Tag: Corey Koskie

Do you remember Todd Walker?

Todd Walker – credit Matthew Stockman /Allsport

Todd Walker was a Minnesota Twins first round pick (8th overall) in 1994 out of LSU and signed with the Twins for $815,000. That was a good draft for the Twins as they also got pitcher Travis Miller in round 2, catcher A.J. Pierzynski in round 4, and maybe the best of the group, third baseman Corey Koskie in round 26. 

Walker made his debut on August 30, 1996 at County Stadium against the Brewers and started at third base and then moved to second later in the game. TK had Walker hitting sixth in the line-up and ended the day going 1 for 5 with a run scored in a loss to the Brewers when Marc Newfield hit a walk-off home run off Twins reliever Jose Parra leading off the bottom of the 12th inning. 

Walker shuffled between the big leagues and minors in 96 and 97 but was a Twins starter in 1998-1999. On July 15, 2000 after a slow start and spending time in TK’s doghouse where Walker was a semi-regular resident, he was traded to the Colorado Rockies along with Butch Huskey for Todd Sears and cash. Walker was known for his hitting and not his glove and that didn’t sit well with skipper Tom Kelly. In addition it seemed like TK was not a fan of college players in general. Walker eventually on to the Reds, Red Sox, Cubs, Padres and spent his final season in the big leagues with the A’s in 2007.

All in all Todd Walker spent all or parts of 12 seasons in the big leagues and played in 1,288 games and ended his big league career with a .289 average and a 10.5 WAR.

Baseball America did a “where are you now” article on Todd Walker that you can read here.

 

Twins leaders with two or more home runs in a game

No surprise here that it is Harmon Killebrew, right?
Results
Rk Player #Matching
1 Harmon Killebrew 35
2 Justin Morneau 20
3 Tony Oliva 18
4 Kent Hrbek 16
5 Bob Allison 15
6 Kirby Puckett 13
7 Gary Gaetti 13
8 Tom Brunansky 11
9 Don Mincher 9
10 Torii Hunter 9
11 Eddie Rosario 8
12 Corey Koskie 8
13 Jacque Jones 8
14 Jimmie Hall 8
15 Brian Dozier 8
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/1/2019.

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Eddie Rosario is climbing this list pretty quickly.

Twins hitters best seasons by position

Although WAR is not always the best answer on how good a player is/was, I find it useful in doing player comparisons. The B-R tool regards a WAR of 2+ as a starter, 5+ an All-Star and 8+ as MVP worthy. Remember too what I am doing here covers position players only, we will leave the pitchers for another day.

Rod Carew

First Base – Having watched the Minnesota Twins for many a year I was pretty sure what Twins player had the best season in team history and when I put Play Index to work, sure enough it verified for me that Hall of Famer Rod Carew and his 1977 season in which he made a run at hitting .400 at the age of 31 stood at the top. If you missed seeing Carew play ball in Minnesota I feel bad for you because you missed out on seeing one of the best baseball players ever. There have been eleven seasons by Twins players when someone had a WAR of 7.0 or greater, Carew had four of them. 

Continue reading Twins hitters best seasons by position

And he goes down swinging!

Harmon Killebrew

We all know that strikeout rates are up all across baseball for the last few years but today we will look at Minnesota Twins batters and their strikeout rates going back to 1961. We used B-R’s amazing Play Index to find what we were looking for.

The top two all time Twins leader in strikeouts are Harmon Killebrew with 1,314 and Joe Mauer with 1,034. Mauer? What the heck? Longevity can do strange things to numbers and the devil is in the details.

Continue reading And he goes down swinging!

Minnesota Twins Top 10 Third Baseman

Over the years 69 players have played 10 or more games at third base for the Minnesota Twins. Gary Gaetti has far and away played the hot corner more frequently and any other Minnesota Twin. To qualify for this list you must have played at least 51% of your games at third base. The most obvious name that you would think of that belongs on this list is Harmon Killebrew but he does not qualify because he played 1,939 games in a Minnesota Twins uniform but only 517 of them were at third base. My silly rule but it is what it is. My biggest surprise looking at the list is to see Eric Soderholm so high on the list.

Gary Gaetti 

 

Results
Rk Player WAR/pos G From To AB R H HR RBI SB BA OPS
1 Gary Gaetti 27.1 1361 1981 1990 4989 646 1276 201 758 74 .256 .744
2 Corey Koskie 22.2 816 1998 2004 2788 438 781 101 437 66 .280 .836
3 John Castino 15.1 666 1979 1984 2320 293 646 41 249 22 .278 .727
4 Rich Rollins 11.9 888 1961 1968 3048 395 830 71 369 15 .272 .727
5 Eric Soderholm 10.1 407 1971 1975 1345 184 345 36 161 14 .257 .725
6 Trevor Plouffe 8.1 723 2010 2016 2638 332 651 96 357 11 .247 .727
7 Mike Cubbage 6.9 555 1976 1980 1681 195 447 29 226 6 .266 .715
8 Scott Leius 4.8 476 1990 1995 1373 201 346 26 155 15 .252 .693
9 Mike Pagliarulo 4.0 246 1991 1993 723 79 197 9 68 8 .272 .693
10 Brent Gates 0.9 217 1998 1999 639 71 161 6 80 4 .252 .656
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/3/2018.

 

Twins Top 10 Catchers

Twins Top 10 First Baseman

Twins Top 10 Second Basemen

Twins Top 10 Third Baseman

Twins Top 10 Shortstops

Twins Top 10 Right Fielders

Twins Top 10 Center Fielders

Twins Top 10 Left Fielders

Top Twins DH

 

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Sampson, Koskie, Pierzynski, Casian & Oliva

Three of the five players listed below debuted in the bigs as Twins in one game on September 9th. What are the odds of finding them all on one card?

Benj Sampson (Credit: Getty images)

Benj Sampson (P) – September 9, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 6th round of the 1993 amateur draft. pitched one inning of scoreless relief at Edison Field throwing 15 pitches and allowing no hits but the Twins lost to the Anaheim Angels 10-8.

Corey Koskie

Corey Koskie (3B) – September 9, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 26th round of the 1994 amateur draft. Entered the game at Edison Field to play 3B with the Twins already down 10-3 and he struck out twice in two PA’s as the Twins lost to Anaheim 10-8.

AJ Pierzynski – 1998 Spring Training – Credit Getty images

A.J. Pierzynski (C) – September 9, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1994 amateur draft. The Twins were down 10-2 when A.J. entered the game to catch. He had two PA’s in the game and grounded out in his first at bat and then was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a bases clearing triple but the Twins still came out on the short end of a 10-8 loss at Edison Field the Anaheim Angels.

Larry Casian (P) – September 9, 1990 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 6th round of the 1987 amateur draft. Debuted at the Dome in a 12-9 loss to the Indians. Casian pitched the final 1.1 innings of the game allowing one run on two hits.

Tony Oliva (OF) – September 9, 1962 – Signed as an amateur free agent in 1961. Fifteenth player to make his big league debut in a Twins uniform. The Twins lost to the Tigers 10-9 at Tigers Field the day that Oliva debuted in the big leagues. The Twins scored 3 in the top of the ninth on a Bernie Allen home run to close the gap to just a run but then Zoilo Versalles grounded out for the first out, Tony Oliva then struck out against Bob Humphreys four the second out and then Lenny Green grounded out to end the game.

 

You can check out other Major League Debuts as Twins that I have done by going here.

Minnesota Twins top third basemen

Third base is known as the “hot corner”, because the third baseman is relatively close to the batter and most right-handed hitters tend to hit the ball hard in this direction. Now days the third base position is expected to provide power. There are fewer third basemen in the Baseball Hall of Fame than there are Hall of Famers’ of any other position.

The Twins have had their share of good players at that position and the list below shows Twins players that have played in at least 200 games and played at least 51% of their games at third base from 1961 through 2016. Current Twins third sacker Miguel Sano will be moving up this list very quickly.

Gary Gaetti has always been one of my all-time favorite Minnesota Twins. I enjoyed watching him play third base and the man got his uniform dirty, he went all out all the time. Plus, he was a very good hitter. If I was asked for my Twins top 10 list, he would be near the top.

Gaetti played in the Metrodome from 1982 – 1990. Gary took a “liking” to the Dome the first time he played there by going 4-4 and hitting 2 home runs. Gaetti was an All-Star in 1988 and 1989 and was the 3B on the 1987 World Championship team.
Results
WAR/pos G From To AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB 1 Gary Gaetti 27.1 1361 1981 1990 4989 646 1276 252 25 201 758 74 .256 .744
2 Corey Koskie 22.1 816 1998 2004 2788 438 781 180 13 101 437 66 .280 .836
3 John Castino 15.1 666 1979 1984 2320 293 646 86 34 41 249 22 .278 .727
4 Rich Rollins 11.8 888 1961 1968 3048 395 830 117 20 71 369 15 .272 .727
5 Eric Soderholm 10.2 407 1971 1975 1345 184 345 56 7 36 161 14 .257 .725
6 Trevor Plouffe 8.1 723 2010 2016 2638 332 651 148 10 96 357 11 .247 .727
7 Mike Cubbage 6.9 555 1976 1980 1681 195 447 66 18 29 226 6 .266 .715
8 Scott Leius 4.9 476 1990 1995 1373 201 346 58 10 26 155 15 .252 .693
9 Mike Pagliarulo 4.0 246 1991 1993 723 79 197 40 4 9 68 8 .272 .693
10 Danny Valencia 0.8 273 2010 2012 989 106 257 52 4 24 129 4 .260 .695
11 Brent Gates 0.8 217 1998 1999 639 71 161 28 2 6 80 4 .252 .656
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/25/2017.

 

Best players drafted by Minnesota Twins by round

I went through the history of the Minnesota Twins June Amateur draft choices to see who the best players were that the club drafted, signed and the player debuted with Minnesota across his chest. The player may or may not have played his entire career with the Twins but the WAR numbers are for their entire careers. Why are they ranked by WAR you may ask? Simple, I know of no other way to rank them, so right or wrong, I have chosen B-R WAR.

Twenty five of the 61 rounds shown have no players that qualified meaning that no one ever drafted in that round has made it to the majors with Minnesota. So if the Twins draft you in one of those rounds in the future, the odds are very much against you. Unless you have followed the Twins since day one, you might not recognize or remember some of these players.

Continue reading Best players drafted by Minnesota Twins by round

The MLB June amateur draft is far from a science

2016 DraftThe 2016 MLB will take place June 9, 2016 in Secacus, New Jersey and the Minnesota Twins will have the 17th selection this year. There are already numerous mock drafts being published but as normal they are all over the board, so what else is new. Here is a list (with pictures) on MLB.com of their proposed top 100 2016 prospects.

Baseball draft are so different from all the other sports in many ways but the two main differences that stand out is that baseball drafts are more international than other sports and if you get drafted in baseball you can look forward to spend a number of years in the minor leagues before you have the experience and necessary skill sets to play in the major leagues. Sure there have been some players that went directly to the major leagues but they are rare and the last player to do so I believe is RHP Mike Leake who was drafted eighth overall in 2010 by the Cincinnati Reds from Arizona State and now pitches for the Cardinals. The last Twins player to be drafted and go straight to a big league mound was LHP Eddie Bane who also was from Arizona State.

The June amateur draft is exciting for the fans but it is serious business for the MLB teams that have spent lots of time and money watching these young prospects as they try to determine who is the best player available when it comes time to make their selection. Mistakes in a draft can and do haunt teams for many years. There are many ways to mess up a draft choice, the player may not turn out to be as good as you thought, you might have bypassed a star player, you might not be able to sign the player, the player and/or his agent may state they don’t want to play for you, and of course an injury may cut his career short. If everything goes your way you have yourself a baseball player but the odds are stacked against you.

Continue reading The MLB June amateur draft is far from a science

Just a single short of the cycle

Hitting for the cycle is a rare occurrence and only ten Twins players can say that they have one on their resume. The only Twin to hit for the so-called natural cycle (1B, 2B, 3B, and HR in that order) was Carlos Gomez in 2008. The first Twins cycle was hit by Rod Carew in 1970 and the Minnesota Twins as you know started play back in 1961. Two Twins players hit for the cycle at Met Stadium and two Twins players hit for the cycle at the Metrodome, so far the only cycle at Target Field is by Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers.

Eddie Rosario
Eddie Rosario

Many players came up just a hit short, 119 came up a home run short, 288 came up a triple short, 44 players came up a double short. Twelve different Twins players had the misfortune of just missing the cycle by coming up a single short, missed it by just this much…… Eddie Rosario is in this group and he missed his last year at Target Field.

 

Rk Player Date Rslt PA AB 1B R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB
1 Eddie Rosario 2015-07-30 W 9-5 5 5 0 3 3 1 1 1 3 0
2 Luis Rivas 2004-08-25 W 8-5 5 5 0 2 3 1 1 1 1 0
3 Corey Koskie 2001-07-05 W 12-2 5 5 0 2 3 1 1 1 5 0
4 Marty Cordova 1999-08-28 W 4-3 5 4 0 1 3 1 1 1 2 1
5 Javier Valentin 1999-06-06 W 13-6 5 5 0 2 3 1 1 1 2 0
6 Rich Becker 1996-07-13 L 11-19 6 6 0 3 4 1 1 2 6 0
7 Pat Meares 1996-04-02 L 6-10 5 5 0 1 3 1 1 1 4 0
8 Gary Gaetti 1983-07-27 L 9-13 5 5 0 3 3 1 1 1 4 0
9 Ken Landreaux 1979-08-20 W 10-5 5 5 0 3 3 1 1 1 6 0
10 Mike Cubbage 1977-08-07 W 11-1 5 5 0 2 3 1 1 1 5 0
11 George Mitterwald 1970-05-24 L 5-6 4 4 0 1 3 1 1 1 2 0
12 Bob Allison 1968-07-21 (2) W 10-0 3 3 0 3 3 1 1 1 3 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/26/2016.