Twins trade for All-Star closer Matt Capps

Matt Capps as a National

July 29, 2010 – The Twins have announced that they have acquired right handed closer Matt Capps (6’2” and 245) from the Washington Nationals in return for one of their top prospects, catcher Willie Ramos and LHP Joe Testa. Some reports also have the Twins getting $500K in the transaction.

The Twins have also announced that Jon Rauch will be moved to a set-up role and that Capps will take over closing duties. In 47 appearances with the Nationals this season, Capps was 3-3, 2.74 (46.0 IP, 14 ER), allowing 51 hits with nine walks and 38 strikeouts. His 26 saves (30 opportunities) were the fourth most in the National League and seventh most in all of baseball. Capps was also selected to the 2010 National League All-Star team.

Ramos, arguably the Twins best prospect has spent most of the 2010 season at Triple-A Rochester. In 71 games with the Red Wings, he batted .241 (67-for-278) with 14 doubles, five home runs and 30 RBI. Ramos did spend a few games with the Twins earlier this year. This is probably a good deal as Ramos will get a chance to take over as the Nats catcher versus being stuck in the minors behind Twins all-world catcher Joe Mauer who is going nowhere in the near future.

Most Games Played in a Twins Uniform

Rank Name Games played Plate appearances
1 Harmon Killebrew 2,329 9,462
2 Kirby Puckett 1,783 7,831
3 Kent Hrbek 1,747 7,137
4 Tony Oliva 1,676 6,879
5 Rod Carew 1,635 6,980
6 Bob Allison 1,541 5,921
7 Gary Gaetti 1,361 5,459
8 Torii Hunter 1,234 4,894
9 Randy Bush 1,219 3,480
10 Roy Smalley 1,148 4,675

 

According to Elias

July 23, 2010 – The Twins defeated the Orioles, 5-0 on Thursday, raising their record against Kevin Millwood to 9-0. That’s the most victories without a loss by any team against an active pitcher, breaking a tie with the Dodgers, who are 8-0 against Matt Cain. The Senators/Twins franchise won its first nine or more decisions against only three other pitchers: Sid Monge (their first 10, 1975-1981), Ted Blankenship (1922-1925), and Gordon Rhodes (1929-1933).

MIA

 

July 19, 2010 – Have you seen this man? Clay Condrey, otherwise known as the “Twins Invisible Man” was signed by the Twins back in January for about $900,000 to bolster the bullpen. The 6’3” right hander with a sinker, cutter, curve-ball, change-up, and a four-seam fastball was targeted for a key role in the Twins pen but to date the man has not fired a single bullet in a Twins uniform in a game that has counted. Now there is talk that he will have season ending surgery and may never appear in a Twins uniform. You spin the wheel on some of these free agents and sometimes you come up with a dud, I think Bill Smith has that sinking feeling.

Know your franchise history

HOF catcher Rick Farrell

July 18, 2010 – The Society for American Baseball Research is a great organization and one of the wonderful projects they have going on is the Baseball Biography Project. One of the biographies they have completed is about Hall of Famer Richard Benjamin Ferrell who was born on October 12, 1905 and passed away on July 27, 1995. In 1947, after 18 major league seasons with the Browns, Senators, and Red Sox, Rick Ferrell retired as the longest playing catcher in the American League. His record 1,806 games would stand for more than 40 years, surpassed finally by another Hall of Famer, Carlton Fisk in August 1988. A stout defender and choosy batter, Ferrell was an eight-time All-Star who caught a rotation of four knuckleball pitchers for the 1945 Washington Senators team that lost the American League pennant in the final week of the season. Take a few minutes and enjoy a trip back in time and read about this baseball catching great by clicking here.

Did you know?

 

1985 All-Star game logo

July 16, 2010 – That the first All-Star game Home Run Derby was held at the HHH Metrodome in 1985? The rules were way different back then. When the derby first began in 1985 each player received two turns at bat with five outs per turn at bat. Any swing that was not a home run was an out. This format allowed for the possibility of ties. The derby started out as a contest between the two leagues, with each league having an equal number of players. At the first derby there were ten players (five per league). The NL was represented by Dave Parker of the Reds, Dale Murphy of the Braves, Steve Garvey of the Dodgers, Ryne Sandberg of the Cubs, and Jack Clark of the Cards. The NL had 16 home runs with Parker leading the pack with 6. The AL was represented by Jim Rice of the Red Sox, Eddie Murray of the Orioles, Carlton Fisk of the White Sox, Tom Brunansky of the Twins, and Cal Ripken Jr, of the Orioles. The AL had 17 home runs with Rice, Murray, Fisk, and Bruno each hitting 4 and Ripken added 1.

My Twins all-time starting five

July 14, 2010 – I thought that it might be interesting for me to pick my all-time Twins starting 5 pitchers. It turned out to be more difficult than what I had imagined it would be. What do you rank them on? How important is durability versus intimidation for example. Were they the ace of the pitching staff that carried the team to the playoffs? The list would be different if I included pitchers that pitched for both the Senators and the Twins such as Camilo Pascual who had a stellar career and is one of my all time favorite pitchers. The first row of stats are stats with the Twins and the second row are career stats. The Twins stats for Jim Kaat do include a few games that Kaat pitched for the Senators in 1959 and 1960 and the numbers for Johan Santana include the first half of 2010.

1. Rik Aalbert (Bert) Blyleven – right handed

Seasons GS/CG Innings Wins SO ERA WHIP
11 345/141 2,566 149 2.035 3.28 1.19
22 685/242 4,970 287 3,701 3.31 1.20

 2. James Lee (Kitty) Kaat – left handed

Jim Kaat - Twins pitcher from 1961 - 1973
Season GS/CG Innings Wins SO ERA WHIP
15 433/133 3,014 190 1,851 3.34 1.23
25 625/180 4,530 283 3,701 3.31 1.20

3. James Evan Perry – right handed (1970 Cy Young award winner)

Seasons GS/CG Innings Wins SO ERA WHIP
10 249/61 1,883 128 1,025 3.15 1.20
17 447/109 3,285 215 1,576 3.45 1.26

 4. Frank John (Sweet Music) Viola – left handed (1988 Cy Young award winner)

Seasons GS/CG Innings Wins SO ERA WHIP
8 259/54 1,772 112 1,214 3.86 1.30
15 420/74 2,836 176 1,844 3.73 1.30

 5. Johan Alexander Santana – left handed (2004 & 2006 Cy Young award winner) still active

Seasons GS/CG Innings Wins SO ERA WHIP
8 175/6 1,308 93 1,381 3.22 1.09
11 253/10 1,836 129 1,816 3.11 1.12

 

According to Elias

June 27, 2010 – Carl Pavano tossed a three-hitter yesterday as the Twins easily defeated the Mets, 6-0, in New York, just six days after he had thrown a four-hitter in a 4-1 victory in Philadelphia. Oh, yes, did we mention that Pavano defeated past Cy Young Award winners in each of those games? Johan Santana took the loss on Saturday, after Pavano had downed Roy Halladay last Sunday.

Pavano is the first major leaguer in more than 20 years to earn consecutive complete-game victories, both on the road, over past Cy Young Award winners. The last pitcher to do it was Houston’s Jim Deshaies, who in 1989 threw consecutive complete-game wins, defeating Dwight Gooden at Shea Stadium and Rick Sutcliffe at Wrigley Field.

By the way, Pavano also had two singles against the Mets, although neither was involved in any run-scoring by the Twins. He became the first American League pitcher in the DH era to throw a complete-game shutout and get at least two hits in the same game. The last A.L. pitcher to do that was Clyde Wright of the Angels against the Rangers on Sept. 14, 1972.

 

Tough to strike out

June 21, 2010 – Hall of Famer Sam Rice is way ahead of everyone in franchise history with the best strike out per at bat ratio going down swinging just once in every 33.6 at bats in 9,879 plate appearances. It seems as though the players in the past had much bat control or were more patient then the players of today. As you can see, the Twins best in this category is Brian Harper and he struck out once in every 19.6 at bats in 2,691 plate appearances. Where do Joe Mauer and Rod Carew stand you ask? To this point in his career Joe has 3,253 plate appearances and he strikes out once in every 8.8 at bats. Carew struck out once in every 8.7 at bats in his 6,980 Twins plate appearances. What I think is kind of weird is that Tony Oliva was known as a free swinger and he struck out once every 9.8 at bats in 6,879 at bats. Just for comparison, Harmon Killebrew struck out once every 5.81 at bats in 9,462 Twins plate appearances while Justin Morneau is currently at a strike out every 6.71 at bats in 3,889 plate appearances.

Toughest Twins to strike out

Catcher Brian Harper
Rank Name At bats per strike out
1 Brian Harper 19.6
2 Mickey Hatcher 15.0
3 Cesar Tovar 13.5
4 Lenny Green 13.3
5 Hosken Powell 11.0
6 Butch Wynegar 10.6
7 Lyman Bostock 10.4
7 Ted Uhlaender 10.4
9 Al Newman 10.2
10 Jim Holt 10.0

 Toughest Senators to strike out

outfielder Sam Rice

 

Rank Name At bats per strike out
1 Sam Rice 33.6
2 Sam Dente 27.7
3 Heinie Manush 25.1
4 Muddy Ruel 23.4
5 Clyde Milan 23.1
6 Rick Ferrell 21.0
7 Clint Courtney 19.3
8 Eddie Foster 19.2
9 Stan Spence 18.5
10 George Case 17.5

 

Twins broadcaster and master story teller Halsey Hall

One time Twins broadcaster Halsey Hall

June 17, 2010 – The Society for American Baseball Research is a great organization and one of the wonderful projects they have going on is the Baseball Biography Project. One of the biographies they have completed is about former Twins announcer and Minnesota legend Halsey Hall. Halsey Hall was born on May 23, 1898 and passed away on December 30, 1977. Halsey became a member of the original Minnesota Twins baseball broadcast team for WCCO in 1961, and continued as a radio and sometimes TV announcer through the 1972 season. Hall was also an accomplished journalist whose first newspaper byline appeared in 1919. Halsey is credited with being the first baseball broadcaster to use the term “Holy Cow” but there are some that would argue that point, regardless if that is true or not, Halsey Hall was one of the region’s most loved sportscasters and a great story teller who had a love for green onions, cigars and wonderful stories. Get a cold drink or a cup of coffee and take a few minutes to learn a little about Halsey Hall by clicking here. If you want to know more about Halsey, you might want to check out Stew Thornley’s book “Holy Cow! The Life and Times of Halsey Hall”. I have the book and it was a fun read. The Twins Cities SABR chapter is named after Halsey Hall and additional info on Halsey Hall can be found there.

To listen to a very short audio clip of Halsey and his “pantywaist” slip-up courtesy of the Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame just click on the “Halsey Hall” link below.

Halsey Hall