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
Eduardo Nunez capped Minnesota’s three-run eighth inning with an RBI single that gave the Twins a 4-3 lead that they never relinquished yesterday in their victory at Detroit. The Tigers had won the last 53 regular-season home games in which they led in the eighth inning or later, which was the longest current streak of its kind in the majors before Sunday’s loss.
This weeks Twins Minor League Player of the Week is 19-year-old Cedar Rapids Kernels (A-Midwest League) infielder Engelb Vielma. Vielma played in seven games for the Kernels, hitting .423 (11-for-26) with two doubles, one triple, three RBI, one walk and a .444 on-base percentage.
It seems like everybody that comes from Venezuela is a shortstop and this scrawny looking 5’11” and 157 pound switch-hitting Maracaibo, Venezuela native that the Twins signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2011 fits that same mold. Vielma played in the Dominican Summer League in 2012 and moved up to the Gulf Coast Twins in 2013 and had a 6 game cup of coffee stay with Elizabethton Twins late in 2013. Certainly not a power hitter by any stretch of the imagination Vielma has no home runs and has hit .251 in 483 career plate appearances. It’s the glove they say that makes Vielma stand out but yet when you look at his stats he has 38 errors in 122 games.
We have a trivia question for you. Prior to the 2014 season only six players in big league history have gotten 1,000 or more hits in both the NL and AL, two of these players once wore Twins uniforms. Can you name them?
Kurt Suzuki‘s two-out single off Justin Verlander with the bases full in the seventh inning plated a pair of runs, and that was enough for the Twins to sneak off with a 2-1 victory at Detroit on Friday. Verlander’s nine-game winning streak against the Twins ended; it had been tied for the longest current streak by any major-leaguer starter against any opposing team. Felix Hernandez has won his last nine decisions as a starter against the Tigers, as have Edwin Jackson against the Indians, and Kyle Kendrick against the Marlins. It’s not easy to load the bases against Verlander, but if you do, you have a chance. With Suzuki’s hit on Friday night, opponents now have a .339 career batting average with the bases loaded against the Tigers ace (39 hits in 115 at-bats). Sourc
Kurt Suzuki is hitting .340 (16-for-47) with two doubles, 13 RBI and a .436
on-base percentage in 13 road games, his average and OBP both rank fifth best in the AL. Kurt has five multi-hit games on the road and has reached base in 11 of 13 games.
The Twins enter today’s game with an all-time record (since 1961) of 4220-4261 and need just three wins to match their win total when the franchise was the Washington Senators from 1901-1960, psting a 4223-4864 record. The Senators were one of the eight original franchises in the American League for sixty years. The Senators played baseball in our nation’s capital, winning one World Championship in 1924 and three AL pennants (1924, 1925, and 1933. After the 1960 season owner Calvin Griffith moved the Washington Senators from Washington, DC to Minnesota.
Don’t forget to stop by our “Today in Twins History” page and checked out what happened on this day in Minnesota Twins history.
Phil Hughes allowed two runs in 6.1 innings in the Twins’ 5-2 win over the Orioles. Hughes, who has defeated the Royals, Tigers and Orioles over his last three starts while posting a 2.79 ERA, has won three consecutive starts for the first time since he did so for the Yankees in September 2012. Hughes made 34 starts in the interim and registered a 4-16 record with a 5.24 ERA in those games.
New Britain (AA-Eastern League) first baseman Kennys Vargas is the Twins Minor
League Player of the Week. Vargas played in seven games for the Rock Cats, hitting .476 (10-for-21) with two doubles, three home runs, seven RBI and five walks. The 6′ 5″ 275-pounder is hitting .289 (26-for-90) with four doubles, six home runs, 17 RBI, 14 walks
and 11 runs scored in 26 games this season.
The 23-year-old Vargas who is from Canovanas, Puerto Rico drove in 93 RBI for Single-A Ft. Myers last season, the most in the Florida State League. Vargas was undrafted and signed by the Twins (scout Hector Otero) in February 2009 for a $125,000 signing bonus and was added to the Twins 40 man roster this past November. Vargas was suspended for 50 games by MLB for a drug policy violation in August 2011.
Tyler Mason did a piece on Vargas back in March that is worth looking at. The Pioneer Press did a short piece on Vargas in March also.
Minnesota Twins 1B and outfielder Chris Colabello had a month to remember in April and now he ranks at the top of the list of some pretty good players that knew how to knock in runs for the Minnesota Twins. Some interesting names on this list of Twins that had 20 or more RBI in the first month of the season.
| Rk | Player | Split | Year | G | RBI | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Colabello | April/March | 2014 | 24 | 27 | 102 | 95 | 11 | 28 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 26 | .295 | .343 | .827 |
| 2 | Kirby Puckett | April/March | 1994 | 25 | 26 | 116 | 112 | 14 | 39 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 10 | .348 | .371 | .871 |
| 3 | Ron Coomer | April/March | 2000 | 22 | 23 | 92 | 83 | 14 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 9 | .265 | .326 | .820 |
| 4 | Brant Alyea | April/March | 1970 | 17 | 23 | 60 | 53 | 7 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 7 | .415 | .483 | 1.257 |
| 5 | Justin Morneau | April/March | 2008 | 27 | 22 | 110 | 97 | 12 | 26 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 11 | 16 | .268 | .345 | .840 |
| 6 | Kent Hrbek | April/March | 1982 | 22 | 22 | 100 | 86 | 18 | 27 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 13 | 15 | .314 | .404 | 1.102 |
| 7 | Dave Hollins | April/March | 1996 | 25 | 22 | 103 | 82 | 19 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 19 | 18 | .293 | .437 | 1.034 |
| 8 | Matt Lawton | April/March | 2000 | 26 | 22 | 118 | 102 | 18 | 38 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 12 | .373 | .449 | .998 |
| 9 | Paul Molitor | April/March | 1996 | 25 | 21 | 114 | 101 | 24 | 39 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 11 | 10 | .386 | .439 | .973 |
| 10 | Pat Meares | April/March | 1996 | 24 | 21 | 95 | 84 | 16 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 19 | .321 | .372 | .920 |
| 11 | Doug Mientkiewicz | April/March | 2001 | 23 | 21 | 87 | 79 | 14 | 30 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 14 | .380 | .425 | 1.134 |
| 12 | Harmon Killebrew | April/March | 1971 | 21 | 21 | 91 | 81 | 7 | 26 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 16 | .321 | .396 | .902 |
| 13 | Torii Hunter | April/March | 2002 | 27 | 20 | 115 | 105 | 23 | 39 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 21 | .371 | .409 | 1.085 |
.
It will be interesting to see how many RBI Colabello will end up with in 2014. Harmon Killebrew wih 119 and Kirby Puckett with 112 ended up leading the league in RBI’s in the season they had 20 or more RBI’s in April. Dave Hollins on the other hand had 22 RBI in April and finished the season with 53. Strangely enough Dave Hollins, Paul Molitor, and Pat Meares all had 20 or more RBI in April of 1996 and yet the team finished the season at 78-84 with Paul Molitor and Marty Cordova ending up with over 100 RBI.
A nice record to have for Chris Colabello but it is a long season so it will be fun to watch to see if Colabello can maintain his RBI pace or if this past month is just an anomaly.
You can check out a nice article written about Colabello and his history by Dan Cook of WCCO Radio here.
The Ft. Myers news-press.com site is reporting that the Ft. Myers Miracle have been sold to a New Jersey based ownership group SJS Beacon. The president of SJS Beacon is Jason Hockberg. Marvin Goldklang, 71 and the principal owner of the Goldklang Group, which had owned the team since September of 1989, said the sale felt bittersweet.
Andrew Moon and experts from Forbes and Sports Business Journal estimated Class A baseball affiliates, depending on their location and attendance, to be worth in the $7 million to $10 million range.
The Twins have a 30-year lease agreement with Lee County of the sports complex. The Twins’ affiliation agreement with the Miracle expires after the 2018 season, but Hochberg said he expected the partnership to continue thereafter.
Read the entire news-press article here.
The Twins have played better than expected (12-11) in 2014 and the team is ranked third in the league in runs scored with 127 runs in 23 games for an average of 5.52 runs per game. Everyone is excited about the Twins offensive display this season but so far nobody is talking about the elephant in the room, Joe Mauer and his slow start as the teams new first baseman.
The Twins $23 million first baseman in 111 plate appearances is hitting .266 with two doubles, one home run and 6 RBI. On the plus side Mauer has scored 19 runs and appeared in every Twins game this season (20 games at 1B and 3 at DH).
So what ails Joe? With the Twins offense in high gear no one is complaining about Mauer’s poor start with the bat but the Twins are going to need production from their highest paid player as the season moves along. In his 11th big league season the 31-year-old Mauer has a career batting mark of .322 and he has struck out once every 8.76 plate appearances and walked once every 8.17 plate appearances. So far this season he is striking out once every 4.27 plate appearances and walking only once every 6.53 plate appearances. What I would like to know is why Mauer’s strikeouts have jumped so dramatically the last two seasons.
Joe Mauer’s strikeout rate over his career
| YEAR | Plate Appearances per KO |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 4.27 |
| 2013 | 5.71 |
| 2012 | 7.28 |
| 2011 | 8.76 |
| 2010 | 11.02 |
| 2009 | 9.62 |
| 2008 | 12.66 |
| 2007 | 7.96 |
| 2006 | 11.26 |
| 2005 | 8.66 |
| 2004 | 8.71 |
So why the ever-increasing strikeout rate? Are umpires treating Mauer differently? Is age catching up with Joe? Is Mauer’s eyesight becoming an issue? Does Mauer miss catching? Does he miss getting two days a week off? Is the cold wet weather bothering Mauer? Or is it that married life has taken Mauer’s focus off baseball?
The Twins are going to be paying Mauer $23 million a year through at least 2018 and the team and we fans have a right to expect a lot more from Mr. Mauer. At the rate Mauer is hitting in 2014 he will finish the season with 6 home runs, 12 doubles and 36 RBI, these are Pedro Florimon numbers or for that matter any batter that hits 8th or 9th in the batting order not for a guy hitting as high in the line-up as Mauer hits.
Odds are that Mauer will catch fire pretty soon and put up the numbers we expect from here every year but there will come a time when that doesn’t happen and I sure hope we aren’t looking at that time here and now.
Rochester (AAA-International League) right-handed pitcher Alex Meyer is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Meyer made one start for the Red Wings on April 23 at Pawtucket, tossing 6.2 scoreless innings with three hits allowed, three walks while tying a career high with 11 strikeouts, his third career double-digit strikeout performance. The Greensburg, Indiana native has gone 0-0, 3.48 ERA (20.2 IP, 8 ER) with eight walks and 24 strikeouts in four starts for the Wings this season. The 6″9″ 24-year-old was acquired by the Twins in late November of 2012 in exchange for Denard Span and is ranked as the club’s top pitching prospect by Baseball America.
The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that Minnesota Twins Minor League infielder Jonatan Hinojosa has received a 50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for metabolites of Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in effect prior to the recent changes to the Program. The suspension of the 21-year-old Hinojosa who is currently on the roster of Single-A Cedar Rapids of the Midwest League is effective immediately.
Hinojosa spent his first three seasons playing in the Dominican Summer league where he hit .147, .186, and .174 with zero home runs and had 28 stolen bases. Last season Hinojosa played for the Gulf Coast League Twins and hit .236 again with no home runs in 48 games. This season Hinojosa appeared in just one game for Cedar Rapids and was hitless in 3 at bats.
There is a nice piece about Ft. Myers Mircale outfielder Adam Walker that you can check out here.
April 25, 1961 – A tough day in Municipal Stadium in Kansas City as the A’s pound seven Minnesota Twins pitchers in a 20-2 Twins defeat. Twins reliever Fred Bruckbauer made his only big league appearance in this game when he came in to pitch in the top of the fourth inning and gave up a double, a single, a walk and a double before getting pulled. Bruckbauer was charged with 3 earned runs and since he never again pitched in the big leagues his ERA stands at infinity. Norm Bass went the distance for the A’s giving up 7 hits and 9 walks but still got the “W”.
April 25, 1964 – The Twins lose to the Detroit Tigers 5-2 at Met Stadium in what was the first ever nationally televised Twins game from Met Stadium. The team had played on national TV 19 times before this game but all the games were on the road. Their first nationally televised game was on June 10, 1961. Strangely enough, Camilo Pascual started and lost both of these games. The game was on NBC and the announcers were Bob Wolff and Joe Garagiola.
April 25, 1970 – The Twins are playing the Tigers at the Met and take a 3-1 lead into the ninth only to have the Tigers score twice to tie the game. The Twins came back with one of their own, an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth and won the game 4-3. Exciting you say? But you should have seen what transpired in the top of the seventh with the Twins ahead 2-1. Jim Kaat is on the mound for the Twins and retires Elliot Maddox and Cesar Gutierrez on groundouts to the shortstop for the first two outs and then appeared to have struck out pitcher Earl Wilson, but, Twins catcher Paul Ratliff did not catch Kaat’s pitch in the air and this is where things really got weird. Ratliff got the ball and rolled it back to the mound and headed for the dugout. Tiger 3B coach Grover Resinger knew his rules and he told Wilson to head to first base. None of the Twins seemed to notice Wilson as he rounded first and headed for 2B and at this point coach Resinger was in the middle of the infield urging Wilson on. By now Twins LF Brant Alyea figured out what was happening and ran after the ball but had trouble picking it up and Wilson was still running and was now rounding 3B and heading for home. By this time Twins shortstop Leo Cardenas had ran over to cover home plate and Alyea threw him the ball. Wilson was a big guy and all this running was beginning to take its toll and when he saw Cardenas with the ball he turned and started back to 3B but pulled a hamstring and just collapsed to the ground before getting back to the 3B bag. Cardenas threw the ball back to Alyea who then tagged Wilson out as he lay in the base path just short of 3B and the Twins were out of the inning unscathed. The scoring you ask? A strikeout, an error on Ratliff, and the out was recorded as LF-SS-LF (7-6-7). To top it all off the television crew had all gone to the commercial after the apparent strikeout and none of this was recorded on video.
April 25, 1977 – Twins pitchers Mike Pazik and Don Carrithers were seriously injured in an automobile accident when their van collided with a car going the wrong way on an exit ramp in Bloomington, MN. Pazik suffered two broken bones in each leg and was out for the season. Carrithers, who was driving, suffered a compound fracture of his right knee, a partial rupture of the quadriceps tendon near his knee and a fractured right wrist and ended missing three months of the 1977 season.
April 25, 1980 – Making his first appearance in Minnesota since his fight with a marshmallow salesman in the Fall of 1979, A’s manager Billy Martin has to be restrained by umpires from attacking a fan who was pelting him with marshmallows during the Twins’ 10-3 victory.
April 25, 2005 – The Minnesota Twins and Hennepin County announce they have agreed on a proposal to fund and construct a new ballpark in downtown Minneapolis.
April 25, 2012 – Twins 1B Chris Parmelee was hit in the batting helmet in the sixth inning by a 93 MPH fastball thrown by Red Sox hurler Justin Thomas. The ball hit the bill of Parmelee’s helmet, deflected down and struck Parmelee above his eye. A couple of inches lower, Parmelee continues to think, and he could have been struck directly in his eye. The ball bounced all the way back to the Red Sox dugout at Target Field. Parmelee was down for about a minute but rose to his feet and walked off the field. He was examined by doctors, who tested him for a concussion but luckily that was not the case. The Twins ended up losing the game 7-6.