Tag: Bert Blyleven

Youngest Twins players to make their debuts

Who is the youngest Minnesota Twins player to make his major league debut wearing a Twins uniform? That would be right-handed pitcher Jim Manning who was born in L’Anse, Michigan on July 21, 1943 and went on to become a legendary high school basketball player winning All-State honors as a junior and as a senior. Jim held the U.P. record of most points scored in his four-year career with a total of 2,137 points, all without playing with a 3-point line. While in high school he was offered a full scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in basketball and according to Tom Briere of the Minneapolis Tribune, Manning was all set to sign a baseball-basketball scholarship with the Minnesota Gophers, but declined because his first love was always baseball and the Minnesota Twins snatched him up.

Jim Manning

After signing with the Twins for $20,000 fresh from high school, the Michigan native pitched in 12 games for Wytheville of the short-season Class D Appalachian League in 1961. Dividing his time between starting and relief, he went 2-2 with a 4.40 ERA. Others playing at Wytheville that season included future Hall of Famer Tony Oliva, who hit .410 in 64 games, and future Twins infielder and manager Frank Quilici.

Manning entered spring training 1962 with the Twins with the slimmest of chances to make the team. The Twins went with a youth movement in 1962, their second season in Minnesota after relocating from Washington, with The Sporting News commenting on the team’s “incubator infield” of 23-year-old third baseman Rich Rollins, 22-year-old second baseman Bernie Allen, and 22-year-old shortstop Zoilo Versalles. Joe Bonikowski, a 21-year-old pitcher, made the team with a strong spring training, as did a relative graybeard, 25-year-old rookie Lee Stange. (Starting pitcher Jim Kaat was 23 but was no newcomer, beginning his fourth season with the franchise. Manning, just 18 also pitched his way on to the team. He secured another niche in Twins history when he was issued jersey number 42, becoming the first Twin to wear that number although this point has been questioned.

Manning’s big league career consisted of just 5 games, all with the Minnesota Twins. The amazing part is that he did it at the age of 18 after appearing in just 12 games in the Appalachian League a year earlier.

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From High Hopes to Hard Realities: The 1975 Minnesota Twins

1961 – 1975 primary Twins logo

Fifty years ago is a long time and many of you reading this weren’t even born back then but I’m sure you Minnesota Twins fans are still interested in what went on back then. Those of you like myself that were around back then, might enjoy a quick look down memory lane. I plan to do that through some articles this season that I am borrowing from The Sporting News which was considered to to be the baseball Bible of its time and maybe some tidbits from the Star Tribune and Sid Hartman now and then. We will see how it goes and what interest there may or may not be. Feel free to make any comments you wish.

In 1974, the Minnesota Twins finished with a record of 82-80, placing them third in the American League West. The team had some standout performances, including Rod Carew winning his fourth AL batting title with a .364 average and Bobby Darwin hitting 25 home runs. The pitching staff saw Bert Blyleven (17-17), Joe Decker (16-14), and Dave Goltz (10-10) achieving double-digit wins. Despite these individual successes, the Twins struggled with consistency and attendance, which was the lowest in the American League.

The 1975 Minnesota Twins had a challenging season, finishing with a record of 76-83, which placed them fourth in the American League West. Managed by Frank Quilici, the team played their home games at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. Despite their struggles, the Twins had some standout performances. Rod Carew, the team’s star second baseman, won his fifth American League batting title with an impressive .359 average. The pitching staff saw three players achieve double-digit wins: Jim Hughes (16-14), Bert Blyleven (15-10), and Dave Goltz (14-14).

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Former Twins players that passed away in 2024

Another trip around the Sun and it is once again time to to look back and remember former Minnesota Twins that have gotten the call to their final resting place. They may be gone from this earth but their memories remain.

Brant Alyea

Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea was born on December 8, 1940 in Passaic, New Jersey and passed away on February 4, 2024. Alyea, originally signed with the Cincinnati Reds in 1962 but made his major league debut with the Washington Senators in 1965. Alyea was traded to the Minnesota Twins on March 21, 1970 for pitchers Joe Grzenda and Charlie Walters. Yes, the same Charlie Walters that writes for the St. Paul Pioneer Press now days. Alyea, primarily a left fielder played for the Twins from 1970-1971 before being picked up in the Rule 5 draft (rules were different back then) by the Oakland A’s. Brant’s best season in pro ball was in 1970 with the Minnesota Twins. Alyea had a son, Brant Alyea Jr. that played minor league ball for Toronto, Texas and the New York Mets from 1985 to 1990. Brant Alyea played in the major leagues for all or parts of 1965, 1968-1972 appearing in 371 games for the Senators, Twins. A’s and Cardinals.

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Analyzing Starting Pitcher Trends: From Aces to Relievers

Walter Johnson

I have followed MLB since about 1956 by buying baseball cards, by listening to baseball games on the radio, by subscribing to The Sporting News and reading whatever box scores I could find. But how things have changed over the years, including pitching. One of the biggest changes has to do with starting pitching.

Starting pitchers used to pitch and hit back in the day. They would start every fourth day but over time the starting rotation changed to four to five. Recently some teams have gone to six day rotations and it is not that uncommon nowadays for games to be pitched totally by relief pitchers. Relief pitchers back then were “injured” starters or starters that for one reason or another had become ineffective.

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Former Twin Mike ‘Cubby’ Cubbage dies at 74

Mike Cubbage

Michael Lee Cubbage, was born July 21, 1950, in Charlottesville, Virginia and passed away on August 10, 2024 after a near year-long battle with cancer, his wife, Jan, confirmed Sunday night, August 11. Cubbage was 74 years old.

Affectionately called “Cubby” by friends, family, players and coaches, Cubbage was a former Major League Baseball player and a pro baseball manager. He retired a couple of years ago after serving as one of the top scouts for the Washington Nationals.

He was a three-sport star at Charlottesville’s Lane High School, standing out in football, basketball and baseball before moving on to become a two-sport star at the University of Virginia, playing quarterback on the football team and becoming an All-ACC selection in baseball. Cubbage came from a baseball family that included cousins Larry Haney and Chris Haney, both major leaguer’s.

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Most starts by a Twins SP

Bert Blyleven

I get a number of emails each day and one of them pointed out the following about my favorite pitcher all-time, Warren Spahn.

“Today’s definition of a durable pitcher is more lenient than the guidelines in place between 1942 and 1965, when Warren Spahn totaled 382 complete games for the Braves, Mets, and Giants.

Managers are happy these days if a starter can work six innings, maybe seven. Complete games are very rare, indeed. Just 35 CG’s were registered in the American and National Leagues last season — and only 379 were posted over the past eight years combined. That latter total, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, was three fewer than the number of complete games that Spahn recorded himself.”

Only two Twins starters have over 100 complete games, Bert Blyleven with 141 and Jim Kaat with 133 and the nearest to them for CG’s in Minnesota is Dave Goltz with 80. By the way, the most starts by a Twins starter stands at 42 by Jim Kaat in 1965.

I have attached a B-R Stathead search link for Minnesota Twins pitchers that have had 100 or more starts. The list is relatively short since only 26 pitchers from 1961-2023 have started that many games wearing the Twins uniform. The nice thing about it is you can re-sort the list in any way you want to see who had the most strikeouts, wins, etc. Check it out, I’m sure you will find some things that will surprise you.

For combined seasons, from 1961 to 2023, At least 60% games started, Playing for MIN, in the regular season, requiring Games Started >= 100, sorted by descending Games Started.

Some of the best Twins we saw at Metropolitan Stadium

Minnesota Twins home from 1961-1981

Baseball was fun to watch at Metropolitan Stadium from 1961-1981 and a lot of MLB and Minnesota Twins “greats” played there. Here is a short list of some of the Twins leaders in some hitting and pitching categories. Keep in mind these are stats accumulated only while playing at Met Stadium.

Games played – Harmon Killebrew-963, Tony Oliva-842, Rod Carew-817

Hits – Rod Carew-1,046, Tony Oliva-935, Harmon Killebrew-844

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Top 20 pitching seasons by a Twins pitcher

Bert Blyleven

The Minnesota Twins have played baseball for 62 seasons and they have had 273 different pitchers start one or more games for them. The number drops to 26 pitchers having started 100 or more games, just six having started 200 or more, three at 300 or more and only Jim Kaat started over 400 or 422 to be exact.

Pitching has not exactly been the Twins strength over the years, the team has been known for producing hitters. But the Twins have had a number of very good pitchers with Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat in the MLB Hall of Fame. The Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame includes pitchers Blyleven, Kaat, Frank Viola, Rick Aguilera, Brad Radke, Jim Perry, Camilo Pascual, Eddie Guardado, Johan Santana and Joe Nathan. Three of the inductee’s were relievers.

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A look at Twins Quality Starts over the years

According to WikipediA, in baseball a quality start is a statistic for a starting pitcher defined as a game in which the pitcher completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. The quality start has effectively replaced the ‘complete game’ as a meaningful measure of a starting pitcher’s performance.

The quality start was developed by sportswriter John Lowe in 1985 while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Nolan Ryan has used the term “High Quality Start” for games where the pitcher goes seven innings or more and allows three earned runs or fewer, which baseball columnist and formber BBWAA president Derrick Goold referred to as “Quality Start Plus.”

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I miss the complete games

The last time the Minnesota Twins team had ten or more complete games by their pitching staff in a season was in 2001 when they had 12. The last time they had more than 8 complete games in a season was in 2010. The Falvey/Levine regime has had a grand total of ten complete games since they came into power after the 2016 season. Once they installed Rocco Baldelli as their manager the Twins have had one complete game in 2021, zero in 2020 and one in 2019. The only Twins pitcher to throw a complete game since 2017 was Jose Berrios so they rewarded him by trading him. Do you know who the last Twins pitcher to throw a complete game before Berrios was? That would be Bartolo Colon on August 4, 2017. Back in 1963 and 1967 the Minnesota Twins team had a franchise high of 58 complete games.

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