Can Mauer get 100 RBI?

Joe MauerManager Paul Molitor has Joe Mauer hitting in a run producing slot in his batting order and publicly has stated many times that he is happy with Joe’s production. The numbers however; seem to show a different story. Mauer’s best season from an RBI perspective was his MVP season in 2009 when he had 96 RBI. That season Mauer had an RBI every 6.31 plate appearances but don’t forget he hit .365 that year and clubbed 28 home runs.

Through yesterday Mauer has 35 RBI and is getting a RBI every 7.54 plate appearances and at this rate he would need over 750 plate appearances to get 100 RBI and Mauer has had over 600 plate appearances in his 12 year career just four times peaking at 641 in 2012. Even if Mauer gets 600 plate appearances he is on pace to get 80 RBI. The best bet that the Twins have in their line-up right now to knock in runs is Torii Hunter who gets an RBI every 6.5 plate appearances. Hunter will be 40 very soon but you have to ride the horse that is pulling the load right now no matter how old he is.

Looking back over Twins history the best ratio for RBI per plate appearance was Kirby Puckett‘s 1994 season when he had 112 RBI in 484 plate appearances for a RBI every 4.32 plate appearances. No one in American League history since the Twins started play in 1961 has ever had a better RBI ratio per plate appearance. Had that season not been cut short Puckett was on pace for an amazing 151 RBI.

I had zero RBI in a Twins uniform but yet I had a 24 year MLB career as a player.
I had zero RBI in a Twins uniform but yet I had a 24 year MLB career as a player.

Do you know who the only Twins hitter is that had 100 or more RBI in a season and yet have 9 or fewer home runs?

What Twins player was with the Twins for parts of four seasons and had 76 plate appearances and had zero RBI? After being traded by the Twins he actually had 99 career plate appearances to start his big league career without an RBI before getting his first RBI on his first career home run.

Did you know?

Rod Carew Only six players in MLB history have more than 3,000 hits, 100 triples, walked over 1,000 times and stole over 300 bases. Not surprisingly, they are all in the HOF: Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Paul Molitor, Eddie Collins, Willie Mays, and from Panama, the great Rod Carew, who had 3,053 hits (the most of any Latino player), 112 triples, 1,018 walks, and 353 steals. Carew achieved all this in 10,550 plate appearances, more than a thousand fewer than any of the other five. Source: Summer 2015 “Memories and Dreams” magazine.

Twins minor league player of the week

David HurlbutChattanooga (AA) left-handed pitcher David Hurlbut is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Hurlbut who goes about 6’3″ and 220 made two starts for the Lookouts going 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA (14.0 IP, 1 ER) while striking out nine and walking three. The Twins first drafted Hurlbut in round 35 in 2009 but he chose not to sign, The Twins then drafted Hurlbut again in the 28th round of the 2011 out of California State – Fullerton and this time he signed.

Previous winners of Twins POW this season are right-handed pitcher Tyler Duffey, left-handed pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, outfielder Byron Buxton, infielder Trey Vavra, infielder Miguel Sano, first baseman/outfielder Max Kepler and right-handed pitcher Aaron Slegers.

Twins Minor League Report June 14, 2015

According to ELIAS

What’s better than triple-double? How about a triple-triple.

Eduardo Nunez, Shane Robinson, and Eduardo Escobar all tripled in the sixth inning for the Twins yesterday. And if that doesn’t seem unusual enough for you consider this: Minnesota scored only one run in the inning, with Robinson getting picked off and Escobar getting stranded. The Twins did win the game 4-3.

It was the first time since the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961 that the Twins had three triples in one inning. And it was the first instance in the expansion era of a team scoring only once despite three triples in an inning. The other 20 teams to do so averaged 4.6 runs in those innings. Source:ELIAS

Congratulations Byron Buxton!

Buxton congratulated by Plouffe after scoring what turns out to be the winning run in his first big league game.
Buxton congratulated by Plouffe after scoring what turns out to be the winning run in his first big league game.

The Twins announced yesterday that they had selected the contract of outfielder Byron Buxton from Chattanooga (AA). Buxton, 21, made his major league debut today against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington after hitting .283 (67-for-237) with seven doubles, 12 triples, six home runs, 20 stolen bases and 37 RBI in 59 games for the Lookouts this season. The Georgia native was ranked as the top prospect in baseball by MLB.com entering this season and Twins top prospect by Baseball America and earlier this week, he was named a Southern League All-Star. Buxton was drafted second overall in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft. Buxton has 263 minor league games and 1,168 plate appearances under his belt before making the jump from AA to the big leagues.

Buxton who was assigned number 25 went 0-4 in his first big league game but after reaching base on a fielder’s choice in the ninth inning scored the winning run on a double by Eddie Rosario.

Congratulations Byron Buxton on moving up to the big leagues and I can’t wait to see play at Target Field.

Remembering 1965 – Part 12 – First draft, Pascual, Perry, Zoilo and 6 DH in 23 days

The Twins were shutout 2-0 on only one hit by the Kansas City Royals last night and found themselves dropping out of a first place tie with the Royals in the AL Central. The Twins record is now 33-25 and they are one game out of first place.

Bell, GaryBack in 1965 on this date the Twins had lost two games in a row to the Cleveland Indians and reliever ‘Ding Dong” Bell (whose real name was Gary Bell) and their record was 32-18 and the team has a 1.5 game lead in the AL standings. Although the team was 16-8 at Met Stadium the team was not drawing well at the gate where in 24 games the attendance stood at 266,365 for an average of 11,099 fans per game. The Twins biggest crowd of the season showed up on Sunday, June 6 to see the Twins beat the Washington Senators 11-2 at the Met, I am not sure if there was a give-away that day or not but it sure appears to be a “Bat Day” crowd.

Camilo Pascual
Camilo Pascual

On June 8th Camilo Pascual beat the Indians 6-2 at the Met and ran his record to 8-0. Bothered by a bad back which caused him to miss all of August, Pascual would only win one more game in 1965 and finished the season with a 9-3 record.

Sporting News June 5, 1965 P9

The very first June free agent draft started on June 8 and the Twins selected Eddie Leon in round one and ninth overall and outfielder Del Unser in round two and 29th overall but both players passed on Minnesota offers and did not sign. The best player the Twins drafted in 1965 was 3B Graig Nettles but the Twins traded him to the Indians after Nettles played sparingly for the Twins from 1967-1969. The Twins expect to spend up to a total of $300,000 in bonuses to their 50 draftees…….

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P7

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P8

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P9

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P10

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P16

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P38

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P44

Zoilo Versalles
Zoilo Versalles

Zoilo Versalles is in the midst of a MVP season and the Twins have a tough month coming up in July with six double-headers coming up in 23 days.

Sporting News June 12, 1965 P10

Back in 1965 just like in 2015 the Twins took a long reliever out of the bullpen and turned him into a starter. Find out who it was and how he did.

Sporting News June 19, 1965 P11

According to ELIAS

Pelfrey tosses eight scoreless innings

Mike Pelfrey 2015Mike Pelfrey scattered eight hits over eight innings and Glen Perkins notched his 21st save of the season as the Twins topped the Brewers, 2-0 yesterday. Pelfrey has started 194 games during his major-league career, but Sunday’s victory was only the third of those starts, and his first since 2010 with the Mets, in which he pitched as many as eight innings without allowing a run. The only current major-league pitchers who have started as many games as Pelfrey without tossing at least one shutout in their careers are Jorge De La Rosa (198 starts) and Chris Young (194). Source:ELIAS

Twins first round draft history since 2000 – Part 2

2015 DraftAs promised we are taking a look at the round 1 draft history of all the MLB teams. There are a number of ways that we could rank them but in this case we will rank them in in career WAR (using Baseball-Reference WAR stats) order. This is obviously only a picture in time because these WAR numbers change as these players play each day. One thing to keep in mind as you look at this list is that a players drafted in round one by a team may not have ever played for that team because they were traded, became a free agent, etc.

Some of the columns in the table below are abbreviated. The third column is number of round 1 picks from 2000-2014. Column four is the number of players that played at least one game in the majors. Column five is the percentage of players that reached the majors. Column six is the career WAR of all the players selected from 2000-2014 that reached the majors. The players column shows the player(s) selected that reached the majors and and have the highest career WAR. Obviously star players that have been around for awhile have high WAR numbers. The table should be sortable.

RANK TEAM # of RD 1 PICKS # REACH MAJOR % REACH MAJOR Car. WAR PLAYERS
1. Giants 24 17  71% 121.1 Matt Cain, Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner
2. Phillies 16 8  50% 120.0 Chase Utley, Cole Hamels
3. Royals 22 12  55% 116.4 Zack Greinke
4. Twins 28 12  43% 110.3 Joe Mauer
5. Diamondbacks 27 18  67% 108.9 Max Scherzer
6. Braves 25 13  52% 96.2 Adam Wainwright
7. Mets 20 12  60% 93.3 David Wright
8. Rays 27 9  33% 92.8 Evan Longoria, David Price
9. Brewers 22 9  41% 90.5 Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder
10. Angels 22 13  59% 86.8 Jered Weaver, Mike Trout
11. Rangers 30 16  53% 85.5 Mark Teixeira
12. Nats/Expos 20 11  55% 83.5 Ryan Zimmerman
13. A’s 31 20  65% 82.3 Nick Swisher
14. Dodgers 21 10  48% 79.0 Clayton Kershaw
15. Pirates 19 12  63% 75.5 Andrew McCutchen
16. Reds 24 13  54% 73.5 Jay Bruce
17. Red Sox 30 19  63% 62.7 Jacoby Ellsbury
18. Tigers 17 10  59% 59.4 Justin Verlander
19. Blue Jays 34 17 50% 59.1 Aaron Hill
20. Marlins 21 14  67% 58.2 Adrian Gonzalez
21. Cardinals 29 14  48% 56.4 Colby Rasmus
21. Orioles 20 11  55% 56.4 Nick Markakis
23. Rockies 22 12  55% 55.1 Troy Tulowitzki
24. White Sox 20 11  55% 45.9 Chris Sale
25. Mariners 16 11  69% 45.4 Adam Jones
26. Cubs 21 10  48% 42.9 Josh Donaldson
27. Yankees 21 9  43% 28.6 Phil Hughes
28. Indians 26 11  42% 27.5 Jeremy Guthrie
29. Padres 31 11  35% 19.3 Khalil Greene
30. Astros 18 7  39% 11.2 Jason Castro
 TOTALS/AVERAGE  704  372  53%  71.4

Interactive Whiteboards by PolyVision

As you can see in the table above the Twins rank fourth overall in career WAR and that looks good. On the other hand if you look at percentage of round 1 players drafted that reached the majors for even one game, the Twins rank sixth worst in all of baseball at 43%. That would seem to mean that they have drafted some high quality players but they also miss totally on a high number also. I guess you could say the Twins drafts are high risk hoping for high rewards.

Can you believe the San Francisco Giants first round selections? Between 2000-2014 they have had single digit picks just twice (5th and 6th overall) and picks 20 and above overall 11 times and they have players like Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, and Matt Cain? They also selected Zack Wheeler during this time period and traded him to the Mets.

Over the years baseball people brag about the Rays and their draft picks, Although the Rays have had a couple of primo number ones, overall they rank lowest with just 33% of their number one picks reaching the majors. It is important to remember however; that I am only looking at number 1 selections here and not the entire draft for all the teams.

The draft will be 50 years old this year, why did it get started? There is a nice piece written by John Manuel at Baseball America that you should stop by and read entitled “Reichardt Relishes Role In History“.

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Categorized as MLB Draft

Twins minor league player of the week

Brandon Peterson
Ft. Myers (High A) right-handed pitcher Brandon Peterson is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Peterson appeared in two games for the Miracle, tossing 3.2 shutout innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. This season, he has appeared in 20 games for the Miracle, posting an ERA of 0.88 (30.2 IP, 3 ER) with 15 walks and 42 strikeouts.

The twenty-three year old Peterson was born Savage and attended Burnsville High School. Peterson was a 13th round selection in the 2013 draft and started his professional career in Elizabethton. In his third season of pro ball the 6’1″ 190 pounder has been used almost exclusively out of the bullpen with only one start in 79 career games. The native Minnesotan has a career record of 3-3 with a 1.72 ERA and 11 saves. In 115.1 innings he has struck out 166 batters.

Previous winners of Twins POW this season are right-handed pitcher Tyler Duffey, left-handed pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, outfielder Byron Buxton, infielder Trey Vavra, infielder Miguel Sano, first baseman/outfielder Max Kepler and right-handed pitcher Aaron Slegers.

According to ELIAS

Gomez gets revenge over Twins

Carlos Gomez went 4-for-4 and drove in three runs against his former team in the Brewers’ 4-2 win at Target Field. Two other ex-Twins have gone 4-for-4 or better with at least three RBIs against Minnesota since the team relocated from Washington in 1961: Tom Brunansky for Boston on May 19, 1990 and Casey Blakefor Cleveland on July 5, 2003. Both Brunansky and Blake put up identical lines of 5-for-5 with seven RBIs.