Tag: Dave Boswell

How important are 30 or more starts in a season from each starting pitcher?

The Twins and Terry Ryan have put in a lot of time this off-season to try to round up some pitchers that they can put in the starting rotation so that manager Gardenhire can hopefully call on each of them to start 30-35 games each. That will be no easy task as last season the team leader in pitching starts was Scott Diamond with 27 and he didn’t even join the starting rotation until May 8th.

If you look back through franchise history you will find that the great Hall of Fame pitcher Walter (The Big Train) Johnson pitched for the Wasinhton Senators for 21 seasons from 1907-1927 and he started 666 games, that is an average of 31.71 starts each year for 21 years. He set the the franchise games started in a season record with 42 in 1910. Twins lefty Jim Kaat equalled that mark of 42 starts in the Twins 1965 AL Championship season and followed that up with 41 starts in 1966 making him the only pitcher in franchise history to have back-to-back 40+ starts seasons.

I thought it would be interesting to review the Gardenhire era from 2002 through 2012 to see how many pitchers he has had that have started 30 or more games in a season for the Twins.

2002 – Rick Reed and Kyle Lohse

2003 – Brad Radke, Kyle Lohse, Kenny Rogers, Joe Mays (and Rick Reed chipped in 27 starts)

2004 – Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, Brad Radke, and Kyle Lohse

2005 – Johan Santana and Brad Radke

2006 – Johan Santana and Carlos Silva

2007 – Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, and Boof Bonser

2008 – Nick Blackburn

2009 – Nick Blackburn and Scott Baker

2010 – Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano

2011 – Carl Pavano

2012 – None, Scott Diamond led the pack with 27

In this 11 year time frame the Twins have had 12 different pitchers provide 30 or more starts in a single season and only three of them were actually drafted by the Twins, the rest were acquired in another manner. Radke was an 8th round pick in 1991, Blackburn was a 29th round pick in 2001, and Scott Baker was a 2nd round pick in 2003.

Chart showing numbers of pitchers with 30 or more starts

(Central Division champs marked with an *)
YEAR Twins Tigers Indians WSox Royals Totals
2002 2* 2 1 3 2 10
2003 4* 2 1 4 1 12
2004 4* 4 3 2 1 14
2005 2 3 5 4* 2 16
2006 2* 4 3 5 0 14
2007 3 2 3* 4 1 13
2008 1 2 1 4* 3 11
2009 2* 3 0 3 1 9
2010 2* 2 1 3 2 10
2011 1 4* 2 2 2 11
2012 0 3* 2 1 2 8
Totals 23 31 22 35 17 128

How big a deal is it to get 30 or more starts out of your starting pitchers? I will let you be the judge of that but the chart seems to indicate that the numbers of pitchers you have starting on a consistent basis will determine where you finish in the standings. The Twins seem to buck the trend a bit as they are the only team to win the Central Division title with fewer than 3 starters taking the mound 30 or more times and they did it 3 times with just 2 starters taking the mound 30 or more times.

LHP Jim Kaat
LHP Jim Kaat

All this research made me curious as to who the Twins pitchers were over the years with the most starts in a Minnesota Twins uniform and here is what I dug up. There have only been 14 Twins pitchers that have toed the pitching rubber in the first inning in a Twins uniform 150 or more times. Some of these pitchers may have started a number of games in different uniforms including the Washington Senators prior to becoming the Twins but I am only looking for starts while wearing “Minnesota” on their chest. Of these 14 pitchers, only six (Blyleven, Viola, Goltz, Baker, Erickson, and Boswell) were actually drafted by the Minnesota Twins. The only pitcher on the list to spend his entire career as a Minnesota Twin? Brad Radke.

Pitcher # of starts Years Pitched Avg. # of starts per season
1. Jim Kaat 422 1961-1973 32.46
2. Brad Radke 377 1995-2006 31.42
3. Bert Blyleven 345 1970-1976 & 1985-1988 31.36
4. Frank Viola 259 1982-1989 32.38
5. Jim Perry 249 1963-1972 24.90
6. Dave Goltz 215 1972-1979 26.88
7. Kevin Tapani 180 1989-1995 25.71
8. Camilo Pascual 179 1961-1966 29.83
9. Johan Santana 175 2000-2007 21.88
10. Eric Milton 165 1998-2003 27.50
11. Scot Baker 159 2005-2011 22.71
12. Scott Erickson 153 1990-1995 25.50
13. Kyle Lohse 152 2001-2006 25.33
14. Dave Boswell 150 1964-1970 21.43

Twins 20 game winner Dave Boswell passes away

Dave Boswell

Dave Boswell a right-handed pitcher who won 20 games for the Twins in 1969 passed away from a heart attack yesterday at the age of 67.  Born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 20, 1945, Boswell signed with the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent pitcher/outfielder in 1963 after finishing his high school career with a 28-2 record. The New York Yankees offered Boswell the same deal at the Twins did and Boswell wanted to pitch for the Yankees but the Yankees had a very strong pitching staff and Dave and his family decided that Minnesota would offer him his best opportunity.

Boswell started his professional career in 1964 in A ball with Bismarck/Mandan in the Northern League and after going 7-11 with a 3.88 ERA he was moved up to AA Charlotte where he went 4-2 with a 2.85 ERA. The Minnesota Twins called Boswell to the big leagues in September and Dave made his major league debut on September 18 at the age of just 19 against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Boswell did not get a decision that day but his big league career was well on its way. Boswell made the Twins ballclub out of spring training in 1965 and after a few games in long relief, he entered the starting rotation and by the end of May, Boswell had a 2.12 ERA, in 34 innings. Boswell would have remained in the starting rotation, but he came down with mononucleosis and missed about a quarter of the season. When he returned, the Twins moved Boswell to the bullpen where he finished the 1965 pennant winning season. With the Twins only using 3 starters in the 1965 World Series, Boswell made one appearance in the 1965 World Series pitching in relief of Jim Kaat in-game 5. Boswell was in the starting rotation between 1966-1968 and won 36 games. But in 1969 Boswell had a career season going 20-12 with a 3.23 ERA while pitching 256.1 innings. Boswell started game 2 of the 1969 ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles and pitched 10.2 scoreless innings but came away as the losing pitcher when reliever Ron Perranoski game up single to Curt Motton and Boog Powell whom Boswell had walked to lead off the inning scored the only run in the ball game and the Orioles were 1-0 winners. Boswell hurt his arm striking out Frank Robinson to end the 10th inning and according to Boswell that was the reason he walked Powell to lead off the 11th inning. That arm injury was the beginning of the end for Dave Boswell and his big league career. In 1970 Boswell tried pitching through his injury but went 3-7 with a 6.42 ERA and on July 29 Boswell pitched in his last Twins game, a start against the Cleveland Indians that lasted just 2.1 innings when he gave up 7 walks and 3 hits. The Twins released Boswell in April 1971 and he hooked with the Detroit Tigers but he only pitched in 3 games there before being released in late May. Boswell then signed with the Baltimore Orioles and finished the 1971 season there.  Baltimore released Boswell before the 1972 season and amazingly at the young age of 27, Boswell’s big league career was finished.

Although Boswell won 20 games in 1969, he is probably better remembered for a fight that he had with Twins manager Billy Martin at the Lindall A.C. in Detroit. There are a lot of different stories circulating about that fight and we won’t go into them here.

Dave Boswell’s career lasted 8 years and he had a 68-56 record and an ERA of 3.52 and a 1.26 WHIP. Bos struck out 882 batters in his 1,065.1 innings and he gave up only 858 hits. Boswell always gave up fewer hits than innings pitched until he suffered his arm injury late in 1969. Boswell loved playing baseball and he was a good hitter too. Dave hit 4 home runs and knocked in 22 while batting .202 during his career and was used by the Twins as a pinch runner many, many times in his tenure in Minnesota.

Dave Boswell was one of baseball’s real characters and he played baseball the way he lived his life, non stop. Dave Boswell participated in the Twins Fantasy Camps for a number of years and had some health issues for the last year or so. The Minnesota Twins and their fans lost one of their “good ones” yesterday. Thank you for the great memories Dave, we won’t forget you.

I did an interview with Dave a few years back and you can see that Q&A by click here.

A beautiful YouTube tribute to Dave Boswell can be viewed here.

The Baltimore Sun obit for Dave Boswell

Shooter Now: Minnesota Twins ‘character’ Dave Boswell dies

What do they really talk about on the mound?

A conference on the mound during a Twins – Red Sox game between Twins pitcher Dave Boswell in one of his early career starts, manager Sam Mele and catcher Earl Battey after Boswell’s first three pitches were hit for two doubles and a home run.

Manager Sam Mele: What’s he got?

Catcher Earl Battey: I don’t know, I haven’t caught a pitch yet.

Do you know your Twins pitching history?

baseball pitcher

January 22, 2011 – The 2006 Twins pitching staff holds the team record for strikeouts in a single season with 1,164. Johan Santana led the staff with 245 KO’s. On the other hand, the 1994 Twins pitching staff only struck out 602 opponents and the only pitcher on the Twins staff with over 100 KO’s was Scott Erickson and he had 104. The 1981 Twins pitchers only had 500 strikeouts but then again they only played 109 games that season.

The 2005 Twins pitching staff only walked 348 batters while the Twins 1982 staff allowed 634 batters to get a free base.

The 1996 pitching staff allowed 233 home runs led by Brad Radke’s 40 round trippers. The 1976 staff kept the ball in the ball park the best by only allowing 89 home runs. The 1981 team only allowed 79 home runs but as stated earlier, they only played 109 games that season.

The 1963 and 1967 Twins staffs tied for the most complete games in a single season with 58 and the team with the fewest complete games was the 2006 Twins who ended up with one complete game all season. Who was it you ask? Johan Santana lost 2-0 in Detroit that day so it was only an 8 inning complete game.

The 1972 Twins finished with a 77-77 record but the pitching staff put up an all-time team best seasonal ERA of 2.84. The 1995 team finished with a 56-88 record and posted an ERA of 5.76 and gave up an average of 6.17 runs per game.

In the Minnesota Twins first 50 years they have only had a 20 game winner on 15 occasions and only once have they had more than one pitcher on their staff win 20 or more games in the same season. Camilo Pascual did it in 1962 and 1963, Jim Grant in 1965, Jim Kaat in 1966, Dean Chance in 1967, Dave Boswell and Jim Perry in 1969, Jim Perry again in 1970, Bert Blyleven in 1973, Dave Goltz in 1977, Jerry Koosman in 1979, Frank Viola in 1988, Scott Erickson in 1991, Brad Radke in 1997, and Johan Santana in 2004.

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