How well do you know your Twins outfield history?

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By my count the Twins have had 103 players that have played at least 50% of their games roaming the outfield in a Twins uniform. The Twins have had 146 players play at least one game in left field with Dan Gladden leading the pack with 620 games. The Twins have had 90 players play at least one game in center field with Kirby Puckett leading the pack with 1,432 games. The Twins have had 137 players play at least one game in right field with Tony Oliva leading the pack with 1,137 games. That is a lot of different players in three different home ballparks. How well do you know your Twins outfielders? If you enjoy Twins history and like to do crossword puzzles then this might be just the thing for you.

Once you have brought the puzzle up and are ready to print the puzzle, do a right-click with your mouse and you might want to do a print preview first to get the puzzle the right size to fit on a single page. The clues for the puzzle will print on page 2.

Twins outfielders puzzle

Answers? You want answers? Probably just to double-check your work because if you are checking out this site you are probably a big Twins fan and will not need any research to complete the puzzle. If you do need help answering some, the answer might be found else where on this site. If you must see the answers, you can find them on the link below but only do so as a last resort. Thanks, I hope you enjoy it.

Twins outfielders puzzle answers

Twins Minor League Player of the Week

Danny Santana
Danny Santana

New Britain (AA – Eastern League) shortstop Danny Santana is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In seven games for the Rock Cats, Santana hit .429 (8-for-23) with one home run, five RBI, one double, two triples, two stolen bases and four runs scored. The 22-year old from Monte Plata, Dominican Republic, is hitting .296 (150-for-506) this season, with 22 doubles, 10 triples, two home runs, 43 RBI, 26 stolen bases and 63 runs scored with a .331 OBP in 123 games for New Britain.

Although Santana is only 22, he is already in his sixth season in the Twins organization. The 5’11” switch-hitting Santana is a slick fielder and is well liked by many in the Twins organization. Since 2010 his OBP has gone from .285, to .289, to .298, to .329 and now to .331. Don’t be surprised is Santana makes a serious run at taking over the Twins shortstop job within the next year or two.

According to Elias

Chris Herrmann
Chris Herrmann

Twins rookie catcher Chris Herrmann banged out three hits in Minnesota’s 7-6 win at Detroit, including a run-scoring double which snapped a 6-6 tie in the eighth inning. It was the third three-hit game of the season for Herrmann, all of which have come in games in which he was behind the plate. That ties him with the Marlins’ Rob Brantly for the most games of three or more hits by a rookie catcher this season. Since 1986, the only other rookie catcher to record as many three-hit games in one season for the Twins as Herrmann was Joe Mauer with three in 2004.

Back in the day when the Twins didn’t allow facial hair

Bert Blyleven
Bert Blyleven

I ran across this brief story that was printed in the New York Times in July of 1986 that I thought you might enjoy. How times have changed….

How much is a beard worth? To Bert Blyleven, the Minnesota Twins’ pitcher, $50 a day. The Twins have a rule against beards and have never had a bearded player. So when Blyleven was traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Twins last August, he shaved the beard he had worn for years. Now he misses the beard, saying it was ”a happy thing” during more successful times. According to The Minneapolis Star and Tribune, Blyleven asked Howard Fox, the club president, for permission to grow a beard. Fox said it would cost Blyleven a $50 daily fine to be paid to charities of his choosing. Blyleven agreed and said the money should go to the United Way and to buy Twins tickets for senior citizens. If he keeps the beard until the end of the season, it will cost him $5,000. His salary this year is $1.3 million.

Home plate can be hard to find

Some days home plate seems the size of a postage stamp to Twins pitchers and here are some of those days. The most walks a Twins pitcher has issued in one game stands at nine and five Twins pitchers have met that fate. The last time it happened was back in 1987, I can just see TK  and pitching coach Dick Such in the dugout now. Maybe that is when the Twins implemented their pitch to contact plan. What I think is odd is that in four of the five instances the Twins ended up winning the game. The only time it happened in a home game was Jim Hughes effort in 1975 at the Met. One of the games, the Jim Roland effort was a shutout. Baseball is a strange game!

Juan Berenguer
Juan Berenguer
Rk Player Date Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR BF AB
1 Juan Berenguer 1987-06-02 BOS L 5-6 GS-4 3.2 3 4 4 9 5 0 24 14
2 Jim Hughes 1975-07-19 NYY W 2-1 GS-9 ,W 8.2 4 1 1 9 6 0 41 30
3 Tom Hall 1970-09-23 OAK W 7-4 GS-8 ,W 7.2 2 4 4 9 9 2 34 25
4 Luis Tiant 1970-05-05 DET W 8-5 GS-6 ,W 5.2 2 2 2 9 4 1 28 19
5 Jim Roland 1963-04-21 (1) CHW W 7-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 3 0 0 9 7 0 38 29

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/15/2013.

On the other hand, the Twins record for most consecutive games without issuing a free pass belongs to Joe Nathan who did not issue a base on balls for 27 consecutive games (25.1 innings) between 9/2/2004 – 5/7/2005. The record holders for this feat within a single season belongs to Casey Fien who went 20 games (18.2 innings) without a walk from May 28th through July 13th earlier this season and Rick Aguilera who went 20 games (19 innings) from 4/25/1994 – 6/24/1994. The major league record holder in this category is Dennis Eckersley who went 41 games and 50 innings without a free pass from 8/17/1989 – 6/10/1990.

Twins Minor League Player of the Week

DJ Hicks
DJ Hicks

Ft. Myers (A – Florida St. League) first baseman D.J. Hicks is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In six games for the Miracle, Hicks hit .435 (10-for-23) with two home runs, eight RBI, two doubles and scored five runs. Dalton Hicks was drafted by the Twins in the 17th round of the 2012 First-Year Player draft, was signed and played his first year of pro ball in Elizabethton. The 6’5″ left-handed hitting Hicks is hitting .308 in 28 games with the Miracle this season after getting promoted from Cedar Rapids where hit .297 in 89 games to start the season.

This Day in Twins History – August 17, 1999

Jesse OroscoBaltimore Orioles Jesse Orosco set a major league record by pitching in his 1,072nd game, breaking a tie with Dennis Eckersley atop the career list. The 42-year-old Orosco took the mound with two outs in the seventh inning of Baltimore’s 8-3 victory over Minnesota at Camden Yards. Orosco was originally drafted by Minnesota in 1978 but did not pitch for them until 2003 which was his 24th and final big league season. Orosco played for 9 different major league organizations, some more than once. Orosco remains the all-time leader in games pitched with 1,252, in all those games, Orosco had just 4 starts. Jesse Orosco also has the rare distinction of playing in the major leagues in four different decades. To see a nice recap of his 24 year career stop by Simply Baseball Notebook.

According to Elias

 

Ron Gardenhire
Ron Gardenhire

Ron Gardenhire was pushing the right buttons on Thursday night. Pinch-hitter Chris Herrmann drove in pinch-runner Doug Bernier with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth as the Twins topped the White Sox, 4-3. Minnesota had only one other walk off victory for Gardenhire in which a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner combined for the winning run. That was in 2009, also against the White Sox, when Jose Morales drove in Nick Punto for the victory. We were at this game last night and it was a fun game to watch, but then again I always enjoy a Twins victory over the “Mighty Whitey’s” no matter what their record might be.

According to Elias

Joe Mauer
Joe Mauer

Joe Mauer was 5-for-7 yesterday, including a game-tying home run in the 10th inning of the Twins 9-8 home loss to the Indians. Mauer is the second player in franchise history to record five hits and an extra-inning homer in one game. Justin Morneau went 5-for-5 with a go-ahead 11th-inning shot at Detroit on July 10, 2008.

Bonus trivia question – Andrew Albers threw the Twins first complete game of the season the other day leaving the Orioles and Astros as the only two teams in MLB in 2013 to not have a complete game. Four native Minnesotans have thrown 10 or more  complete games in a season while wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform, can you name them?

Will Dozier become top Twins 2B home run slugger?

Tim TeufelTwins second baseman Brian Dozier has put on a nice power display this season while playing a position that is not expected to hit for power, at least not for the Minnesota Twins. The most home runs hit by a keystone position player was back in 1973 when Davey Johnson hit 43 long balls for the Atlanta Braves. The only other 2B to hit 40 or more home runs in a single season is Ryne Sandberg who hit 40 for Chicago’s Cubbies in 1990. The most home runs hit by an AL 2B was 39 by Alfonso Soriano of the Yankees back in 2002. No Twins 2B has come close to those kind of power numbers and the Twins top long ball hitting 2B is Tim Teufel who hit 14 in 1984. Here is a list of Twins second baseman that have hit 10 or more home runs in a single season while playing at least 75% of their games at second base.

 

Rk Player HR Year Age G AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB SO HBP SB BA OBP OPS
1 Tim Teufel 14 1984 25 157 568 76 149 30 3 61 76 73 2 1 .262 .349 .749
2 Rod Carew 14 1975 29 143 535 89 192 24 4 80 64 40 1 35 .359 .421 .919
3 Chuck Knoblauch 13 1996 27 153 578 140 197 35 14 72 98 74 19 45 .341 .448 .965
4 Brian Dozier 12 2013 26 103 380 51 92 25 4 48 35 81 5 9 .242 .312 .736
5 Todd Walker 12 1998 25 143 528 85 167 41 3 62 47 65 2 19 .316 .372 .845
6 Bernie Allen 12 1962 23 159 573 79 154 27 7 64 62 82 0 0 .269 .338 .741
7 Chuck Knoblauch 11 1995 26 136 538 107 179 34 8 63 78 95 10 46 .333 .424 .911
8 John Castino 11 1983 28 142 563 83 156 30 4 57 62 54 1 4 .277 .348 .751
9 Luis Rivas 10 2004 24 109 336 44 86 19 5 34 13 53 1 15 .256 .283 .715
10 Tim Teufel 10 1985 26 138 434 58 113 24 3 50 48 70 3 4 .260 .335 .734
Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier

It will be very interesting to see what happens next with Brian Dozier. Dozier has been playing great on defense and showing signs of becoming a better hitter. Hitting lead-off is not Dozier’s strong suit due to his poor OBP but since Gardy has no one else to fill the role, Dozier has been doing his best. Dozier is only 26 and in only his first full big league season so he still has a lot to learn but in my eyes he has earned the position. The question is if he can keep it since the Twins having been grooming Eddie Rosario for that role ever since they moved Rosario from the outfield a couple of years ago. Rosario may well be the better hitter long-term but you need a good defender at 2B and right now Dozier seems to fit the bill.

By the way, did you ever wonder why 2B is called the keystone position? Here is a nice explanation I found – It’s because first, second and third base can be connected to form an arch (think of the curved cut of the grass around the infield, for example) 2nd base is at the middle or top of the arch, and the stone that is put into the top of the arch is called a keystone. Ergo, the keystone position.