According to ELIAS

Escobar has found his power stroke

Eduardo Escobar 2015Eduardo Escobar homered in the Twins’ win over the White Sox last night, giving him seven homers in his last 22 games, dating back to August 20. Escobar had hit only 13 homers in 346 games in the major-leagues before his current hot stretch began.

Hunter’s been on target lately

Torii Hunter 2015Torii Hunter drove in his 70th run of the season in the first inning of the Twins win over the Tigers yesterday. Hunter and Adrian Gonzalez are the only major-league players to drive in at least 70 runs in each season since 2006, although Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano could soon join that group.

According to ELIAS – David Ortiz hits number 500

David Ortiz joins 500 home run club

Ortiz, David 2015David Ortiz hit two home runs – the 499th and 500th of his major-league career – to lead the Red Sox to victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field yesterday. Ortiz became the 27th player in major-league history to hit 500 homers, and he’s the second of that group to hit his 499th and 500th home run in a single game. Albert Pujols did that on April 22, 2014 at Nationals Park, and just as Ortiz did on Saturday, Pujols hit his 499th in the top of the first inning and his 500th in the top of the fifth.

Ortiz is the fourth player to hit career home run #500 while wearing a Red Sox uniform, and like the previous three, Ortiz hit his milestone homer in a road game. The previous players to do so for Boston are Jimmie Foxx (at Philadelphia in 1940), Ted Williams (at Cleveland in 1960), and Manny Ramirez (at Baltimore in 2008).

David Ortiz David as David Arias 2Ortiz was originally signed by the Seattle Mariners as a free agent on November 28, 1992 and was traded to the Minnesota Twins as the PTBNL on September 13, 1996 to complete an earlier trade made on August 29, 1996 when the Twins sent Dave Hollins to Seattle. At the time David Ortiz was known as David Arias.Ortiz who became well-known as “Big Papi” spent six years in Minnesota playing in 455 games while hitting for a .266 average.

Ortiz had 1,693 plate appearances while in a Twins uniform and hit his first 58 of his 500 home runs as a Minnesota Twin. The Twins released the big first baseman on December 16, 2002 and Ortiz was signed by the Boston Red Sox as a free agent on January 22, 2003 and the rest is history. Why did the Twins release him you ask? The Twins said he couldn’t play first base, was too much of a pull hitter and couldn’t hit to right field…….

Congratulations to David Ortiz from Twins Trivia!

Why the Minnesota Twins domain name is not twins.com

domainsI have often wondered why the Minnesota Twins domain name was not twins.com and up until a few weeks ago I had no idea. Then in late August Ben Lindbergh did a piece for www.grantland.com that answered all my questions. It turns out that all but three MLB teams have a domain name you can reach just by using the teams nickname and adding the .com. The Giants, Rays and Twins are exceptions because the NFL Giants have giants.com and rays.com is a long time business that is not about to give up their domain name. Twins.com however; sits there in essence vacant as you can see by going to www.twins.com .

According to the story the domain was registered in October of 1995 by its current owner’s Durland & Darvin Miller who themselves are real-time twins and have no interest in selling to MLB in spite of being offered some nice money. The article goes on to say that the owners reached out to the Twins but the team never really followed up and they would prefer to deal with the team directly rather than through MLB.

It is an interesting article and if you want to check it you can find it at The Website MLB Couldn’t Buy. Maybe I will see if I can acquire it.

twinsbaseball.com

twins.com

Remembering 1965 – Part 21 – Meet the Manager, Coaches & Players from 1965

The 1965 Minnesota Twins had 35 different players suit up and play ball wearing a Twins logo across their chest against the nine other members of the American league. Their manager, Sam Mele had four coaches at his disposal to help guide the team. Here are the images of the players and coaching staff that made up the 1965 American League champions. Team owner Calvin Griffith also served as the teams General Manager.

Just click on any player image to see a larger image

1965 Twins team picture

1965 Twins team picture

According to ELIAS

Sano launches pinch-hit game-winning homer in 12th inning

Miguel Sanol 2015Miguel Sano is only the second rookie in the last 27 seasons (1989-2015) to hit a pinch-hit game-winning home run in the 12th inning or later. Prior to Sano, the most recent rookies to do that were Lyle Overbay (2003 Diamondbacks, 12th inning) and Mark Parent (1988 Padres, 16th inning), both against the Dodgers.

Sano’s manager, Hall-of-Famer Paul Molitor, had two-career game-winning RBI in the 12th inning–one on a single at Seattle in 1979, and one on a double off another Cooperstown inductee, Goose Gossage, in 1993–but he never had one later in a game than that.

Plouffe has shot at setting a franchise GIDP record

Trevor Plouffe
Trevor Plouffe

With two more GIDP’s (ground in to double play) on his resume after last night’s loss to Kansas City, Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe has the franchise record of 28 GIDP by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew in 1970 well in his sights. Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett had 27 GIDP in 1991. With his pace of a GIDP once every five games, Plouffe should be able to set a new mark easily. Actually this list of Twins GIDP leaders has some pretty good hitters on it so Plouffe shouldn’t feel too bad. It is kind of an odd year for Plouffe from a GIDP perspective as he has 26 so far this season and in his five previous seasons combined be had only 38.

 Twins GIDP leaders

Rk Player GDP Year Age G PA AB R H HR RBI BA OBP
1 Harmon Killebrew 28 1970 34 157 665 527 96 143 41 113 .271 .411
2 Kirby Puckett 27 1991 31 152 661 611 92 195 15 89 .319 .352
3 Trevor Plouffe 26 2015 29 130 542 491 63 118 18 73 .240 .303
4 Michael Cuddyer 26 2010 31 157 675 609 93 165 14 81 .271 .336
5 Ron Coomer 25 2000 33 140 589 544 64 147 16 82 .270 .317
6 Gary Gaetti 25 1987 28 154 628 584 95 150 31 109 .257 .303
7 Joe Mauer 24 2006 23 140 608 521 86 181 13 84 .347 .429
8 Gary Ward 24 1983 29 157 676 623 76 173 19 88 .278 .326
9 Bobby Darwin 24 1972 29 145 562 513 48 137 22 80 .267 .326
10 Joe Mauer 23 2012 29 147 641 545 81 174 10 85 .319 .416
11 Torii Hunter 23 2004 28 138 569 520 79 141 23 81 .271 .330
12 Rod Carew 23 1971 25 147 632 577 88 177 2 48 .307 .356
13 Earl Battey 23 1964 29 131 471 405 33 110 12 52 .272 .348
14 Michael Cuddyer 22 2009 30 153 650 588 93 162 32 94 .276 .342
15 Marty Cordova 22 1999 29 124 488 425 62 121 14 70 .285 .365
16 Ron Coomer 22 1998 31 137 555 529 54 146 15 72 .276 .295
17 Gary Gaetti 22 1990 31 154 625 577 61 132 16 85 .229 .274
18 Bobby Darwin 22 1973 30 145 614 560 69 141 18 90 .252 .309
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/9/2015.

UPDATE: By hitting into his 28th double play on October 1 against the Royals in his home park, Plouffe tied the Twins record which was held by Harmon Killebrew for 28 double plays in a season. Plouffe was the league leader in hitting into double plays in 2015.

Remembering 1965 – Part 20 – Kindall, Merritt, Boswell, Battey and the All-Star game

When the dog days of August ended the Twins had a 7 1/2 game lead on the Chicago White Sox, were winning at a .616 clip and had a record of 84-50, 34 games above the .500 mark. The team was marching towards their first pennant in spite of all the injuries the team had encountered.

Sporting News Aug 21, 1965 P13

Sporting News Aug 28, 1965 P8

I thought that I would share some images that pertain to the 1965 All-Star game that was placed in Met Stadium on July 13, 1965. Box score

1965 All-Star game logo
1965 All-Star game logo
1965 All-Star game patch
1965 All-Star game patch
1965 All-Star game ticket
1965 All-Star game ticket
1965 All-Star program
1965 All-Star program
1965 All-Star game - l-r is Felix Mantilla, Roberto Clemente, Tony Oliva, Cookie Rojas, Juan Marichal, Zoilo Versalles, Vic Davalillo and Leo Cardenas
Latino’s in 1965 All-Star game – l-r is Felix Mantilla, Roberto Clemente, Tony Oliva, Cookie Rojas, Juan Marichal, Zoilo Versalles, Vic Davalillo and Leo Cardenas

 

1965 All-Star Game: Oliva relives his double, just not with Gibson

Much has changed since the 1965 All-Star Game in Minnesota

Remember when: Recap of the 1965 All-Star Game at Metropolitan Stadium

Twins minor league player of the week

Brett Lee 2015Chattanooga (AA) left-handed pitcher Brett Lee is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. The 6’4″ 200 pound Lee made one start for the week, that coming last Sunday at Birmingham, pitching a 7.0-inning complete game shutout with two hits allowed, two walks and eight strikeouts, earning the win. Lee has made 21 starts between Chattanooga and Single-A Ft. Myers this season, going 7-7, 3.64 ERA (128.2 IP, 43 ER) with 40 walks and 64 strikeouts.

The soon to be 25 year-old Lee was the Pirates 40th round pick in 2009 and the Dodgers 33rd round selection in 2010 but chose not to sign. The Pensacola, Florida native then was drafted by the Twins in the 10th round of the 2011 First-Year Player Draft out of St. Petersburg College and signed for $150,000.

Twins Minor League Report 09062015

According to ELIAS

Twins rookie is triple threat

Eddie Rosario
Eddie Rosario

Eddie Rosario‘s two-run triple in the ninth inning broke a 1-1 tie yesterday and the Twins went on to defeat the Astros, 3-2. Rosario, who made his big-league debut in May, has 11 triples in 99 games. Prior to Rosario, the most recent players to hit at least 11 triples through their first 100 major-league games were Juan Uribe (15, from 2001 to 2002) and Juan Samuel (12, from 1983 to 1984). Source: ELIAS

The last Twin with 11 triples was Cristian Guzman, who had 14 in 2003.

Max Kepler is Southern League MVP

Max Kepler
Max Kepler

All of the Twins top prospects are not wearing a Twins uniform just yet, there are still more on the way. The Southern League announced yesterday that Chattanooga 1B/OF Max Kepler was the league MVP. “Max made a tremendous adjustment to his swing and stuck with it the whole season,” Lookouts hitting coach Chad Allen said. “He has been a pleasure to coach because of all the hard work he put in this year and definitely deserves this award.”

One of the Twins top prospects, the German born Kepler is on track to win the slash-line Triple Crown as the league leader in average (.327), on-base percentage (.415) and slugging percentage (.540). Kepler entered Thursday leading the Southern League with a .327 average and ranking among the top 10 also in hits (128), extra-base hits (53), total bases (211), runs scored (73), doubles (32), triples (12), RBI (69) and walks (60). He earned player of the week honors in May and June and was selected to the Futures Game and the Southern League All-Star Game. Kepler along with fellow Lookout’s outfielder Adam Walker II was also named to the Southern League post season All-Star team.

Adam Brett Walker II
Adam Brett Walker II

Walker who has hit a Southern League leading 30 home runs and has 103 RBI also led the Florida State League in home runs last season and was the league MVP. In 2013 he led the Midwest League in home runs. Walker will be reporting to the Twins AFL team when they begin play in October.

Max Kepler is on the Twins 40 man roster and once the Chattanooga Lookout’s finish their post season play, the chances are good that the Twins will call on Kepler to finish out the Twins 2015 season at Target Field and Twins fans will get a chance to see him play in Minnesota.

CONGRATULATIONS! to both Max and Adam on their great seasons.