Tag: Clyde Milan

Most games played by position in franchise history

Native Minnesotan Kent Hrbek

July 31, 2010 – I just wanted to take a look and see who the leaders for games played at each position by the Minnesota Twins and the Washington Senators. With the way things are in baseball today and players on the move through free agency it is hard to keep the same players for any length of time. The only current player that might have a shot at moving on to the list below in the near future is Joe Mauer and if all goes well that might happen late in 2011 or early 2012.

Position Games Name Games Name
Catcher 831 Earl Battey 874 Muddy Ruel
1B 1,609 Kent Hrbek 2,025 Joe Judge
2B 1,128 Rod Carew 1,339 Buddy Myer
SS 1,112 Greg Gagne 1,445 George McBride
3B 1,311 Gary Gaetti 1,625 Eddie Yost
LF 620 Dan Gladden 1,093 Goose Goslin
CF 1,432 Kirby Puckett 1,635 Clyde Milan
RF 1,138 Tony Oliva 1,592 Sam Rice
DH 406 Tony Oliva — —

 

Tough to strike out

June 21, 2010 – Hall of Famer Sam Rice is way ahead of everyone in franchise history with the best strike out per at bat ratio going down swinging just once in every 33.6 at bats in 9,879 plate appearances. It seems as though the players in the past had much bat control or were more patient then the players of today. As you can see, the Twins best in this category is Brian Harper and he struck out once in every 19.6 at bats in 2,691 plate appearances. Where do Joe Mauer and Rod Carew stand you ask? To this point in his career Joe has 3,253 plate appearances and he strikes out once in every 8.8 at bats. Carew struck out once in every 8.7 at bats in his 6,980 Twins plate appearances. What I think is kind of weird is that Tony Oliva was known as a free swinger and he struck out once every 9.8 at bats in 6,879 at bats. Just for comparison, Harmon Killebrew struck out once every 5.81 at bats in 9,462 Twins plate appearances while Justin Morneau is currently at a strike out every 6.71 at bats in 3,889 plate appearances.

Toughest Twins to strike out

Catcher Brian Harper
Rank Name At bats per strike out
1 Brian Harper 19.6
2 Mickey Hatcher 15.0
3 Cesar Tovar 13.5
4 Lenny Green 13.3
5 Hosken Powell 11.0
6 Butch Wynegar 10.6
7 Lyman Bostock 10.4
7 Ted Uhlaender 10.4
9 Al Newman 10.2
10 Jim Holt 10.0

 Toughest Senators to strike out

outfielder Sam Rice

 

Rank Name At bats per strike out
1 Sam Rice 33.6
2 Sam Dente 27.7
3 Heinie Manush 25.1
4 Muddy Ruel 23.4
5 Clyde Milan 23.1
6 Rick Ferrell 21.0
7 Clint Courtney 19.3
8 Eddie Foster 19.2
9 Stan Spence 18.5
10 George Case 17.5

 

Good Eye, Good Eye!

May 15, 2010 – The Twins preach to their pitchers that the batter should earn his way on base via a hit, just throw the ball over the plate and take your chances that the batter will hit it to one of your fielders. In recent years, the Twins pitching staff has always been one of the league leaders in fewest bases on balls allowed.

But the shoe is on the other foot when it comes to the Twins hitters where the coaching staff tries to teach patience at the plate, after all, a walk is just as good as a hit. Plus, the more pitches you see, the better the odds are of the batter getting a hit and the quicker the pitcher reaches their so called pitch limits. This year the Twins hitters have taken that advice to heart and after 32 games they have walked 147 times and are on pace for about 700 walks which would be the most not only in Twins history but in franchise history. The 1956 Senators walked 690 times and the most walks by a Twins team was the 1962 Twins when they walked to first base 649 times. Let’s take a look at the top 10 career Twins and Senators batters that believed that a walk was indeed as good as a hit.

Minnesota Twins

HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Harmon Killebrew 1,321 8,018 16.48%
2 Kent Hrbek 838 7,137 11.74%
3 Bob Allison 641 4,641 13.81%
4 Rod Carew 613 6,980 8.78%
5 Roy Smalley 549 4,675 11.74%
6 Chuck Knoblauch 513 4,571 11.22%
7 Kirby Puckett 450 7,831 5.75%
8 Tony Oliva 448 6,879 6.61%
9 Matt Lawton 408 3,150 12.95%
10 Tom Brunansky 394 3,760 10.48%

 Washington Senators

Eddie Yost
Eddie Yost
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Eddie Yost 1,274 7,461 17.08%
2 Joe Judge 943 8,906 10.59%
3 Buddy Myer 864 7,028 12.29%
4 Mickey Vernon 735 7,769 9.46%
5 Ossie Bluege 723 7,452 9.70%
6 Clyde Milan 685 8,312 8.24%
7 Sam Rice 680 9.879 6.89%
8 Buddy Lewis 573 5,937 9.65%
9 Joe Kuhel 530 5,234 10.13%
10 Goose Goslin 488 5,810 8.40%