Tag: Justin Morneau

Minnesota Twins legend Wayne Hattaway gone, just like the game he loved

Wayne Hattaway and Ron Gardenhire in 2014.

A Minnesota Twins legend Wayne Hattaway passed away on April 30, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama after a battle with cancer. Wayne was born in Mobile on February 24, 1940 to Fred and Margaret Hattaway and was the first of the five children, four of which were girls.

Wayne enjoyed baseball as a youngster growing up Mobile and often snuck away from school to catch a baseball game at Hartwell Field, the home park for the Mobile Bears who at that time were in the Southern Association as a AA affiliate of the the Brooklyn Dodgers. One thing led to another and in 1952 the team asked Wayne Hattaway (he was 12 at the time) if he wanted to be their batboy and of course he jumped at the opportunity. Little did Wayne know at the time that his career in baseball had begun.

Continue reading Minnesota Twins legend Wayne Hattaway gone, just like the game he loved

Twins HOF voting by fans not what it is cracked up to be

On January 24th the Minnesota Twins announced that former Twins first baseman Justin Morneau has been elected to the club’s Hall of Fame. Morneau will become the 34th member of the Twins Hall of Fame when he is inducted during an on-field pre-game ceremony at Target Field before the Twins host the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, May 23. This is all well and good because Justin Morneau is certainly deserving of the honor.

However; one player that stands out in my mind that played for the Minnesota Twins from 1965-1972 that has been left out of the Twins HOF once again is Cesar Tovar. Tovar passed away in 1994 at the age of 54. Cesar Tovar entered the Venezuelan Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its first class in 2003. He is still remembered as one of the greatest players in the history of his nation’s winter league. As Tony Oliva said of their days with the Twins, “If we’d had nine players like him, we wouldn’t have needed any others.” Yet as we enter 2020 Tovar is still not in the Minnesota Twins HOF, what an injustice!

Continue reading Twins HOF voting by fans not what it is cracked up to be

Play you best players, let them rest in the off-season

When I go to the ballpark or watch a baseball game on TV I always expect the teams best players to be on the field day in and day out during the baseball season. I am old school in that regard and it is disappointing to me when today’s managers rest players so frequently. I believe that players are paid to play and only an injury that does not physically allow them to play should keep them off the field and in the dugout. 

Justin Morneau

Apparently that is not how the Twins play baseball. Coming to the ballpark and playing every day is not how it is done in Minnesota. The last player to play 160 or more games in a season for the Minnesota Twins was Justin Morneau back in 2008, that was 12 years ago. Morneau put together a 218 consecutive games played streak that started on June 28, 2007 and ended on June 20, 2009.  

Zoilo Versalles

Over the years the Twins have had 21 instances when a player has appeared in 160 games or more. Eleven players have accomplished this feat with Zoilo Versalles leading the pack with four such seasons, Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett each did it three times, Cesar Tovar, Leo Cardenas and Gary Gaetti did it twice while Tony Oliva, Roy Smalley, Paul Molitor, Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau each did it once. This past season the Twins “Ironman” was Jorge Polanco with 153 games played.

Looking at just the American League (due to no DH in the National League) this past season there were four players that appeared in 160 or more games and there have been no instances from 1961-2019 where there hasn’t been at least one players appearing in 160 games in a season, excluding strike shortened seasons.

Going back to 1961 the Twins have the third longest streak in the AL without a player appearing in 160 or more games. The last Cleveland Indians player to play in 160 or more games was Grady Sizemore in 2007 and the longest streak in the AL without a player playing in 160 games belongs to the Los Angeles Angels who had Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus qualify back in 2001. I found it interesting that the Texas Rangers who did not begin play until 1972 and play in the very hot Texas temperatures had 13 players play in 160 or more games between 1972-2019.

Recent Minnesota Twins news events

The first thing we do need to do is to congratulate catcher Mitch Garver and DH Nelson Cruz on being named 2019 American League Silver Slugger winners. Garver and Cruz are the first Minnesota Twins teammates to win Silver Sluggers since Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau in 2008.

The last previous winner of a Silver Slugger award was outfielder Josh Willingham in 2012. Kirby Puckett and Joe Mauer have each won the award five times. Garver and Cruz are the seventh and eighth Minnesota Twins players to be awarded Silver Slugger. 

The Silver Slugger Award is awarded annually to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League and the National League, as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball. The award was started in 1980. A complete list of Twins award winners can be seen here.

Continue reading Recent Minnesota Twins news events

Nelson Cruz on a record breaking roll!

Nelson Cruz

Stolen from today’s MN Twins GameNotes. This is just crazy, the man is 39 years old. We are lucky to have watched him this year.

ALL ABOUT THE BOOMSTICK: Historic night in Nellyville:

Nelson Cruz has 30 home runs on the season, tied for second most in the AL.

He now has 30 for the sixth straight season. Active players with 30+ homer streaks include Albert Pujols (12) from 2001-12, Edwin Encarnacion (8) from 2012-19, and Miguel Cabrera (7) from 2007-13.

Cruz’s 30 home runs pass Chili Davis‘ 1991 total (29) for the most by a DH in club history, (MLB all-time record is 54 by David Ortiz in 2006).

Current .652 slugging percentage is the highest in club history (next: Killebrew, .606 in 1961).

Three homers last night marked the 12th time in club history:  Bob Allison (’63), Harmon Killebrew (’63), Tony Oliva (’73), Justin Morneau (’07), Max Kepler (’16), Brian Dozier (’16), Eddie Rosario (’17), Byron Buxton (’17), Eddie Rosario (’18), Max Kepler (’19), Nelson Cruz (’19) and Nelson Cruz (’19).

Becomes the 23rd player in baseball history with multiple three-homer games in a season (first in Twins history). The first in MLB history with multiple after turning 39.

After Cruz’s three-homer game July 25 at CWS, he joins Doug DeCinces (8/3 & 8, 1982) and Johnny Mize (7/13 & 20, 1938) as the only players to homer three times within 10 days.

Leads baseball in home runs since ASG (14), next players, Max Kepler and Mancini have nine. Also leads baseball in RBI since ASG (26)

Joins Jason Kubel (2009) as the only two players in club history with four five+ RBI games in a season.

Thanks for the show Boomstick!

Could Eddie Rosario be on his way to an MVP?

“Leader of the Pack” Eddie Rosario hits one out with credit to Michael Layton/Getty Images

In 1969 at the ripe old age of 33, Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew won the American League MVP award when he played in 162 games and led the league with 49 home runs, 140 RBI, 145 walks and a 1.011 OPS. All of these were career highs for the Killer.

Could current Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario be on his way to a season for the ages and bring home another MVP award? 48 games does not a season make but it is still fun comparing former Twins MVP winners to our current MVP candidate Eddie Rosario with about 30% of the season in the books.

On June 4, 1969 Killebrew had played in 48 games with 209 plate appearances and was hitting .269 with 12 home runs, 38 RBI, 39 walks and a .940 OPS.

On May 24, 2019 Eddie Rosario who is just 27 had played in 48 games with 204 plate appearances and was hitting .285 with 15 home runs, 42 RBI, 9 walks and a .868 OPS. 

 

Other Twins MVP’s after 48 games

On June 8, 1965 at the age of 25 Zoilo Versalles had played in 48 games with 225 plate appearances and was hitting .269 with 6 home runs, 31 RBI, 11 walks and a .788 OPS.

On June 1, 2006 at the age of 25 Justin Morneau had played in 48 games with 195 plate appearances and was hitting .240 with 10 home runs, 36 RBI, 14 walks and a .760 OPS.

On June 24, 2009 at the age of 26 Joe Mauer had played in 48 games with 212 plate appearances and was hitting .394 with 14 home runs, 42 RBI, 27 walks and a 1.167 OPS.

Twins leaders with two or more home runs in a game

No surprise here that it is Harmon Killebrew, right?

Results
Rk Player #Matching
1 Harmon Killebrew 35
2 Justin Morneau 20
3 Tony Oliva 18
4 Kent Hrbek 16
5 Bob Allison 15
6 Kirby Puckett 13
7 Gary Gaetti 13
8 Tom Brunansky 11
9 Don Mincher 9
10 Torii Hunter 9
11 Eddie Rosario 8
12 Corey Koskie 8
13 Jacque Jones 8
14 Jimmie Hall 8
15 Brian Dozier 8
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/1/2019.

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Eddie Rosario is climbing this list pretty quickly.

And he goes down swinging!

Harmon Killebrew

We all know that strikeout rates are up all across baseball for the last few years but today we will look at Minnesota Twins batters and their strikeout rates going back to 1961. We used B-R’s amazing Play Index to find what we were looking for.

The top two all time Twins leader in strikeouts are Harmon Killebrew with 1,314 and Joe Mauer with 1,034. Mauer? What the heck? Longevity can do strange things to numbers and the devil is in the details.

Continue reading And he goes down swinging!

Minnesota Twins Top 10 First Baseman

Between 1961-2017 there have been 58 players that have played at least 10 games at first base for our Minnesota Twins. However, to qualify for this list which ranks them in Baseball-Reference WAR order the player must have played first base in at least 51% of their games while wearing a Twins uniform. This eliminates players like Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison and of course Joe Mauer who started playing first base later in their careers. Kent Hrbek is the Twins all-time leaders in games at first base with 1,609.

Kent Hrbek – Hrbek’s work in the field was as good as his work with a bat.

Results
Rk Player WAR/pos From To G AB R H HR RBI SB BA OPS
1 Kent Hrbek 38.6 1981 1994 1747 6192 903 1749 293 1086 37 .282 .848
2 Justin Morneau 23.3 2003 2013 1278 4749 669 1318 221 860 5 .278 .832
3 Don Mincher 8.7 1961 1966 590 1511 220 369 90 265 4 .244 .824
4 Doug Mientkiewicz 6.4 1998 2004 643 2147 273 590 43 266 11 .275 .776
5 Rich Reese 3.2 1964 1973 807 1918 238 498 50 241 16 .260 .711
6 Ron Jackson 2.8 1979 1981 344 1154 150 309 23 138 6 .268 .734
7 John Briggs 1.8 1975 1975 87 264 44 61 7 39 6 .231 .731
8 Vic Power 1.7 1962 1964 301 1197 151 333 26 116 10 .278 .703
9 Scott Stahoviak 1.0 1993 1998 344 1019 135 261 27 119 13 .256 .745
10 Pat Bourque 0.1 1974 1974 23 64 5 14 1 8 0 .219 .593
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/21/2018.

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Twins Top 10 Catchers

Twins Top 10 First Baseman

Twins Top 10 Second Basemen

Twins Top 10 Third Baseman

Twins Top 10 Shortstops

Twins Top 10 Right Fielders

Twins Top 10 Center Fielders

Twins Top 10 Left Fielders

Top Twins DH

Twins walk-off wins – 1961-2017

Twins walk-off King

Harmon Killebrew

In the past 57 seasons the Minnesota Twins have walked off their opponents 403 times. Kirby Puckett leads the Minnesota Twins in career walk-off’s wins by delivering the winning run in some manner 11 times, it might have been on a hit, walk, HBP, error or a sacrifice. Second on the list is Harmon Killebrew. I guess that is why these guys are Hall of Fame players.

The Twins have walked off their opponent with a single a total of 196 times. Rod Carew  did it seven times and is the leader in this category and it has been done five times by Alexi Casilla, Harmon Killebrew, Brian Harper, Larry Hisle, Kent Hrbek and Jacque Jones.

The Twins have hit 108 walk-off home runs and Justin Morneau leads the pack here with five and is followed Gary Gaetti, Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva and Kent Hrbek with four each. One was an inside the park job by Tim Teufel.

The Twins have walked off their opponents with doubles 35 times and Kirby Puckett did it 3 times, the following players each did it twice, Cristian Guzman, Rich Reese, Tony Oliva, Eduardo Escobar, Shannon Stewart, Glenn Borgmann  and Tom Brunansky.

The Sacrifice Fly has led to 25 Twins walk-off wins with only Zoilo Versalles and Cristian Guzman doing it more than once.

The Twins have walked-off opponents 12 times on an opposing team error.

The Twins have walked-off their opponent 11 times when they drew a bases-loaded walk. 

The Twins have had six walk-off triples and no one has more than one.

The Twins have celebrated a walk-off win six times after a simple ground out.

The Twins have two walk-off wins via getting hit by a pitch (Paul Molitor and Max Kepler).

The first player to deliver a walk-off win was Zoilo Versalles and the most recent to do it is Byron Buxton.