Tag: Houston Astros

According to ELIAS

Astros keep rolling… but I say good riddance

The Astros routed the Twins at Target Field yesterday, 17–6, completing a three-game sweep in which they scored 40 runs (16, 7 and 17). That is a franchise record for runs scored in a regular-season series of any length. Houston’s previous highest run total in a single series was 39–– in a four-game set at San Francisco in 1995 and a four-game matchup with the Pirates in 2000.

The Astros’ victory improved their record this season to 38–16, which is the most games over .500 for any major league team through the end of May since 2001, when the Mariners were 40–12 to that point.

This Day in Twins History – has it already been 19 years?

AstrodomeFriday the 13th, June 1997.  The Twins play their very first interleague game and beat the Houston Astros 8-1 in the infamous Astrodome. Chuck Knoblauch leads off the game with a single for the Twins getting their first hit and Brad Radke goes 8 innings for the win. Who hits the Minnesota Twins first interleague home run? That would be current Twins skipper Paul Molitor. Box score

Classic SI photo’s of the Astrodome

According to ELIAS

Twins score just enough to halt Astros streak

Torii Hunter 2015Eduardo Nunez homered and drove in a run with a groundout, the Twins scored another run when Torii Hunter was hit by a bases-loaded pitch, and five pitchers combined to blank the Astros in a 3-0 victory. Hunter gets hit by a pitch with the bases full every seven years, the two previous times that it happened were in 2001 with the Twins and 2008 with the Angels.

Getting as many as three runs hasn’t been easy against the Houston pitching staff; in fact, the Twins were the first team to do it in the Astros’ last 10 games, although A.J. Hinch‘s squad has now lost three of those 10 games (the other two losses came by a 1-0 score). Source: ELIAS

Who will reach the majors first? Buxton or Correa

The Houston Astros had the first overall pick in the 2012 June Amateur Draft and they used that pick to select 17 year-old Puerto Rico Baseball Academy shortstop Carlos Correa. The Minnesota Twins had the second choice and they used it to draft 18 year-old outfielder Byron Buxton from Appling County High School in Baxley, Georgia. Both players are currently rated as the top prospecst in their organizations and Buxton has been rated as baseball best overall prospect two years running. Both players have had injuries delay their arrival in the major leagues.

Carlos Correa Carlos Correa is  6’4″ and 210 pounds and is a right-handed hitter and missed all but 62 games in 2014 due to injury. Correa was recently promoted from AA Corpus Christi to AAA Fresno and is holding his own in six games in the PCL after tearing up AA to the tune of a .385 average with seven home runs, 32 RBI, and 15 stolen bases (with zero caught stealing) in just 29 games. To this point Correa has 264 minor league games and 1,180 plate appearances under his belt.

Miguel Sano Chattanooga 2Byron Buxton is 6’2″ and 190 pounds and also bats from the right side and as we all know all too well, missed all but 14 games in 2014 due to several injuries. Buxton too started this season in AA with the Chattanooga team but got off to a dismal start but has caught fire and is hitting .241 with seven triples, four home runs, 25 RBI, and 10 stolen bases in 11 attempts in 36 games. To this point Buxton has 240 minor league games and 1,061 plate appearances under his belt.

The fans for both teams are anxious for Correa and Buxton to be promoted to the big club. In recent years both the Astros and Twins have been their divisions cellar dwellers but both teams have played surprisingly well in 2015. Does the fact that their teams are playing good baseball slow down or speed up the process of reaching the big leagues for these two future stars?

Being the top picks in the 2012 does not guarantee that you will be up to the bigs sooner than players that are drafted further down the list. Todate there are eight other players drafted later in the first round of the 2012 draft that have tasted a sip of life in the major leagues, but all but one, Cubs shortstop Addison Russell (11) were drafted out of college (by the A’s and traded to the Cubs). Other 2012 first rounders that have reached the majors are catcher Mike Zunino (3), RHP Kevin Gausman (4), LHP Andrew Heaney (9), RHP Michael Wacha (19), RHP Marcus Stroman (22), catcher Kevin Plawecki (35) and RHP Eddie Butler (46). There are also two second round, three third round, two fourth round, two fifth round, one sixth round, one seventh round, and two ninth round selections that have spent time in the major leagues.

So when will Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton get that call to report to Houston or Minnesota? Which one of these future super stars will get the call first? These two players will be compared to each other from years to come, it will be interesting to see how their careers compare over time.

UPDATE: Carlos Correa was called up by the Astros on June 8th.

UPDATE: Byron Buxton was called up by the Twinss on June 14th.

Historical look at how Twins measure up to the rest of the league

I have followed baseball for a long time and it seems like the New York Yankees are always beating the Minnesota Twins. Truth or myth? I decided to check it out with an assist from baseball-reference.com .

It turns that the Yankees are indeed the toughest team to beat for our home town nine. Since 1961 they have played the Yankees 600 times and won just 252 of those match-ups for a .421 winning percentage. Actually I am surprised that the winning percentage is as high as it is because it seems like the Twins always lose to the Yankees.

Who do the Twins beat up on most frequently? That would be the Senators/Rangers franchise whom the Twins have played 696 times and whipped them on 366 occasions for a .527 winning percentage.  I have left the Houston Astros off the list since their time in the American League just started last season and I have included the Brewers/Pilots franchise since the Twins play them every year even though they have been in the National League for many of these years.

Here is how the Minnesota Twins stack up against the rest of the American League since 1961.

FRANCHISE TEAMS GAMES WON LOST WIN %
RANGERS SENATORS,RANGERS 696 366 329 .527
TIGERS 779 409 369 .526
WHITE SOX 844 441 400 .524
ROYALS 714 373 341 .522
BREWERS PILOTS,BREWERS 449 232 217 .517
A’S KC,OAKLAND 707 360 347 .509
RED SOX 596 298 298 .500
RAYS 129 63 66 .488
MARINERS 422 205 216 .487
INDIANS 777 375 401 .483
ANGELS 692 331 361 .478
ORIOLES 600 276 324 .460
BLUE JAYS 362 158 204 .436
YANKEES 600 252 347 .421

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If I had a Hall of Fame vote

Hall of FameIt won’t be long before the MLB Hall of Fame announces its newest members so it is time once again for me to dream and pretend that I have a vote that counts. Heck, I have probably seen more games and follow baseball more closely than a lot of the clowns that have a vote but that is a whole different story. If I had a vote I still can’t find it in my heart to vote for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and that bunch. I am not going to waste my time and yours on my reasoning because we have heard all those pro’s and con’s before. Maybe some time in the future they will get my vote but it won’t be this year. Just to show how time can change your thinking I am just about ready, not quite there yet but very close to saying that Pete Rose has served enough time in purgatory to get elected to the Hall of Fame. I know he has been a jerk at times but he could play some baseball and who could argue his hustle? The rub is that “hustle” can have several meanings. I am not going to quote a bunch of stats here because if you want to see them then go to B-R and check them out for yourself.

Randy Johnson gets my first vote, simply because I think he was the most intimidating pitcher in my era. Johnson has to be the pitcher that most batters would hate to face and the man was just scary to watch but you couldn’t help but stay focused on the mound whenever he pitched.

Vote number two goes to Pedro Martinez, 5 foot 11 and 170 pounds and I think 170 may have been pushing it. Are you kidding me? The man could throw a baseball and he knew how to pitch. He never pitched for teams I liked so I was always hoping he would lose but the man seldom did, a career .687 winning percentage over 18 seasons. Hall of Fame in my book.

Tim Raines gets vote number three. Again, small in stature at 5 foot 8 and 160 pounds but the “Rock” could play some baseball. Not as well-known as some because he played in Montreal for so long but Raines had six straight seasons with 70 stolen bases or more to go with his .810 OPS.

Vote number four goes to Craig Biggio. The man was a catcher, second baseman and a center fielder and through out all those position moves he still found time to post a .281 career batting mark in over 10,800 at bats. Heck, playing for 20 years for the Houston Astros should get you a few bonus votes too.

My fifth vote goes to one of my favorite all-time players, John Smoltz. 213 wins and 154 saves to boot spread over 21 seasons. I still remember that fateful day in August 1987 when the Detroit Tigers traded him to the Atlanta Braves for Doyle Alexander. When someone mentions the word “winner”, I have an image of Smoltz in my mind. A great pitcher and a real gentleman.

My final vote this season goes to Jeff Bagwell. OMG, those Houston Astros sure cleaned the Boston Red Sox’s clock when they acquired Bagwell for Larry Andersen. Only 15 seasons but 449 home runs along with a .948 OPS is good enough for me.

How will my votes compare to the “real” votes? I am thinking I will be 4 for 6 with Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell coming up short of the 75% required. That will be a shame but we all know that life is not always fair and that there is no crying in baseball. Good luck to all the Hall of Fame candidates, you had to be a pretty special ballplayer just to make the ballot.

200 hits in a season

Jose AltuveLast Wednesday Houston Astros 2B Jose Altuve went two for five in the Astros 5-2 win over the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field. His single in the seventh inning was his 200th hit of the season. As of today, Altuve, a 2014 All-Star has 206 hits and the hitter closest to him in hits is Indians outfielder Michael Brantley with 180 hits. The 24 year-old five foot six inch second sacker who is in his fourth season with the Astro’s is showing everyone that he is a real good baseball player. In the last 10 seasons MLB hitters have had 200 or more hits on 36 occasions but last year there were none and this season Altuve may well be the only one. Is pitching taking over baseball?

So when was the last time the Minnesota Twins had a hitter with 200 or more hits in a season? Can’t remember? Maybe that is because it hasn’t happened for many a year. The last Twins hitter to have 200 or more hits in a season was 39 year-old DH Paul Molitor back in 1996. The amazing Kirby Puckett did it a total of five times including four in a row from 1986-1989 and he came up just short in 1985 with 199 hits. The Twins now in their 54th season have had only 13 hitters that have gotten 200 or more hits in a single season. The Twins have never had more than one hitter in a season get 200 or more hits but in 1977 Rod Carew had 239 hits and Lyman Bostock came up just short with 199 hits.

Twins hitters with 200 or more hits in a season

Kirby Puckett

Rk Player H Year ? Age G AB R HR RBI BA OPS Pos
1 Paul Molitor 225 1996 39 161 660 99 9 113 .341 .858 *D3/H
2 Kirby Puckett 210 1992 32 160 639 104 19 110 .329 .864 *8/DH45
3 Kirby Puckett 215 1989 29 159 635 75 9 85 .339 .843 *8/HD
4 Kirby Puckett 234 1988 28 158 657 109 24 121 .356 .920 *8/H
5 Kirby Puckett 207 1987 27 157 624 96 28 99 .332 .900 *8/DH
6 Kirby Puckett 223 1986 26 161 680 119 31 96 .328 .903 *8/H
7 Rod Carew 239 1977 31 155 616 128 14 100 .388 1.019 *3/H4D
8 Rod Carew 200 1976 30 156 605 97 9 90 .331 .858 *3/4H
9 Rod Carew 218 1974 28 153 599 86 3 55 .364 .879 *4/H
10 Rod Carew 203 1973 27 149 580 98 6 62 .350 .881 *4/H
11 Cesar Tovar 204 1971 30 157 657 94 1 45 .311 .725 *798/5H4
12 Tony Oliva 204 1970 31 157 628 96 23 107 .325 .878 *9/8H
13 Tony Oliva 217 1964 25 161 672 109 32 94 .323 .916 *9/8H7
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/15/2014.

 

This, that, and the other thing

IMGP7217When I visited Hammond Stadium on Friday it was position player reporting day but a large contingent of the Twins position players were already on hand and going through some early work on their own. The real work started this morning. I took a number of pictures as I do every time I visit and posted them in my 2014 Spring Training link. I didn’t really see anything unusual and the highlight of my day was spending a few minutes after practice talking with Twins Hall of Fame member Eddie Guardado. Eddie looks the same as I remember him as an active player when he charged out to the mound and slammed the rosin bag to the turf before he took the mound to close out another Twins win. After spending some time talking with Eddie, I don’t know if there is a more humble former Twins player out there. I really enjoyed my short chat with “Every Day Eddie” and I hope I can set up a longer interview with him down the line.

 

Glen Perkins
Glen Perkins

After practice was over I wandered back to the minor league fields and complex to see what was happening back there. Some of the Twins major league players also spend time in the minor league complex working out or doing what ever they have to do back there. It was about 11:30 A.M. and most of the autograph seekers were gone and there was just two guys standing there waiting for autographs. I asked them who they were waiting for and they said they were waiting for closer Glen Perkins. I kind of laughed and wished them luck because Perkins has a reputation as one of the toughest Twins to get an autograph from. They were well aware of that since they had a couple of balls with all the others Twins autographs and they were just missing Perkins. We chatted for a while and I left to walk back over to the big league side. About 15 minutes later I saw both of the autograph seekers walking in my direction so I walked up to them and asked them if they finally got Perkins signature. “Hell no”, they said, the p&%k peeked out the door a couple of times to see if we were still there and then finally left quickly with a towel over his head. These guys were not happy and I don’t know if Perkins had seen them out there getting autographs day after day or what but these two guys were pretty disgusted. I know that players get mad when the same people get autographs day after day and sell them and make a few bucks but what is the big deal? If somebody makes a few dollars off a players signature is that really such a bad thing? Players like Perkins make plenty of money so why should they begrudge if someone sells his autograph for a few dollars. No one gets hurt and the economy keeps chugging along, it’s the American way. Here we have two guys that are upset because they didn’t get an autograph and Perkins further cements his reputation with some Twins fans as a greedy and sometimes surly egomaniac. I sure wish I would have been around to get a picture of Glen Perkins sneaking out with a towel over his head, I could have had some real fun with that.

Everybody is bemoaning the lack of strikeouts by the Twins starting pitchers. The last Twins pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in a season was in 2010 when Francisco Liriano struck out 201 batters and since then no Twins starter has struck out more than 123 (Scott Baker in 2011) batters. In 2013 Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey tied for the strikeout lead on the club with 101. Those are pathetic numbers indeed. In the Minnesota Twins 53 year history there have been only seven Twins pitchers that have struck out 200 or more batters in a single season and between them they have done it a total of 20 times. Can you name those seven pitchers? I already told you who four of them are.

But here is an interesting “did you know that?” fact. Did you know that the 1967 Minnesota Twins were the first team in major league history to have three pitchers on their staff to record 200 or more strikeouts in a single season. In 1967 Dean Chance had 220, Jim Kaat had 211 and Dave Boswell had 204? Since then it was matched by the National League 1969 Houston Astros Don Wilson with 235, Larry Dierker with 222, and Tom Griffin with 200. The 2013 Detroit Tigers joined this list when Max Scherzer had 240, Justin Verlander had 217, and Anibal Sanchez had 202. I wonder if the Tigers can be the first team to do it in back-to-back seasons? It is tough to do once much less twice.

A little of this and a little of that

Kevin Chapman‘s wild pitch scored Ryan Doumit with the go-ahead run in the 12th inning of the Twins’ 9-6 win at Houston. The last time Minnesota won a game in this manner was on September 20, 1984, when the White Sox’ Bert Roberge wild-pitched home Tom Brunansky in the 13th inning at the Metrodome.

Ron Gardenhire
Ron Gardenhire

The Twins are now 8-7 in extra-innings this season. Since the start of the 1961 season, the Twins have an all-time extra-inning record of 384-345-2. Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire seems to like extra-inning baseball and has a career-record of 107-72, a .598 winning percentage since he took the managers job in 2002. Gardy is just 7 wins short of getting 1,000 wins as a manager, I think he is going to get it soon. A real nice achievement!

Did you know that prior to the Twins retiring Bert Blyleven‘s number 28 that it was the lowest number that no MLB team had retired?

Chuck KnoblauchBrian Dozier hit home run number 17 last night and is the all-time Twins leader in home runs hit by a second baseman in a single season. Dozier now has 51 extra base hits this season, the only Twins second baseman with more are Chuck Knoblauch with 53 in 1994 and 1995, Todd Walker with 56 in 1998 and the leader is Chuck Knoblauch with 62 in 1996.

The Twins finished August having struck out 291 times in 30 games, the highest total of strikeouts by any team in one month in major-league history. That works out to 9.7 strike outs per game. When you attend a Twins game be sure to hold on to your hat cause there is a lot of whiffing going on.

Only one player in Twins history has won the Twins team triple crown by leading the team in home runs, RBI, and average, who was he?

Twins Farm System logoThe Twins seven minor league teams finished the 2013 regular season with a 411-345 record, good for a .544 winning percentage. Not too shabby at all. The AAA-Rochester Red Wings at 77-67, the High A-Ft. Myers Miracle at 79-56 and the Cedar Rapids Kernels at 88-50 are all play-off bound. The only teams with losing records were the AA-New Britain Rock Cats at 66-76 and the Rookie league GCL Twins at 28-32. The Rookie league Elizabethton E-Twins finished their season at 37-31, good for third place. The DSL (Dominican Summer League) Twins finished in fourth place with a 36-33 record. Since 2000, the Twins minor league teams have had a losing record twice, in 2010 and 2011. If you are interested in learning more about the Twins minor league history, stop by http://wp.me/P1YQUj-1jd .

According to Elias

 

Chris Colabello
Chris Colabello

Chris Colabello, making his third start at first base since Justin Morneau was traded to Pittsburgh, connected for a tie-breaking ninth-inning grand-slam homer to propel the Twins to a 10-6 comeback victory at Houston. Colabello, who had homered earlier in the game, became the first player in the history of the franchise – not just in Minnesota since 1961, but going all the way back to Washington in 1901 – to hit two homers in a game, including a go-ahead grand-slam in the ninth inning or later.

Coming into Colabello’s ninth-inning at-bat, the 29-year-old rookie was batting .186 overall, and had been held hitless in his 25 major-league at-bats with runners on base and two outs. The last position-player to start his big-league career with such a long streak of hitless at-bats in those situations was Chris Gimenez, a catcher with the Indians, who went hitless in his first 31 at-bats with runners on base and two outs over 2009 and 2010.