Twins sign Clay Condrey

January 7, 2010 – The Twins announced they signed relief pitcher Clay Condrey yesterday and put him on the 40 man roster replacing reliever Bobby Keppel who was given his release so he can sign with a team in Japan. Condrey is 34 years old, stands 6’3” and weighs 225. The right handed Condrey throws a sinker, cutter, curve ball, change up, and a four-seam fastball, that is a lot of pitches for a reliever. Condrey has pitched in the big leagues off and on since 2002 but he did spend all of 2004 and 2005 in the minors. 2008 is the only season that Condrey has spent the entire year in the majors.

When I look at his career stats, I see a journeyman pitcher who may or may not help the Twins. Condrey has appeared in 179 games and has an 18-12 record with an ERA of 4.10 and a WHIP of 1.470. He has struck out 143 in 250+ innings but what I don’t like is the 281 hits he has given up. The press talks about him filling a role in the pen while the team waits for Neshek to return from surgery but I see him more as a long guy, last man on the staff, filling the Keppel role. Time will tell I guess.

Slick

January 5, 2010 – I recently ran across a story about manager Billy Gardner and the 1984 Twins written by Ron Fimrite in the September 24, 1984 issue of Sport Illustrated that I really enjoyed and I bet you will too. Billy Gardner played in 1,150 minor league games and 1,034 major league games and that is not counting the games he coached or managed.

Billy signed with the New York Giants prior to the 1945 season and started his quest for the big leagues with class “D” Bristol. Gardner made his major league debut on April 22, 1954 at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field in a Giants 7-4 loss to the Pirates but Billy who came in to play 2B late in the game was 1 for 1 in his first big league game. After being sold by the Giants to the Orioles, Billy went on to play for the Senators, Twins, Yankees, and finally the Red Sox where he played in his final major league game in 1963. Billy played in the minors in 1964 before moving in to coaching and managing in the minors from 1965 through 1980.

In 1981 Calvin Griffith gave Billy a shot at managing the Minnesota Twins when he hired Gardner to replace Johnny Goryl. Slick managed some really poor Twins teams for several years before the 1984 team made a nice run at the title before finishing in second place. A poor start in 1985 ended Billy Gardner’s Twins managing career when he was fired and replaced by Ray Miller. Gardner finished his Twins managing career with a 268-353 record. Billy surfaced in the majors again in 1987 when he piloted the Kansas City Royals to a 62-63 record before being replaced by John Wathan. Billy Gardner was a player’s manager and it is hard to find any player who had bad things to say about the man they called Slick, Whitey, and Shotgun.

Twins managers playing careers

December 30, 2009 – The Minnesota Twins have had 12 managers since the team moved here from Washington after the 1960 season. I thought that it would be interesting to see how many games each of them had played at the major league and minor league level before they moved into “management” so to speak and to see if there is any correlation between playing experience and managing a team at the major league level. The games listed below are strictly games played and not coached or managed either in the minors or majors.

Name Major league positions played Major league games Minor league games
Cookie Lavagetto ** 3B, 2B, 1B, SS 1,043 523
Sam Mele OF, 1B 1,046 340
Cal Ermer 2B 1 904
Billy Martin * 2B, SS, 3B, OF 1,021 510
Bill Rigney * 2B, 3B, SS, 1B 654 641
Frank Quilici 2B, 3B, SS, 1B 405 715
Gene Mauch 2B, SS, 3B 304 1,061
John Goryl 2B, 3B, SS 276 1,266
Billy Gardner 2B, SS, 3B 1,034 1,150
Ray Miller P 0 371
Tom Kelly 1B, OF 49 1,143
Ron Gardenhire SS, 2B, 3B 285 659

* = made one All-star team

** = made four All-star teams
 

Bobby Darwin

December 26, 2009 – Arthur Bobby Lee Darwin, a 6’2” right handed pitcher was signed by the Los Angeles Angels as a free agent prior to the 1962 season. He started his career in 1962 in San Jose, playing “C” ball where he was 11-6 with a 4.12 ERA in 153 innings giving up only 123 hits, but control was not Bobby’s strong suit as he also walked 149 batters in those 153 innings. Never the less, the Angels called up Darwin to start a game late in 1962 against the Cleveland Indians. With only 26 games of minor league ball under his belt, Darwin started the second game of a double header at Cleveland stadium. It was a tough start for Bobby, he lasted just 3.1 innings giving up 8 hits, 4 walks, and 6 runs, 4 of them earned and he ended up taking the loss. Little did Darwin know at the time, but he would not step foot in another major league game for a long time. In 1963 Darwin was waived by the Angels and picked up by the Baltimore Orioles where he toiled in the minors from 1963 through 1968. In 1966 Darwin also had elbow surgery and he was never quite the same pitcher after that. The Los Angeles Dodgers however; still saw something they liked in Darwin and drafted him in the Rule 5 draft in December of 1968. Darwin started the 1969 season with the Dodgers but was ineffective and appeared in only 3 games before being sent back down to the minors. Ready to give baseball, Darwin was asked by a former manager to give up on pitching and to try his luck as a position player. So in 1970 at the age of 27 it was back to single “A” ball and Darwin was working to fight his way back to the major leagues, this time as a hitter. In 1971 the Dodgers called Darwin up for a month or so but he only appeared in 11 games getting 20 at bats while hitting .250 with one home run but the real problem was his 9 strikeouts so he was shipped back to the minors.

It was after the 1971 season that things looked up for Bobby, he found out that he had been traded by the Dodgers to the Minnesota Twins who just happened to be managed at that time by Bill Rigney who was also the Angels manager when Darwin got his first taste of the big leagues, only back then, he was a pitcher. In his first year in Minnesota in 1972, Darwin wins a starting outfield job, hits 22 home runs, (second only to Harmon Killebrew) and he knocks in a team leading 80 RBI’s while hitting .267 but he strikes out a league leading 145 times. In 1973 Darwin hits 18 home runs, knocks in 90, while hitting .252 and again leading the league in strikeouts with 137. In 1974 he hits a career high 25 home runs and knocks in 94 more with an average of .264 but once again he leads the league in strikeouts with 127.The following season, 1975, Darwin struggles along with a .219 average with just 5 home runs in almost 200 at bats and the Twins decide that they have seen enough and they trade Darwin to the Milwaukee Brewers for Johnny Briggs. Darwin’s stay in Milwaukee lasts less than one year before they send him on his way to the Boston Red Sox. Bobby’s stay in Boston is less than a year before they too send him packing, this time to the Chicago Cubs. Darwin gets only a dozen at bats in Chicago before they release him and end Bobby Darwin’s big league career. During his 9 seasons in the majors, Darwin had a 0-1 record with a 10.29 ERA in 7 innings with 6 strikeouts. As a hitter, in 2,224 at bats, Darwin had 83 home runs, 328 RBI’s, 15 steals and a .241 batting average. Not Hall of Fame numbers to be sure but still some decent numbers for a player with an interesting career that started out as a pitcher and turned position player at the age of 27. The man could hit the ball a mile when he connected, but those dang pitchers kept throwing him that danged curve ball.

A look at the top closers in franchise history

December 16, 2009 – A successful team needs to have a top notch closer, a pitcher that can come in and slam the door on the opposition game after game. In the past, closers were expected to pitch more than one inning but in today’s game most closers pitch only in the ninth inning. The Twins have been blessed over the years with some very good closers and a strong case could be made that their current closer Joe Nathan, is the best of the bunch. Assuming nothing bad happens to Nathan, he should be expected to break the Twins all time saves record now held by Rick Aguilera early in 2010.

Update – Turns out that something did happen and Joe Nathan had TJ surgery and missed all of 2010 and came back in 2011 to take over the Twins career saves lead before leaving as a free agent after the 2011 season. Table has been updated to show the updated numbers.

Just as an interesting tidbit, In looking at the Twins top ten closers in terms of saves, only two were left-handed, the same hold true for the Washington Senators/Nationals who also had only two southpaws in their top 11 save leaders.

Twins Saves Leaders

Joe Nathan
Joe Nathan
Name R/L Years pitched Saves K/BB
1 Joe Nathan R 2004-2011 260 4.19
2 Rick Aguilera R 1989-1999 254 3.27
3 Eddie Guardado L 1993-2003, 2008 116 2.26
4 Ron Davis R 1982-1986 108 1.89
5 Jeff Reardon R 1987-1989 104 3.36
6 Al Worthington R 1964-1969 88 2.15
7 Ron Perranoski L 1968-1971 76 1.27
8 Mike Marshall R 1978-1980 54 1.55
9 Bill Campbell R 1973-1976 51 1.76
10 LaTroy Hawkins R 1995-2003 44 1.83

Senators Saves Leaders

Firpo Marberry
Firpo Marberry
Name R/L Years pitched Saves K/BB
1 Firpo Marberry R 1923-1932, 1936 96 n/a
2 Walter Johnson R 1907-1927 34 n/a
3 Tex Clevenger R 1957-1960 29 1.29
4 Garland Braxton L 1927-1930 28 n/a
5 Jack Russell R 1933-1936 26 n/a
6 Dick Hyde R 1955-1960 23 1.04
7 Tom Ferrick R 1947-1948, 1951-1952 22 n/a
8 Mickey Harris L 1949-1952 19 n/a
9 Allan Russell R 1923-1925 19 n/a
10 Pete Appleton R 1936-1939, 1945 17 n/a
11 Jim Shaw R 1913-1921 17 n/a

The slick fielding Vic Power

December 5, 2009 – Victor “Vic” Pellot Power, one of the most colorful and controversial players of the 1950’s, was born on November 1, 1927 and passed away from cancer on November 29, 2005. Power was the second black Puerto Rican to play in the majors and the first Puerto Rican to play in the American League. He used the name Vic Power during his 12-year major league career, but played as Victor Pellot when he played winter baseball in Puerto Rico.

Power had a 12 year major league career playing for the Philadelphia Athletics (1954), the Kansas City Athletics (1955 – 1958), the Cleveland Indians (1958 – 1961), the Minnesota Twins (1962 – 1964), the Los Angeles Angels (1964), the Philadelphia Phillies (1964), and he finished his career in 1965 with the California Angels. One of the flashiest, best fielding, and most colorful first sackers in baseball history, Power was a free swinger who seldom walked or struck out, averaging just one strikeout every 24.5 at bats, and finished his career with a highly respectable lifetime batting average of .284. Although Power was best known for his fielding, Vic was no slouch at the plate where in his 6,046 at bats he hit 126 home runs, knocked in 658, and scored 765 runs while hitting .284 in 1,627 games. Although not blessed with blazing speed, Power led the AL in triples in 1958 was able to steal 45 bases during his career and once stole home twice in one game. Power was good enough to be selected to the All-Star teams in 1955, 1956, 1959 and 1960. Vic Power won seven Gold Gloves between 1958 and 1964 and had a career fielding average of .994 in 11,285 chances. Although best known as the slick fielding first sacker, Power also played all three outfield positions (115 games), second base (139 games), third base (89 games), and Power even played 8 games at Shortstop. Vic was smart enough not to don the tools of ignorance.

Check out this article I found on the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society site about Power by clicking here.

First annual Twins Turkey of the Year Winner is

Glen Perkins

November 26, 2009 – Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Just for fun I think I will start an annual “Twins Turkey of the Year” award that will be awarded to the Twins player and/or Twins staff member that in my opinion showed his/her true colors during the past baseball season. The initial award winner is none other than pitcher Glen Perkins who I think was a run-away winner this year. The Twins had a great season in their final year under the Teflon roof but Perkins stood out as the “fly in the ointment. It seems that annually Perkins takes some vacation time on the DL and this year was no different.” When he pitches well, he has no complaints but when he has a bad outing then all of a sudden his arm or elbow hurts. Then he supposedly files a grievance stating that Twins management intentionally kept him in the minors to keep him from accumulating time in the big leagues. I don’t know if the Twins were sending Perkins a message or not when they kept him in the minors but it was well deserved. Twins management now states that the team and Perkins have buried the hatchet and that Perkins is ready to pitch for the Twins again this spring. I will believe that when I see it, as I see it, Perkins will be pitching for somebody other than the Twins in 2010. Stick a fork in him, he is done.

Turkey Cartoon

Forty Years Ago

November 18, 2009 – The 1968 Minnesota Twins finished with a 79-83 record under manager Cal Ermer and finished a disappointing seventh in the ten team American League, a full 24 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers and owner Calvin Griffith decided he had seen enough even though stars like Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, and Jim Kaat had suffered injuries that caused them to miss numerous games. On October 11th he fired manager Cal Ermer and hired the brash Billy Martin who had been managing the Twins AAA team in Denver to skipper the 1969 Minnesota Twins. 1969 would be an exciting season for Minnesota, they had a young new manager and would begin play in the newly formed Western Division of the American League along with the Oakland A’s, the California Angels, the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago White Sox, and the Seattle Pilots. 1969 brought two new teams to the American League, the Kansas City Royals who were replacing the A’s who had packed their bags and moved to Oakland under owner Charlie Finley and the Seattle Pilots who it turns out would only stay in Seattle for one season before moving to Milwaukee and becoming the Brewers.

The Twins 1969 season got off to a rough start for Billy’s boys when they lost their first two games of the season on the road to the expansion Royals, both losses coming in extra innings. They moved on to California and lost their next two games by scores of 5-3 and 4-3 and found themselves in the basement of the Western Division. But Martin got his team on the straight and narrow and the team ripped off 7 wins in a row and took over 1st place. They finished the month of April 13-7 and were sitting on top of the division. From April 26th through July 3rd the team was either first or second in the standings. Oakland came to town on the 4th of July week-end and the Twins whipped Charlie Finley’s boys 3 straight and outscored the A’s 30 to 11 and took over first place, a spot they would keep for the rest of the season. The Twins finished the season with a 97-65 record, 9 games ahead of the second place Oakland A’s. Although Martin had the team running (4th in stolen bases), the team finished first in the league in hits, runs, doubles, total bases, and batting average. The Twins pitching wasn’t too shabby either as Jim Perry and Dave Boswell each finished with 20 wins and threw 250+ innings and Ron Perranoski was great out of the bullpen pitching 119+ innings in 75 games finishing 52 of them and getting credit for 31 saves.

The Twins would go on to lose their first league championship series to the Baltimore Orioles in a 3 game sweep but that is a whole different story that we will talk about in the future. Just a week after losing the final game of the championship series, Billy Martin is fired by owner Calvin Griffith and Bill Rigney was named the Twins new manager. Roy Blount Jr. of Sports Illustrated did a nice story on Billy Martin and the Twins in the July 21, 1969 issue and you can read that story by clicking on the SI magazine cover.

Intentional Strikeout

November 13, 2009 – Deceased former Twins manager, Cal Ermer speaking: “We have a play now that we used to use in Chattanooga in 1952, with two strikes, we begin to walk a batter intentionally. After three balls, the catcher is at the side again to catch a wild pitch, but on a signal, the pitcher fires it over the middle. We got big Frank Howard on this. He chased our catcher with a bat. Bob Oldis was a wizard at this play. We pulled it some in 1952.”

Bob Montag, who was listening to Ermer and played for Atlanta that year, spoke up, grinning, with, “Yeah, he pulled it on me.” — Wirt Gammon in the Chattanooga Times.

Jack Dean “Jackie” Collum passes away

November 11, 2009 – Jackie Collum was small in stature (5’7” and 163 pounds) but he had a big heart and a devastating screwball that he turned that into a 9 year major league career. Jackie was born on June 21, 1927 in Victor, Iowa and died at the age of 82 on August 29, 2009 in Grinnell, Iowa. Collum pitched for the Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, Dodgers (in Brooklyn and LA), Twins and the Indians. Collum also spent numerous years in the minors including a couple years with the St. Paul Saints in 1959 and 1960.

Jackie Collum’s stint with the Twins was brief, he pitched for Minnesota in 1962 appearing in just 8 games and had a 0-2 record and an ERA of 11.15 but that was at the tail end of Collum’s big league career. The Twins traded Collum and a player to be named later (Georges Maranda) to the Cleveland Indians in August of 1962 for Ruben Gomez. Collum only pitched in 1 game for the Indians before his major league career ended at the age of 35.

Although Jackie Collum’s time in Minnesota was short, he had a very interesting career and is a baseball legend in Iowa and by clicking here you can read a very interesting story written about Jackie Collum by William L. Sherman for the Field of Dreams chapter (Iowa) of SABR.