of this morning Astros batters have struck out 1,034 times in 110 games, that averages out to 9.4 KO’s per game. The White Sox follow with 925 strike outs, the Red Sox have 909 strike outs and the Twins are next with 902 strike outs for an average of 8.4 per game. Had Willingham not gotten injured and Hicks played a full season in Minnesota the Twins might put up a serious challenge to Houston. Even without Willingham and Hicks the Twins are on pace to strikeout 1,356 times this season and blow away their previous team strikeout record of 1,121 that the 68-94 Twins of 1997 set.
On the good news side we have the Twins grounding into a total of only 60 double plays, the fewest in the league. The Orioles have the next fewest with 68.
Although the Twins seldom hit into double plays, stealing bases is not one of their strength’s as they have pilfered just 36 bases, only the Tigers with 29 and the Mariners with 35 have less.
The Twins OBP this season is .312. The Tigers and the Red Sox at .345 have the best OBP and as you might guess the Astros .299 trail the pack. The league average is .320. The Twins best ever OBP was .357 in 1996 while a .299 OBP in 1968 is the lowest full season OBP in Twins history.
Opposing batters have found Twins pitchers to be their league favorites as they have compiled a .278 batting average against Minnesota’s chuckers. Oddly enough, Twins pitchers have only given up 102 long balls ranking second best in that category behind the 86 given up by the Tigers.
Drew Butera
There was a lot of speculation leading into the July 31 trading deadline that a number of Twins would be calling a new zip code home. When the trading deadline passed the Twins had made only one trade and he wasn’t even on the Twins 25 man roster at the time when GM Terry Ryan sent catcher Drew Butera to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a player to be named later or cash. The non-waiver Major League trading deadline has been July 31st since the 1986 season. Apparently that date is not necessarily circled in red on the Twins calendar of things to do. As a matter of fact, between 2000-2013 no team has made fewer trades in July then the Twins have. In the past 14 July’s the Minnesota Twins have consummated 15 trades.
Back on July 15 the Twins sent Oswaldo Arcia, Eduardo Escobar and Chris Parmelee down to Rochester and the next day called up catcher Chris Herrmann and infielder Doug Bernier. Herrmann has been with the Twins off and on but it was a long-awaited return to the big leagues for Bernier who saw action in just two games in a brief stay with the
Doug Bernier
Colorado Rockies back in 2008. Bernier has been in the minors since 2002 and has over a 1,000 minor league games under his belt. Though his primary position is shortstop, Bernier has played all over the diamond including pitching a couple of times but he has not ever squatted behind the plate. Bernier has spent time in the Yankee and Pirates organizations before hooking up with the Twins this past February. Todate Bernier has appeared in 10 games for the Twins and is hitting .261. It appears that the Twins will be letting Jamey Carroll go after this season or possibly trading him in a waiver deal this month and are auditioning for a new utility infielder. So far Bernier appears to be able to handle the role and I am sure he will be much cheaper than Carroll not to mention 6 years younger.
Andrew Albers
The Twins also recalled 27-year-old left-handed starter Andrew Albers from Rochester. Albers was originally drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2008 but shortly thereafter injured his elbow and had to undergo Tommy John surgery missing all of 2009 and then was released by the Padres. Albers spent 2010 pitching in an independent league in Canada and showed enough promise to be signed by Minnesota prior to the 2011 season. This year Albers was 11-5 with a 2.68 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in Rochester. Albers has pitched 132.1 innings this year in 22 starts allowing 124 hits while striking out 116. Albers is expected to make his major league debut against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what Albers can do in the big leagues, he has not had an ERA over 3.75 on any team he has pitched for. Albers will be wearing number 63.
Manager Ron Gardenhire needs 20 more Twins victories in the remaining 54 games to reach the 1,000 win plateau as the Twins skipper. With his position at risk, it would be a real shame if Gardy can’t get those 20 wins. I hope he gets those wins and many more as the Twins manager.
Twins Minor League Standings as of August 5
AAA Rochester is 63-54 and in 1st place
AA New Britain is 54-60 and in 5th place 16.5 games out
High A Fort Myers is 67-41 and won first half title but is currently in 4th place in the second half at 22-19 but only 1.5 games out
Low A Cedar Rapids is 67-43 and won the first half title and is leading the second half with a 27-15 record.
Rookie Elizabethton is 19-23 and in fourth place 8.5 games behind
Rookie GCL Twins are 19-19 and in third place 2 games behind
DSL Twins are 27-26 and in fourth place 7.5 games behind
With the World Series now in the books all the teams in major league baseball are reviewing what went wrong and what they can do to make their teams better for 2013 and beyond. Two quick ways to solve some problems are by signing free agents or by making some trades. Free agency is relatively new to baseball and came into play as part of baseball’s 1976 collective bargaining agreement and changed the landscape of baseball forever. Thanks to players like Curt Flood, Catfish Hunter, Andy Messersmith, and Dave McNally players were no longer tied forever to the team that signed them to their first contract.
Baseball trades however; have taken place since baseball began. Today, outside of players that were drafted this past season and players that have no-trade clauses in their contracts, any player currently under contract can be sent packing in hopes of improving the team’s record. Trades sound simple, all you have to do is to agree on what you are willing to give up to get what you want. But that is easier said then done. In the past, trades were much easier to make than they are today, the money involved was much smaller and very few players had multi-year contracts. In the past, most trades were made strictly to improve the product on the field but in today’s world baseball trades may be made for a variety of reasons including player performance on and off the field, salaries, length of contracts, arbitration, trade demands by the player, medical issues, legal concerns, up-coming free agency deadlines and even the teams fan base needs to be considered because trading a popular player can raise all kinds of havoc with ticket sales.
The Twins made their first trade back on June 1, 1961 when owner and GM Calvin Griffith agreed to send 3B Reno Bertoia and pitcher Paul Giel to the Kansas City A’s in return for outfielder Bill Tuttle and since that time the Twins have made 276 trades, some have turned out great and others have been nothing to brag about. We all think we can make better trades than our current teams GM can but then again it is always easy to be an arm-chair quarterback and to be able to spend other people’s money.
So what about the Minnesota Twins trading history? Over the years the Twins have traded the most frequently with the Cleveland Indians (20 times) and only traded once with the Tampa Bay Rays and there are more than just a few fans that will tell you that they wish that the Twins had never traded with Tampa, but that is a whole different story. The Twins have not been able to make a deal with the Kansas City Royals since 1978, that is 34 years ago, what is up with that? I have put together a chart showing how many trades the Twins have made with each of the other teams and in which decade the deals were made.
The Twins announced today that they have traded 3B Danny Valencia to the Boston Red Sox for 21-year-old GCL outfielder Jeremias Pineda. Valencia, 27, was taken by the Twins in the 19th round of the 2006 amateur draft and he made his big league debut with the Twins on June 3, 2010 at Safeco Field. Valencia hit .311 with 7 home runs in 299 at bats in 2010 and made the Topps All-Star Rookie team he but slumped in his first full season with the Twins in 2011 hitting just .246. In Valencia’s defense, he did hit 15 home runs and knocked in 72 runs for a team that won just 63 games. This season Valencia was hitting .253 at the end of April but the Twins were playing poorly and when Valencia went 0 for 25 in May, the Twins had seen enough and sent him back to AAA Rochester. The Twins recalled Valencia late in July when Trevor Plouffe went on the DL but since was recalled, Valencia has played in 7 games and has gone 6 for 25 with 9 strikeouts.
I think a number of things played a part in Valencia being sent packing. It wasn’t just his hitting that had tailed off but his play in the field had suffered as well. Valencia was considered the leader of the so-called Twins “fun bunch” in 2011 and the perception from the fans and from some members of the Twins organization was that Valencia did not take the game as seriously as he could. Couple that with the fact that Valencia had an air about him that seemed to send a message that he was entitled to be a big league player and that “humility” was a word that Valencia had never learned the meaning of and it was easy to dislike Danny Valencia, even here in Minnesota where Twins players are treated like royalty. To make matters worse, Valencia became a semi-permanent resident of manager Gardenhire’s dog house and once that happens, you might as well have your bags packed cause your address will be changing, it is just a matter of time. The Red Sox have assigned Danny Valencia to AAA Pawtucket.
Jeremias Pineda
In return for Valencia, the Twins received 21 year-old switch-hitting outfielder Jeremias Pineda. Pineda was signed by the Red Sox late in the 2010 international signing period for a reported $10,000 bonus. Pineda only hit .224 in the Dominican Summer League and .140 in the GCL last season. But this season Pineda is one of the older players in the GCL and is hitting a league leading .421 in 133 at bats with 20 runs scored, 22 RBI’s and 14 stolen bases in 21 attempts. Pineda is slight of build at 5’11” and 175 pounds and is known for his speed and his plus throwing arm.
No one knows what the future holds for Valencia or Pineda but sometimes a change of scenery is benefical for all parties.
According to MLB, “The non-waiver Major League trading deadline has been July 31st since the 1986 season. Prior to that season, the non-waiver deadline for trades within each League was June 15th and there were also distinctions between when intraleague and interleague trades could be made. Waivers were necessary at all times for interleague trades, with the exception of two non-waiver interleague trading periods: February 15 – April 1 and 5 days after conclusion of World Series – the day before the last scheduled day of the Winter Meetings.
The first appearance of a trade deadline in the Major Leagues came when the National League established a deadline of August 20th in 1917. After that date, a player had to clear NL waivers before being traded. The American League followed suit in 1920, but with a deadline of July 1st. The following year, both the AL and NL agreed on a deadline of August 1st. On December 14, 1922, the deadline was changed to June 15th after gaining approval at the Joint Major League meetings held at the Hotel Commodore in New York. It would stay June 15th until after the 1985 season. In 1953, the interleague trading rules were amended as to require waivers between June 15th and the conclusion of the championship season. The first non-waiver interleague trading period was created for the 1959 off-season and it was from November 21–December 15. In 1970, the start of the period was moved to begin 5 days after the World Series instead of November 21. Seven years later, a second non-waiver interleague trading period was created, February 15–March 15. In 1981, that period was extended through April 1 and was in effect until all distinctions between interleague and intraleague trading were abolished prior to the 1986 season.”
Players may be traded between Major League Clubs until 4:00 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, July 31st without Major League waivers in effect.
In July between 2000 and July 25 of 2012, the San Diego Padres have made the most trades, a total of 38 and on the other end of the spectrum, the Angels have made the fewest deals, just 11. The Minnesota Twins have made the second fewest number of trades in that time frame, just 13 but the Francisco Liriano trade the other day would add one to the total. Looking at the rest of the AL Central, the Tigers have made 15 deals, the White Sox have made 25 not counting the recent Liriano deal, the Royals have swung 26 deals and the Indians lead the division with 27 trades. It appears that the addition of two wild card spots this season has deceased the amount of deals but we still have time to bring that number up.
The following table tracks the number of trades that have occurred between June 1-July 31. Three-way trades are counted as one trade.
Who would have thunk it? The Twins have traded Francisco Liriano within the AL Central Division to the Chicago White Sox for minor league pitcher Pedro Hernandez and infielder Eduardo Escobar. I have not seen any previous reports of the Mighty Whities interest in Liriano but that is how these trades often happen, all the rumors of interested teams are just that, rumors. At first blush it does not appear like the Twins received much in return but time will tell, we will just have to wait and see. Then again it is not like the Twins traded a superstar, Liriano had to be traded and obviously the Twins don’t think that moving him to Chicago will hurt them long-term.
Pedro Hernandez
So what did the Twins get for Liriano? They received 23-year-old lefty Pedro Hernandez. Hernandez is just 5’10” and goes about 200 and was signed by the San Diego Padres as an amateur free agent in 2006 and was traded to the White Sox this past winter in the Carlos Quentin deal. Hernandez has one big league game under his belt when the White Sox called him up for one start just 10 days ago against the Red Sox but it was not a pleasant experience for Hernandez who lasted just 4 innings giving up 12 hits, 3 home runs and 8 earned runs. In his 6 minor league seasons, Hernandez has 33-13 record with a 3.42 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. Hernandez is not a strikeout pitcher and has given up 453 hits in 428.1 innings. Not exactly what I was hoping to get in return for Liriano but he is left-handed and is only 23 years old.
The other player that the Twins received for Liriano was 23-year-old switch hitting 2B/SS/3B Eduardo Escobar. Escobar was signed by the White Sox as an amateur free agent in 2006. Escobar appeared in 9 games with the White Sox in 2011 and in 35 games this season. In the minors, Escobar played mainly at SS and 2B but with the White Sox this season he played primarily at 3B although he also played a few games at SS and 2B and even appeared in the outfield for a game. In his 89 big league at bats over two seasons, Escobar hit for a .202 average with no home runs and 2 stolen bases.
The Twins have traded right-handed pitcher Kevin Slowey to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later. The 27-year-old Slowey was a Twins second round pick in 2005 and made his major league debut in Oakland against the A’s on June 1, 2007 in a no decision start.
Slowey has been with the Twins for 5 years and has appeared in 100 games, 90 of them starts and he has a career mark of 39-29 with a 4.66 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP. Slowey has had good control as shown by his 84 bases on ball in 532 innings but he has also given up 84 long balls. Durability however; is not Slowey’s long suit as evidenced by his five trips to the DL in five years and he has never thrown as many as 161 innings in any big league season.
In the spring of 2011 Slowey lost out in the battle for the starting rotation and the Twins moved him to the bullpen. Between April 1st and May 20th Slowey appeared in relief 6 times and had a 4.91 ERA. Slowey complained publicly that he was not suited for the bullpen and that his arm hurt and the Twins sent him out to rehab and then farmed him out to Rochester. Slowey was recalled later in the season and made 8 starts for the Twins and was the losing pitcher each time, giving up 36 runs in 45.2 innings.
But is wasn’t his poor pitching that sent Slowey packing, it was his attitude. The word was that Slowey had a reputation as a “club house lawyer” and that he was convinced that he knew the best way to pitch which did not endear him either to pitching coach Rick Anderson or manager Gardenhire. I don’t know if these reports are true or not but I can tell you that Kevin Slowey was very standoffish whenever I saw him during the past few years during spring training visits and he certainly did not go out of his way to interact with Twins fans.
I think that Terry Ryan was smart this month in saying publicly that Slowey was in his starting rotation plans for 2012 regardless if that was true or not. Personally I think that Slowey had burned too many bridges and Ryan was just trying to get as much as he could for Slowey. I sure would have liked the Twins to do better than a PTBNL for trading Slowey to the Rockies who had also expressed interest in Slowey last summer at the trade deadline. At least the Twins will get something versus just non-tendering him. The rumor has it that the Rockies are looking to move 3B/2B Ian Stewart who has been a disappointment in Colorado and that they were looking to get a couple of minor league pitchers in return. You would think the Twins would have very little to lose to have swung a deal that included Slowey for the 26-year-old left-handed hitting Stewart with good pop in his bat even if the Twins had to kick in something to sweeten the pot. It will be interesting to see what Slowey can do in the National league in Colorado.
UPDATE December 9 – The Twins announced yesterday that they have acquired right-handed pitcher Daniel Turpen from the Rockies as the player to be named later in the Kevin Slowey trade.
August 25, 2011 – According to numerous reports, DH Jim Thome has been claimed on waivers by Cleveland and traded to them for the proverbial “player to be named later”. These same reports state that the Indians and the Twins have until October 15 to agree on the PTBNL. Jim Thome came up with the Cleveland Indians and played there from 1991 through the 2002 season before moving on to the Phillies as a free agent in December of 2002. Thome played for the Phillies through 2005 before he was traded to the Chicago White Sox where he played in 2006 through August of 2009 when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Thome then signed as a free agent with the Twins in January of 2010 and re-upped with Minnesota in 2011. During his stay in Minnesota, Thome was a very popular player both with the team as well as the Twins fan base. In his short stay in Minnesota, Thome played in 178 games, had 578 plate appearances while hitting .268 with 37 home runs and 99 RBI’s. Thome never played in the field for the Twins, always serving as the DH or coming in as a pinch-hitter. Thome leaves Minnesota with 601 career home runs, one of just 8 players in history to reach the 600 circle. Jim Thome is a sure Hall of Famer and his stay in Minnesota was in reality for a short period of time but fans and players alike will miss “Gentleman Jim”. But the trade to Cleveland is a good move on the Twins part and hopefully Jim Thome can help Cleveland catch the Detroit Tigers and move on to the playoffs and give Jim the shot at a World Series that he wants badly. I know the odds are stacked against Thome but he deserved that shot. Good luck Mr. Thome!
December 16, 2010 – It has been reported that the Twins have reached an agreement with the switch-hitting 2B/SS Tsuyoshi Nishioka on a 3 year deal plus an option for a fourth year for about $10 million. According to http://www.fangraphs.com/ , Nishioka, who will be 27 in July, has had an injury plagued career so far and 2010 was his first season where he stayed healthy and played a full schedule of games. This past year Nishioka led his league in hitting with a .346 average (.387 from the right side and .329 from the left) and had a league leading 206 hits making him only the second player in the Pacific League to have over 200 hits in a season, Ichiro was the only other player to accomplish this feat. Prior to hitting .346 this past year, Nishioka had never hit over .300. Nishioka has little power but has some speed but still, he only swiped 22 bases in 33 attempts so I have to wonder if the Twins are really getting the speed that Gardy is craving.
Nishioka is a two time Gold Glove winner, winning once at 2B (2005) and once at shortstop in 2007. The word seems to be that he has good range but just an average arm so he may be better suited at 2B for Minnesota. In 2010 Nishioka led his Pacific League shortstops with 19 errors and had the lowest fielding average but he did have more put-outs and assists than any other SS, albeit on artificial turf. It will be interesting to see how Nishioka’s skills transfer to MLB and the Minnesota Twins.
Paul Bargas
The Twins also traded catcher Jose Morales to the Colorado Rockies for minor league left handed pitcher Paul Bargas. Bargas is 6’1” and goes about 205 pounds. Bargas was drafted by the Rockies in the 13th round of the 2009 draft and has pitched in organized ball in 2009 and 2010. This past year he pitched for Asheville in “A” ball and put up some very nice numbers, all of them in relief. Paul compiled a 5-4 won/loss record and had 5 saves in 58 games. Bargas pitched 67+ innings this year and struck out 64 while walking only 19 and held batters to a .227 average and only gave up 3 home runs and put up a 3.59 ERA to go along with a WHIP of 1.12, not too shabby at all. This was “A” ball but still not too bad a return for Morales.
The Twins were out of options on the left handed hitting Jose Morales and really had no spot for him on the big league roster with Drew Butera appearing to have a solid hold on the back-up catching job due to his catching and throwing skills. I think the Twins did Morales a favor by trading him and getting a young pitcher in return, a trade that might work out well for both the Rockies and the Twins. I am glad to see the Minnesota Twins organization take a chance and move some players that the organization feels have no future in Minnesota while they still have some potential versus letting them “rot on the vine” and then get nothing in return. I think this is also good for the players involved; sometimes a change of scenery is best for all concerned.
December 1, 2010 – Let’s talk a little about the JJ Hardy dilemma. I just can’t see any way that the Twins will not tender shortstop JJ Hardy a contract for 2011. Here is my reasoning, first of all there is no guarantee the Twins will sign Tsuyoshi Nishioka and if that scenario should occur, they need Hardy to play short and unless they sign a free agent second baseman to replace Orlando Hudson they need Alexi Casilla to play second. But let’s assume that the Twins do sign Nishioka, so where do they play him? Shortstop is a key position; I just can’t see the Twins going into 2011 with such a huge unknown both in the field and with the stick as Nishioka without some insurance. So leave Hardy at short for at last another season and play Nishioka at 2B where he is probably better suited anyway. Casilla can be the main utility guy and he can play as needed, plus he is a switch hitter who can run, there are many ways to get playing time for Casilla. That buys you time and we can see what kind of a player Nishioka really is and what Casilla can do with more playing time then he had in 2010.
What I don’t understand is why the Twins seem to be so down on Hardy? Hardy is the same player today as he was a year ago when they traded Carlos Gomez their crown jewel from the Johan Santana trade to the Brewers to acquire him. Sure the man was hurt in 2010 but he played great in the field when he was healthy and he has always been a streaky hitter so that should be no surprise. Plus the man has some pop in his bat and they can always use that.
The Twins are a contending team, not an also-ran that can take huge risks and just hope that Nishioka, if he signs, is the player they think he is. Casilla is no sure thing either; he has been given numerous chances in the past and let them slip through his fingers. The safe way to go here is to keep Hardy at short and play Nishioka at 2B. You can always trade Hardy after 2011 and his trade value may be even higher if he can stay healthy and show more power than he did in 2010. It is all about risk here and why take unnecessary risk when you don’t need to. The logical bet here is to play it safe.
