Tag: Justin Morneau

Twins all-opponent team closer

We are going to close out our Twins all-opponent team series today by naming the teams closer. I will tell you up front that the best closer I have seen in the 60 years I have followed major league baseball is Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees. Watching Rivera close out a game was almost like watching a machine, as near perfection as you can get. You all know my history with the Yankees, I have always disliked them since I was a pup, but in this case greatness needs to be recognized for what it is. If Mariano Rivera is not a first ballot Fall of Fame baseball player then no one is. 

Mariano Rivera

Now that my praise for Mariano Rivera is out-of-the-way we will go on to name the Twins all-opponent team closer and he is Troy Percival. Percival closed games for the Angels for 10 seasons before moving on to close for the Tigers, Cardinals and Rays. Percival was an All-Star four times and had 358 career saves over his 14 years in the big leagues.

Troy Percival

In 47 games against our Minnesota Twins he pitched 47.2 innings giving up just 19 his while striking out 56 batters and notched 23 saves. The man gave up just two earned runs against Minnesota (none as an Angel pitcher) and one of those was on the only home run that a Twins batter (Justin Morneau) hit off him. Fittingly it seems, he earned the win in that game when the Tigers came back to win the game in 10 innings 5-4 at Comerica Park. His career ERA against Minnesota? Make that 0.38 .

https://bbref.com/pi/shareit/smWmb

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

Second Baseman – Lou Whitaker

Third Baseman – Wade Boggs

Shortstop – Cal Ripken

Left Field – Jim Rice

Center Field – Fred Lynn

Right Field – Magglio Ordonez

DH – Edgar Martinez

Starting Pitcher (right-handed) – Jim Palmer

Starting Pitcher (left-handed) – David Wells

 

According to ELIAS – Max Kepler

Kepler stars in Minnesota’s cleanup role

Max Kepler

Fourth-place batter Max Kepler went 4-for-4 with a home run in the Twins’ 9–5 home win over the Angels yesterday. It had been almost exactly eight years since a Minnesota cleanup hitter went 4-for-4 or better, including a home run. On July 4, 2009, Justin Morneau was 4-for-4 with one homer in a 4–3 win over the Tigers at the Metrodome.

Kind of a telling stat I guess…..

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Justin Morneau

Another one of my all-time favorite Twins debuted on June 10th a few years back.

Justin Morneau

Justin Morneau (1B) – June 10, 2003 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1999 MLB June Amateur Draft as a catcher. Morneau debuted at the Dome in a 5-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies. Rockies starter Jason Jennings pitched 7.2 innings against the Twins that day and allowed just three hits, Mr. Morneau had two of them. Morneau hit clean-up in his big league debut and was the DH. Hard to believe it has been 14 years.

To see other Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins

The Twins trials and tribulations with finding starting pitching

The Minnesota Twins have a long history of problems developing starting pitching. Using 100 starts as a barometer, since 1961 the Twins have signed and developed just 11 pitchers in their system that have gone on to get 100 or more starts in a Twins uniform. The only first round pick in the bunch is Pete Redfern, three round tw0 picks, two round three picks, one fourth round pick, one fifth round pick, Brad Radke was an eighth round pick, one 29th round pick and an amateur free agent (Dave Boswell).

Since the June amateur free agent draft started in 1965 the Twins have drafted 31 pitchers in round 1 or as round 1 supplementary/compensation picks. Actually part of the Twins issues with starting pitching relates to spending money or the lack there of. The first two right-handed pitchers drafted by the Twins in round 1 were Dick Ruthven in 1972 and Tim Belcher (first overall pick) in 1983 who both refused to sign with Minnesota and went on to have long careers in MLB. The first left-handed pitcher drafted in round 1 to start any games was Eddie Bane and his Twins career lasted 25 starts. As I mentioned earlier, the draft started in 1965 but the Twins only drafted starting pitching in round 1 twice (Ruthven in 1972 and Bane in 1973) between 1965-1981. The first RHP that they drafted in round 1 that actually started a number of games (45 in Twins career) was Willie Banks who the team drafted in 1987. Since 2000 they have drafted a pitcher in round 1 a total of 17 times.

Starting pitching signed and developed by the Twins since 1961

Brad Radke
Rk Player GS From To Age G W L IP ERA
1. Brad Radke 377 1995 2006 22-33 378 148 139 2451.0 4.22
2. Bert Blyleven 345 1970 1988 19-37 348 149 138 2566.2 3.28
3. Frank Viola 259 1982 1989 22-29 260 112 93 1772.2 3.86
4. Dave Goltz 215 1972 1979 23-30 247 96 79 1638.0 3.48
5. Scott Baker 159 2005 2011 23-29 163 63 48 958.0 4.15
6. Scott Erickson 153 1990 1995 22-27 155 61 60 979.1 4.22
7. Dave Boswell 150 1964 1970 19-25 187 67 54 1036.1 3.49
8. Nick Blackburn 137 2007 2012 25-30 145 43 55 818.2 4.85
9. Allan Anderson 128 1986 1991 22-27 148 49 54 818.2 4.11
10. Pete Redfern 111 1976 1982 21-27 170 42 48 714.0 4.54
11. Roger Erickson 106 1978 1982 21-25 114 31 47 712.0 4.10
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/20/2016.

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If you can’t find, sign, and develop your starting pitching, you only have a few options at your disposal, you could make a trade, you can sign a free agent, or you can find one on the waiver wire (ha, ha, ha). 

The option I want to write about here is the Twins attempts to trade for starting pitching since the turn of the century, a total of 17 years. Trading for starters hasn’t exactly gone as planned either.

Continue reading The Twins trials and tribulations with finding starting pitching

The Nats are the first team since the ’06 Twins to do what?

There is a nice piece over at MLB.com that you might enjoy taking a look at called “The Nats are the first team since the ’06 Twins to have a finalist for all four major BBWAA awards“. If you have a few minutes, check it out. The Twins traded or fired all four.

There is reason for optimism – REALLY?

Terry Ryan
Terry Ryan

The end is quickly approaching to what may be the Minnesota Twins worst season in history. The team fired GM Terry Ryan back in July and has been looking to revamp the front office ever since. The recent chatter coming out of the organization is that the team hopes to have a head of Baseball Operations hired by the end of September while at the same time stories have come out that a number of people who the ballclub was interested in hiring have no interest in coming to Minnesota. Owner Jim Pohlad did say back in July when Ryan was let go that manager Paul Molitor would be back in 2017 for his third and final year of his contract.

Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor

If I am Paul Molitor, why would I come back in 2017? What manager worth his salt manages in his final year of a three-year deal? What kind of message does that send to the players not to mention the fans? Why come back and work for a GM or Head of Baseball Ops who didn’t hire him? An extension looks extremely unlikely after a season of 100 or so losses while working for someone who did not hire him in the first place. The easiest way out for everyone is for Paul Molitor to resign after the season ends and for the new Head of Baseball Ops to hire his own field staff.

Continue reading There is reason for optimism – REALLY?

According to ELIAS

Twins have two young sluggers

Miguel Sano
Sano
Kepler
Kepler

Miguel Sano, age 23, hit two home runs in the Twins’ 6-3 win at Tampa Bay. Sano’s teammate Max Kepler, also 23, has two multi-homer games in 2016. The last pair of Minnesota players, each under 24, who both hit two home runs in a game within the same season were Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau in 2004.

According to ELIAS

Kepler does something a certain 40-year-old has never done

Credit: Minnesota Twins
Credit: Minnesota Twins

Max Kepler slugged three home runs last night, which may make another active player who began his career with the Twins a little jealous. David Ortiz has hit 528 home runs in the majors and he has never had a three-homer game. Big Papi is one of three members of the 500-home-run club who never hit three in one game, along with Rafael Palmeiro and Gary Sheffield.

Corey Seager went deep three times in a game against the Braves in June. Kepler and Seager are the fourth pair of rookies to each have a three-homer game in the same season. The other tandems to do that were Mark McGwire and Mickey Brantley in 1987, Nick Markakis and Cody Ross in 2006, and Evan Longoria and Joey Votto in 2008.

Update: According to Elias, Max Kepler became the first European-born player in baseball history to homer three times in a game.

 

Kepler hits three homers in Twins’ victory

Box score

Congratulations Max!

It would be fun to take in a game at Elizabethton

Courtest of littleparks.com
Courtesy of littleparks.com

Elizabethton and the Minnesota Twins have been associated since 1974 when the Twins first fielded a rookie team there that was managed by some guy by the name of Robert Butler. The team was known as the Elizabethton Twins and played at Joe O’Brien Field as part of the Appalachian League and they finished second in their division with a 41-27 record. The only player from that team that ever went on to wear a Twins uniform was catcher Butch Wynegar. Other Twins notables such as Kent Hrbek, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, A.J. Pierzynski, and Kirby Puckett all started their careers there.

This morning I ran across a story on MiLB.com called “On the Road: Elizabethton’s timeless appeal.” It is a fun read on how different life is at a “rookie” league ballpark that was built in 1974 and has a capacity of 1,500. For more info/images on Joe O’Brien Park please go here. It is also worth noting that the field is also the home park of the local high school baseball team.

The MLB June amateur draft is far from a science

2016 DraftThe 2016 MLB will take place June 9, 2016 in Secacus, New Jersey and the Minnesota Twins will have the 17th selection this year. There are already numerous mock drafts being published but as normal they are all over the board, so what else is new. Here is a list (with pictures) on MLB.com of their proposed top 100 2016 prospects.

Baseball draft are so different from all the other sports in many ways but the two main differences that stand out is that baseball drafts are more international than other sports and if you get drafted in baseball you can look forward to spend a number of years in the minor leagues before you have the experience and necessary skill sets to play in the major leagues. Sure there have been some players that went directly to the major leagues but they are rare and the last player to do so I believe is RHP Mike Leake who was drafted eighth overall in 2010 by the Cincinnati Reds from Arizona State and now pitches for the Cardinals. The last Twins player to be drafted and go straight to a big league mound was LHP Eddie Bane who also was from Arizona State.

The June amateur draft is exciting for the fans but it is serious business for the MLB teams that have spent lots of time and money watching these young prospects as they try to determine who is the best player available when it comes time to make their selection. Mistakes in a draft can and do haunt teams for many years. There are many ways to mess up a draft choice, the player may not turn out to be as good as you thought, you might have bypassed a star player, you might not be able to sign the player, the player and/or his agent may state they don’t want to play for you, and of course an injury may cut his career short. If everything goes your way you have yourself a baseball player but the odds are stacked against you.

Continue reading The MLB June amateur draft is far from a science