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
As part of an article in “The Athletic” on November 22, Ken Rosenthal wrote this:
The Twins, aggressively exploring the market for rotation help, would love to sign a starter along the lines one of Wheeler, Madison Bumgarner or Hyun-Jin Ryu. The high income tax rate in Minnesota, though, could present something of an obstacle.
The 9.85 percent rate in Minnesota is second only to California’s 13.3 percent (New York’s rate is higher than Minnesota’s when combining city and state rates, but most players live outside the city).
State income tax rate usually is not a primary consideration for free agents, but in certain cases the best gross deal might not be the best net deal, complicating the decision.
It made me snicker and wonder how long it will be before the Minnesota Twins start using this as an excuse for not being able to sign the big free agents. Maybe even start lobbying the state legislature to give Minnesota athletes a tax break?
It is always fun to look back and see if former Minnesota Twins players were as good as you remember them.
Today we look back and see what Twins players had the lowest batting average in a season in which they had 500 or more at bats. Not a great list for Zoilo to appear on just two years removed from winning the American leagues MVP award. I was surprised to see a current Twins player on this list. Some pretty good players on this list but you have to be a good player to get 500 at bats in a big league season.
When I go to the ballpark or watch a baseball game on TV I always expect the teams best players to be on the field day in and day out during the baseball season. I am old school in that regard and it is disappointing to me when today’s managers rest players so frequently. I believe that players are paid to play and only an injury that does not physically allow them to play should keep them off the field and in the dugout.
Apparently that is not how the Twins play baseball. Coming to the ballpark and playing every day is not how it is done in Minnesota. The last player to play 160 or more games in a season for the Minnesota Twins was Justin Morneau back in 2008, that was 12 years ago. Morneau put together a 218 consecutive games played streak that started on June 28, 2007 and ended on June 20, 2009.
Looking at just the American League (due to no DH in the National League) this past season there were four players that appeared in 160 or more games and there have been no instances from 1961-2019 where there hasn’t been at least one players appearing in 160 games in a season, excluding strike shortened seasons.
Going back to 1961 the Twins have the third longest streak in the AL without a player appearing in 160 or more games. The last Cleveland Indians player to play in 160 or more games was Grady Sizemore in 2007 and the longest streak in the AL without a player playing in 160 games belongs to the Los Angeles Angels who had Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus qualify back in 2001. I found it interesting that the Texas Rangers who did not begin play until 1972 and play in the very hot Texas temperatures had 13 players play in 160 or more games between 1972-2019.
Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was voted as the American League Manager of the Year by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Ballots for each award were submitted before the start of the postseason from two writers in every city, based on the league covered. Of the 30 ballots cast in the AL, Baldelli and New York Yankee skipper Aaron Boone each received 13 first-place votes, but Baldelli pushed ahead with 13 second-place votes, as compared to Boone’s nine, along with two third-place votes. Baldelli’s buddy Kevin Cash, who managed the Tampa Rays finished third in the voting.
The youngest manager in the American League and a rare managerial hire from outside the Twins’ organization, Rocco Baldelli lived up to all the anticipation in 2019, becoming the seventh skipper in Major League history to win at least 100 games in his rookie season as he guided Minnesota to its first division championship since 2010. Baldelli is the Twins’ fourth Manager of the Year Award winner, joining his three most recent predecessors in Tom Kelly (1991), Ron Gardenhire (2010) and Paul Molitor (2017).
The first thing we do need to do is to congratulate catcher Mitch Garver and DH Nelson Cruz on being named 2019 American League Silver Slugger winners. Garver and Cruz are the first Minnesota Twins teammates to win Silver Sluggers since Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau in 2008.
The last previous winner of a Silver Slugger award was outfielder Josh Willingham in 2012. Kirby Puckett and Joe Mauer have each won the award five times. Garver and Cruz are the seventh and eighth Minnesota Twins players to be awarded Silver Slugger.
The Silver Slugger Award is awarded annually to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League and the National League, as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball. The award was started in 1980. A complete list of Twins award winners can be seen here.
After leading the 2019 Arizona Fall League with 30 hits and slashing .353/.411/.565 with three homers and 20 RBIs over 22 games, Royce Lewis the Minnesota Twins top prospect according to MLB Pipeline was chosen as the league’s most valuable player. MLB Pipeline has Lewis as the ninth best prospect in all of baseball and the second highest rated prospect playing in the AFL this season.
Lewis had a great AFL season as he also won the Fall Stars Game MVP Award with a two-run homer in the East’s 4-2 win over the West and was named the Championship Chains Hitter of the Week after going 6-for-10 in the fourth week of the AFL season.
You may have heard of the previous three winners of the AFL MVP award. They are Brewers 2B Keston Hiura in 2018 and debuted with the Brewers this past season, Braves OF Ronald Acuna Jr. in 2017 who debuted in Atlanta in 2018 and Yankees 2B/SS Gleyber Torres in 2016 who debuted in 2018. Some pretty nice players. I think I here Royce Lewis knocking at the Target Field door.
The strong AFL performance was huge for Lewis, who hit just .236/.290/.371 over 127 games with Class A Advanced Fort Myers and Double-A Pensacola during the regular season after suffering some injuries. The Twins claim they are still committed to keeping Lewis at shortstop but in the AFL this fall Lewis spent most of his time playing third base but did spend some time in centerfield and second base. I can’t help but wonder if the Twins see a time in the not too distant future when they can make Royce Lewis their third baseman and move Miguel Sano to first base full time.
Jackie Hernandez (Jacinto Hernández Zulueta) was born on September 11, 1940 in Central Tinguaro, Cuba and passed away on October 12, 2019 in Miami, Florida after a short battle with lung cancer. His given name (Hyacinth in English) was difficult for many people in the U.S. to pronounce, leading to his Anglicized nickname; he was also called simply “Jack or Jackie.”
Hernandez played pro ball from 1961 through 1974 and then spent some time playing ball in Mexico from 1975-1976 before retiring as an active player.
The recent news that the Angels organization was aware that pitcher Tyler Skaggs was an opioid abuser and that they actually helped him acquire the drugs is an unforgivable act and obviously a crime. In my opinion this is many times worse than cheating, gambling, or hacking into another teams data.
The fact that the Angels knew what was going on and didn’t report it is inexcusable. In today’s business world harassment must be reported but in MLB apparently drug use is not only allowed but encouraged. Looking the other way is not acceptable, what happened to “if you see something, say something”? How did Skaggs get by with this? Where is the drug testing that MLB is so proud of? Do we need to test front office personnel too?
The Los Angeles Angels organization must be punished and longtime Angels PR official Eric Kay should be arrested and should be looking at serious jail time. But what kind of punishment should be applied to the Angels organization? No question Eric Kay should get a lifetime ban from MLB, but what about the others?
I think you start at the very top of the Angels food chain with owner Arte Moreno. The man has more money than he knows what to do with so a fine is not in play. If I am the the MLB commissioner I give owner Moreno a choice, either sell the team in the next 180 days or face a life-time suspension whereas he can’t even be seen at any Angels facility or provide any input into how the team is run for a minimum of two years at which point his case would come up for review. Team President Joe Carpino is also suspended for one season with no pay simply because this happened on his watch, the buck stops at the top. No excuses here!
That addresses some of the key individuals, but how about the team itself? They can’t go scot free in this ordeal. There has to be a severe punishment applied and there are not many ways to do this. You could fine the organization a ton of money but I don’t think a fine is the answer. As far as I know no MLB team has ever been banished from the playoffs but that is an option. Taking away draft choices is an option that has been used in the past. How about a imposing a salary cap on the Angels for a couple of years?
The team must be punished in some fashion to send a message to all of MLB but no matter how you look at it, Angels fans and players that are clean in this terrible situation are the big losers. None of the penalties that MLB will impose on the Los Angeles Angels will compare to the price paid by Tyler Skaggs who paid the ultimate price just to play a game. In the end, that is all baseball really is, a game.
The Minnesota Twins announced yesterday that outfielder Trevor Larnach has been named the 2019 Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins Minor League Player of the Year and right-handed pitcher Randy Dobnak has been named the 2019 Jim Rantz Award winner as the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
Larnach and Dobnak, along with the other Twins 2019 award winners, will be recognized at the 15th Annual Diamond Awards dinner, which will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2020.