Tag: Dave Goltz

Most starts by a Twins SP

Bert Blyleven

I get a number of emails each day and one of them pointed out the following about my favorite pitcher all-time, Warren Spahn.

“Today’s definition of a durable pitcher is more lenient than the guidelines in place between 1942 and 1965, when Warren Spahn totaled 382 complete games for the Braves, Mets, and Giants.

Managers are happy these days if a starter can work six innings, maybe seven. Complete games are very rare, indeed. Just 35 CG’s were registered in the American and National Leagues last season — and only 379 were posted over the past eight years combined. That latter total, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, was three fewer than the number of complete games that Spahn recorded himself.”

Only two Twins starters have over 100 complete games, Bert Blyleven with 141 and Jim Kaat with 133 and the nearest to them for CG’s in Minnesota is Dave Goltz with 80. By the way, the most starts by a Twins starter stands at 42 by Jim Kaat in 1965.

I have attached a B-R Stathead search link for Minnesota Twins pitchers that have had 100 or more starts. The list is relatively short since only 26 pitchers from 1961-2023 have started that many games wearing the Twins uniform. The nice thing about it is you can re-sort the list in any way you want to see who had the most strikeouts, wins, etc. Check it out, I’m sure you will find some things that will surprise you.

For combined seasons, from 1961 to 2023, At least 60% games started, Playing for MIN, in the regular season, requiring Games Started >= 100, sorted by descending Games Started.

Some of the best Twins we saw at Metropolitan Stadium

Minnesota Twins home from 1961-1981

Baseball was fun to watch at Metropolitan Stadium from 1961-1981 and a lot of MLB and Minnesota Twins “greats” played there. Here is a short list of some of the Twins leaders in some hitting and pitching categories. Keep in mind these are stats accumulated only while playing at Met Stadium.

Games played – Harmon Killebrew-963, Tony Oliva-842, Rod Carew-817

Hits – Rod Carew-1,046, Tony Oliva-935, Harmon Killebrew-844

Continue reading Some of the best Twins we saw at Metropolitan Stadium

A look at Twins Quality Starts over the years

According to WikipediA, in baseball a quality start is a statistic for a starting pitcher defined as a game in which the pitcher completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. The quality start has effectively replaced the ‘complete game’ as a meaningful measure of a starting pitcher’s performance.

The quality start was developed by sportswriter John Lowe in 1985 while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Nolan Ryan has used the term “High Quality Start” for games where the pitcher goes seven innings or more and allows three earned runs or fewer, which baseball columnist and formber BBWAA president Derrick Goold referred to as “Quality Start Plus.”

Continue reading A look at Twins Quality Starts over the years

Minnesota Twins pitching leaders in games started

Back on December 19 in 2006 pitcher Brad Radke announced his plans to retire after 12 season of wearing the colors of the Minnesota Twins. That got me to wondering where the Twins pitchers with the most starts for Minnesota came from.

  1. Jim Kaat had 422 starts with the Twins and was signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent in 1957 long before the draft was instituted and was one of the original Minnesota Twins in 1961. Debuted August 2, 1959 with the Senators.
  2. Brad Radke had 377 starts with the Twins and was an eighth round pick in the June amateur draft in 1991. Radke debuted on April 29, 1995 in three not so stellar innings of relief and started every game that he appeared in after that.
  3. Bert Blyleven had 345 starts with the Twins after being drafted by Minnesota in round three of the 1969 June amateur draft. Bert debuted on June 5, 1970 and all his appearances but three were starts.
  4. Frank Viola had 259 and just one relief appearance with the Twins after being selected in round 16 of June 1978 amateur draft. Sweet Music debuted on June 6, 1982.
  5. Jim Perry had 249 start for Minnesota after being acquired in a trade on May 2, 1963 from the Cleveland Indians for pitcher Jack Kralick.
  6. Dave Goltz had 215 starts for the Twins after drafted in the round five of the 1967 June amateur draft. The Rothsay, Minnesota native debuted on July 18, 1972.
  7. Kyle Gibson had 188 starts with Minnesota after being drafted 22nd in round one of the 2009 June amateur draft. Gibson debuted on June 29, 2013.
  8. Kevin Tapani had 180 starts in 181 appearances in a Twins uniform after being acquired in a trade from the New York Mets in the Frank Viola trade on July 31, 1989. Tapani had debuted with the Mets on July 4, 1989.
  9. Camilo Pascual had 179 starts with Minnesota and was signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent prior to the 1952 season long before the draft was instituted and was one of the original Minnesota Twins in 1961. Pascual debuted on April 15, 1954.
  10. Johan Santana had 175 starts with the Twins after being drafted by the Florida Marlins from the Houston Astros in the 1999 rule 5 draft and then being traded to the Twins for Jared Camp who the Twins had originally drafted in the Rule 5 draft that year. Santana debuted on April 3, 2000.

The other players with 150 or more starts for Minnesota are Eric Milton with 165, Scott Baker with 159, Scott Erickson with 153, Kyle Lohse with 152 and Dave Boswell with 150.

The only pitchers mentioned here today to make a start for the Minnesota Twins at Target Field are Kyle Gibson and Scott Baker.

The only pitcher on this list to spend his entire career in Minnesota? That would be Brad Radke.

Opening Day Complete Games

Bert Blyleven

As you watch the 2021 MLB Opening Day games tomorrow one of the things that you are unlikely to see is a complete game win by a starting pitcher. Back in the day, it was normal to see starting pitchers throw complete games in their final one or two spring training exhibition starts and complete games on OD were a normal occurrence. Not so in todays baseball.

Last year Chicago Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks pitched a complete game throwing 103 pitches as he shutout the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 on July 24. It was the first complete game on OD (not counting a five inning effort by Gerrit Cole in 2020) since April 1, 2013 when Clayton Kershaw shutout the San Francisco Giants 4-0. The last complete game on OD in the American League goes back even farther, back to April 1, 2011 when Felix Hernandez got a CG 6-2 win against the Oakland A’s. The last pitcher to pitch a complete game against the Twins was Rick Rhoden when he was pitching for the New York Yankees on April 5, 1988 after the Minnesota Twins won the 1987 World Series.

The Minnesota Twins OD complete games are documented below.

Continue reading Opening Day Complete Games

Complete games on Opening Day are a rarity

Pedro Ramos

Back in the 60’s and 70’s it was not unusual to see the opening day pitcher pitch a complete game. Twins pitchers did it three times in the 60’s including in 1961 when they played their first game against the New York Yankees and Pedro Ramos went the distance in the 6-0 Twins win and again three more times in the 70’s. The last pitcher to pitch a complete game on opening day for Minnesota was Dave Goltz in 1978 but he lost to the Mariners that day in a 3-2 game.

Continue reading Complete games on Opening Day are a rarity

Best seasons by Twins position players & pitchers

As the Twins prepare for their 59th season of play in Minnesota we should look back and be thankful for some great seasons these players have given us in the past. I am using B-R Play Index to come up with the ten greatest seasons by Minnesota Twins players over the years and I am once again using WAR as the tool to do this. I think you might be surprised at some of these.

Continue reading Best seasons by Twins position players & pitchers

We won’t see these kinds of starts again anytime soon

Today we are going to look at the Twins starting pitchers that went to the mound to pitch and they didn’t let pitch counts and innings pitched stop them. Here we have a list of Twins starting pitchers that started a game and pitched a minimum of 11 innings, Jim Merritt is the top man on the list and will probably remain there forever. 

Since 1961 starting pitchers have stayed in a game 11 or more innings on 430 occasions but the last pitcher to do so was Dave Stewart who went 11 very efficient innings throwing just 129 pitches in his start and complete game 1-0 shutout of the Seattle Mariners in August 1, 1990. Can it happen again? Sure, but the chances are slim to none with today’s coddled and pampered pitchers.

Jim Merritt

Results
Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER SO
1 Jim Merritt 1967-07-26 (2) MIN NYY W 3-2 GS-13 13.0 7 2 2 7
2 Camilo Pascual 1963-07-23 MIN CLE L 2-3 CG(13), L 12.2 7 3 3 11
3 Dave Boswell 1969-07-14 MIN CHW W 4-3 GS-12 12.0 10 3 2 7
4 Jim Kaat 1969-05-20 MIN BAL W 3-2 GS-13, W 12.0 8 2 1 4
5 Camilo Pascual 1964-10-01 MIN KCA L 4-5 CG(12), L 12.0 12 5 1 14
6 Jim Roland 1964-05-19 MIN NYY W 7-2 GS-12, W 12.0 7 2 2 8
7 Camilo Pascual 1962-09-12 MIN CHW L 1-2 CG(12), L 12.0 12 2 2 7
8 Dave Goltz 1977-07-25 MIN OAK W 2-1 CG(11), W 11.0 8 1 1 14
9 Bill Singer 1976-09-01 MIN MIL W 3-2 GS-11 11.0 6 2 2 3
10 Dave Goltz 1976-05-18 MIN OAK W 4-3 CG(11), W 11.0 7 3 3 7
11 Bert Blyleven 1975-08-27 MIN MIL W 1-0 SHO(11), W 11.0 6 0 0 13
12 Jim Kaat 1973-06-23 MIN CAL L 1-3 CG(11), L 11.0 11 3 3 6
13 Jim Kaat 1972-05-24 MIN KCR W 1-0 GS-11, W 11.0 5 0 0 7
14 Jim Perry 1970-08-07 MIN OAK W 2-1 CG(11), W 11.0 5 1 1 7
15 Jim Kaat 1969-04-09 MIN KCR L 3-4 GS-12 11.0 8 3 2 4
16 Jim Kaat 1964-04-26 MIN DET W 3-2 CG(11), W 11.0 7 2 2 11
17 Jim Kaat 1962-08-01 MIN BAL W 3-1 CG(11), W 11.0 9 1 1 12
18 Pedro Ramos 1961-04-28 MIN LAA L 5-6 GS-11 11.0 6 4 4 10
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/27/2018.

 Jim Kaat did it six times while wearing a Twins uniform and the all-time leader in these kinds of starts since 1961 is Gaylord Perry with 17 starts of 11 innings or more. Bill Singer (1973), Mickey Lolich (1971) and Mark Fidrych (1976) each did it four times in a single season.

Back in Time to June 1967

What we have here is a clipping from the Sunday, June 4, 1967 Star Tribune Sports section and a story about the up-coming June free agent draft with assistant farm director George Brophy.

You have to love Brophy’s best picks going into the draft being listed in the local paper. Was Brophy being honest or just blowing smoke? You sure don’t see things like that now days. Let’s take a closer look.

The first guy on the list is Terry Hughes and he was the second overall pick by the Cubs. Next on the list was Mike Garman and he was the third overall pick by the Red Sox. Don Blemberg was the next player on the list but the name was incorrect, it was really Ron Blomberg and he was the first overall pick in the draft by the Yankees. Fourth on the list is Wayne Simpson and he was the eighth overall selection by the Reds. Phil Meyer was next on the list he went number 14 overall to the Phillies but never made it to the big leagues. Mike Nunn is next and the Angels used the ninth overall selection to draft this catcher who would never reach the majors. Next on the Brophy list is Brian Bickerson who was really Brien Bickerton who was taken seventh overall by the Athletics but he too never had a big league appearance. Next up, Larry Keener who turned out to be a round two pick by the Phillies and he too spent his big league career in the minors. Next up is catcher Ted Simmons and he was taken tenth overall by the Cardinals and he went on to have a long 21-year big league career. Larry Matlock is the tenth guy on the list and he is really Jon Matlack who was picked by the Mets as the fourth overall selection and he had a very nice career. Up next was Jim Feer but he turns out to be Jim Foor and he was picked 15th overall by the Tigers and he had a brief big league career. The last player on this 12-man list is a pitcher by the name of Dave Kingman. The Angels got Kingman in the middle of round two and turned him into a position player that some of you might know as Kong Kingman. Yes, he is the same guy that put a ball into the Metrodome ceiling. Actually the best player (by WAR) selected in the first round (or any round) that year was shortstop Bobby Grich who was taken 19th overall by the Orioles.

So, what did the Twins do with their 17th pick? The Twins chose third baseman Steve Brye who became the first ever Twins first round pick to put on a Twins uniform when he debuted with Minnesota in September of 1970. Brye went on to spend all or parts of seven seasons with Minnesota but only appeared in 100 or more games twice. The best players the Twins drafted in 1967 turned out to be pitcher Dave Goltz a fifth round pick and catcher Rick Dempsey a 15th round pick who went on play in the big leagues for 24 years but the Twins traded him early on to the New York Yankees for Danny Walton.

As far as the players names being misspelled is concerned, it is not all that unusual for that time period for the scouts and teams to have incorrect spelling of prospect names and every now and then the same player was picked by two different teams because of the spelling of their names.

Winningest pitchers at Met Stadium

Metropolitan Stadium

The Twins called Met Stadium home from 1961 through 1981 before moving into the HHH Metrodome in 1982. Today we are going to look at the starting pitchers that pitched at the Met for the Minnesota Twins and for their opponents and determine who won the most games.

The opposing pitcher that won the most games at Met Stadium pitched for the Yankees his entire career from 1964 to 1974 and it is Mel Stottlemyre. Not many people remember Mel Stottlemyre but he was what we would consider “a horse” today but his big league career ended way too early due to injury. Here is how his SABR Bio starts out:

A baseball lifer, Mel Stottlemyre burst on the scene as a midseason call-up for the New York Yankees in 1964, helping the club win its fifth consecutive pennant and starting three games in the World Series. One of the most underrated and overlooked pitchers of his generation, Stottlemyre won 149 games and averaged 272 innings per season over a nine-year stretch (1965-1973) that corresponded with the nadir of Yankees history. Only Bob Gibson (166 victories), Gaylord Perry (161), Mickey Lolich (156), and Juan Marichal (155) won more during that period; only Perry tossed more innings, and only Gibson fired more shutouts (43) than Stottlemyre’s 38. Stottlemyre was the “epitome of Yankee class and dignity,” wrote longtime New York sportswriter Phil Pepe. “[He was] a throwback to a winning tradition in those years of mediocrity.” After a torn rotator cuff ended his playing career at the age of 32 in 1974, Stottlemyre embarked on a storied career as a big-league pitching coach.

You can read the rest of his SABR Bio by going here. No opposing pitcher won more games than the 13 that Mel Stottlemyre did at the Met.

Opposing pitchers that won the most games at Met Stadium

Mel Stottlemyre of the New York Yankees pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium.
The Bronx, New York 8/25/1968

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Results
Rk Player #Matching   W
?		 L W-L% ERA GS IP HR Tm
1 Mel Stottlemyre 21 Ind. Games 13 5 .722 3.77 21 145.2 9 NYY
2 Wilbur Wood 32 Ind. Games 10 5 .667 2.68 16 147.2 15 CHW
3 Jim Palmer 18 Ind. Games 10 5 .667 2.97 15 115.1 10 BAL
4 Luis Tiant 22 Ind. Games 9 9 .500 4.65 20 127.2 12 CLE,BOS,NYY
5 Dave Wickersham 21 Ind. Games 9 5 .643 3.58 13 105.2 7 KCA,DET,KCR
6 Paul Splittorff 24 Ind. Games 8 7 .533 5.66 22 119.1 10 KCR
7 Clyde Wright 17 Ind. Games 8 5 .615 3.02 15 107.1 9 CAL,MIL,TEX
8 Nolan Ryan 14 Ind. Games 8 5 .615 3.27 14 118.1 5 CAL
9 Mike Cuellar 14 Ind. Games 8 6 .571 4.41 14 98.0 16 BAL
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/4/2017.

 

Twins pitchers that won the most games at Met Stadium

Jim Kaat

Results
Rk Player #Matching   W
?		 L W-L% ERA GS IP HR
1 Jim Kaat 235 Ind. Games 93 76 .550 3.53 217 1508.0 151
2 Jim Perry 189 Ind. Games 74 35 .679 2.74 128 1020.0 83
3 Dave Goltz 124 Ind. Games 54 40 .574 3.11 106 861.2 65
4 Bert Blyleven 112 Ind. Games 49 40 .551 2.69 111 864.2 58
5 Camilo Pascual 89 Ind. Games 40 30 .571 3.39 85 624.2 62
6 Dave Boswell 89 Ind. Games 34 23 .596 3.34 69 509.0 60
7 Geoff Zahn 70 Ind. Games 26 28 .481 3.97 65 459.2 37
8 Mudcat Grant 68 Ind. Games 24 22 .522 3.61 59 409.1 50
9 Al Worthington 164 Ind. Games 23 13 .639 2.67 0 252.2 13
10 Dean Chance 48 Ind. Games 21 16 .568 2.79 44 326.0 21
11 Dick Stigman 68 Ind. Games 21 19 .525 3.54 44 345.2 57
12 Pete Redfern 73 Ind. Games 20 17 .541 4.00 49 335.0 23
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/4/2017.