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
Historically the Minnesota Twins have not had a lot of pitchers that were strikeout pitchers. I was curious as to just how many times a Twins pitcher has struck out 15 or more in a single game. Turns out that a Twins pitcher has accomplished this feat just six times in 9,095 games from 1961-2017 and no Twins pitcher has done it more than once.
If you look at the entire American League during the time period of 1961 to current the leaders are Nolan Ryan with 23 such games, Randy Johnson with 17, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens with 10 and Sam McDowell with 6, no one else had done it more than three times.
The Twins called Met Stadium home from 1961 through 1981 before moving into the HHH Metrodome in 1982. Today we are going to look at the starting pitchers that pitched at the Met for the Minnesota Twins and for their opponents and determine who won the most games.
The opposing pitcher that won the most games at Met Stadium pitched for the Yankees his entire career from 1964 to 1974 and it is Mel Stottlemyre. Not many people remember Mel Stottlemyre but he was what we would consider “a horse” today but his big league career ended way too early due to injury. Here is how his SABR Bio starts out:
A baseball lifer, Mel Stottlemyre burst on the scene as a midseason call-up for the New York Yankees in 1964, helping the club win its fifth consecutive pennant and starting three games in the World Series. One of the most underrated and overlooked pitchers of his generation, Stottlemyre won 149 games and averaged 272 innings per season over a nine-year stretch (1965-1973) that corresponded with the nadir of Yankees history. Only Bob Gibson (166 victories), Gaylord Perry (161), Mickey Lolich (156), and Juan Marichal (155) won more during that period; only Perry tossed more innings, and only Gibson fired more shutouts (43) than Stottlemyre’s 38. Stottlemyre was the “epitome of Yankee class and dignity,” wrote longtime New York sportswriter Phil Pepe. “[He was] a throwback to a winning tradition in those years of mediocrity.” After a torn rotator cuff ended his playing career at the age of 32 in 1974, Stottlemyre embarked on a storied career as a big-league pitching coach.
You can read the rest of his SABR Bio by going here. No opposing pitcher won more games than the 13 that Mel Stottlemyre did at the Met.
Opposing pitchers that won the most games at Met Stadium
Mel Stottlemyre of the New York Yankees pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx, New York 8/25/1968
FT. MYERS, FL – MARCH 01: Bullpen Coach Rick Stelmaszek #43 of the Minnesota Twins poses during photo day at Hammond Stadium on March 1, 2010 in Ft. Myers, Florida. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Rick Stelmaszek, a fixture on the Minnesota Twins coaching staff from 1981-2012 passed away at the age of 69 after a courageous battle with cancer. His 32 seasons as a coach with one team (Twins) are the third longest such stint in major league history, and he had the longest tenure of any uniformed employee in Twins history.
Richard Francis Stelmaszek known to all his baseball friends as “Stelly”, was born in Chicago, IL on October 8, 1948 and passed away in the city where he was born on November 6, 2017.
According to baseball-reference.com Rick’s father, Raymond Stelmack was a pitcher and outfielder that played in the Yankees, Cardinals, White Sox, and Cubs farm systems from 1939 to 1946 but he never reached the big leagues.
Rick Stelmaszek was drafted after graduating from high school by the Washington Senators as a catcher in round 11 of the 1967 amateur draft and started his professional career in 1968 with the “A” ball Salisbury Senators in the West Carolinas League. Although not a great hitter by any means, Stelmaszek reached the big leagues in 1971 at the age of just 22 and made his big league debut on June 25 at Yankee Stadium when he entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter for catcher Paul Casanova and finished the game going 0 for 2. The visiting Senators lost that game 12-2 and it was one of the six big league games he played in 1971.
Note that long-time Twins pitching coach Dick Such is also on the card.
The Washington Senators left Washington after the 1971 season and moved to Arlington, Texas where they became the Texas Rangers. Stelmaszek spent all of 1972 in the minors perfecting his trade. In 1973 in his seventh game in a Ranger uniform and 0 for 17 in his big league career, Stelly finally got off the snide with a single off of future fall of famer Nolan Ryan of the California Angels for his first big league hit.
That hit must have impressed the Angels because the next day they acquired him in a five player trade with the Rangers. Stelmaszek spent the rest of 1973 with California but found himself in AAA when the 1974 season started. In July of 1974 Stelmaszek was packing his suitcase again, this time he was off to his home town of Chicago where he appeared in 25 games for the Cubs. Stelly hit his first and only major league home run wearing a big league uniform when hit the “tater” off future hall of famer Don Sutton in an 18-8 Cubbies loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field. Stelmaszek went 2 for 4 with a double when he played in his final big league game at the age of 25, a 3-2 loss at Wrigley to the Montreal Expos.
Stelmaszek spent all of 1975 with the Cubs AAA team and in January of 1976 he was on the move again, this time he was headed for the bright lights of New York City to play with the Yankees. However; Stelly never got to wear the Yankee pinstripes and he spent 1976 with the Yankees AAA team and in 1977 he was playing in AAA for the Rangers.
1978 found him with the Minnesota Twins organization as a player manager for the “A” ball Wisconsin Rapids Twins in the Midwest League. His record that season was only 62-76 but the only player that ever reached the big leagues that played on that team was Mark Funderburk and he only played in 31 major league games for the Twins. Stelmaszek retired as a player after the 1978 season but he continued managing at Wisconsin Rapids through the 1980 season.
After winning the Midwest League Manager of the Year award in 1980, Stelly joined the Twins big league coaching staff in 1981 as the bullpen coach under manager Johnny Goryl and continued in that roll for 32 years and coached under five managers, Goryl, Billy Gardner, Ray Miller, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire.
When the Twins finished 2012 with the worst record in baseball, Rick Stelmaszek was one of the coaching casualties and lost his long time coaching job with the Twins. Stelmaszek was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2016. The Twins talked him into returning to Target Field to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day in 2017. He also made it back to Target Field for the 30-year anniversary celebration of the 1987 World Series team in July. The team recently announced that Stelmaszek would receive the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented in January.
Here is the Twins’ statement after learning that their long time coach had passed away.
“The Minnesota Twins are deeply saddened by the loss of Rick Stelmaszek. A true Twins legend, “Stelly” was widely respected throughout baseball. He was a professional who dedicated his life to Twins baseball and instilled a winning culture into generations of Twins players. The club, like many of his friends throughout the game, is thinking of his wife and son, Kathy and Michael, and the entire Stelmaszek family during this difficult time.”
Thank you for the memories Rick Stelmaszek and we here at Twinstrivia.com would also like to pass on our condolences to the Stelmaszek family and friends.
Bartolo Colon made his Twins debut on Tuesday night with a start against the Yankees. Minnesota is the 10th major-league team Colon has started for, becoming the fifth pitcher in major-league history to start for 10 different teams. Mike Morgan holds the all-time record; he started at least one game for 12 different teams and of course one of them was the Minnesota Twins.
This is sort of impossible to believe, but there have been eight pitchers older than the age that Bartolo Colon currently is to appear in a Major League Baseball game in the past 50 years. They are:
The franchise leader in complete games pitched for the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins is Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson who had 38 complete games in 1910 in 42 starts for the Washington Senators. Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven, also in the Hall of Fame is the Twins leader in complete games in a single season with 25 complete games in 40 starts back in 1973. The last Twins pitcher to lead the AL in complete games was Carl Pavano with seven in 2010.
But who holds the Minnesota Twins record for the most complete games in a row? That record of course belongs to Twins curve-ball ace Camilo Pascual who had 8 complete games in a row between May 10, 1964 and June 17, 1964. Bert Blyleven is second on the Twins list below but he pitched 10 complete games in a row in 1985 for the Cleveland Indians.
Back in 1980 Oakland A’s starter Rick Langford as a 28 year-old pitched an amazing 22 complete games in a row between May 23 and September 12 and that included a 14 inning win against the Cleveland Indians. The A’s starting staff had an work-man like 94 complete games in 1980. The starting five made up of Rick Langford, Mike Norris, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty and Brian Kingman started all but three A’s games that season. The team finished with a 83-79 record under skipper Billy Martin and pitching coach Art Fowler.
Nolan Ryan who was pitching for the California Angels at the time had a streak of 10 complete games in a row against the Minnesota Twins from September 30, 1972 through September 28, 1974 but the Twins did manage to win 3 of those 10 games. About the time Ryan’s streak was ending, teammate Frank Tanana started a streak of his own pitching 7 complete games in a row against the Twins from September 27, 1974 through June 15 1977.
The 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft is still a long ways off but since my home town Minnesota Twins have the first overall pick in the draft it got me to thinking. I spent some time recently researching how MLB teams have fared with their first round picks in the June Amateur draft that first started in 1965. The very first pick in the very first draft was made by the Kansas City Athletics and they chose Arizona State University outfielder Rick Monday who went on to a nice 19 year career with three teams with two All-Star selection and a career WAR of 33.1 but he was not HOF worthy. Drafting back in 1965 was an inexact science just like it is today, HOF pitcher Nolan Ryan was drafted in round 12 and ended up with a career war of 81.8 and HOF catcher Johnny Bench who ended up with a 75.0 WAR was selected in round two. Other first round picks that year that you might remember were RHP Joe Coleman, catcher Ray Fosse and third baseman Bernie Carbo.
The question becomes how to rank the teams and I decided to rank them in order of career WAR as determined by Baseball-Reference. I looked at how many players were drafted and signed by each team and then totaled the career WAR numbers and then determined an average WAR for each drafted/signed player.
It was a fun exercise looking at the list of players that were drafted and signed as first round picks. Did they deliver on the promise you thought they had when your team announced that they had drafted and signed them? In baseball there are no guarantees that a first round pick from high school or college will make it to the big leagues and wear your teams colors.
The thing to remember here is that I only looked at first round picks. There are many great players drafted in later rounds but the round one picks get all the ink, most of the money and they wear that “first round pick” label for ever.
Ron Keller pitched for the Twins in 1966 and in 1968
Major League Baseball’s first amateur draft was held in June 1965. Teams chose players in reverse order of the previous season’s standings, with picks alternating between the National and American Leagues. With the first pick, the Kansas City Athletics took Rick Monday, an outfielder from Arizona State University.
Originally, three separate drafts were held each year. The June draft, which was by far the largest, involved new high school graduates, as well as college seniors who had just finished their seasons. Another draft was held in January, which typically involved high school players who graduated in the winter, junior college players, and players who have dropped out of four-year colleges. Junior college players were required to wait until their current season was completed before they could sign. Finally, there was a draft in August for players who participated in amateur summer leagues. The August draft was eliminated after only two years, while the January draft lasted until 1986.
Ron Keller was an eighth round selection and the 143 pick overall by the Minnesota Twins in MLB’s first amateur draft that was held in New York City in 1965. Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan was the New York Mets 12 round pick and 295th overall that same year. The Twins selected the 6’2″ Keller out of Indiana University as a right-handed pitcher.
From 1957 to 1961 Keller earned six letters at Cathedral High in Indianapolis playing baseball and basketball. According to teammates, Keller was a very intelligent player and knew how to keep the ball down and to throw strikes. At IU Keller majored in accounting and played under Ernie Andres who had a short stint in the big leagues as a third baseman for the Boston Red Sox in 1946. After retiring from baseball Andres coached the IU baseball team from 1949-1973.
After being drafted and signed by the Twins, Keller was assigned to the St. Cloud Rox (A) where he led the league in wins with 9 (3 losses) and he completed 11 of the 14 games that he started. Keller posted a 2.03 ERA and he struck out 132 batters in 111 innings.
In 1966 started the season with the Wilson Tobs (A) where he was 4-2 in 55 innings before being bumped up to the Charlotte Hornets (AA) where he was 3-0 in 48 innings. After his brief stop in Charlotte he was assigned to the Denver Bears (AAA) where he started seven games and posted a 5-1 record. When Camilo Pascual took one of his annual trips to the DL, Keller was called up by the mother club and he made his inauspicious big league debut at Met Stadium on July 9, 1966 in an 8-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers, just barely a year after being drafted and starting his professional career. Keller shut down the Tigers in 2 of the 3 innings he pitched but he gave up 3 “earnies” in the middle inning. Keller only appeared in one more game again in relief for the Twins in 1966 before being send down. Advancing from “A” ball to the big leagues in just one year after signing was very impressive indeed.
Ron Keller spent all of 1967 in the minors at Denver (AAA) and posted and 10-11 record with a 4.78 ERA. Keep in mind we are talking Denver which was no easier to pitch in then than it is now. Keller spent most of 1968 with Denver again but was called up by the Twins and appeared in just 7 games in 3 months with the parent club. In the spring of 1969 the Twins brain trust wanted to ship Keller back out to AAA but Keller said “no” and retired from baseball at the age 25. “I thought I had nothing more to prove in the minors,” he said. “Twins owner Calvin Griffith refused to trade me, and wouldn’t believe my threats to quit baseball.”
You have to wonder if either Griffith or Keller regretted their stubbornness and their decision.
A pitcher gets credit for aquality start (QS) any time he allows three earned runs or less in a start that lasts at least six innings. John Lowe who was writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time developed and coined the term Quality Start back in 1985.
Most arguments against the QS begin with the statement that a QS equals a 4.50 ERA and an ERA of 4.50 is not seen as top-notch by anybody. If you look up QS on Wiki you can find some strange situations for and against the term QS, for example, in 2000 Mark Mulder goes 6 and 2/3 innings giving up 15 hits, nine runs but only two were earned and so he gets a QS, in 1982 Mike Scott goes the required 6 innings giving up 7 hits, 5 walks, zero strikeouts, allows 7 runs albeit only 3 earned and he get a QS, on the other side of the coin, back in 1974 Gaylord Perry goes 15 innings and allows 4 earned runs and get no QS, same with Randy Johnson who pitches a complete game while striking out 19 but gives up 4 earnies and gets no QS.
Since 1961, the most MLB QS in a single season record is held by White Sox knuckleballer Wilbur Wood who had 37 QS in 41 starts in 1971. Next on the list is Dodger great Sandy Koufax with 36 QS in 1966 (his final season) in 41 starts. The career leaders in QS from 1961-current are Don Sutton with 483, Nolan Ryan with 481, and Greg Maddux with 480.
But how close is the relationship of a QS to what really counts, a team victory. If you look at the list that I have provided below that shows the Minnesota Twins QS and the team record you can get a feel for how the two compare. Sure, there are outlier seasons like 1972 when the team had 114 QS and finished the season with a 77-77 record or when the opposite happened in 2006 when the Twins went to the play-offs with a 96-66 record but only had 73 QS. By the way, I don’t remember seeing any Rick Anderson for governor buttons back then.
The Twins historical QS numbers are kind of strange, almost a bell-shaped curve. The Twins have had 90 or more QS in a season 11 times and went to the playoffs zero times. No Twins team with 72 or less QS has sniffed the playoffs either. The Twins have advanced to the playoffs 11 times and their QS were always in the 73-89 range and if you exclude the 2006 season with just 73 QS, the other ten fall between 78-89. Having said all that, in the past 54 seasons the Twins have had 4,266 QS, the team record during that period is 4,274-4,335. 4,266 QS and 4,274 wins over 54 seasons, is that strange or what?
The chart below shows you in a pictorial fashion the relationship of QS and Twins victories. Click on the chart to make it larger.
Twins Quality Start History
YEAR
QS
RECORD
1972
114
77-77
1967
105
91-71
1968
100
79-83
1966
99
89-73
1963
95
91-70
1973
93
81-81
1978
92
73-89
1974
90
82-80
1984
90
81-81
1988
90
91-71
2005
90
83-79
1965*
89
102-60
1970*
89
98-64
1991*
89
95-67
1969*
88
97-65
1971
88
74-86
1989
88
80-82
1964
86
79-83
2008
86
88-75
2010*
86
94-68
1976
83
85-77
1992
83
90-72
2004*
83
92-70
1980
82
77-84
1987*
80
85-77
2001
80
85-77
2003*
80
90-72
2007
80
79-83
2011
80
63-99
1962
79
91-71
2009*
79
87-76
1998
78
70-92
2002*
78
94-67
1961
75
70-90
1990
75
74-88
1985
74
77-85
1979
73
82-80
2006*
73
96-66
1975
71
76-83
1986
71
71-91
2000
71
69-93
1977
70
84-77
1993
69
71-91
1996
69
78-84
1983
67
70-92
1982
66
60-102
2014
66
70-92
1999
63
63-97
2012
62
66-96
2013
62
66-96
1997
61
68-94
1981
56
41-68
1995
43
56-88
1994
37
53-60
TOTALS
4,266
4,274-4,335
* = went to playoffs
.
Twins QS data by decade
DECADE
QS
AVG. QS PER SEASON
1960’s
816
90.7
1970’s
863
86.3
1980’s
764
76.4
1990’s
667
66.7
2000’s
800
80.0
2010’s
356
71.2
Data provided by Baseball-Reference Play Index.
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I asked Jim Kaat if he would comment on Quality Starts and here is what Jim had to say-
Thanks John,
I’m happy to comment on “Quality Starts”. It’s one of my favorite subjects because it is misunderstood. My pitching stats person, Merrianna McCully, has compiled a 25 year profile on QS’s in her book ‘Three Up Three Down’. She kept all sorts of pitching stats for me from 1988-2006…
The MINIMUM DAILY REQUIREMENT,[ like a vitamin pill] is 6 ip. 3 er or less..the actual earned run averages in a Quality start is a little under 2 in the NL and about 2.05 in the American league..DH factor…The IP’s in a QS game will close to 8 innings pitched. The records show that if a team got just a minimum daily requirement for a QS they would win about 2/3 of their games unless they had an extremely ineffective bullpen.
Kenneth Marvin Schrom was born in Grangeville, Indiana on November 23, 1954 and attended Grangeville High School where he earned 11 athletic letters and all-state honors in baseball, basketball and all-american honors in football. The Minnesota Twins drafted Schrom in 1973 in the 10th round but Ken passed on the offer and instead accepted a scholarship from the University of Idaho to play football and baseball. Schrom was a two-year letter winner in both football and baseball for the Idaho Vandals from 1973-76. Schrom had dreams of playing QB in the NFL one day but a couple of injuries on the football field caused him to pass on football and focus on his baseball career.
The California Angels drafted Schrom in 1976 in the 17th round and after signing his first pro contract Ken began his climb to the major leagues. Schrom worked his way through the minors quickly and by 1979 was already pitching in AAA Salt Lake City. Schrom was again in Salt Lake City when the 1980 season opened and he was hoping for a call from the Angels but when that call came on June 10, 1980 he found out that the Angels had dealt him to the Toronto Blue Jays as the PTBNL from an earlier Angels-Blue Jays deal.
It wasn’t long before the Blue Jays called Schrom up to the big leagues and on August 8th, 1980 Ken appeared in his first big league game against the Kansas City Royals at Exhibition Stadium in the second game of a double-header as a reliever pitching the final 2/3 of an inning in a 7-4 losing cause to the Royals. Schrom spent the rest of 1980 with Toronto pitching in relief but the following season he found himself in AAA Syracuse. Schrom started 1982 in Syracuse again but in August the Blue Jays recalled Schrom and he appeared in 6 games before Toronto released him. Schrom signed with the Minnesota Twins as a free agent in December 1982.
In 1983 the Twins turned Schrom into a starter and after a quick 3-1 start in Toledo the Twins called Schrom to the majors. Schrom who threw the fastball, curve, slider and change-up seemed better suited to be a starter than a reliever and the Twins put Schrom in the starting rotation on May 20th and he rewarded them with a 15-8 record earning the Twins Pitcher of the Year award on a team that won only 70 games. Schrom posted a 5-11 record the following season primarily because he pitched most of the season with a strained rotator cuff. Schrom struggled again in 1985 going 9-12 and in January of 1986 the Twins traded pitchers Ken Schrom and Bryan Oelkers to the Cleveland Indians for pitchers Roy Smith and Ramon Romero.
Cleveland turned out to be a great fit for Schrom and in his first season there in 1986 he got off to a 10-2 start and was named to the 1986 American League All-Star team. Ken finished the season with a 14-7 record and a 4.54 ERA. The injury bugaboo struck Schrom again in 1987 when he went 6-13 with a 6.50 ERA but it was determined that he was pitching with a tear in his labrum that ended up needing surgery. Schrom sat out 1988 recovering from the surgery. Schrom appeared briefly for El Paso as part of the Milwaukee organization but after just a handful of games ended up getting released and at the age of 34 his playing career was over. You will have to listen to the interview to have Ken tell you himself why his release from El Paso was unique to say the least.
Though his active playing career was over, Ken Schrom was certainly not done with baseball. Schrom spent the next 16 seasons working in a variety of roles in the front office of the El Paso Diablos. The El Paso Diablos under the ownership of Jim Paul were named the Minor League Franchise of the Decade in the 1980’s by Baseball America.
In 2003 Schrom left El Paso and joined the Corpus Christi Hooks, a “AA” team for the Houston Astros that was owned by Nolan Ryan at the time but was sold this past Fall to the Houston Astros as the club’s GM. In 2005 Ken Schrom was named the 2005 Texas League Executive of the Year. In May of 2009 Schrom was named President of the Hooks and in 2014 Ken enters his sixth season as club president and 11th full year with the franchise. In September of 2007, the University of Idaho Vandals honored Ken with induction into their Athletics Hall of Fame. Others in his inaugural induction class included Jerry Kramer, a guard for the Green Bay Packers during their 1960s glory years, and Gus Johnson, a five-time All-Star during his 11-year NBA career. To this day Ken Schrom is a loyal Green Bay Packers fan.
With the Astros now being part of the AL Central, I think Ken will be making his way to Minnesota this summer and will get his first peek at Target Field and maybe get in a little fishing with long-time friend Kent Hrbek along the way. In his down time, Schrom loves a good game of golf and can be found playing chasing that little white ball around the course several times a week and when he is not golfing you might find a rod and reel in his hand. Ken and his wife Cindy, an interior designer, now live in Portland, Texas. They have two adult children, Kayla and Jared.
I was a Minnesota Twins 19th round pick and I played in Minnesota for all or parts of three seasons before being traded. During one of those seasons, I was named to the Topps All-Star Rookie team. During my time as a Twin I had 1,062 plate appearances with a .260 batting average with 24 home runs. I hold the Twins career record for most plate appearances without being hit by a pitch. As a matter of fact, no player in franchise history going back to 1901 has ever stepped up to the plate as many times as I have without being plunked at least once. There are only 12 players in major league history with 1,000 or more plate appearances and a zero in the “Hit by Pitch” column and I am one of them. I do however; have a long ways to go to catch up with the all-time leader who is Mark Lemke with 3,664 plate appearances and was never hit by a pitch. So who am I?
Just as a FYI, Nolan Ryan had 957 plate appearances without being hit by a pitch. In his 27 seasons he hit 158 batters and no one ever retaliated? Hard to believe.
Danny Valencia
Update as of November 10 – As you can see by the comments section, Shane Wahl nailed it right away that it was former Twins 3B Danny Valencia. Nice job Shane.
