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
Zimmermann’s unusual performance a first since Grove
Jordan Zimmermann allowed eight runs over seven innings but still managed to earn the win over the Minnesota Twins last night. It’s been just over two years since a pitcher got the win in a game in which he allowed at least eight runs; the Phillies’Cliff Lee surrendered eight runs over five innings on March 31, 2014 against the Rangers in a 14-10 win.
What was even more unusual was that Zimmermann struck out nine batters in Monday’s matchup. The last pitcher to earn the win while allowing at least eight runs and recording nine or more strikeouts was the Athletics’ Lefty Grove on May 30, 1927 against the Yankees (9 IP, 8 R, 11 SO in a 9-8 victory); those Yankees went on to finish the season 110-44 and swept the Pirates in the World Series. Babe Ruth went 2-for-5 with an RBI and Lou Gehrig was 1-for-4 with two runs batted in off Grove that day.
Zimmermann (6-2, 2.45 ERA) is the first pitcher to win at least six of his first eight starts for Detroit with an ERA under 3.00 since Doyle Alexander in 1987 (7-0, 1.61 ERA). The Tigers traded John Smoltz to acquire Alexander that season.
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A) catcher A.J. Murray is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. The 23-year-old Murray played in five games for the Kernels, hitting .565 (13-for-23) with three doubles, two home runs, eight RBI, eight runs scored, two walks and a .600 on-base percentage. On Friday, Murray, a right-handed batter went 5-for-5 at Wisconsin, hitting two home runs with five RBI, five runs scored and a walk.
Murray was originally drafted in 48th round of 2012 draft by Houston Astros but chose to attend Georgia Tech instead. A.J. was the team captain and third-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference last year as a senior. Murray’s late father, Michael, played minor-league ball in the Chicago White Sox system in 1984 as a 1B/3B. Murray was drafted by the Twins in the 14th round of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft out of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. The Twins took Murray as a catcher, which is interesting because he didn’t catch a lot in college, mainly rotation between right field, first base, designated hitter and catcher.
Juan Centeno‘s first career home run, a two-run shot in the fifth inning off Corey Kluber, gave the Twins a lead they never relinquished in their win over the Indians yesterday. Centeno is the third player this season whose first career home run in the majors came off a former Cy Young Award winner. Colorado’s Trevor Story hit his first off Zack Greinke and Arizona’s Socrates Brito hit his off Jake Arrieta.
Centeno is the ninth player in Minnesota Twins history whose first career homer came off a former Cy Young Award winner. Some of the names on that list include Butch Wynegar, Lyman Bostock, John Castino and Steve Lombardozzi.
The walk-off hit that gives your team the win is as exciting as it gets at your home ballpark and a walk-off loss on the road is frustrating and depressing. Let’s take a look at Minnesota Twins history from 1961-2015 and see how the Twins have fared.
The Twins had 150 walk-off wins at Met Stadium, 213 walk-off wins at the Metrodome and 37 walk-off wins at Target Field.
Between 1961-1981 the Twins were walked off 165 times, between 1982-2009 they were walked off 206 times, and between 2010-2015 they have been walked off 33 times.
Between 1961-2015 the Twins have 400 walk-off wins and 404 walk-off loses.
Ft. Myers Miracle (High A) right-handed pitcher Yorman Landa is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. Landa made three relief appearances for the Miracle, pitching 4.0 scoreless innings, with two hits allowed, no walks, five strikeouts and two saves. Landa who is in his sixth season in the Minnesota organization has appeared in 10 games for the Miracle, going 2-1, 2.77 ERA (13.0 IP, 4 ER) with two saves, four walks and 13 strikeouts. The 21-year-old was originally signed by the Twins as an undrafted free agent September 9, 2010 out of Santa Teresa, Venezuela.
Baseball draft are so different from all the other sports in many ways but the two main differences that stand out is that baseball drafts are more international than other sports and if you get drafted in baseball you can look forward to spend a number of years in the minor leagues before you have the experience and necessary skill sets to play in the major leagues. Sure there have been some players that went directly to the major leagues but they are rare and the last player to do so I believe is RHP Mike Leake who was drafted eighth overall in 2010 by the Cincinnati Reds from Arizona State and now pitches for the Cardinals. The last Twins player to be drafted and go straight to a big league mound was LHP Eddie Bane who also was from Arizona State.
The June amateur draft is exciting for the fans but it is serious business for the MLB teams that have spent lots of time and money watching these young prospects as they try to determine who is the best player available when it comes time to make their selection. Mistakes in a draft can and do haunt teams for many years. There are many ways to mess up a draft choice, the player may not turn out to be as good as you thought, you might have bypassed a star player, you might not be able to sign the player, the player and/or his agent may state they don’t want to play for you, and of course an injury may cut his career short. If everything goes your way you have yourself a baseball player but the odds are stacked against you.
The Twins lost another game today by a score of 9-2 at Target Field to the Baltimore Orioles. That makes 7 losses in a row and 10 out of their last 11. Let’s look at some facts:
They have won twice in 17 games on the road.
They are 6-10 at their home park
In April they were 7-17
So far in May they are 1-8
They have been outscored 174-111 after 33 games
They are 2-13 against other Central Division teams
Starting pitchers are 3-15
The closer is 2-4 with 2 saves and a 5.40 ERA
Six relievers have appeared in 14 or more games
The pitching staff has the highest ERA in the league
Opponents are hitting .274 against Twins pitching
The Twins are hitting .236
Twins have made more errors than everyone except for Oakland
I could go on and on but what is the point, this team is playing horrendous baseball right now and they can’t catch any breaks either, that’s life. Believe me when I say that this team is not as bad as it is playing right now just like it was not as good as it played in 2015.
Do they miss Torii Hunter in the clubhouse? Sure they do but even Hunter couldn’t help this team play to the level that most people expected. So what is the problem? In 1982 the Twins lost 102 games and after 33 games they were 11-22, the Twins record this year after 33 games is 8-25.
owner Jim Pohlad
I don’t care what Jim Pohlad has said publicly, GM Terry Ryan and manager Paul Molitor have to be on the hot seat right now. Hitting coach Tom Brunansky and pitching coach Neil Allen should not be buying any green banana’s either. My prediction for what is it worth is this. The Twins have a day off on Thursday and then play three games in Cleveland and three more in Detroit after that. If the Twins don’t play .500 on the road this week, Paul Molitor will not return to Minnesota with the team as the Twins manager.
Paul Molitor
Twins players may respect Paul Molitor as a Hall of Fame player but they don’t know how to play for him. In my opinion Molitor is a poor handler of the pitching staff and is on pace once again to burn out his bullpen. I don’t see anything that Molitor has done to motivate these players or to help them win games, he writes out a line-up by going with the hot bats and just lets them play. That probably works great for a veteran team but not for a team this young and inexperienced. Sometimes a team and a manager just do not mesh. Maybe it is not Molitor’s fault but life isn’t fair.
This team needs someone to get mad bust up some things, call out some players for their brain farts and put the whip to them. These players are young but this isn’t their first rodeo, they have played the game before and they are better than this. It is about time someone tells them that and also tells them that if they can’t play like major leaguer’s then they won’t be playing in Minnesota. See ball, hit ball. Baseball is baseball no matter what level you are playing it, this isn’t rocket science or brain surgery. The bases are still the same distance apart, the mound is the same distance from home plate. Sure the major leagues are tough but if you can’t compete, then pack your bags and go home. Fans are paying good money to watch the Twins play baseball st a high level, if they wanted to watch a bunch of minor leaguers play they would buy tickets to watch the St. Paul Saints play.
I am surprised more Twins fans aren’t madder than hell and telling Twins management that they aren’t going to take this crap any more. Why no fans burning their tickets or fans in the stands with paper bags on their heads? I love baseball but the Twins are squeezing the fun out of the game. Call the Twins and tell them what you think and what you expect. The Twins have no excuses as far as I am concerned, don’t play the “this is a young team card”, all I care about is seeing the number in the “W” column increasing.
The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced that Minnesota Twins Minor League right-handed pitcher Logan Lombana has received an 80-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Ibutamoren, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Program. The suspension of Lombana, who is currently on the roster of the Single-A Cedar Rapids Kernels of the Midwest League, is effective immediately.
Lombana a RHP was selected by the Minnesota Twins out of California State University, Long Beach in the 25th round of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft. Lombana pitched for Elizabethton last season and started out 2016 in Cedar Rapids and has been used strictly in relief just as he was in college.
Joe Mauer started in the leadoff spot for the first time in the major leagues in Tuesday’s matchup between the Twins and the Orioles which the Orioles won 5-3 at Target Field. Mauer, who was played 920 games at catcher, is one of only three players who debuted in the expansion era (1961 to date) to bat leadoff for the first time after having caught at least 800 games: Carlton Fisk, who started there only once, in 1980, in his final game for the Red Sox; and Ivan Rodriguez, who had 24 such starts there from 2006 to 2008.
Mauer made his 1,429th start in the majors on Tuesday. Over the last 20 years, only two other players started for the first time in the leadoff spot after having started as many games as Mauer: Mark McGwire (1,694th start in September 2000) and Ivan Rodriguez (1,899th start in August 2006).
This is the kind of a game the Twins need to break out of their season long funk here in 2016.
Midre Cummings
In their biggest come from behind victory ever, the fourth place Twins storm back from an 8-1 deficit at the Metrodome and beat the third place Indians 10-9 on a walk-off two run homer from Midre Cummings. Eddie Guardado picked up the win for Minnesota and Steve Karsay took the defeat. Check out the boxscore and look at the names of some of the players that played for the Twins and Indians in this game. The reported attendance in the dome that day was 9,505.
