Top left-handed hitting Twins power hitters

The Minnesota Twins have been known as a home run hitting team over the years. It got me to thinking since I was a left-handed batter when I was young and played ball with the other kids, who makes up the top 10 of Twins left-handed hitting home run hitters over the years.

The Twins leading power lefty, is as many of you might suspect, native-Minnesotan first baseman Kent Hrbek with 293 home runs. Nine Twins left-handed batters have hit 100 or more home runs in a Twins uniform. Just as an aside, there are ten Twins right-handed batters with 100 or more home runs wearing Twins colors over the years. Since the Twins began play they have hit a total of 9,002 home runs. 3,564 have been hit left-handed and 5,438 right-handed.

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.

Know your Twins numbers

0 – The lowest number worn by a Twins player or field staff is 0 (zero), worn by catcher Junior Ortiz back in 1990 and 1991.

3 – Worn only by Hall of Fame Twins player Harmon Killebrew and retired on May 4, 1975.

4 – Hall of Famer Paul Molitor wore the number 4 as a Twins player in 1996-1998 and as a coach in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2014 and as a manager from 2015-2018. 

6 – Worn by four former Twins players, Billy Consolo, Ted Lepcio, Jim Snyder, and Vic Wertz before Tony Oliva. Tony-O had his number 6 retired on July 14, 1991.

10 – Nine different Twins players wore the number 10 before manager Tom Kelly strapped it on his back from 1987-2001 as the Twins skipper. The Twins retired TK’s number 10 on September 8, 2012.

13 – Ten different Twins players and field staff have worn unlucky number 13, the first player being Bill Tuttle back in 1961 and the last player being Jason Kubel in 2014.

14 – Worn by four players and a manager before Kent Hrbek took the number 14 to glory. Twins retired the number on August 13, 1995.

25 – Hall of Fame and one time Twins player Jim Thome wore the number 25 on his back in 2010-2011.

28 – Worn by 14 different players including Bert Blyleven. The first player to wear the number 28 was Pedro Ramos and the last was Jesse Crain 2004-2010. Bert’s number 28 was retired on July 16, 2011.

29 – The seventh and final player to wear the number 29 was Rod Carew. The Twins retired this number 29 on July 19, 1987.

32 – MLB Hall of Famer and one time Twins player Dave Winfield wore the number 32 in 1993-1994.

34 – Nine players wore the number 34 before Kirby Puckett put it on in 1984 and no one has worn the number since Kirby took it off for the last time in 1995. The number was retired on May 25, 1997.

38 – MLB Hall of Famer and one time Twins pitcher Steve Carlton wore the number 38 in 1987-1988.

42 – Only three Twins players (Gerry Arrigo, Jim Manning and Buzz Stephen) wore the number 42 before the number was retired across MLB in 1997.

47 – Hall of Fame pitcher and one time Twins pitcher Jack Morris wore the number 47 in 1991.

73 – The lowest number that has never been worn by a Twins player or field staff.

83 – In the Minnesota Twins 58 year history Twins players and field staff have worn 83 different numbers.

99 – The highest number worn by a Twins player was 99 and it was worn by Logan Morrison.

Three players were on the active roster for the Twins but never played in a game for the team: Chuck Schilling, who wore number 18, in 1966; Maurice Ogier, who wore number 17, in 1968; and Dave May, who wore number 20, in 1977. Ogier and May never played in the majors.

Information is courtesy of historian and Minnesota Twins official scorer Stew Thornley’s website

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.

 

Twins all-opponent team shortstop

Shortstop – Cal Ripken was the Orioles second round selection (48th overall) in the 1978 June amateur draft. With the Twins first round pick (16th overall) in that same draft the Twins chose shortstop Lenny Faedo. But don’t feel bad because in the first round the Orioles chose infielder Robert Boyce who only reached as high as “A” ball.

You might think that picking the shortstop for this team would be easy but you would be wrong, it was difficult and I almost selected Omar Vizquel but finally decided on Ripken primarily because of his power and ability to show up and play every day. The numbers that Ripken and Vizquel put up against Minnesota were almost identical except in power and speed. They were both great players.

Ripken a Hall of Famer was the 1982 ROY award winner beating out Kent Hrbek and Wade Boggs. During his 21 year career he was a two-time MVP, 19 time All-Star (every year except his rookie season), 8 time Silver Slugger, and a 2 time Gold Glove winner not to mention a host of other awards.

But what did Ripken do against Minnesota that earns him the right to be a part of the Twins all-opponent team? Well, he went to the plate 725 times and had a .307 average with 197 hits, 47 doubles, 24 home runs, 105 RBI, with an OPS of .874. Not too shabby for a shortstop, plus the Twins decided to give him 15 IBB to make sure he didn’t do even more damage.

Looks like it is time to look at the outfielders.

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

Second Baseman – Lou Whitaker

Third Baseman – Wade Boggs

 

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Mejia, Abbott, McKay, Ryan, Hrbek, Gabino, Miller, Wimmers, Cressend and Siebler

I know, I know, I have neglected this the last few days so we will try to get caught up here today by getting the August 20-26 debuts out here.

 

Adalberto Mejia

Adalberto Mejia (P) – August 20, 2016 – Traded by the San Francisco Giants to the Minnesota Twins for Eduardo Nunez on July 28, 2016. It is never easy to make your debut when your team is down 8 to zip in the fifth inning but that was Mejia’s task at Kauffmann Stadium. Mejia went 2.1 innings allowing 5 hits, 1 walk and 2 earned runs in his first time on a big league mound.

Paul Abbott (P) – August 21, 1990 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1985 amateur draft. A tough start for Mr. Abbott against the Kansas City Royals at Royals Stadium when he is pinned with the loss after giving up 7 earned runs in 3 innings on 6 hits and 5 walks in his 84 pitches that day.

Dave McKay

Dave McKay (3B/2B/SS) – August 22, 1975 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1971. McKay was the starting third baseman against the Tigers at the Met. Started a Twins four run rally by leading off the bottom of the third inning with a home run off Tiger pitcher Vern Ruhle in his first big league at bat. Ended up 1 for 3 with a RBI and run scored.

Jason Ryan (P) – August 24, 1999 – Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Kyle Lohse to the Minnesota Twins for Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs. Probably drew the short straw when his big league debut was at the Met against the Red Sox and Pedro Martinez. Ryan lasted 4.1 innings giving up 4 earned runs on 4 hits and 6 walks and getting the loss in a 7-1 Red Sox victory.

Kent Hrbek (1B) – August 24, 1981 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 17th round of the 1978 amateur draft. First big league action was a start at first base in Yankee Stadium II against Tommy John in the 8 hole in the batting order. Hrbek went 2 for 5 with a run scored and 2 RBI. One of his 2 hits was a home run off George Frazier leading off the top of the 12th inning which provided the winning run in a Twins 3-2 victory over the Bronx Bombers.

Armando Gabino

Armando Gabino (P) – August 25, 2009 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins from the Cleveland Indians in the 2004 minor league draft on December 13, 2004. Gabino started his big league career with a start at the Dome against the Orioles. Gabino unfortunately lasted just 2.2 innings when he gave up 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 3 walks but the Twins came back to win the game 7-6.

Travis Miller (P) – August 25, 1996 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (34th pick) of the 1994 amateur draft. Travis Miller kind of showed right away that starting was not his thing when he started against the Texas Rangers at the Dome and was lifted after throwing 48 pitches in his first and only inning when he gave up 5 hits and 2 walks while allowing 7 Rangers runs. Two of the five hits were home runs. Oh, he did get the loss.

Alex Wimmers

Alex Wimmers (P) –  August 26, 2016 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (21st) of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft. Debuted at Rogers Centre in relief and pitched a slick 1 inning striking out 2 batters in a 15-8 Twins loss to the Bluejays.

Jack Cressend

Jack Cressend (P) – August 26, 2000 – Selected off waivers by the Minnesota Twins from the Boston Red Sox on April 22, 1999. The Twins were down 6-2 to the Tigers when Cressend entered the game in relief and pitched 1 inning giving up one run on two hits. The Twins eventually lost the game 8-2.

Dwight Siebler

Dwight Siebler (P) – August 26, 1963 – Purchased by the Minnesota Twins from the Philadelphia Phillies on August 24, 1963. Siebler entered the game in relief of Jim Kaat with runners on first and second and one out. Siebler got the first batter on a weak foul popup to the third baseman, but then he issued a bases filling walk before hitting the next batter to force in a run, walked the next guy to force in another run before retiring the next batter for the final out of the inning. It all sounds bad but his line was 2/3 of an inning with 2 walks, a HBP and zero runs on his record.

You can check out other Major League Debuts as Twins that I have done by going here.

Did you know?

At the 2017 All-Star break the Twins record from 1961 to current stands at 4,461 wins and 4,560 losses. The Twins have won a total of 410 games in walk-off fashion and lost 412 games via the walk-off. The means that 09.11% of the Twins games end via a walk-off in one fashion or another. 

The best season the Twins have ever had for walk-off wins was 1987 when they had 16 walk-off victories. The fewest walk-off wins occurred in 1982 when they had just two.  So far in 2017 they have also had just two walk-off wins.

Naturally there is the other side of the coin and the Minnesota Twins suffered 15 walk-off defeats in 1964 but only had three in 1993 and 2006. So far this season they have just one walk-off loss.

Twins walk-off King

So who is the Twins walk-off king? That would be non other than Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett who had 12 walk-off hits in his Twins career, Kent Hrbek was not far behind with 11. 

 

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Lombardozzi

One player made his big league debut as a Minnesota Twin on July 12

Steve Lombardozzi (2B) – July 12, 1985 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 9th round of the 1981 amateur draft. Lombardozzi debuted in the big leagues as a pinch-hitter for Kent Hrbek  and went 0 for 1 with a strike out in a Twins 3-2 win at Tiger Stadium.

To see other Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins