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
The Minnesota Twins have named six players that will participate in the 2014 Arizona Fall League season and will announce one additional player at a later date. The Twins players that will play for the Salt River Rafters this season are outfielders Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler as well as RHP Jason Adam, LHP Mason Melotakis, and LHP Taylor Rogers. Players do not often play in the AFL two years in a row but in the case of the Twins they will Buxton, Rosario, and Kepler back for a second try. Not because of how they played in the AFL in 2013 but because they all need more at bats this season. Buxton the number one prospect in baseball has been out most of the season with wrist injuries and now is coming off a concussion. Kepler has had various nagging injuries all season and has not played up to his potential at Ft. Myers this season. Rosario missed the first 50 games of the season due to his suspension. All three outfielders have something to prove this fall.
The Salt River Rafters roster will be made up of players from the Rockies, Diamondbacks, Astros, Marlins and Twins organizations. The team will be managed by Andy Haines and the hitting coach will be Kevin Riggs and the pitching coach will be Joshua Miller.
The six-team league, owned and operated by Major League Baseball, will play six days per week (Monday-Saturday). As always, the AFL will be chock full of future big leaguers when the six-week league, which has established itself as the finishing school for the game’s best prospects since its inception in 1992, begins its season on Tuesday, October 7. The Fall League season runs through Saturday, November 15, with a championship game held at Scottsdale Stadium. The league’s Fall Stars Game, which will feature many of those Top 100 prospects, will be held Saturday, November 1, at Salt River Fields.
According to MLB, approximately 60 percent of AFL players will reach the Major Leagues. 14 players on the Twins current roster have participated in the Arizona Fall League. Since its inception in 1992 about 2,300 AFL players have reached the major leagues.
MLB TV will carry some of these AFL games so make sure you check it out and watch some of these young stars play this fall and maybe, just maybe you will see some of the players in the major leagues in 2015.
UPDATE AS OF AUGUST 30 – The Twins have announced that RHP Jake Reed will also join the Salt River Rafters this fall.
Seems to be some validity to the complaining that the Twins best paid player Joe Mauer isn’t hitting with runners on base. Joe Mauer had the go-ahead single in the ninth inning for Minnesota on Monday, after he entered the game hitting .171 (7 for 41) in Late Inning Pressure Situations. Over the past six seasons (2008-2013), Mauer hit .339 in LIPS, the highest in the major leagues among players with at least 100 plate appearances.
The Ft. Myers Miracle the Twins High-A team is now calling JetBlue Park their new home for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs as Hammond Stadium undergoes the second phase of their two-year remodeling effort. It will be interesting to see what Hammond Stadium will look like next spring.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels the Twins Low-A club and the Minnesota Twins extended their player-development contract (PDC) through the 2020 season. Another nail in the coffin for those that had hopes of St. Paul landing a Twins minor league affiliation in their new ballpark that is being built.
Minneapolis provided MLB with free rent and discounted services for the All-Star FanFest at the Minneapolis Convention Center when the Twins hosted the 2014 All-Star game.
Ron Davis – Twins pitcher from 1982 – 1986 (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
Twenty eight years ago today the Twins traded closer Ron Davis along with minor league pitcher Dewayne Coleman to the Chicago Cubs for relievers George Frazier and Ray Fontenot and shortstop Julius McDougal. Davis was the Twins closer from 1982 until he was traded in 1986. Davis saved 108 games for the Twins but it was the games that he didn’t save that made Davis one of the biggest villans in Twins history. Here is a piece about Davis in the LA Times. The Twinstrivia interview with Ron Davis can be found here.
In the last three weeks Terry Ryan and Rob Antony have been busy house-cleaning and they have cut about $8 million from the Twins payroll. First the Twins traded DH/1B Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for RHP Stephen Pryor. Then they traded outfielder Sam Fuld to the Oakland A’s for LHP Tommy Milone. Then RHP Kevin Correia was sent out to La La land where he will pitch for the Dodgers and the Twins will receive a PTBNL or cash. Their latest trade has outfielder/DH Josh Willingham headed south to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for minor league RHP Jason Adam. Here is what a KC blog site called Cover the Bases had to say about the deal. Are there still more trades on the horizon? You never know but if I was Jared Burton I might not be too quick to send out my clothes to the dry cleaners. Joe Mauer is now the oldest position player on the team, Wow!
Jim Merritt
A lot is being made of King Felix Hernandez and his run of history making starts this season where he has pitched seven innings or more and allowed two runs or fewer. There is even talk of him as a serious MVP candidate. Have any Twins pitchers had a nice run like that? Turns out that Jim Merritt had 11 games in a row back in 1967. This is actually a pretty amazing run by Hernandez, since 1961 there have only been 10 pitchers that have had a streak of 10 games or more that fit this criteria. Check out the list, there are some pretty good pitchers here.
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Streaks of seven innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed since 1961
Take a moment to check out Bob Gibson‘s numbers in the table above, they are absolutely incredible. His streak was 11 games long, his record was 11-0 and he had 11 complete games with 8 shutouts and a total of three runs allowed. No wonder Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver said that Gibson was the luckiest pitcher ever, he only pitched when the other team was not hitting.
The Minnesota Twins are still on track to have over 2.3 million fans at Target Field this summer. I think as the cooler weather approaches, the state fair gets in full swing and school begins, the attendance will fall off and the Twins will be around the 2 million mark but that is still an amazing mark for a team that has played as badly as the Twins have for the last four years.
So what about Ron Gardenhire and his staff? I think they are history within a week of the season ending. Who will be the Twins new skipper, it won’t be anyone currently associated with the Minnesota Twins today. Who would I like it to be? I think the Twins should swing a deal with the Marlins and bring Mike Redmond in as the Twins manager in 2015. The man had done well with the players he has been given. Will it happen? Nooooooo
The Minnesota Twins have named six players that will participate in the 2014 Arizona Fall League season and will announce one additional player at a later date. The Twins players that will play for the Salt River Rafters this season are outfielders Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler as well as RHP Jason Adam, LHP Mason Melotakis, and LHP Taylor Rogers. Players do not often play in the AFL two years in a row but in the case of the Twins they will Buxton, Rosario, and Kepler back for a second try. Not because of how they played in the AFL in 2013 but because they all need more at bats this season. Buxton the number one prospect in baseball has been out most of the season with wrist injuries and now is coming off a concussion. Kepler has had various nagging injuries all season and has not played up to his potential at Ft. Myers this season. Rosario missed the first 50 games of the season due to his suspension. All three outfielders have something to prove this fall.
