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
The 2018 baseball season is in the books, free agents everywhere are sitting back and waiting for the offers to pour in, a number of teams (including our Twins) have hired new managers. The temperature is 31 degrees outside and there is a slight coating of snow on the ground here in Plymouth so we know it is time to start sorting our candidates for the 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year.
The Twins finished in second place again this season behind the Cleveland Indians. This past season the Twins were 78-84 as compared to 85-77 in 2017 and this year they were just 13 games back as compared to 17 games behind the year previous. Yet the 2018 Twins were looked on as failures as compared to the 2017 team that was a Wild Card participant albeit for just the one game against the New York Yankees. Manager Paul Molitor was the American League Manager of the Year in 2017 and after the 2018 season ended he found himself unemployed along with most of his coaching staff after signing a new three-year contract just a year earlier. Twins fans were unhappy and attendance dropped to its lowest point since 2004 at the Metrodome. Meanwhile the Twins Front Office added to staff and continued the “new ways of fielding a winning team” such as increasing the number of shifts, playing four outfielders here and there and jumping on the new “opener” strategy employed by teams such as Tampa Bay and Oakland.
It was a good year for the Minnesota Twins, an amazing 26 game improvement from their 103 loss season in 2016 and they even made an abbreviated one game trek to the playoffs, their first taste of postseason action since 2010. The much improved play of the players on the field made the team fun to watch again and the attendance increased from the previous season for the first time since the team started calling Target Field home in 2010.
All those good things happening over in Twins Territory makes it difficult to come up with a Twins Turkey of the Year but the job must get done. Just as sure as there is snow and cold in Minnesota we need to have a Twins Turkey of the Year.
The number of possible candidates for the 2017 award are few, sure we have some of the usual suspects like starter Kyle Gibson who first debuted as a Twin back in 2013 but found himself pitching in AAA Rochester after a horrible start. He finished the season with a 12-10 record but his 5.07 ERA for the second year in a row is more than disappointing.
Pitcher Phil Hughes earned $13.2 million this year and pitched less than 54 innings and had a 6.37 ERA. However; Hughes spent most of his time on the DL in 2017 visiting that list twice for a total of 105 days.
Pitcher Glen Perkins spent 117 days on the Twins DL in 2017 while recovering from shoulder surgery back in 2016. Perkins has pitched 7.2 innings in two years and banked $12.8 million.
Utility player Danny Santana appeared in just 13 games and hit .200 before the Twins traded him to the Atlanta Braves for a minor league pitcher named Kevin Chapman. Santana has appeared in 69 games and hit .203 for the Braves.
When I have to list Danny Santana on my Twins Turkey of the Year candidate list I am really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Heck, even Joe Mauer bounced back in 2017 and had a decent year at the plate, certainly not a $23 million a year player but what is done is done. One of my favorite TTOY candidates the last few years, hitting coach Tom Brunansky was fired after 2016.
So you can see it has been a lean year for turkeys in Twins territory this season, but, since the role has to be filled I have selected not one but two Twins organization members for the award this year, for the first time ever we have a two-headed Twins Turkey of the year.
Both of these gentlemen have been on the job for just over one year and their team made the playoffs in their first season at the helm after the team had finished with 103 losses in 2016, the worst record in baseball. It seems like we should be giving them Executive of the Year awards and not the TTOY award. Yes, they did sign Jason Castro, Chris Gimenez, Bartolo Colon (seems strange to put him on the plus side of the ledger), but they also signed a bunch of pitching stiffs and thought they could construct a bullpen while bottom-feeding.
With the Twins in need of starting help these two guys went out on July 24 and they made a deal with Atlanta and acquired Jaime Garcia and Anthony Recker for Huascar Ynoa. Garcia started and beat the Oakland A’s on July 28 and Twins fans were delighted, that is until these two guys turned around and flipped the 31 year-old Jaime Garcia to the Yankees for pitchers Zack Littell and Dietrich Enns just two days later. Then on July 31 they traded their closer Brandon Kintzler to the Washington Nationals for pitcher Tyler Watson and cash.
On July 31 the Twins had a 50-53 record and seven teams in the AL had better records than the Twins did. It was obvious that the Twins organization felt that the Twins had run out of steam so they started trading off pieces in hopes of landing some young pitching prospects. But who was to know that the Twins would go 35-20 during the rest of the season and score 346 runs in that stretch, more than any team in MLB while out-scoring their opposition by almost 100 runs. Only the Indians had a better record (45-13) and they had that crazy 22 game winning streak from mid-August to mid-September. When the season ended the Twins were one of the AL wild card playoff participants, who would have guessed that would happen?
No one in their right mind, right? After all, no MLB team has ever lost 103 one season and taken part in post-season action the next. I didn’t see it coming, but I am not making a ton of money leading the Twins baseball operation either. These guys are supposed to be experts in their field and yet at the end of July they raised the white flag and not only didn’t improve the team for the stretch run but they made it weaker by trading Jaime Garcia and Brandon Kintzler. The way I see it, these two committed the cardinal sin, they gave up on their team.
That is why the winners of the Twins Trivia 2017 Turkey of the Year award are Twins Head of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey and General Manager Thad Levine. I wish I had a picture of these two sitting in the backyard with their wine glasses in their hand pondering “what just happened?” Let’s hope that Falvey and Levine show their worth this off-season, maybe they are just slow starters.
September 3 was a busy day for big league debuts in a Minnesota Twins uniform.
Sep 3, 2014; Twins relief pitcher A.J. Achter (58) delivers a pitch in the ninth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Target Field. The Twins won 11-4. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
A.J. Achter (P) – September 3, 2014 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 46th round of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft. Closed out a Twins 11-4 win over the White Sox at Target Field with a perfect 9th inning on 10 pitches.
Matt Fox (P) – September 3, 2010 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (35th pick) of the 2004 amateur draft. Fox debuted at Target Field in a start against the Texas Rangers going 5.2 innings (90 pitches) and allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk but got a ND for his efforts. It was his one and only game for the Twins and one of only 4 big league games he would appear in.
The Minnesota Twins have a long history of problems developing starting pitching. Using 100 starts as a barometer, since 1961 the Twins have signed and developed just 11 pitchers in their system that have gone on to get 100 or more starts in a Twins uniform. The only first round pick in the bunch is Pete Redfern, three round tw0 picks, two round three picks, one fourth round pick, one fifth round pick, Brad Radke was an eighth round pick, one 29th round pick and an amateur free agent (Dave Boswell).
Since the June amateur free agent draft started in 1965 the Twins have drafted 31 pitchers in round 1 or as round 1 supplementary/compensation picks. Actually part of the Twins issues with starting pitching relates to spending money or the lack there of. The first two right-handed pitchers drafted by the Twins in round 1 were Dick Ruthven in 1972 and Tim Belcher (first overall pick) in 1983 who both refused to sign with Minnesota and went on to have long careers in MLB. The first left-handed pitcher drafted in round 1 to start any games was Eddie Bane and his Twins career lasted 25 starts. As I mentioned earlier, the draft started in 1965 but the Twins only drafted starting pitching in round 1 twice (Ruthven in 1972 and Bane in 1973) between 1965-1981. The first RHP that they drafted in round 1 that actually started a number of games (45 in Twins career) was Willie Banks who the team drafted in 1987. Since 2000 they have drafted a pitcher in round 1 a total of 17 times.
Starting pitching signed and developed by the Twins since 1961
If you can’t find, sign, and develop your starting pitching, you only have a few options at your disposal, you could make a trade, you can sign a free agent, or you can find one on the waiver wire (ha, ha, ha).
The option I want to write about here is the Twins attempts to trade for starting pitching since the turn of the century, a total of 17 years. Trading for starters hasn’t exactly gone as planned either.
First of all I would like to wish you and your families and friends a very happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving. Without further ado let’s cut to the meat of things.
Let’s cut to the chase and get right to it with our fourth runner-up, The Pohlad family, the 75th richest family in the US of A and Jim Pohlad serves as their spokesman. Mr. Pohlad watched this team deteriorate for six seasons before he finally realized that what we have here is a “total systems failure” when his team set a new record with 103 losses. Finally he told his GM Terry Ryan that his services were no longer needed as of the end of the season and Terry Ryan said OK and walked away in July. The team didn’t put a permanent replacement in place until after the World Series was over in early November although Rob Antony served as the interim GM. According to the new Chief of Baseball Operations for the Twins, he interviewed with brothers Jim, Bill, and Bob Pohlad and a host of other Twins organization members before getting offered the job. The one stipulation that Jim Pohlad put on the new CBO was that Paul Molitor manages the Twins in 2017. Why would you do that to a manager who is in the final year of his contract and why would Molitor stay on the job? Sounds like Pohlad doesn’t want to do the dirty work in dumping Molitor, that’s why he has employees like Derek Falvey.
Twins General Manager Terry Ryan (Pioneer Press: John Autey)
Our third runner-up is former GM Terry Ryan. Terry Ryan was always one of my favorite people in the Twins organization. A very good down to earth baseball man who has watched how baseball has changed over the years but unfortunately I think that the pace of change within baseball caught up with him and made him one of baseball’s dinosaurs and you all know what happened to the dinosaurs. I think that there should always be a place in baseball for people like Terry Ryan. Ryan had either bad luck or bad input on many of his free agent signings over the last few years and his trades have not panned out either. One of his biggest mistakes was his decision this past season to try to make Miguel Sano an outfielder when he had never played there before, not only was Sano not able to play the outfield he was so confused and stressed by the position change that he was no longer the power hitter the Twins have been waiting for.
Neil Allen
Second runner-up is our pitching coach Neil Allen. Allen talks a story about how he wants to change the pitching staff and make them better but so far we have not seen zilch. After two seasons at least show me a couple of pitchers that have improved under the tutelage of Allen because I sure have not seen them. Who really hired Neil Allen to be the pitching coach any way because Paul Molitor said that he never met Allen before Twins Fest in 2015. Add in the fact that Allen has been a recovering alcoholic since 1994 but fell off the wagon and was charged with a DWI and suspended by Minnesota on May 26 and you have a recipe for disaster. Allen was reinstated on July.
Paul Molitor
Our runner-up this year is Twins skipper Paul Molitor who will start year three of his three-year contract. I am still amazed that Molitor has hung on as the Twins manager going into the final year of his contract. Players in 2017 have no reason to buy into Molitor’s ideas and plans because the players will be here longer than Molitor will. What faith does management have in you when they force you to manage in this situation, they might as well tell him don’t buy any green banana’s and to go month to month on his rent payments. Molitor took over 70 win team and managed them to 83 win in his first year, then in year two he managed them to 59 wins. The honeymoon has worn off quickly and the sooner Derek Falvey gives Molitor the pink slip the better it will be for all concerned including Paul Molitor who looks like he has aged 20 years in his two season at the helm of the Minnesota Twins. For his own health and well being Paul Molitor should walk away sooner than later.
That of course bring us to this years winner of the Twins Turkey of the Year award. The 2016 Minnesota Twins season was so outrageously bad that it would not be fair to award this years honor to just one individual. Instead this years award goes to all the players, field staff, and front office personnel who made up the 2016 Minnesota Twins team. The team finished with the worst record in baseball at 59-103, a drop from 83 wins in 2015, a drop of 24 games in the win column. Yikes! The team was out scored 722 to 889, only the 1996 Twins gave up more runs. Twins hitters did hit 200 home runs led by Brain Dozier’s 42 but the pitching staff gave up 221 round-trippers. The Twins used 11 starting pitchers and the starter with the most wins had nine victories. Miguel Sano led the team in strikeouts with 178, oh wait, he is a hitter, on the pitching staff Ervin Santana had 149 K’s. The good news? The Minnesota Twins say they will not raise ticket prices in 2017, a good idea after going 407-565 (.418%) during the last six seasons. I know this is really a radical idea but maybe you should consider lowering ticket prices….. but then again that is not how you earned the 2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award.
2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award winners – the 2016 Minnesota Twins
Happy Thanksgiving! It is once again that time of the year to select our annual Twins Turkey of the Year winner. This year we get to select our seventh annual Twins Turkey of the Year award winner, who will be lucky number seven? As always we have plenty of blue-chip candidates to scrutinize, analyze, and reflect on. First off we need to narrow the list down to a manageable size.
Trevor Plouffe
Didn’t make the final five – Trevor Plouffe – Trevor makes the list not because of bad hitting or fielding but he makes this list because he managed to make three outs on the base paths in just one game. In the June 19 game in which the Twins beat the Chicago Cubs 7-2 at Target Field, Plouffe seemingly forgot how to run the bases. Mike Berardino did a nice piece on it that you can read here. Plouffe went 2 for 4 with 4 RBI in a game the Twins won so everyone got some chuckles out of Plouffe’s misadventures but it was still a game that Plouffe will never forget. Box score.
Didn’t make the final five – Phil Hughes – In his first season with Minnesota in 2014 had a 3.52 ERA and a 16-10 record with a record-breaking BB9 of 0.7 for a team that won 70 games. In 2015 Hughes spend a month on the DL due to lower back issues and missed 32 games. Because of his injury he pitched just 155 innings versus 209+ in 2014 and had a 4.40 ERA with an 11-9 record when the Twins won 83 games. The only thing that Hughes was a league leader in was home runs allowed with 29. The Twins were so pleased with Hughes work that after the 2014 season ended that Hughes, 28, was rewarded with a three-year extension worth $42 million that brings his total contract value to $66 million over six years, including 2014 when he made $8 million. Hughes, who was slated to make $8 million in both 2015 and ’16, will now make $9.2 million each of those years before making $13.2 million per season from 2017-19. I sure hope that Hughes doesn’t turn out to be another money pit.
Didn’t make the final five – Glen Perkins – You have to wonder why a closer who has made the AL All-Star team for the last three seasons was nominated for the 2015 Twins Turkey of the Year award and an opportunity to become the first two-time winner of this honor. That won’t happen this year because there were so many more qualified candidates so why is he even here? During the first three months of the season Perkins had 28 saves but from July 9 until the season ended opposing batters hit .348 off Perkins and he had a total of 4 saves, a 6.97 ERA and gave up 7 home runs in 20.2 innings and in the process lost his closer role to Kevin Jepsen. In 2014 Perkins had a similar meltdown from about mid August through the end of the season although he was shut down for the season on September 17. From August 19 until the season ended Perkins had a 9.64 ERA and allowed batters to hit .342 off him (not to mention giving up five home runs) while he registered 3 saves and lost 3 games. Has Perkins who will be 33 when the 2016 season opens lost it? Perkins is kind of a Jeckle and Hyde personality. He has a reputation for being a big community guy in the limelight and in public but one on one with fans when there are no cameras around Perkins can be a snob and pretty mean to fans trying to get his autograph. But what gets me is that Perkins doesn’t bring up the fact that he is injured until he has a number of bad outings in a row and then he blames his injuries for his bad pitching. Perkins is all about Perkins and not exactly a team player or leader in my book.
ArciaVargasDanny Santana
Didn’t make the final five – troika of Danny Santana, Kennys Vargas and Oswaldo Arcia – The Twins expected all three of these guys to win starting jobs in 2015 and they all failed miserably and yet the Twins improved by 13 wins from the previous season. If just one of these guys had the kind of season that was expected of them the Twins would have been playing playoff baseball in October. I know, I know, “if the bear hadn’t stopped to take a dump in the woods he would still be alive today.” All three of these guys will turn 25 in 2016 so it is too early to give up on them but at the same time their futures with the Twins have dimmed considerably. The Twins have already stated that Eduardo Escobar is the lead dog at shortstop going into 2016. The Twins are exploring selling Kennys Vargas to a team in Korea and Oswaldo Arcia is supposedly trade bait. It would be a shame if all three fail to become major league players with Minnesota. Each of them have shown they can be quality players in their rookie seasons but the sophomore year has proven to be much tougher. I hope the Twins hang on to these guys for at least one more season so they have another opportunity to prove they can help the Twins. And now we move on to the finalists!
Tim Stauffer
Fourth runner-up – Tim Stauffer – The Twins signed Stauffer as a free agent on December 23, 2014 for $2.2 million and it made for a great Christmas gift for Stauffer but for the Twins it turned out to be lump of coal. The Twins said that they would give the 33 year-old Stauffer who had started just four games since 2011 an opportunity to make the starting rotation in the spring but he failed there so the Twins moved him to the bullpen. In April, Stauffer appeared in 8 games pitching 9.2 innings, allowing 16 hits, 6 walks, 10 runs, allowed opposing batters to hit .372 and put up a 8.38 ERA. To be fair I should mention he did strike out 2 of the 50 batters he faced. Stauffer went on the DL on May 1 for a “right intercostal strain” and was reactivated on May 22. Who recovers from an intercostal strain in just three weeks? Anyway, the Twins used Stauffer two times in May and three times in June before the Twins released him on June 17 and sent his butt packing. Stauffer eventually signed as a FA with the Mets. That was a quick $2.2 million down the crapper. I give the Twins credit for trying to upgrade the bullpen with this signing but this will certainly not go on anyone’s resume as one of their better finds.
Third runner-up – Torii Hunter – The Twin paid $10.5 million to free agent Torii Hunter to get his services for the past season. That is a lot of money to pay an outfielder who was starting his nineteenth big league season and would turn 40 at mid-season. Torii was the Twins number one selection and 20th overall in the 1993 draft. Technically, Torii was a compensation pick from the Cincinnati Reds after they signed Twins free agent pitcher John Smiley. The Twins also had a supplemental pick in round 1 number 33 overall for losing Smiley and they selected RHP Marc Barcelo but he never reached the big leagues. The Twins own pick was number 21 and they used that to select catcher Jason Varitek but he decided not to sign with Minnesota. That same year they received another first round supplemental pick in round 1 which was number 38 overall for the loss of Greg Gagne to and they used that pick on outfielder Kelcey Mucker who never reached the big leagues either. After being drafted in 1993 Hunter made his major league debut with the Twins on August 22, 1997 as a pinch runner in his only big league appearance that season. So why is Torii on the list after all this? He is here because he made a fool of himself and the Minnesota Twins during his news conference to announce his return to the Minnesota Twins after a seven year hiatus. Hunter responded to a question from Twins beat reporter Mike Berardino by calling the reporter a “prick.” Not once, twice, thrice but four times. You can see it here on the Deadspin video. Hunter is no rookie in front of a microphone and could have handled the situation much better versus creating a scene at an event to reintroduce him to Twins fans. Very unprofessional in my opinion for a person that was brought back not only to play right field but was brought back to help teach the Twins younger players how to act and play the game the right way in the major leagues. Shame on you Torii!
Second runner-up – Joe Mauer – Mauer’s 12th season in a Twins uniform had its up’s and down’s, he played in a career high 158 games and had a career high 666 plate appearances but on the other side of the coin he had career lows in batting average by hitting .265 and OBP with a .338. In the last four seasons he has struck out 88, 89, 96 and 112 times as to compared to his previous high strike out mark of 64. The former MVP and six-time all-star hung up his catchers gear after the 2013 season primarily due to concussion issues and took over first base duties on a full-time basis. Joe and his wife Maddie also started a family in 2013 when Maddie gave birth to twin girls on July 24. Since 2013 Mauer’s batting skills have gone down hill quicker than Ingemar Stenmark. The question is why, is it just age, is it his personal life where all of a sudden his marriage and children become more important on his list of priorities (as they should) or was it giving up catching and moving to first base. No one knows the answer to that except Mauer himself but I think that Mauer saw himself as a Hall of Fame catcher and once he realized his catching career was over the game just wasn’t the same challenge it once was and subconsciously Mauer has lost interest in doing what it takes to be the best, and family time has moved up on his list of priorities. The problem is that Mauer’s $23 million salary chewed up about 23% of the teams opening day payroll, he is so even-tempered he never seems to show any emotion, he shows no outward signs of being a team leader and he is a local legend born in St. Paul. Right or wrong, the general public associates big money with leadership and Mauer has shown nothing in that regard. Twins fans want to see the team win and when you have a guy that hits 10 home runs, knocks in just 66 RBI hitting in the three hole and makes $23 million, you have a problem. Manager Paul Molitor had Mauer in the number 3 spot in the batting order 133 times this past season. Mauer has appeared in 1,453 games and he has started a game in the number 3 spot a total of 1,143 times and he has hit in the number 2 spot 228 times. Back in 2004 and 2005 he hit in the 6, 7 and 8 hole a total of 22 times. Yet, Molitor continues to say this off-season that there is no real reason not to have Mauer bat third. I can’t believe that Mauer would object to being put in a lower spot in the order to help the team win. If he does, then we have a real problem because the Twins are on the hook to pay Mauer who has a full no trade clause $23 million for the next three seasons. If Joe Mauer is in the three spot in the batting order in 2016 (unless he is on a tear) it will be on Paul Molitor and he will be high on next years Twins Turkey of the Year ballot and he should be updating his resume.
This years Twins Turkey of the Year runner-up is – Ervin Santana – Last December Ervin Santana agreed to a four-year deal with the Twins worth around $54 million. That would be the largest free agent contract in Twins history, narrowly topping last year’s four-year, $49 million deal with RHP Ricky Nolasco. So how did the right-handed throwing Santana repay the Twins? MLB announced on April 3, 2015 just days before the 2015 season started that Santana has been suspended for 80 games without pay leaving the Twins without their number two starter. Santana was suspended after testing positive for Stanozolol, a performance-enhancing substance. In a statement released through the players’ union, Santana said he did not know how the PED got into his system. Stanozolol is by far one of the most popular anabolic steroids of all time. This is an anabolic steroid that has gained worldwide media attention numerous times. It was the Stanozolol hormone that made headlines during the 1988 Olympics when Ben Johnson was stripped of his medal, and has been linked to the MLB more times than can be counted. It is important to take stanozolol regularly to get the most benefit. If that is the case then how could Santana not know that he ingested it? If you know you are in line to sign a big contract why would you take a chance and take anabolic steroids? Questions only Santana can answer. The good news? It saved the Twins $6.75 million but the bad news is that it probably cost the Twins a playoff spot. The Twins have Santana for the next three years plus another possible option year, Santana better start paying back some of the faith the Twins placed in him.
The Twins 2015 Turkey of the Year winner in a landslide is pitcher Ricky Nolasco. The Minnesota Twins announced on December 3, 2013 that they have signed free agent right-handed pitcher Ricky Nolasco to a four-year contract worth $49 million with a club option that could vest in 2018. Twins fans were ecstatic, this was the biggest free agent deal the Twins had ever done and it was for a starting pitcher. What could go wrong? Nolasco will earn a guaranteed $12 million salary in each year of the contract (2014-2017). Nolasco was 6-12 with a 5.38 ERA in 27 starts in 2014. Nolasco missed 32 games with right elbow soreness that season by spending July 7 through September 15 on the disabled list. This past season Nolasco had a deceiving 5-2 record with a 6.75 ERA. In 37.1 innings Nolasco gave up 50 hits and walked 14 more while striking out 35. It seems Nolasco can’t stay healthy, in his first trip to the DL this year from April 11 through May 2 for right elbow inflammation, he missed 21 games. His next trip to the DL lasted from June 4 to September 25 for a right ankle impingement issue which caused him to miss 103 games. When he returned from his second trip to the DL, Nolasco appeared in 2 games, relieving in one and starting the other. In those two games he pitched a total of 4.2 innings, allowed 8 earned runs, walked four, and allowed 6 hits, two of them were home runs. On the plus side, he struck out 7 batters. WOW! I wonder what he can do for an encore! I sure hope we Twins fans get more than what Nolasco has shown us so far for that $49 million that Jim Pohlad spent to get him to come to Minnesota. So far all Nolasco has given us are excuses.
As 2014 is coming to an end it is a good time to look back on another Twins season, their fourth in a row without post season play. But you have to be a winner to make post season play and the Twins have been anything but a winner the last few years. It has been a toss-up when you try to determine who has been more inept, the Twins players on the field or the ownership and Twins executives that sit behind their desks and make the decisions that determine the experience that Twins fans will have to live with during the up-coming season.
The Twins have had many losing seasons over the years and the real core Twins fans complained but they accepted the team they had and they looked forward to the next season with renewed hope for more wins “next year”. But it is seems different now, I am not sure why, maybe the fans are more passionate, maybe it is social media that allows Twins fans to better express their frustrations but today’s Twins fans are just plain mad and disgusted with the caliber of play their home team has displayed since the 2010 ended. Hopefully the Minnesota Twins organization feels some of the passion that Twins fans have and will start to look at the product from the fans perspective and see what they can do to make the fans experience a little more fun and and not so tough on the wallet.
Since the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins the team has played 8,617 regular season games, winning 4,274, losing 4,335 and playing to a tie on eight occasions in 54 seasons of play. Boy, how time flies by, I still remember that 1961 season.
Looking back at Twins history they have two World Series winners and a third World Series appearance in which they lost game seven to Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In addition to the 8,617 regular season games the team has played a total of 64 post season games winning 25 and losing 39. Their last post season appearance was in 2010 and that brief playoff run lasted just three games when they were swept by the New York Yankees 3 games to zip. The teams last post season win was back in 2004 (if I am not mistaken that is about 10 years ago, YIKES!) when they beat the Yankees in game 1 of the ALDS series before losing the next three games.
So let’s take a look at the hitting and pitching statistics of the Minnesota Twins in post season play. Let’s see who stood out under the bright lights of post season play and who couldn’t or didn’t deliver when the pressure was on. The names you will see below will bring back many memories, some good, some bad, some sad and in some cases you will say “who in the hell is so and so, I don’t remember him”. But it is fun looking back.
Since the Twins started play in 1961 through the 2014 season a total of 751 players have put on a Minnesota Twins uniform and appeared in a game either as a hitter or a pitcher. Only 162 of them or 21.57% have appeared in a Twins post season game over the 54 seasons the Twins have called Minnesota home.
It is that time of the year again, time to see who will take home the Twins Trivia 2013 Twins Turkey of the Year award.
The 2013 baseball season has been over for almost a month and in the case of teams like the Minnesota Twins, it ended long before that. The temperatures have gotten colder and snow flakes have been seen over at Target Field but I still find it difficult to rid myself of the bitter taste of yet another wretched Twins season. A season in which the home town team managed to lose 96 or more games for the third year in a row. Not once in franchise history going back to 1901 have any previous Washington Senators or Minnesota Twins teams managed to accomplish what the 2011-2013 Twins have done by losing 96 or more games three years in a row. The 1997-2000 Twins ball clubs who lost 94, 92, 97, and 93 games were pretty dismal but they fell short of the three straight 96 loss mark.
The depressing part of this is that we can’t even blame injuries for the Twins poor play, the team just plain under performed to what were already low expectations. Sure Joe Mauer missed the last 39 games and Josh Willingham missed 33 games and a few other regulars spent a couple of weeks on the DL but that was about it. A number of players that spent time on the Twins DL list didn’t belong in the majors anyway.
When your team plays this bad it should not be that hard to find candidates for this years Twins Turkey of the Year. I had a few minutes the other day and I start compiling a list of possibilities and here is who I came up with off the top of my head in no particular order. Worse yet, I know it is hard to believe but these guys didn’t even make the cut for the final five.
Rich Harden – The Twins signed this fraud in December 2012 and allowed him to rehab his surgically repaired shoulder but Harden requested his release at the end of July when even he could see he would not be pitching in the majors in 2013. The man last pitched in the majors in 2011. I am not sure what it says for the state of baseball today when teams keep giving pitchers like Harden chance after chance. In all or parts of nine big league seasons with three different organizations, Harden has already pocketed $23,586,500 and he has pitched in a total of 170 games and only twice in nine seasons has he ever appeared in more than 25 games. If there was a DL Hall of Fame, he would be right there. He will only be 32 later this month and he still wants to pitch again in 2014.
Joe Benson – The Twins selected Benson in the second round of the 2006 June draft, just a couple of picks ahead of Justin Masterson and Jon Jay. Benson passed on a football scholarship to Purdue and took the Twins $575,000 and started his career in pro ball. Benson finally got the call to join the Twins in September of 2011 and had 71 at bats in 21 games and hit .239 with no home runs and two RBI. The Twins kept trying to hand him a starting outfield spot in 2012 and 2013 but he just could not get the job done. With his propensity to strike out, Benson would have fit right in with the 2013 Twins. In May of 2013 the Texas Rangers picked Benson up on waivers.
Chris Parmelee – This Twins first round pick in 2006 was projected to be a big time home run hitter. Parmelee worked his way up the minor league ladder and got his first taste of big league ball as a 2011 September call-up and he knocked the cover off the ball by hitting .355 with four home runs and 14 RBI in jus 76 at bats. The Twins had high hopes for Parmelee in 2012 and he rewarded them with 5 home runs and a .229 average in 192 at bats. The Twins handed Parmelee the starting right field job in 2013 but by the time the all-star game rolled around he found himself in Rochester. Parmelee finished the 2013 season hitting .228 with 81 strike outs and just 8 long balls in 294 at bats.
Scott Diamond – This 2010 Rule 5 pick-up had a wonderful season in 2012 going 12-9 with a 3.54 ERA in 27 starts and was projected to be the Twins ace going into 2013. After undergoing elbow surgery in late December of 2012 Diamond started the 2013 season on the DL. When he joined the team later in April he was nowhere near the pitcher he was in 2012. Diamond crashed and burned in 2013 going 6-13 with a 5.43 ERA in 24 starts and by August found himself with AAA Rochester.
Josh Willingham – This Twins starting left fielder was born in the Yellowhammer state and goes by the nickname of The Hammer but in 2013 he played more like a toffee hammer then the sledge-hammer that the Twins expected. Coming off a 2012 season when he hit .260 with 35 home runs and 110 RBI Willingham slumped badly in 2013 hitting just .208 with 14 home runs and 48 RBI. Worse yet he played in just 111 games due to a knee injury which eventually needed surgery. The Hammer’s strikeout’ jumped from 27% of his 2012 at bats to 33% of his 2013 at bats.
Eddie Rosario – A fourth round pick in 2010 this Twins minor leaguer was expected to make his big league debut with the 2014 Twins and possibly fight for a starting spot but a week or so ago he announced that he would be suspended for 50 games for violating the minor league drug policy. Rosario claims that the positive test came from some pills he took to help recover from an arm injury but then again everyone that is caught has some excuse. Neither MLB nor the Twins have made an official announcement as yet. Rosario began his career as an outfielder but agreed to switch to second base in 2011. This past year Rosario played for Ft. Myers before being bumped up to AA New Britain. This past Fall the Twins sent him to play in the Arizona Fall League. If this suspension is a fact, this will really hinder Rosario’s climb up the minor league chain towards Target Field. Minor league teams only play around 140 games so missing 50 really hurts.
We have spent enough time talking about the nonqualifiers, so without further ado let’s get to the meat of todays festivities. Each and every one of the final five did his best this past season to win the 2013 Twins Turkey of Year award but we can only have one winner here.
Vance Worley
The fourth runner-up is pitcher Vance Worley. Worley was a Phillies third round pick in 2008 and pitched in just 5 games for Philly in 2010. In 2011 Worley went 11-3 but in 2012 Worley went 6-9 with a 4.20 ERA in 23 starts.The Twins parted ways with center fielder Ben Revere to acquire the Vanimal from the Phillies in December of 2012. Worley started 10 games for Minnesota including the Twins home opener going 1-5 with a 7.21 ERA before GM Terry Ryan had seen enough and sent Worley to AAA Rochester. Worley was supposed to be a stalwart in the Twins 2013 rotation but he didn’t even make it to Memorial Day in Minnesota. The man talked a good story but he could not walk the talk. In Rochester he spent time on the DL and started just 9 games going 6-3 with a respectable 3.88 ERA but the call to return to Minnesota never came. Worley was the big acquisition by Ryan last off-season and he was supposed to eat innings and stabilize the rotation but he failed miserably in both. The man pitched like a turkey and earned his spot on this list.
Aaron Hicks
The third runner-up is outfielder Aaron Hicks. Hicks was the Twins first round pick (14th overall) in 2008. Hicks slowly worked his way through the Twins system and finally had a breakout season in 2012 with AA New Britain. He so impressed the Twins brass that during that off-season they traded both of their center fielders, Denard Span and Ben Revere for pitching help and Hicks became the front-runner to be the Twins Opening Day center fielder in 2013. Hicks rewarded the Twins organizations faith in him by having a great spring training hitting .370 with four home runs (three in one game) and 18 RBI along with 3 stolen bases. But when they started playing for real Hicks got off to a horrendous start getting two hits in his first 48 at bats and worse yet, he struck out 20 times. The Twins had no one else to play center so they kept sending him out there everyday until he pulled a hamstring on a June 9th. At that point Hicks was hitting .179 with 6 home runs but he also struck out 56 times in 190 at bats. While rehabbing in Rochester Hicks was recalled by the Twins when Willingham went on the DL. On August 1st Hicks was still hitting .192 with the strike outs continuing to pile up and GM Ryan sent him packing to Rochester and Hicks never again put on a Twins uniform for the rest of the season. I really don’t like picking on rookies and the Twins probably did Hicks a disservice by having him in the major leagues without a single AAA at bat but the Twins were in desperate circumstances and so they threw Hicks in the deep end of the pool and he was just plain in over his head. But Hicks didn’t earn his was on this list because he couldn’t hit, he is here because his attitude left a lot to be desired at some points this year. There were times when he failed to run out ground balls, on some of his home runs he stood at home plate and admired it, and in the field he sometimes played so casually that runners took extra bases on him without too much effort. To me he looked like a player that thought he was a star now that he had reached the major leagues and he quit working and was just coasting along. A little humble pie should be on Aaron Hicks Thanksgiving table this year and hopefully he will become the player that we all hoped he could be. If he doesn’t show solid improvement this season he should look at sharpening his already strong golf swing and consider the pro golf tour.
Anthony Swarzak
Our second runner-up is pitcher Anthony Swarzak. Swarzak did not make this list because of how he did on the mound, he made the list in spite of having a career year in 2013. Swarzak appeared in a career high 48 games and threw 96 innings and posted a 3-2 record with a career best 2.91 ERA. So why was he invited to the Twins Turkey of the Year banquet? Swarzak is here because on January 25th while attending TwinsFest 2013 he and his teammates thought they would have a little fun and started practicing their wrestling moves and Swarzak ended up with two broken ribs. The non-injured participants were not identified and GM Terry Ryan said that he appreciated that Swarzak come forth and fessed up. I am sure that childish behavior like this goes on all the time in baseball locker rooms as Kent Hrbek can certainly attest to when he broke his ankle during some horseplay in the Twins clubhouse in September of 1990. With the Twins desperate for pitching this was a stupid move on the part of Swarzak and possibly cost him a chance to join the Twins starting staff. Swarzak missed most of spring training and did not pitch in a single ST game. Swarzak started the season on the DL but was activated on April 7th and went on to have his best year. Sometimes baseball players have some let’s say “unusual beliefs” and this Twins long reliever fits right in with that group with his passion and interest in Sasquatch, otherwise known as Bigfoot. He’s obsessed with it,” said fellow reliever Brian Duensing. “He believes they’re real. He really wants to find one. He is adamant that they are around.
Tom Brunansky
Our runner-up turns out to be hitting coach Tom Brunansky. This former Twins player got into coaching in 2010 with the GCL Twins and the Twins quickly moved him up the ladder with stops at AA New Britain in 2011, at AAA Rochester in 2012 and in 2013 he became the Twins hitting coach. A number of Twins minor leaguers loved him as a hitting coach but in his one season in Minnesota he has shown nothing that indicates that he is a big league hitting coach if you go by the teams hitting numbers. The 2013 hitters were with a couple of exceptions the same players as the Twins sent to the plate in 2012 but yet Brunansky turned these hitters in to as Sid Hartman might say, real stiffs. Lets take a look at a couple of hitting categories and compare 2013 to 2012. The 2012 Twins hit .260 and under Bruno the 2013 Twins hit .242, fourth worst in team history. The OBP in 2012 was .325 and it was .312 this past season, only five Twins teams have done more poorly. The 2012 team scored 701 runs and in 2013 they scored 614, only the 1968 Twins played in 162 games and scored fewer (562) runs. The crowning achievement for Bruno was his teams 1,430 strike outs, a franchise record going back to 1901 and the next closest number was 1,121 by the 1997 Twins bunch. The 2012 boys went down swinging 1,069 times. But on the plus side he did increase the number of home runs from 131 to 151. It is hard to understand how the Twins justified renewing the man for 2014 who just by looking at the numbers, might be the worst hitting coach in team history. I am thinking he will be on a short leash in 2014 and if Twins hitters get off to another miserable start Dave Engle‘s brother-in-law will be looking for work and Joe Vavra will get his job back.
The entire Twins organization had another bad year and that makes three in a row. You can say what you want and dissect it a thousand different ways but the only way to measure success for any baseball team is in terms of wins and losses. If you don’t win, your season has to be considered a failure and you are not doing your job, it really is as simple as that. In baseball, like in life there are really no moral victories and I am tired of hearing that “the boys really got after it”, I want to see the win column increase and the loss column decrease.
In addition to being bad on the field the Minnesota Twins organization was equally bad off the field. Spring Training 2013 was year 2 of “Value” and “Premium” pricing and the tickets ranged from $13 for a “value” lawn ticket to $43 for a “premium” Dugout Box seat. In 2012, three of the 16 (18.8%) home games were designated as “premium”, in 2013 six of the 18 (33.3%) of the home games were classified as “premium” games. 2013 was the first time in a number of years that the Twins had not raised their spring training ticket prices at Hammond Stadium from the previous season but they doubled the number of their “premium” games so yes, they pocketed more money from ticket sales. YES, $43 to watch a ST game. How in the world can the Twins who were coming off of back-to-back 90+ loss seasons, dropping payroll, charge $43 to watch a team that will not even have big leaguers playing most of the time?
The 2013 regular season brought even more changes in Twins ticket pricing for Twins fans. The variable ticket pricing plan that was instituted in 2006 with two tiers jumped to three tiers in 2009 and jumped to five tiers in 2013 as the Twins came off back-to-back 96+ loss seasons. The tiers are called “extra value”, “value”, “select”, “premium” and “elite”. Six of the nine “elite” games were against the Yankees and White Sox, I wonder how they were chosen as the “elite” games. Oh, by the way, the Twins record for “elite” games was 1-8. When you look back at the 2013 season how many of the games that the team played should have been classified in any of these five categories? According to Team Marketing Report the average MLB ticket price in 2013 was $27.73 and the Twins 2013 average ticket price was the 13th highest of the 30 big league teams at $32.59. To bad the Twins play was not that good, I can’t wait to see the Twins 2014 ticket prices.
Then on April 8th the Twins sent out a Press Release – Early Entry Program Coming to Target Field. The press release went on to say that early entry tickets will be sold on a walk-up basis at the main Target Field Box Office beginning 30 minutes before the early entry time for that game. Tickets will cost $15 dollars, and sales will be limited to the first 60 fans. Fans will also be required to have a normal entry ticket to the game, and will not be allowed to exit and reenter the ballpark after batting practice. When the Twins fans and the press saw this release the reaction in blogs, Twitter and sports talk shows went wild and it wasn’t positive.
Then a couple of hours later Twins corporate communications senior manager Chris Iles sent out another press release retracting the whole “early entry” offer from this morning. “My apologies as I sent a release out prematurely earlier today. The early entry program outlined in the release was not fully vetted across the Twins organization. To that end, please disregard the earlier release as the Minnesota Twins will not be offering an early entry program as stated earlier today. There will be no change in policy regarding gate opening times and season ticket holders will continue to be given early access priority as part of the Sweet Spot program. On behalf of the Twins, we apologize for a lack of internal communication which led to the premature release of this misinformation”.
Twins president Dave St. Peter
So what happened? Twins President Dave St. Peter said the release was sent prematurely and hadn’t been approved by higher-ups in the organization. “It was released before it ever should have been. It’s hard to believe, but it was not pulled down because of fan reaction,” St. Peter said, adding this: “Our organization made a mistake.” We’re looking at ways to add more access to batting practice, but I’m not sure charging incrementally is the way to go about that.” When asked again if this 180 degree turn had anything to do with the roughly 95 to 99 percent of people who thought the plan was a bad idea and made their voices heard on Tuesday. “I heard from a few fans,” St. Peter said. “I know this: I know we provided a tremendous level of entertainment to the world of Twitter this afternoon. I don’t know if that’s good news.”
Dave St. Peter, a native of North Dakota became the fourth president in Minnesota Twins team history in November 2002 and has done great job in that role over the years. Dave has always been willing to help anyone that asks and he is one of the few MLB team presidents that I know of that is willing to make his e-mail address available to the general public and respond to your e-mail personally as quickly as he can. Although I am not a Twitter user, St. Peter is and I have heard that he is very active there.
Dave St. Peter needs one of these for his desk.
Having said that, I am disappointed in how St. Peter handled to the pay for batting practice issue this season, my perception is that Dave St. Peter threw Chris Iles under the bus and did not take responsibility for the problem and then was less than honest about the reason for the change of heart. I also have the perception that a baseball teams president should be more of the face of the franchise to the general public then Dave St. Peter has recently shown. I know that Dave St. Peter shows up at many events but I am talking more about taking responsibility for the actual play of the team. I know that running the team is not his job, he has people for that like GM Terry Ryan and manager Ron Gardenhire but St. Peter is the team president, as President Harry Truman one said “The Buck Stops Here.” The way I see it Dave St. Peter should stop spouting the normal baseball clichés and step forward and admit that “I am responsible for the state of this baseball team and I will do all I can to fix it.” The first part of that process is to instruct his GM to sign some players that will make this team more competitive. I know that it might be difficult to get good players to play for a team that is as bad as the Twins have been for three years but money speaks volumes and if the Twins have to over pay to get them, so be it. After all, Twins fans have been over paying to watch this team play for several years, now it is your turn to hand over your wallet. Another step might be to revisit ticket prices both for spring training games and for the regular season. The team has sucked for several years, maybe the organization should give the fans a break on ticket prices until things get better instead of bragging that you didn’t raise the ticket price but fail to mention that you have moved to five tier ticket pricing from three with higher prices for those two new tiers. For some reason Dave St. Peter’s name never comes up when members of the organization such as the GM, the manager or the pitching coach are criticized for their performance, the president of the Minnesota Twins appears to be the Teflon man. The entire Twins organization probably earned this award but we need the leader of this organization to step up and accept responsibility. 2013 was not a good year for another president we all know but for your performance this year Mr. Dave St. Peter you are our 2013 Twins Turkey of the Year winner.
The Twins off-season got started with bang yesterday when the Twins announced that six-time All-Star and former AL MVP catcher Joe Mauer was leaving the tools of ignorance behind and moving to first base full-time. The Twins having been saying all along that Mauer was free of his concussion symptoms and that he was their catcher unless they heard differently. But yet GM Terry Ryan needed to know for sure where Mauer was going to play in 2014. Mauer is a foundation player the team needs to build around and they need to know what building blocks they need and the sooner that Mauer made a decision on his future, the sooner Ryan can begin to assemble his team. So I can’t help but wonder how much pressure the Twins applied to Mauer to get him to make a decision on what position he wanted to call home in 2014 and beyond. I know that Mauer is a great player but how many baseball teams have waited on one of their players to tell them where he wants to play?
Mauer said the decision was both difficult but yet easy, I think I can understand what he is saying. Mauer had to be thinking he had a shot at being the Twins catcher for as long as he wanted and that down the line the Hall of Fame would be calling. But then Joe’s life changed when he got married after the 2012 season and before he knew it, he was the father of twins himself. Later in the 2013 season he suffered through a serious concussion and his season ended 6 week earlier then he had planned. Mauer is a proud man and giving up catching, something he has done his entire life had to be hard. But Mauer is also a smart man and he understands that family and health always comes first. Money will never be an issue for Joe and his family but his health could become a problem if he continued to catch. Mix in what his good friend Justin Morneau went through, all the other catcher concussion issues in 2013 and all the recent reports of football players and their problems and Joe really had no choice. Joe Mauer, always the team player and being the good guy he is stepped up and informed the Twins that his decision was made.
The griping is rampant that first base is a power position and it normally is but there have been a number of very good first basemen since 1960 that hit 15 or fewer home runs, knocked in 90 to 111 RBI and hit for a high average. Players like Rod Carew, Keith Hernandez, Mark Grace, and Pete Rose come to mind and they were pretty good players. It will be interesting also to see if moving from a tough position like catcher to an easier position to play like first base actually makes Mauer an even better hitter. Something akin to a pitcher moving from starting to relief and picking up a few MPH on his fastball.
Mauer moving to first base has huge implications on numerous players. I doubt that Justin Morneau entertained thoughts of returning to Minnesota anyway but this move puts an end to that possibility. Chris Colabello might as well call his agent and ask him to pursue a trade. Chris Parmelee instantly became an outfielder and sometimes first baseman. But who is going to replace Mauer behind home plate? The Twins have four catchers on the roster at the present time, Josmil Pinto, Chris Herrmann, Eric Fryer and Ryan Doumit. Each and every one of these guys has some warts, Doumit is a decent hitter but a poor catcher plus he had his own bout with a concussion last season, you have to wonder if he wants to catch any more. Herrmann seems like he has been around for ever but he is only 25 but I don’t think the Twins envision him as a full-time catcher. The 28 year-old Fryer can’t hit a lick and the Twins are the fourth organization that he has played with. That leaves us with Josmil Pinto, 24, who was a September call-up and appeared in 21 games hitting .342 with four home runs. With just 21 big league games under his belt and just 19 AAA games you have to wonder if he is ready to make the jump to the big leagues as a full-time catcher. Mauer only caught 5 games in AAA but Pinto is not Joe Mauer. You also keep hearing that Pinto’s catching skills still need work but you can use that excuse on most any catcher. The Twins could go out and sign a free agent veteran but does a team that lost 96 games two years in a row want to spend money on a veteran catcher? I am not sure I would but there is one catcher that I would sign if the price was right and if he was willing to come back to Minnesota. A.J. Pierzynski would be the one catcher I would be willing to spend a few dollars to sign. Why? Because the man comes to play every day, he can hit, he is a decent catcher that would help the Twins pitching staff, he can teach Pinto what it takes to be a big league catcher and most of all Pierzynski will teach the entire team what it takes to win. The Twins could do a lot worse than signing A.J. for a year or two.
Jason Bartlett
Almost lost in all the Joe Mauer news is the fact that the Twins signed former Twins shortstop Jason Bartlett to a minor league deal. The Twins originally acquired Bartlett from the San Diego Padres in a trade for Brian Buchanan in July 2002. Bartlett played short for the Twins from 2004-2007 but did not earn a full-time gig at short until 2007. Then after the 2007 season then GM Bill Smith sent him, Matt Garza, and Eduardo Morlan to Tampa for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie. Bartlett spent 2008-2010 in Tampa before being traded back to the Padres who had originally drafted and signed him in 2001. Bartlett spent 2011 as the Padres shortstop but injured his knee early in 2012 and missed the remainder of the season and didn’t play at all in 2013. Now that Bartlett feels that his knee is healthy again he wants to play again and the Twins are going to give him that chance.
What I find interesting about the Twins signing the 34 year-old Bartlett is that he only plays short. Bartlett has played ever inning of his big league carer at short except for one inning back in 2004 when he moved over to second base for the Twins. This does not Bartlett much of a candidate for the utility man role. That means that the Twins are bringing Bartlett to push Pedro Florimon for the starting shortstop job. Florimon was rated one of the leagues better fielding shortstops but hitting .221 in 134 games has left a lot to be desired. Every team including the Twins claims to value defense, particularly up the middle, but in reality offense trumps defense. Particularly with a team like the Twins who had trouble scoring runs, you sacrifice some defense to score some runs. If Bartlett is healthy and shows that he can still hit, he could well be the starting shortstop when the Twins open the 2014 season.
Johan Santana pitched for Minnesota from 2000 -2007. Santana is tied for third most wins in Dome history (46) and second-most strikeouts (754). Johan was a three-time All-Star and won Cy Young Awards in 2004 and 2006. Won 17 consecutive games in the Dome from 2005-2007.
Where does the time go, it hardly seems like this took place 4 years ago. In a blockbuster deal, Minnesota gets outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Kevin Mulvey, Philip Humber and Deolis Guerra but have to part with former Cy Young winner Johan Santana whom they could not afford to sign.
As part of the deal, Johan Santana and the New York Mets agreed on the terms for a guaranteed $137.5 million six-year contract that could possibly be worth up to $151 million over seven years. At the time, the deal was the biggest ever for a pitcher. Since the trade, Santana has a 40-25 record with a 2.85 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 600 innings. Johan had shoulder surgery in September of 2010 and had to miss the entire 2011 season and now there are reports he may not be ready for opening day 2012.
Carlos Gomez
From a Twins perspective the crown jewel of the trade was outfielder Carlos Gomez who played in Minnesota for just two seasons appearing in 290 games hitting .248 with a .293 OBP while hitting 10 home runs and stealing 47 bases. After the 2009 season the Twins traded Gomez to the Milwaukee Brewers for shortstop JJ Hardy who played in Minnesota for one season before the Twins traded him and infielder Brendan Harris to the Baltimore Orioles for pitchers Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson. Hoey has since been claimed on waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays and Jacobson was in AA New Britain in 2011. Gomez is still with the Brewers.
Kevin Mulvey appeared in a Twins uniform in just two games before he was moved to Arizona in the Jon Rauch trade. Rauch pitched in Minnesota in 2009 and 2010 before he left due to free agency. Mulvey is currently in the D-Backs minor league system.
Philip Humber
Philip Humber pitched a total of 20.2 inning for the Twins in 2008 and 2009 before he too left via the free agent route after the 2009 season. Humber is currently a starter with the Chicago White Sox.
Deolis Guerra
Deolis Guerra is still in the Twins minor league system and spent 2011 in AA New Britain after spending a handful of games at AAA Rochester in 2010. Guerra has a shot at finally joining the Twins at some point in 2012 in the bullpen.
The 2018 baseball season is in the books, free agents everywhere are sitting back and waiting for the offers to pour in, a number of teams (including our Twins) have hired new managers. The temperature is 31 degrees outside and there is a slight coating of snow on the ground here in Plymouth so we know it is time to start sorting our candidates for the 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year.
