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
Former MLB first baseman and outfielder Dave McCarty, 54, of Oakland, CA, passed away unexpectedly on April 19, 2024 in Oakland, California. Born in Houston, TX, on November 23, 1969, Dave attended Sharpstown High School and later Stanford University, where he would put up All-American, College Player of the Year numbers that would eventually land him in the Stanford Hall of Fame. Dave played for Team USA in the summer of 1990 and was drafted 3rd overall in the 1991 draft by the Minnesota Twins.
The 1969 MLB draft first round did not yield many star players. The first pick was Brien Taylor (Yankees), then it was the Braves turn and they took Mike Kelly and the Twins then selected McCarty. The best player selected in that first round was Manny Ramirez by the then Cleveland Indians as the 13th overall selection.
Only one player made his major league debut as a Minnesota Twin on May 17 and he is one of former manager Tom Kelly‘s all-time favorites. NOT!
Dave McCarty (1B) – May 17, 1993 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the 1991 amateur draft. Kind of an odd first round in 1991, the Yankees pick as number one over-all was LHP Brien Taylor who never pitched in the big leagues and number 13 pick Manny Ramirez who was selected by the Indians may have been the best of the first rounders.
Since the June Amateur Draft began in 1965 the Minnesota Twins have selected 72 players in round one, some are their regular first round selections and other are supplemental picks for the loss of a free agent or failure to sign a round one selection.
Over the years the Twins have failed to sign seven first round selections, about 10% of their total first round picks. The seven players that did not sign were four position players and three pitchers. You would think most of these would be high school players that chose to go on to college but that is not the case here, six were college players and only one was a high school player. The last time the Twins organization failed to sign a player was 2000 supplemental pick RHP Aaron Heilman.
The 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft is still a long ways off but since my home town Minnesota Twins have the first overall pick in the draft it got me to thinking. I spent some time recently researching how MLB teams have fared with their first round picks in the June Amateur draft that first started in 1965. The very first pick in the very first draft was made by the Kansas City Athletics and they chose Arizona State University outfielder Rick Monday who went on to a nice 19 year career with three teams with two All-Star selection and a career WAR of 33.1 but he was not HOF worthy. Drafting back in 1965 was an inexact science just like it is today, HOF pitcher Nolan Ryan was drafted in round 12 and ended up with a career war of 81.8 and HOF catcher Johnny Bench who ended up with a 75.0 WAR was selected in round two. Other first round picks that year that you might remember were RHP Joe Coleman, catcher Ray Fosse and third baseman Bernie Carbo.
The question becomes how to rank the teams and I decided to rank them in order of career WAR as determined by Baseball-Reference. I looked at how many players were drafted and signed by each team and then totaled the career WAR numbers and then determined an average WAR for each drafted/signed player.
It was a fun exercise looking at the list of players that were drafted and signed as first round picks. Did they deliver on the promise you thought they had when your team announced that they had drafted and signed them? In baseball there are no guarantees that a first round pick from high school or college will make it to the big leagues and wear your teams colors.
The thing to remember here is that I only looked at first round picks. There are many great players drafted in later rounds but the round one picks get all the ink, most of the money and they wear that “first round pick” label for ever.
The Minnesota Twins have had 53 players (41 pitchers (nine lefties) and 12 position players) that stood at least 6’5″ tall. The Twins have spent the last few years accumulating tall pitchers but so far the fruits of their labors have not been all that eveident.
The tallest player in major league history, Jon Rauch, played for 11 years with seven different major league teams including a stop in Minnesota from 2009-2010. The right-handed Rauch won an Olympic gold medal for the United States in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The same year, he was also named Baseball America and The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year. Keith Hernandez referred to Rauch as “The Wookiee” during SNY broadcasts in 2006.
Rauch wasn’t exactly the friendliest baseball player around and his grumpy, grouchy, surly and testy personality along with his intimidating size and inked body caused most fans that wanted an autograph to pass and look for the next player to come by.
Here I have put together a list of Minnesota Twins players that stood at least 6’5″ tall.
Each year after the June amateur draft is completed I try to put together a draft summary that shows at a quick glance how the Twins drafted. The Twins first pick (fourth over-all) this year is RHP Kohl Stewart from Houston, Texas St. Pius High School. Stewart is a consensus four-star prospect as a quarterback and has a football scholarship waiting for him at Texas A&M. But according to numerous reports Stewart feels that his future is with baseball and he is expected to sign with the Twins in the next few days. Several reports have Stewart as “the highest ceiling pitcher” in this years draft. Keith Law, ESPN states that: “He hit 96 mph and sat 92-94 consistently, showing a plus slider at 85-88, a hard curveball at 79-82, and even a few change-ups at 83-84 with decent arm speed.” With their second pick the Twins continued taking pitching and selected RHP Ryan Eades from LSU.
When the smoke cleared after three days of drafting the Twins had selected 40 players and will probably sign about 30 of them. Between 1998 and 2009 the Twins signed an average of 23.41 drafted players per year but between 2010 and 2012 they signed an average of 30.33 drafted players per year so it looks like the team realized they need to bring new blood into the organization the last few years.
Although the Twins history in drafting pitching is atrocious, that does not stop them from trying and this year they used 24 of their 40 picks on pitchers. Seven are lefties and 17 throw from the right side. Based on the Twins drafting history, I think I might have a better chance of winning the Powerball then the Twins do of drafting an “ace” pitcher but you have to give them credit for trying. It will only cost me $2 to try to win the Powerball but the Twins will have to shell out about $4.5 million this year to see if they hit the jackpot with Kohl Stewart.
The Twins drafted zero first baseman this year. If you are a first baseman and looking to be drafted, you don’t want the Twins to select you because since 1990 the Twins have drafted and signed only three first baseman that have worked their way up the minor league ladder to wear a Twins uniform. In 1999 the Twins selected Terry Tiffee in round 26 and he played in just 17 games at 1B for Minnesota. In 1995 the Twins picked Doug Mientkiewicz in the fifth round and he played first base in 628 games as a Twin. In 1991 the Twins used their first pick to select Dave McCarty and he played a total of 86 games at first base for Tom Kelly before he was sent packing. Previous to that you had first baseman like Dan Masteller and Steve Dunn. You have to go all the way back to 1978 when the Twins took Minnesota native Kent Hrbek in round 17 to find a top-notch first baseman that the Twins drafted. For those of you wondering about Justin Morneau, he was drafted in round 3 in 1999 but he was drafted as a catcher. It seems a lot easier for the Twins just to “create” first baseman from players that fail to meet expectations at other positions or when size or age catches up with them rather then waste a draft choice trying to find one.
Twins 2013 draft
Position
College
High School
Bats Right
Bats Left
Switch Hitter
LHP
RHP
C
3
1
3
1
0
n/a
n/a
1B
0
0
0
0
0
n/a
n/a
2B
1
0
1
0
0
n/a
n/a
SS
2
1
1
2
0
n/a
n/a
3B
1
0
0
1
0
n/a
n/a
OF
6
1
5
2
0
n/a
n/a
P
17
7
n/a
n/a
n/a
7
17
Totals
30 (75%)
10 (25%)
10
6
1
7
17
rookie card
According to Baseball America, the Minnesota Twins 1989 draft is rated in the top ten drafts that any team has ever had. That year the Twins drafted two AL Rookies of the Year in Chuck Knoblauch (first round) and Marty Cordova (tenth) as well as two 20-game winners in Denny Neagle (third) and Scott Erickson (fourth). And 52nd-rounder Denny Hocking—drafted as a catcher— became one of the lowest-drafted players to reach the majors. What team had the best draft ever? To find out, you need to check out a great piece called “The History and Future of the Amateur Draft” by John Manuel on the SABR site that I know you will enjoy if you have any interest in the draft process at all.
UPDATE as of June 19 – Twins sign first-round draft pick RHP Kohl Stewart and also sign 22 other players from the 2013 First-Year Player Draft completed earlier this month. Press Release can be found here.
Dave McCarty was born in Houston, Texas on November 23, 1969. Dave grew up playing the three major sports and attended Sharpstown High School in Houston. Like most Texas athletes, McCarty grew up thinking he would attend the University of Texas but while on a recruiting trip to Stanford he fell in love with the campus, the weather and the quality of education offered there and before he knew it he had accepted a baseball scholarship and became a Stanford Cardinal. In 1991 after hitting .420 with 24 home runs, 66 RBI’s with a .828 slugging percentage McCarty was named as a first team All-American and the NCAA National Player of the Year.
McCarty was the Twins first round pick (third overall behind Brien Taylor and Mike Kelly) in the 1991 June amateur draft and he signed with Minnesota a few weeks later for a $390K bonus. McCarty started his baseball career in “A” ball with Visalia and quickly moved up to AA Orlando. In 1992 McCarty spent most of the season with Orlando but was promoted at the end of the season to AAA Portland where he played in 7 games. McCarty started the 1993 season with Portland but in May the Twins called him up and on May 17, 1993 Dave McCarty made his major league debut at the Metrodome as an outfielder against the New York Yankees. McCarty was 1-4 in his first big league game but the Twins lost 11-5. McCarty stayed with the Twins for the rest of the 1993 season but his relationship with manager Tom Kelly left something to be desired. McCarty started the 1994 season with Minnesota but appeared in only 44 games through the end of June and was sent back to Portland where he finished the 1994 season. McCarty again started the 1995 season in Minnesota but played sparingly and on June 8, 1995 the Twins traded their 1991 first round pick to the Cincinnati Reds for pitcher John Courtright who as it turned out would never spend a day in a Minnesota Twins uniform. McCarty never played for the Reds either and just 6 weeks later they sent him to the San Francisco Giants in a big seven player trade. McCarty played for the Giants 1995-1996, the Mariners in 1998, the Royals in 2000-2002, the Tampa Devil Rays in 2002, the Oakland A’s in 2003 and finished his big league career with the Boston Red Sox between 2003 and 2005 where he ended up earning a World Series ring in 2004 though he did not appear in the playoffs or the World Series that season.
McCarty played 1B/outfield in the major leagues for all or parts of 11 seasons but the most at bats he ever accumulated in a single season was during his rookie year in Minnesota when he had 350. Though he had a strong college hitting career he quickly became labeled as a utility player in the big leagues and was known more for his glove work that his work with the stick. In his big league career McCarty hit .242 in 1,493 at bats with 36 home runs, 175 RBI’s, and had 9 stolen bases. A right-handed hitter, McCarty threw left-handed and was used as a pitcher on 3 occasions with the Boston Red Sox in 2004 pitching a total of 3.2 innings against the Blue Jays, Dodgers and the Orioles. Although he posted a 0-0 record he did have a nice 2.45 ERA and he struck out 4 batters while walking just one batter.
After retiring from baseball as an active player in May of 2005 Dave McCarty joined NESN as the Red Sox baseball analyst where he stayed until the end of the 2008 season. Now days Dave McCarty works in commercial real estate for Lee & Associates in Oakland and lives in the Piedmont, California area with his wife Monica and two children. Monica McCarty is a well-known Scottish historical romance writer who has published numerous books and has been on the New York Times and USA Today best seller lists. In his spare time Dave enjoys playing golf and spending time traveling with his family.
Earlier this month I had a chance to interview Dave and you can listen to that interview here. Be sure to check out our other interviews with former Twins players by going to the Interview Archives page, there are 37 different interviews you can check out.
