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
Ervin Santana earned his 14th win of the season and teammate Jorge Polanco homered from each side of the plate in the Twins’ 6-4 triumph over the White Sox. Santana has a 14-win season with three different teams (three such seasons with the Angels, one with the Braves, and now one with the Twins). Two other active pitchers have had at least one season of 14-or-more wins with three different teams: Bartolo Colon (five different teams) and Zack Greinke (four teams). The last pitcher to win at least 14 games for the Twins was Phil Hughes who won 16 games in 2014.
Jorge Polanco
Polanco is the third player to homer from each side of the plate as a shortstop in a game this season, joining Francisco Lindor (April 5) and Freddy Galvis (June 4). Polanco joins a select group of Minnesota Twins (Roy Smalley, Chili Davis, Ryan Doumit, and Kennys Vargas) to hit a home run from each side of the plate in a single game.
Jorge Polanco homered for the third straight game in the Twins’ win over the White Sox yesterday, tying the longest homer streak by a shortstop in Twins history. Their only other players to do that, including their 60 years as the Washington Senators, were Zoilo Versalles (three times) and Roy Smalley, Jr. (in 1980).
Alex Meyer (P) – June 26, 2015 – Traded by the Washington Nationals to the Minnesota Twins for Denard Span on November 29, 2012 . No other way to say it other than it was a disastrous start to his major league career. Meyer gave up a home run to the first batter and it was kind of down hill from there. Meyer didn’t retire a batter until the seventh hitter and then was pulled after facing the number 9 hitter with but one out on the board. 5 earned runs, 6 total runs on 6 hits.
Jorge Polanco (SS) – June 26, 2014 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in July 2009. Polanco drew a walk and later scored in his first plate appearance in which he entered the game as a pinch hitter.
Tyler Robertson (P) – June 26, 2012 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. Now this is a stunning big league debut, Robertson entered the Twins vs White Sox game in the top of the 8th inning at Target Field with Twins trailing 3-0 and struck out the side.
The Twins improved to 6–0 against the Royals this season after walking off with a victory over Kansas City last night. Jorge Polanco’s sacrifice fly drove in the winning run for the Twins in the 10th inning after Kennys Vargas hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to force extras. Entering Friday, the Twins had lost their last 138 games in which they trailed in the ninth inning or later, which was by far the longest such active losing streak in the majors. The Braves now own the longest active losing streak of that kind, having lost their last 58 games in which they trailed in the ninth inning or later.
What is going on here? L-R – Jim Pohlad, Michael Cuddyer, Derek Falvey, and ?
The Minnesota Twins find themselves in a strange position this spring. The team is coming off a record-setting 59-103 season and yet there are really no position battles waging in Ft. Myers this spring. All the starting position players are pretty much the same as last season except for the catcher Kurt Suzuki who left via free agency and the Twins signed free agent Jason Castro to replace him and handed him the starting job.
How often does that happen? Usually you lose 103 games and everyone is fighting for a job but that is not the case in the spring of 2017 at the CenturyLink Sports complex where the Twins are preparing for the 2017 season. As I watch the team go through its spring routines there doesn’t seem to be much urgency and the players are acting as if they are all veterans just waiting for the bell to ring in a new season. I can see the players going through the drills but I just don’t see that they are working hard to get better. This team is young, and talented but have they had enough sand kicked in their face yet to really want to win? I hope so.
I am still convinced that Joe Mauer playing first base limits the Twins from taking that next step. Mauer is the grey-beard among the position players at 33 and then Brian Dozier and Jason Castro follow at 29 and the rest of the starting line-up is 25 or under.
If you look at the spring training stats and I know they don’t mean a hill of beans when the season starts BUT this team appears to be a team that can score some runs but will hit for a lower average than what fans might expect. Mauer’s .300 plus days are in his rear view mirror and I am not expecting Jason Castro, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco, or Brian Dozier to hit .260 or above. I expect a higher average from Eddie Rosario this year but he too is still unproven.
In spite of what I have written this team should be fun to watch but you must be prepared for those “what the hell just happened” moments. This team will continue to improve as the season progresses and but so much will depend on the teams pitching staff both from the starters and the relievers.
I was used to seeing GM Terry Ryan out next to the fields checking out the action but this year I have not seen Thad Levine at all and Derek Falvey just once and that was this morning. A different style I guess, particularly since all I heard early on about Falvey was how closely he worked with his manager. But you are right, it is still early.
After horrible starts to the season the last two years, how will the Twins leave the starting gate in 2017? Another bad start could would be a serious problem for Paul Molitor and his boys.
I was back out at the ballpark to check on the Twins yesterday to see what the rest of the team was up to when the Twins had a game in Jupiter, Florida scheduled for that afternoon. Jupiter is almost due east of Ft. Myers across the state and although it is only about 140 miles it takes almost three hours to get there. Lake Okeechobee is between Ft. Myers and Jupiter so you end up going around it to the north as you head towards the Atlantic ocean.
Apparently skipper Paul Molitor felt that drive is way too much for most of the Minnesota Twins regulars so he sent the following line-up to play the game at Roger Dean Stadium.
Granite – RF
Santana – LF
Paulsen – 1B
Hague – DH
Shuck – CF
Fields – 2B
Escobar – SS
Murphy – C
Adrianza – 3B
Gibson – P
Not exactly the 1965 Twins but they did manage to keep the game interesting until they allowed the Cards to score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in a 2-1 loss. Ticket prices for the game on the internet were between $46 and $180. Fans pay prices like this to see a spring training game and the Twins send zero starting position players. CRAZY! Both the Cardinals and the Twins should be embarrassed and MLB should start fining these teams for this kind of behavior.
Jorge Polanco went 3-for-4 with a home run, four runs batted in and two runs scored in the Twins’ win over the Tigers yesterday. Polanco is the first Twins shortstop with at least three hits, one homer, four RBI and two runs scored in a game since Greg Gagne did it on the next to last day of the 1986 season. Gagne went 3-for-4 with two homers, four RBI and three runs scored in a win over the White Sox.
Twins rookies highlight five-run inning against Quintana
Entering his start against the Twins at Target Field last night, Jose Quintana had limited rookies to a .141 batting average (10 for 71) and only four RBI this season. But a trio of rookies tagged him for hits in a five-run second inning by Minnesota, Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler singled, and Byron Buxton connected for a three-run homer–and that outburst catapulted the Twins to an 8-5 victory over the White Sox breaking the Minnesota Twins 13-game losing streak.
One of the more frequent questions I get pertains to switch-hitters that played for the Minnesota Twins so I thought I would put together the entire list of Twins players both position players and pitchers that swung from both sides of the plate. In this case I ranked then in order of home runs hit. The list includes Twins pitchers as well as position players.
You can make a strong case that Mickey Mantle was the best switch-hitter in the AL as he hit .300 (with 500 or more PA’s) or more nine time and Victor Martinez who remains active today has hit. 300 eight times as has Bernie Williams. Roberto Alomar did it seven times.
The Twins have not had as much luck with their switch-hitters, the only Twin to hit .300 (.302) or better with at least 500 plate appearances was Cristian Guzman in 2001. It kind of makes you wonder if switch hitting is worth the effort. From 1901 to 1960 the Washington Senators never had a switch-hitter that hit .300 or better with at least 500 PA’s.
Adam Brett Walker. Lakeland Flying Tigers v. Ft. Myers Miracle. Aug. 2, 2014. Photo by Tom Hagerty.
This offseason, MiLB.com is honoring players — regardless of age or prospect status — who had the best season in their organization. Today, they covered the Minnesota Twins.
The Twins ranked sixth in baseball — and fourth in the American League — with a combined .536 winning percentage across its Minor League affiliates. You can read the article by going here. If you follow young players in the Twins system you might want to check this out.
