This Day In Twins History – August 8

8/8/1962 – With the score tied at 3 apiece at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, A’s rookie third baseman Ed Charles steals home with two out in the ninth to score the winning run in a A’s 4-3 win over the Twins. Ray Moore and Jerry Zimmerman were the Twins battery at the time.

8/8/1974 – The Royals – Twins game at Royals Stadium is briefly interrupted by President Nixon’s resignation speech. The speech is broadcast after it begins and the next inning is delayed until the conclusion of the speech. The Twins prevail over the host Royals‚ 3 – 2 in 14 innings when Tony Oliva‘s sacrifice fly drives home Rod Carew. Bill Campbell pitches 7 innings of relief for the win.

White sox shorts8/8/1976 – This has nothing to do with the Minnesota Twins but still it deserves to be remembered for its “strangeness”. Thirty-seven years ago, on Aug. 8, 1976, the Chicago White Sox made sartorial history by wearing shorts in a win over the Royals. The Bermudas were the idea of—who else?—owner Bill Veeck. The shorts were worn in a total of three games.

8/8/1987 – The Twins beat the Oakland A’s 9-2 at the Metrodome as Twins pitcher Steve Carlton wins the 329th and final game of his Hall of Fame career. Carlton pitches 8 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs while striking out two batters.

8/8/1988 – The Indians and the Twins were scoreless after 3 innings at the Metrodome with Allan Anderson on the mound for the local nine. In the top of the fourth inning with no one out, the Indians Ron Washington and Willie Upshaw singled to put runners on first and second and then Joe Carter smashed a long drive to the left field corner where Twins outfielder Dan Gladden snagged it for an out and wheeled and fired a strike to Steve Lombardozzi at 2B to nail Washington and then Lombo relayed the ball to Gene Larkin at first to get the runner there by at least 5 feet and completed the unusual 7-4-3 triple play. The Twins went on to win the game by a 7-2 score with Galdden going 3 for 5 with a run scored, a stolen base, and a RBI. Catcher Brian Harper was 4 for 4 but played second fiddle to Gladden on this day.

8/8/1998 – Paul Molitor stole his 500th base in Minnesota’s 6-3 loss to Baltimore to become only the fifth player ever with 3,000 hits and 500 steals. Molitor joined Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Lou Brock.

8/8/2004 – The A’s beat the Twins 6 – 5 in 18 innings. It is the second-longest game in the 23-year history of the Metrodome. With the score tied 3 to 3, the A’s score 3 in the top of the 18th off Terry Mulholland to take a 6-3 lead. The Twins come back with 2 in the bottom of the 18th with a Morneau home run but leave Matthew LeCroy stranded on first when Koskie and Cuddyer flyout to end the rally and the Twins hope of a huge comeback victory. The game lasts 4 hours and 57 minutes.

8/8/2005 – One time Minnesota Twins manger (1976-1980) Gene Mauch passes away at the age of 79. Mauch was the seventh manager in Twins history. I think one of my favorite Gene Mauch quotes was “I’m not the manager because I am always right, but I am always right because I am the manager”.

8/8/2009 – The Twins third manager, Cal Ermer passed away at the age of 85 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Ermer replaced the fired Sam Mele in June 1967 with the Twins in sixth place with a 25-25 record. The Twins went 66-46 the rest of the season but lost the American League pennant on the final day of the season. Ermer was fired after the Twins finished in seventh place in 1968 with a 79-83 record.

According to Elias

Seth Smith led off the top of the 10th inning with a home run to give the Padres a 5-4 win over the Twins at Target Field. Smith entered the game with a .658 slugging percentage this season when leading off an inning, the sixth-highest such average in the major leagues (minimum: 75 leadoff at-bats).

The Twins squandered a 4-3 lead in the ninth inning, before Smith’s decisive hit. Minnesota had won the last 82 home games in which it led in the ninth inning or later, which was the longest current streak of that kind in the major leagues entering the day.

According to Elias

As if the Twins’ nine-run eighth inning wasn’t enough, Chris Parmelee, Oswaldo Arcia and Eric Fryer rubbed salt in the wound with consecutive ninth-inning home runs off Andre Rienzo to increase the margin of victory in Minnesota’s 16-3 laugher against the White Sox. The Twins are the third team to hit back-to-back-to-back homers in a major-league game this season, and the two other instances occurred on consecutive days in April. Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Raul Ibanez did it for the Angels on April 13 (all first-inning shots off the Mets’ Bartolo Colon), as did Evan Gattis, Dan Uggla and Andrelton Simmons for the Braves on April 14 (eighth inning homers, all off Philadelphia’s B.J. Rosenberg).

Twins minor league player of the week

Chih-Wei Hu
Chih-Wei Hu (Photo credit to Becky Evans/Cedar Rapids Kernels)

Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A – Midwest League)  pitcher Chih-Wei Hu is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In two starts for the Kernels, he went 2-0, allowing one run in 12.0 innings, five hits, two walks and 14 strikeouts. The Taichung, Taiwan-native is 4-0, 1.50 ERA (30.0 IP, 5 ER) with 29 strikeouts and six walks in five starts for the Kernels this season. T

The 20-year-old right-hander was signed by the Twins as an undrafted free agent in August of 2012. Only in his second season of pro ball, Hu has a career record of 7-0 with a 1.96 ERA and a 0.84 WHIP. He has been a starter in 13 of his 20 games and he has struck out 84 batters in 82.2 innings. The man has not lost a game since he started pitching professionally, he was named Midwest League Pitcher of the Week last week.

Hu continues winning ways with Kernels by Mark Emery of MiLB.com

According to Elias

Trevor Plouffe
Trevor Plouffe

Trevor Plouffe was 4-for-5 with two doubles in the Twins’ win at U.S. Cellular Field. Plouffe is 16-for-35 (.457) against the White Sox this season. The only major-leaguer with at least 35 at-bats versus one team this season and a higher average than that is Freddie Freeman, who is 20-for-41 (.488) against the Nationals.

How can you not like the Twins signing Brandon Poulson

Brandon Poulson (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2014
Brandon Poulson (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2014

How often does this happen now days when baseball scouts scour the bushes around the world but yet a pitcher in California that can throw 100 MPH goes undrafted? Certainly not very often but the Minnesota Twins came up winners in getting 24 year-old Brandon Poulson’s name on a professional baseball contract and it only cost them $250,000.

The signing makes for a nice Minnesota Twins story when all the news you seem to read about the team lately is bad news. The team has stunk since the All-Star game, attendance is down, the Minnesota Vikings have reported to Mankato,  the July 31 trading deadline is almost here and rumors swirl that a number of Twins are on the way out, fans are calling for manager Ron Gardenhire‘s head, Twins prospects like Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Kohl Stewart, Jose Berrios, and Max Kepler keep showing up on the DL, and of course the Twins Hall of Fame induction ceremonies for Chuck Knoblauch being cancelled because he was arrested once again so we like the baseball scouts have to look high and low for some good news and this story fits the bill.

Here are a couple of links to other stories about Brandon Poulson:

SportsYahoo.com

Star Tribune

The Press Democrat

 

 

 

Twins farmhand suspended by club

 

Hudson Boyd (KCRG-Gazette photo by Kaitlyn Bernauer)
Hudson Boyd (KCRG-Gazette photo by Kaitlyn Bernauer)

Hudson Boyd of the Cedar Rapids Kernels a 21 year-ol right-handed pitcher has been suspended indefinitely by the parent club Minnesota Twins.“He broke team rules,” said Manager Jake Mauer. “Made bad decisions. I don’t know how long he is going to be suspended for, but he’s going to be out for a little bit here.” Boyd is a first-round supplemental pick (55th overall) of the Twins in the 2011 draft who signed with Minnesota for a million dollar bonus out of Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers.

“I’d probably better not say anything,” Boyd said, when asked about his suspension.“He’s  got to take care of some things, get some things in order,” Mauer said. “Really, unfortunately, it’s just about a guy being young. Not thinking things through. Hopefully he’ll come out of this and look at this as just a bump in the road to where he wants to get to.” The length of Boyd’s suspension will be determined by Twins farm director Brad Steil.

Boyd is in Cedar Rapids for a second consecutive year. The Twins have had Boyd start during his first two years in pro ball but this season Boyd has been used strictly in relief and has a 4-2 record with a 4.53 ERA, a 1.49 WHIP and has 35 strikeouts in 43.2 innings. Boyd has seven saves to his credit this season.

Boyd has had weight issues in the past and the Twins have been working with Boyd to keep his weight under control. Earlier this spring there were rumors floating around that Boyd had stated that he would not report to Cedar Rapids if he had to repeat a season there but he still gets his mail in Cedar Rapids and it doesn’t look like he will have to change his address in the near future.

Twins minor league player of the week

Tim Shibuya
Tim Shibuya

Ft. Myers (High-A) pitcher Tim Shibuya is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In two starts for the Miracle, he went 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA (14.0 IP, 2 ER) with 11 hits allowed, three walks and 11 strikeouts. The 24-year-old right-hander has appeared in 26 games (8 starts) for the Miracle, going 7-3, 2.98 ERA (81.2 IP, 27 ER) with 10 walks allowed and 54 strikeouts. The 6’1″ Shibuya was drafted in the 23rd round of the 2011 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of California-San Diego.  Tim was a two-time All-American as a Triton in 2010 and 2011, and the program’s all-time leader in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts.

Here are a couple of links about Tim Shibuya that you might enjoy:

Miracle pitcher Tim Shibuya excels at fielding

Q&A with Tim Shibuya

 

Former Twin Chuck Knoblauch has another brush with the law

JUly 2014 Knoblauch mug shot
Knoblauch mug shot – July 2014

Former American League Rookie of the Year and Minnesota Twins star second baseman Edward Charles “Chuck” Knoblauch was arrested Wednesday night and accused of assaulting his ex-wife. Some reports have the couple divorcing in 2012 while other reports state that they filed for divorce in 2012 but failed to follow through on the necessary paper work. Regardless of their marriage status, Chuck Knoblauch, 46, is charged with assault of a family member after allegedly hitting Cheri Knoblauch inside her Bunker Hill home.

Memorial Villages police officers arrested Knoblauch and said he appeared “extremely intoxicated.” He was released after posting a $10,000 bond. “I would caution everybody to not rush to judgment on this. Let the facts play out and let the court system do its job,” his attorney Jimmy Ardoin said. Knoblauch has another court appearance set for July 30.

(A video of Knoblauch’s court appearance posted here previously had to be removed.)

Knoblauch was previously convicted of hitting then-wife Stacy Stelmach in 2010 and received one year of probation in that case. The blogs we did then can be found here and here. This Day in Twins History – February 6, 1998 Knoblauch is traded to Yankees.

Earlier this year prosecutors say he (Knoblauch) pushed a police officer March 12 and was charged with interference with public duties. That case is also outstanding at the present time.

The Minnesota Twins had planned to induct Knoblauch as the 27th member of the team’s Hall of Fame on August 23 but with recent developments the club sent out the following statement on July 24 .

“In light of recent news reports surrounding Chuck Knoblauch, as well as direct communication with the former Twins second baseman, the Minnesota Twins have decided to cancel the team’s 2014 Hall of Fame induction ceremony scheduled for August 23 at Target Field.”

Nydailynews.com

khou.com

Startribune.com

 

 

Looking for the exit sign

Exit to SafecoWinning at just a .455% clip, the third worst in the American League and in last place in the AL Central division with the July 31 trade deadline looming the Minnesota Twins caravan stopped at the local bus stop on their way to Target Field to allow 1B/DH Kendrys Morales and RHP Matt Guerrier to get off the bus. Morales is heading for Seattle but Guerrier’s destination is unknown at the present time.

Matt Guerrier
Matt Guerrier
Ryan Pressly
Ryan Pressly

The Twins signed Matt Guerrier this past March as a free agent. Guerrier, 35, appeared in relief in 27 games and had a 0-1 record with a 3.86 ERA. Guerrier is in his 11th season in the majors but is about 40 some games short of hitting the 10 year pension mark. Guerrier had pitched for Minnesota from 2004-2010 before signing with the Dodgers as a free agent and then being traded to the Cubs last season. The Twins designated Guerrier for assignment and recalled Ryan Pressly from Rochester. Pressly who spent all of 2013 in the Twins bullpen was talked about as a possible starter this season but with Rochester this season all of his 35 appearances have been as a reliever. Hard to say what is in store for Guerrier at this stage of his career but the Twins front office likes him and if he can’t find a job as a player, the Twins might offer him a pitching coach position somewhere in their minor league system.

Stephen Pryor
Stephen Pryor
Kendrys Morales
Kendrys Morales

The Twins surprised everyone when they signed free agent DH/1B Kendrys Morales to a $7.4 million deal on July 24. Morales however, has not exactly provided the punch the Twins were hoping to get when they signed the Cuban slugger that has had hit 34 home runs in 2009 and 23 last season as a Seattle Mariner. In 39 games for the Twins Morales had one home run, 18 RBI and a .234 batting average in 154 at bats. The Twins swapped Morales to the Seattle Mariners for right-handed pitcher Stephen Pryor. Pryor received his surprise birthday gift a day after his 25th birthday. Pryor was a 2010 fifth round pick by the Mariners and quickly made his big league debut with the Mariners in June of 2012. In only his 4th major league appearance for the Seattle Mariners on June 8, 2012, Pryor was credited with the win in a 1-0 combined no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Pryor appeared in 26 games as a Mariner in 2012 but only appeared in 7 games last season before under-going shoulder surgery. The 6’4″ Pryor has spent most of the season in AAA Tacoma but his solitary appearance with Seattle this season happened to be against the Twins on July 9th when he pitched 1.2 innings striking out one and allowing one unearned run. Pryor had been clocked near the 100 MPH mark in the past but is closer to the low to mid 90’s since his surgery. Having said that, his surgery was last season so there is always a chance he could regain his lost velocity. Pryor is not exactly a control pitcher as he has a 4.5 BB/9 mark in the big leagues and even worse 4.9 BB/9 in the minor leagues.  The Twins assigned Pryor to Rochester. The Twins called up shortstop Jorge Polanco from Ft. Myers to replace Morales on the roster but I would expect that Polanco’s spot on the Twins roster will be short-term.

Who will be the next Twins player to be calling Minnesota a place he used to play?