Tag: Brad Radke

Twins Opening Day pitchers

April 10, 2010 – In the Twins 50 years they are 24-26 on opening day. The Twins have had 25 different pitchers take the mound on opening day on their behalf and only four pitchers have had that honor more than twice. Brad Radke was the Twins opening day pitcher 9 times including seven consecutive opening day starts. Bert Blyleven started on opening day 6 times but oddly his only home opening day start was in 1987 in the Metrodome. The only other Twins pitchers with more than two opening day starts are Frank Viola with 4 and Dave Goltz with 3.

Year Pitcher Game result
1961 Pedro Ramos Twins 6 – Yankees 0
1962 Jack Kralick Kansas City A’s 4 – Twins 2
1963 Camilo Pascual Indians 4 – Twins 4
1964 Camilo Pascual Twins 7 – Indians 6
1965 Jim Kaat Twins 5 – Yankees 4
1966 Mudcat Grant Twins 2 – Kansas City A’s 1
1967 Jim Kaat Orioles 6 – Twins 3
1968 Dean Chance Twins 2 – Senators 0
1969 Tommy Hall Royals 4 – Twins 3
1970 Jim Perry Twins 12 – White Sox 0
1971 Jim Perry Brewers 7 – Twins 2
1972 Bert Blyleven A’s 4 – Twins 3
1973 Bert Blyleven Twins 8 – A’s 3
1974 Bert Blyleven Twins 6 – Royals 4
1975 Bert Blyleven Twins 11 – Rangers 4
1976 Bert Blyleven Rangers 2 – Twins 1
1977 Dave Goltz A’s 7 – Twins 4
1978 Dave Goltz Mariners 3 – Twins 2
1979 Dave Goltz Twins 5 – A’s 3
1980 Jerry Koosman Twins 9 – A’s 7
1981 Jerry Koosman A’s 5 – Twins 1
1982 Pete Redfern Mariners 11 – Twins 7
1983 Brad Havens Tigers 11 – Twins 3
1984 Al Williams Tigers 8 – Twins 1
1985 Frank Viola Twins 6 – Angels 2
1986 Frank Viola Twins 3 – A’s 2
1987 Bert Blyleven Twins 5 – A’s 4
1988 Frank Viola Yankees 8 – Twins 0
1989 Frank Viola Yankees 4 – Twins 2
1990 Allan Anderson A’s 8 – Twins 3
1991 Jack Morris A;s 7 – Twins 2
1992 Scott Erickson Twins 4 – Brewers 2
1993 Kevin Tapani White Sox 10 – Twins 5
1994 Kevin Tapani Angels 8 – Twins 2
1995 Scott Erickson Red Sox 9 – Twins 0
1996 Brad Radke Twins 8 – Tigers 6
1997 Brad Radke Twins 7 – Tigers 5
1998 Bob Tewksbury Blue Jays 3 – Twins 2
1999 Brad Radke Twins 6 – Blue Jays 1
2000 Brad Radke Devil Rays 7 – Twins 0
2001 Brad Radke Twins 3 – igers 2
2002 Brad Radke Twins 8 – Royals 6
2003 Brad Radke Twins 3 – Tigers 1
2004 Brad Radke Twins 7 – Indians 4
2005 Brad Radke Mariners 5 – Twins 1
2006 Johan Santana Blue Jays 6 – Twins 3
2007 Johan Santana Twins 7 – Orioles 4
2008 Livan Hernandez Twins 3 – Angels 2
2009 Francisco Liriano Mariners 6 – Twins 1
2010 Scott Baker Angels 6 – Twins 3

 

Pitchers that hated to walk batters

February 22, 2010 – With Twins pitchers and catchers working out for the first time today, it is a good time to take a look at the top control pitchers in franchise history. The Twins always preach to their pitchers that walks will kill. If you want to pitch for the Minnesota Twins you need to get your pitches over the plate and force the hitter to put the ball in play. This strategy has worked for the Twins in the past and I don’t see it changing in the future. So let’s take a look and see what Twins pitchers gave up the fewest walks per inning pitched and at the same time compare how Washington Senators pitchers in the past compared to their modern day counterparts.

Minnesota Twins

Carlos Silva

Rank Pitcher BB/9 Innings pitched
1 Carlos Silva 1.303 773
2 Brad Radke 1.634 2,451
3 Jim Merritt 1.769 686
4 Jim “Mudcat” Grant 1.879 780
5 Kevin Tapani 1.959 1,171
6 Scott Baker 2.054 653
7 John Butcher 2.148 502
8 Jim Kaat 2.177 3,014
9 Dean Chance 2.250 664
10 Allan Anderson 2.320 818

 Washington Senators

Al Orth
Al Orth
Rank Pitcher BB/9 Innings pitched
1 Al Orth 1.555 677
2 Watty Lee 1.794 526
3 Dutch Leonard 1.910 1,899
4 Waletr Johnson 2.074 5,914
5 Garland Braxton 2.115 583
6 Doc Ayers 2.301 1,122
7 George Mogridge 2.417 1,016
8 Casey Patten 2.430 2,059
9 Charlie Smith 2,240 822
10 Roger Wolff 2,442 527

Twins 1997 Home Red Sunday Jersey

June 21, 2009 – In 1997 the Twins broke out a new home red Sunday jersey. The jersey was red with navy trim and the Twins logo, player’s name, and numbers were white with navy trim. The uniforms were used for the first time on Sunday, April 6. Brad Radke started the game for Minnesota and was the losing pitcher when the Kansas City Royals trounced the home team by a 12-2 score. The uniforms were again used on their very next Sunday home game on April 27 against the Texas Rangers and again Brad Radke was the starter. The Rangers scored 5 runs in the eighth inning and held on for a 7-3 win. ESPN announcers quickly nicknamed the Twins red uniforms as the Dairy Queen design because the colors closely matched the Dairy Queen advertising signs behind home plate. After just two games, both defeats, the uniforms were deemed to be bad luck by the players and were retired never to be worn by the Twins again. Since the jersey was used in 1997, it had the Jackie Robinson “Breaking Barriers” patch on the right sleeve. You can see what the uniforms looked like by clicking here.

Update – The Twins used the red jersey’s again on August 1, 2014 at US Cellular Field against the White Sox and came up on the short end of a 10-8 game.

Update – The Twins were in a funk and Twins starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey decided it was time once again (August 7, 2015) for the red jersey and this time the Twins beat Cleveland 10-9 with a home run in the ninth inning at Progressive Field. Their first win wearing the red jersey. The Twins tried them again the following day and got whipped 17-4.

The Twins record in red jersey’s stands at 1-4. When they will come out again, who knows?

 

Keep’em Dancing

Jim Kaat

To be a good pitcher they say, you need to keep the hitters off-balance and you can’t let the hitters get comfortable at the plate. If you look at the Twins pitching history, you will see that some of the Twins top pitchers were not afraid to plunk a hitter now and then. I can’t tell you for sure if these pitchers threw at batters on purpose or if they just felt that they owned the plate and they were not afraid to pitch inside, but either way, the pitchers on this list hit their share of batters and a number of these pitchers pitched in the days when they themselves had to step up to the plate to hit. Jim Kaat hit the most batters when he pitched for the Twins, hitting 89 batters (plus 7 more as a Washington Senator before he became a Minnesota Twin) but he also pitched just under 3,000 innings and he averaged a hit batter once every 33.25 innings. Mike Smithson, who certainly was not afraid to pitch inside hit 46 batters in his time with the Twins and he did this in just 816 innings so he hit a batter every 17.74 innings, far and away the most hit batters per innings pitched. Let’s take a look at the Twins top ten.

  Name Batters hit Innings Innings per hit batter
1 Jim Kaat 89 2,959 33.25
2 Bert Blyleven 80 2,566 32.08
3 Brad Radke 62 2,451 39.53
4 Jim Perry 50 1,883 37.66
5 Mike Smithson 46 816 17.74
6 Kyle Lohse 44 908 20.64
7 Scott Erickson 42 979 23.31
8 Dave Boswell 34 1,036 30.47
9 Frank Viola 29 1,772 61.10
10 Johan Santana 27 1,308 48.44

Now let’s take a look at the Twins current starters and see how they compare.

  Name Batters hit Innings Innings per hit batter
1 Scott Baker 25 915 36.60
2 Francisco Liriano 20 617 30.85
3 Nick Blackburn 17 668 39.29
4 Carl Pavano 12 397 33.08
5 Brian Duensing 6 289 48.17