Tag: Lenny Faedo

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 – Parmelee, Benson, Hendriks, Faedo & Poepping

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins on September 6. Note that Chris Parmelee, Joe Benson and Liam Hendriks all debuted in the same game on the same day and all started. The Twins lost the game 3-0 at Target Field

Chris Parmelee (OF/1B) – September 6, 2011 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (20th) of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. Debuted at first base hitting fifth. Parmelee had singles in his first two at bats and finished the day 2 for 4.

 

Joe Benson

Joe Benson (OF) – September 6, 2011 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. Benson played center field and hit lead-off and finished the game 0 for 3 with a walk.

 

Liam Hendriks

Liam Hendriks (P) – September 6, 2011 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent on February 25, 2007. Debuted as the starting pitcher and went 7 innings (99 pitches) and allowed three runs on 4 hits, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts.

Lenny Faedo (SS) – September 6, 1980 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (16th pick) of the 1978 amateur draft. Debuted in Tiger Stadium at “short” hitting ninth and was 1 for 3 with a run scored in a Twins 4-0 win.

Mike Poepping (OF) – September 6, 1975 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1969. Debuted in White Sox Park in a Twins 5-2 loss as the starting right fielder and was 0 for 4.

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

Analyzing Minnesota Twins First Round Picks – Part 1

Since the June Amateur Draft began in 1965 the Minnesota Twins have selected 72 players in round one, some are their regular first round selections and other are supplemental picks for the loss of a free agent or failure to sign a round one selection. 

Over the years the Twins have failed to sign seven first round selections, about 10% of their total first round picks. The seven players that did not sign were four position players and three pitchers. You would think most of these would be high school players that chose to go on to college but that is not the case here, six were college players and only one was a high school player. The last time the Twins organization failed to sign a player was 2000 supplemental pick RHP Aaron Heilman.

Minnesota Twins first round draft picks 1965-2016

POS HS COLLEGE
C 2 1
1B 1 1
2B 0 1
SS 8 3
3B 4 2
OF 12 2
RHP 9 10
LHP 1 8
DID NOT SIGN 1  6
  38 34

 

Continue reading Analyzing Minnesota Twins First Round Picks – Part 1

Interesting facts about the MLB first-year player draft

The first-year player draft was initiated in 1965 and since then a total of 60,428 players have been drafted. During that time, a total of 8,493 players (14.05%), which includes drafted players, non-drafted players and foreign-born players, have appeared in at least one Major League game.

Since the first-year player draft was initiated in 1965, 21 players that were drafted went straight to the big leagues to start their professional careers with out playing in a minor league game. Most eventually ended up spending time in the minors. The only Minnesota Twins player to accomplish this feat was LHP Eddie Bane. The Twins drafted Bane out of Arizona State University in June of 1973 and Bane his big league debut at Met Stadium on July 4th. Bane ended up spending parts of three seasons in the big leagues with Minnesota and had a 7-13 big league record between 1973, 1975 and 1976. Former Twins pitcher RHP Mike Morgan was picked by the Oakland A’s out of high school in 1978 and went straight to the big leagues too.

Since the drafted was put in place, the Minnesota Twins have had more first round picks, 58, than any other big league team. Oakland is closest with 53 first round picks and Tampa has the least with 18.

The very first pick in 1965 was ASU outfielder Rick Monday who went on to have a long career. The first player to made it to the big leagues out of this draft was RHP Joe Coleman the 3rd over all pick with the Washington Senators.

The Twins very first rounder in 1965 was shortstop Eddie Leon out of the University of Arizona but he chose not to sign with the Twins. The following season (1966) the Twins picked 3B Bob Jones in round 1 and 20th over all and he never appeared in a big league game. The Twins picked Steve Garvey in round 3 in 1966 but he chose to go to college before starting his long 19 year pro baseball career.

In 1967 the Twins picked Steve Brye in round 1 and 19th over all and he became the first Twins drafted player to play for the Twins when he debuted in 1970 and went on to play for Minnesota between 1970-1976.

The Twins have had the first over all pick twice, once in 1973 when they took RHP Tim Belcher who chose not to sign with Minnesota and catcher Joe Mauer whom they took first in 2001.

In 1978 the Twins picked shortstop Lenny Faedo with their first pick and he played for the Twins from 1980-1984. A number of pretty good players were picked later, HOF Cal Ripken was picked in the 2nd round that year, Kent Hrbek in the 17th round and HOF Ryne Sandberg was picked in round 20. You never know…..

The last high school player to be picked 1st over all is shortstop Tim Beckham picked by Tampa in 2008.

24 drafted players have gone on to be selected to the Hall of Fame. To this point no player selected 1st over all has ever gone on to have a HOF career. The Twins have drafted two players who have gone on to HOF careers, Bert Blyleven in 1969 and Kirby Puckett in 1982.

Since 1965, 33.8% of the picks have been RHP, 13.6% have been LHP, 10.2% have been catchers, 24% have been infielders, and 18.2% have been outfielders.

64% of the players drafted in 2011 went on to sign big league contracts.

Of the 638 players on the 2012 Opening Day rosters, 23.5% were drafted 1-30 over all and 378 or 59.2% were drafted 1-150 over all (basically the first 5 rounds).

These facts have been derived from the 2012 First-Year Player Draft Selection Guide.