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
Hector Santiago improved to 4-1 with a 2.76 earned-run average after another solid outing in the Twins’ win over the White Sox. Teammate Ervin Santana is 5-1 with a 1.72 ERA in seven starts this season. The last pair of Twins teammates to both start 4-1 or better with an ERA under 3.00 in their first seven start of a season were Jim Kaat (6-1, 1.11 ERA) and Bert Blyleven (4-1, 2.63) in 1972.
Holy Cow! How sad is that? That is 45 years ago!
Santana remains nearly untouchable
Ervin Santana threw six shutout innings in the Twins’ 9–1 home win over the Athletics. In six starts this season, Santana has held the opposition scoreless three times and allowed exactly one run in each of the other three. Santana is the second pitcher in franchise history to allow no more than one run in each of his first six starts of a season. Walter Johnson started 1913 with a streak of seven straight such starts for the Washington Senators (4 complete-game shutouts and three starts with one run.)
Santana off to a stellar start for the Twins
Ervin Santana allowed one run in seven innings of work leading the Twins to an 8-1 win over the Rangers on Tuesday. Santana is 4-0 with a 0.77 ERA in five starts for Minnesota this season. No other Twins pitcher had an ERA below 1.00 through five starts of a season since the club began playing in Minnesota in 1961. Prior to this season, the lowest ERA produced by a Twins pitcher through five starts during their time in Minnesota was 1.07 by Jim Perry in 1965.
Ervin Santana allowed one hit in his complete-game 6–0 home win over the White Sox. April 15 is the second-earliest calendar date on which a pitcher has thrown a complete-game no-hitter or one-hitter for the Twins franchise. Santana threw 107 pitches. Walter Johnson allowed one hit in a 3–0, season-opening win for the Washington Senators over the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1910. Before that game, William Howard Taft started the tradition of the president throwing out the first pitch of the season (to Johnson, on that day.)
Supernatural start of season for SantanaErvin Santana has been lights out for the Twins to start the season. Santana allowed two hits over six scoreless innings in his win over the White Sox on Sunday, six days after allowing two hits and one run over seven innings in his Opening Day win over the Royals. Santana is the first pitcher in Twins/Senators history to win his first two starts of the season while allowing no more than two hits in either game. The last pitcher on any team to start his season in such a way was Jake Odorizzi, who allowed two hits in each of his first two starts – both wins – for the 2015 Rays. Odorizzi had just one game of that kind in his final 26 starts for Tampa Bay that year.
Twins beat-writer Phil Miller wrote in past Sunday’s edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the Minnesota Twins could have as many as 12 different pitchers fighting for the five spots in the Twins 2017 starting rotation. Keep that number 12 in the back of your mind as you read this. Here are the pitchers Miller listed as possible starters in 2017.
TWINS STARTING ROTATION CANDIDATESErvin Santana (R), 34: 7-11 last season, but his 3.38 ERA was 10th-best in the American League.
Phil Hughes (R), 30: Missed most of last season because of thoracic outlet syndrome. Gave up league-high 29 home runs in 2015.
Kyle Gibson (R), 29: Fourth year in rotation (98 starts), but ERA rocketed to 5.07 in 2016.
Hector Santiago (L), 29: Acquired from Angels last season. Another starter who gives up lots of home runs.
Jose Berrios (R), 22: Team’s top young pitching prospect has been bombed in majors (8.02 ERA).
Tyler Duffey (R), 26: In 26 starts last season his 6.43 ERA was worst among pitchers with more than 130 innings.
Trevor May (R), 27: Back injury hampered him last season, when he was a reliever. He wants to start.
Adalberto Mejia (R), 23: Picked up from Giants in Eduardo Nunez trade last season. In 566 minor league innings he has 487 K’s.
Nick Tepesch (R), 28: Had 39 starts for Texas in 2013-14. He missed 2015 because of shoulder issues; he’s on a minor league deal.
Ryan Vogelsong (R), 39: Grizzled veteran has 179 starts in 12 seasons; 3-7, 4.81 ERA for Giants last year.
Justin Haley (R), 25: Proven starter in Class AAA was picked up in the Rule 5 draft, meaning he’s likely to make the team.
Stephen Gonsalves (L), 22: Twins minor league pitcher of the year in 2016; was dominant at Class AA Chattanooga.
It would be nice to have quality over quantity but one has to play with the cards they are dealt or the starters they might have. In 2016 the American League teams used 157 different starters an average of 10.47 starters per team. The Toronto Blue Jays used only seven starters in 2016 while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim sent 15 different starters to the mound. The Twins marched out 11 different pitchers to start their games in 2016.
The National League teams used 176 different starters in their quest for wins and that comes out to an average of 11.73 starters. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants only required eight starters each while the Atlanta Braves had double that, they needed 16 starters to get through the season.
The Twins have used as many as 13 different starters in 1962 and 1995 and as few as six starters in 1972 but they only played 154 games that year. If you look at the Twins average number of starters used over the years per season you end up with 9.68 so even though the battle for the starting rotation will take place this spring and there will probably be five winners by Opening Day, there is no assurance they will be starting games at Target Field come September. Starting pitchers will be lost due to injury, performance, trades, and personal reasons so the more pitchers the Twins have ready to start big league games the better. The message to the pitchers who won’t be Twins starters on Opening Day is to hang in there because your turn is coming, be ready.
First of all I would like to wish you and your families and friends a very happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving. Without further ado let’s cut to the meat of things.
There were so many options for the 2016 Twins Turkey of the Year that the following didn’t even make the final five this Thanksgiving. Players like Glen Perkins, Trevor Plouffe, Joe Mauer, John Ryan Murphy, Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Byung Ho Park, Tyler Duffey, Phil Hughes, Kevin Jepsen, and Trevor May all deserve to be on the list but this years field is just so packed with worthy candidates that all these guys can muster is an honorable mention.
Let’s cut to the chase and get right to it with our fourth runner-up, The Pohlad family, the 75th richest family in the US of A and Jim Pohlad serves as their spokesman. Mr. Pohlad watched this team deteriorate for six seasons before he finally realized that what we have here is a “total systems failure” when his team set a new record with 103 losses. Finally he told his GM Terry Ryan that his services were no longer needed as of the end of the season and Terry Ryan said OK and walked away in July. The team didn’t put a permanent replacement in place until after the World Series was over in early November although Rob Antony served as the interim GM. According to the new Chief of Baseball Operations for the Twins, he interviewed with brothers Jim, Bill, and Bob Pohlad and a host of other Twins organization members before getting offered the job. The one stipulation that Jim Pohlad put on the new CBO was that Paul Molitor manages the Twins in 2017. Why would you do that to a manager who is in the final year of his contract and why would Molitor stay on the job? Sounds like Pohlad doesn’t want to do the dirty work in dumping Molitor, that’s why he has employees like Derek Falvey.
Our third runner-up is former GM Terry Ryan. Terry Ryan was always one of my favorite people in the Twins organization. A very good down to earth baseball man who has watched how baseball has changed over the years but unfortunately I think that the pace of change within baseball caught up with him and made him one of baseball’s dinosaurs and you all know what happened to the dinosaurs. I think that there should always be a place in baseball for people like Terry Ryan. Ryan had either bad luck or bad input on many of his free agent signings over the last few years and his trades have not panned out either. One of his biggest mistakes was his decision this past season to try to make Miguel Sano an outfielder when he had never played there before, not only was Sano not able to play the outfield he was so confused and stressed by the position change that he was no longer the power hitter the Twins have been waiting for.
Second runner-up is our pitching coach Neil Allen. Allen talks a story about how he wants to change the pitching staff and make them better but so far we have not seen zilch. After two seasons at least show me a couple of pitchers that have improved under the tutelage of Allen because I sure have not seen them. Who really hired Neil Allen to be the pitching coach any way because Paul Molitor said that he never met Allen before Twins Fest in 2015. Add in the fact that Allen has been a recovering alcoholic since 1994 but fell off the wagon and was charged with a DWI and suspended by Minnesota on May 26 and you have a recipe for disaster. Allen was reinstated on July.
Our runner-up this year is Twins skipper Paul Molitor who will start year three of his three-year contract. I am still amazed that Molitor has hung on as the Twins manager going into the final year of his contract. Players in 2017 have no reason to buy into Molitor’s ideas and plans because the players will be here longer than Molitor will. What faith does management have in you when they force you to manage in this situation, they might as well tell him don’t buy any green banana’s and to go month to month on his rent payments. Molitor took over 70 win team and managed them to 83 win in his first year, then in year two he managed them to 59 wins. The honeymoon has worn off quickly and the sooner Derek Falvey gives Molitor the pink slip the better it will be for all concerned including Paul Molitor who looks like he has aged 20 years in his two season at the helm of the Minnesota Twins. For his own health and well being Paul Molitor should walk away sooner than later.
That of course bring us to this years winner of the Twins Turkey of the Year award. The 2016 Minnesota Twins season was so outrageously bad that it would not be fair to award this years honor to just one individual. Instead this years award goes to all the players, field staff, and front office personnel who made up the 2016 Minnesota Twins team. The team finished with the worst record in baseball at 59-103, a drop from 83 wins in 2015, a drop of 24 games in the win column. Yikes! The team was out scored 722 to 889, only the 1996 Twins gave up more runs. Twins hitters did hit 200 home runs led by Brain Dozier’s 42 but the pitching staff gave up 221 round-trippers. The Twins used 11 starting pitchers and the starter with the most wins had nine victories. Miguel Sano led the team in strikeouts with 178, oh wait, he is a hitter, on the pitching staff Ervin Santana had 149 K’s. The good news? The Minnesota Twins say they will not raise ticket prices in 2017, a good idea after going 407-565 (.418%) during the last six seasons. I know this is really a radical idea but maybe you should consider lowering ticket prices….. but then again that is not how you earned the 2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award.
2015 – Pitcher Ricky Nolasco
2014 – Outfielder Aaron Hicks
2013 – Presdident Dave St. Peter
2012 – Owner Jim Pohlad
2011 – Catcher Joe Mauer
2010 – 3B Brendan Harris
2009 – Glen Perkins
Now that the 2016 regular season is over it is time to take a look at the American League starting staffs and see how the teams acquired their starting pitchers. In this case I am only going to look at pitchers that started 10 or more games for their teams. Several of the pitchers appear on more than one team.
This past season there were 95 pitchers in the American League that started 10 games or more games for their teams. The wild card winning Baltimore Orioles and the worst team in baseball Minnesota Twins each had eight pitchers with at least 10 starts, on the other end of the spectrum the wild card winning Toronto Blue Jays and the 69 win Oakland A’s each had only five starters with 10 or more starts.
The 1982 Minnesota Twins 60-102 season has been on the books for a long time as the Twins team with the most losses but that does not necessarily make them the worst team in Twins history. The Twins 2016 team is almost a cinch to break the record of 102 losses in a single season but like the 1982 team that does not mean they are the worst Twins team ever. Both teams had some very good players but in both cases their pitching staff was substandard or young and the position players were just starting to come into their own as major league players. The average age of the 1982 team was just barely over 25 years of age, the 2016 team by comparison has the youngest average position players in the league at 27 but the pitching staff is middle of the pack with and average age of just over 28.
Tonight the Twins are in Kansas City to play the Royals and they have a chance to lose game number 102 but the Twins will send their best pitcher (Ervin Santana) to the mound so they can put off the inevitable for another day.
The Twins loss number 102 back in ’82 took place on the final day of the season, Sunday, October 3 with White Sox starter LaMarr Hoyt facing off against Twins starter Brad Havens. The Chicago White Sox were in third place and the Twins occupied the cellar of the AL West a full 32 games out of first. Only 5,085 Twins fans paid t0 enter the Metrodome that day to watch this meaningless game but how many were actually there is probably another story.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth inning when the Tony La Russa led mighty whities put three runs on the board against the lefty Brad Havens on a home run by Tom Paciorek and a single by Marc Hill that scored two more. Havens day ended in the top of the sixth after he gave up a walk, a double and a ground out that scored the fourth run for the Sox. Twins manager Billy Gardner had seen enough and brought in reliever Paul Boris who got of the inning but allowed another run to score on a ground out and going into the bottom of the sixth inning the home town Twins were down 5 to zip. The Twins finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning when Gary Ward had an infield single that scored Bobby Mitchell who had singled to lead off the inning. The White Sox added a run in the top of the eighth inning when Twins killer Harold Baines took Paul Boris deep to lead off the inning. Hoyt who would go on to pitch a complete game and win his league leading 19th game retired the first two Twins in the ninth before Greg Wells tripled bringing DH Randy Bush to the plate but he grounded out to the second baseman and Brad Havens and the Twins took the defeat. The game lasted all of 2 hours and 5 minutes and it was “wait until next year” for the Twins and their fans.
The bearded LaMarr Hoyt was an interesting player to be sure, the following season he went on to win a league leading 24 games and take home the 1983 Cy Young award. In 1985 he found himself in San Diego where he was named the NL starting pitcher in the 1985 All-Star game at the Metrodome that the NL won by a 6-1 score and Hoyt was credited with the victory by allowing no earned run in 3 innings. By 1987 the 32-year old Hoyt was out of professional baseball due to problems with drugs. More info on Hoyt.
Rusty Kuntz who was the White Sox center fielder that day went on to play for the Twins in 1983 and tonight you will find him in Kansas City coaching for the Royals, I wonder if he remembers this day from back in 1982?
By the way, September 28 has been a very interesting day in Minnesota Twins history so please don’t forget to check it out on our This Day in Twins History page before you leave.
The Twins’ Ervin Santana allowed just two runs over nine innings but the Braves kept their offense in check as Atlanta prevailed, 2-0. It’s the fifth time over the last three seasons that a Twins starter tossed a complete game and lost (Ricky Nolasco pitched one game of this type in 2014, Phil Hughes once each in 2014 and 2015, and Kyle Gibson in 2015). That’s tied with the Giants and the Indians for the most losses of this type for any team’s starting pitchers over that span.