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
Doing a little research on the state of Minnesota Twins pitching under the Derek Falvey & Thad Levine regime from 2017 to current. These gents were brought in because they were supposedly going to turn around the Twins pitching woes. Let’s see how they are progressing.
There is never any “perfect” way to compare players or teams but I use WAR for other comparisons and I will use it again here. Here is how the Twins pitching staff compared to other pitching staffs across MLB. Keep in mind we are ranking entire pitching staffs and not starting rotations here.
The Minnesota Twins have played baseball for 62 seasons and they have had 273 different pitchers start one or more games for them. The number drops to 26 pitchers having started 100 or more games, just six having started 200 or more, three at 300 or more and only Jim Kaat started over 400 or 422 to be exact.
Pitching has not exactly been the Twins strength over the years, the team has been known for producing hitters. But the Twins have had a number of very good pitchers with Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat in the MLB Hall of Fame. The Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame includes pitchers Blyleven, Kaat, Frank Viola, Rick Aguilera, Brad Radke, Jim Perry, Camilo Pascual, Eddie Guardado, Johan Santana and Joe Nathan. Three of the inductee’s were relievers.
The Twins are in agreement with outfielder Joey Gallo on a one-year deal that will pay him $11MM. The two-time All-Star is represented by the Boras Corporation. Apparently when one of Boras’s players is having a tough time getting signed, they turn to the Minnesota Twins for some reason. Either Boras has something on the Twins FO dynamic duo that they don’t want the public to know or they are just easy to convince that the player will be good and might sign a long term deal with them.
Twins fans were disgusted with Miguel Sano and his strikeouts and they couldn’t wait for him to be run out of town. The Twins FO obliged and didn’t tender Sano. But if Twins fans didn’t like Sano, they are really in for a treat in their new outfielder Joey Gallo. Sanó has the second-highest career strikeout rate in MLB history at 36.4 percent. The only player to whiff more often is Gallo, who sits atop the all-time career list at 37.3 percent, including 39.8 percent last season for the Yankees and Dodgers.
Christian Vazquez with mandatory credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
With the catching market hot of late the Minnesota Twins jumped in and filled one of their holes by signing 31-year-old free agent Christian Vazquez. Vazquez was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in round nine of the 2008 MLB June Amateur Draft from Puerto Rico Baseball Academy. Vazquez worked his way up through the Red Sox system and debuted in the big leagues on July 9, 2014 going 0 for 3 against the Chicago White Sox. The deal, which is pending a physical, will guarantee him $30MM.
According to WikipediA, in baseball a quality start is a statistic for a starting pitcher defined as a game in which the pitcher completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. The quality start has effectively replaced the ‘complete game’ as a meaningful measure of a starting pitcher’s performance.
The quality start was developed by sportswriter John Lowe in 1985 while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Nolan Ryan has used the term “High Quality Start” for games where the pitcher goes seven innings or more and allows three earned runs or fewer, which baseball columnist and formber BBWAA president Derrick Goold referred to as “Quality Start Plus.”
Once again it is that time of the year, time to name the 2022 Twins Turkey of the Year, but first, I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for even if the Minnesota Twins play in 2022 is not one of them. As you might imagine, there were plenty of candidates for this years honor after the team crashed and burned playing .357 baseball in September and finished the second half with a 28-40 record. Hopes were sky high when the Twins spent over $35 million to sign shortstop Carlos Correa but as the season wore on, the Twins wore down even if manager Rocco Baldelli rested his players for the big Fall push.
The Minnesota Twins had a big “to-do” at the Mall of America on Friday, November 18 when the organization announced that a “new era of Twins basball” was dawning with their first brand refresh in 35 years. According to Pat Reusse about 1,500 of the Twins loyalists were in attendance to witness the club roll out a new set of uniforms and modify their TC insignia. It is kind of ironic that the Twins chose the MOA which is where Metropolitan Stadium once stood as the place to roll out these changes.
It is probably a good thing that the National League finally adopted the designated hitter rule like the Americal League has had for many years. Sure, pitchers got a key hit now and then but it stood out because it was so rare. But my intent here is to share with you a look at Twins pitchers hitting over the years before the DH rule came into play in 1973.
The criteria for this list is simple, you had to have been a Twins pitcher and had a minimum of 50 PA’s. Over the years you have heard that Jim Kaat was a pretty good hitter for a pitcher and he was. As far as I know Kaat was the only Twins pitcher to ever have a baseball card (1973 Topps) showing him hitting. Kind of ironic it would come out the year the AL DH rule came into play. But how many of you knew that Camilo Pascual was pretty good with the bat too.
Manager Rocco Baldelli and head athletic trainer Michael Salazar
Somebody’s head had to be on the chopping block after the 2022 Minnesota Twins dismal season and it looks like head athletic trainer Michael Salazar is that unlucky soul. The way the Twins front office makes it sound he will be the only casualty but we will have to wait and see what happens down the line. That certainly does not sit well with me or many other Twins fans.
Twins interim pitching coach Pete Maki has been named as the pitching coach and interim bullpen coach Colby Suggs will also drop the interim label from his poisition on the coaching staff. One of these days I need to find out what a bullpen coach does besides answer the phone. I read somewhere where Derek Falvey stated that an assistant pitching coach may be added to help Maki with his duties. It seems like it will only be a matter of time before there will be as many coaches as there are players on the team. I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe some coaches get reassigned, third base coach Tommy Watkins comes to mind but we will just have to wait and see.
Once the World Series comes to an end we will see what the Minnesota Twins off-season looks like. There are many questions and issues to be addressed, it will be interesting to see how things shake out.
