Tag: Oakland A’s

Twins sign Rich Harden to minor league deal

Rich Harden

The Twins announced that they have signed right-hander Rich Harden to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. The 31-year old Canadian native missed all of 2012 with a right shoulder strain and had rotor cuff surgery on January 31, 2012.

Harden was originally drafted by the Oakland A’s in the 17th round in the 2000 amateur draft and made his big league debut in 2003 as a 21-year old. Harden pitched a career high 189.2 innings in 2004 and has never pitched more than 148 innings an any season since. Harden throws a fastball, splitter, slider, and a change-up and has a 9.2 SO/9 career mark but staying healthy has proven to be Harden’s undoing. Harden pitched for Oakland from 2003 to 2008 before being traded to the Chicago Cubs where he pitched through the 2009 season. Harden signed a FA deal with the Rangers in 2010 but only appeared in 20 games going 5-5 with a 5.58 ERA. Rejoining the A’s in 2011, Harden went 4-4 in 15 games with a 5.12 ERA.

Harden is only 31 but he has been in the big leagues since 2003 and has a 3.76 career ERA in 928.1 innings to go with a 59-38 record. Harden along with a cast of thousands will try to make the Twins 2013 pitching staff but when a team is desperate enough to sign Harden with his medical history, you know that desperate times are at hand. To add to that desperation the Twins announced that their best pitcher in 2012, Scott Diamond has undergone clean-up elbow surgery on his pitching elbow this past Tuesday to take care of some bone chips. The ballclub states that Diamond will be ready for spring training but why would Diamond wait this long to have surgery? I can’t help but think this was another Twins cover-up so that other teams and free agents did not get a whiff of the Twins desperate pitching needs.

The Twins have also announced their list of non-roster invites to spring training and the list is long: Pitchers  Nick Blackburn, Deolis Guerra, Alex Meyer, Lester Oliveros, Bryan Augenstein, and Anthony Slama; outfielders Brandon Boggs and Clete Thomas; infielders Jeff Clement, Chris Colabello, Ray Olmedo and Mark Sobolewski; and catchers Kyle Knudson, Danny Lehmann and Dan Rohlfing.

It has been reported that former Twins lefty Francisco Liriano is signing a two-year $13  million deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Good luck to the Pirates and Francisco Liriano.

How Twins have fared against other AL opponents

The Washington Senators played in Washington D.C. from 1901 through 1960. During those 60 years the team played 9,188 games and had 4,223 wins, 4,864 losses and 101 ties to show for their efforts. Excluding the tie games the Senators had a .460 winning percentage.

Since the Minnesota Twins took the field for the first time as a major league team back on April 11, 1961 against the New York Yankees the Minnesota Twins have played 8,293 games and have 4,138 wins, 4,147 losses and 8 ties for a .499 winning percentage. Their home record stands at 2,241-1,913 for a .539 win percentage and on the road they have 1,897 wins and 2,234 losses for a .459 winning percentage.

I have put together a chart that shows how the Twins have fared against their American League brethren from 1961-2012 under Gardy, under TK, and the other 10 Twins managers combined that preceded TK and Gardy from 1961-1986, I know that TK managed briefly in 1986 but I have not included those few games in TK’s stats.

It comes as no surprise that the Kansas City Royals have been Twins patsies for a long time or that the New York Yankees have caused the Twins to get into a fetal position in the corner and cry. But a .276 winning percentage against the Bronx Bombers since Gardy took over as the Twins skipper is just plain atrocious, how can one team be so dominant?  That number truly amazes me. You have to understand, I like Gardy as a manager but a .276 winning percentage means that if the Twins played the Yankees under Gardy in every game of a 162 game schedule, the Twins would end up with a 45-117 record under Gardy’s leadership. There is an old baseball axiom that states that if you play 162 games, odds are that you will win at least 60 games and lose at least 60 games, at that rate even if you lost all of the remaining 42 games you would sill have a .370 winning percentage. YIKES!

The only Central division team to hold a winning record over the Twins is the Cleveland Indians. The Twins have beat 8 teams more often than they have lost and 6 teams hold a winning percentage over Minnesota.

Team Wins Losses Win % Pre 1987 Under TK Under Gardy
Royals 361 315 .534 .500 .492 .621
Senators/Rangers 360 321 .529 .561 .444 .550
Tigers 391 349 .528 .500 .569 .542
White Sox 420 383 .523 .545 .481 .517
Oak/KC A’s 358 335 .517 .523 .500 .520
Tampa 60 56 .517 n/a .447 .551
Brewers/Pilots 226 215 .512 .528 .472 .545
Red Sox 293 290 .503 .503 .512 .478
Indians 361 377 .489 .478 .463 .532
Mariners 196 211 .482 .508 .449 .505
Angels 326 353 .480 .487 .497 .421
Orioles 270 317 .460 .443 .472 .513
Blue Jays 153 197 .437 .518 .395 .410
Yankees 247 338 .422 .436 .463 .276

This Day in Twins History – November 6, 1976

After having a season for the ages (still holds AL record for most wins and saves in the same season) with the Minnesota Twins going 17-5 with 20 saves and a 3.01 ERA in 167.2 innings, reliever Bill Campbell (Soup) becomes the first player in MLB to cash in on the new free-agent system. The reliever signs with the Red Sox for big money, a four-year deal for  one-million dollars after being paid $23,000 by the Twins for the 1976 season. How did free agency come into play anyway?

The Reserve Clause, it doesn’t sound that bad, right? But what it really did was to tie a player to the ballclub that originally signed him for as long as the team wished to pay him for his services. It was a paragraph in each player’s contract that allowed a baseball team to keep him indefinitely until he was sold, traded or released. It was part of baseball’s antitrust exemption and allowed the team to renew his contract the following year even if the player refused to sign. The players insisted the renewal was good for one year; owners said it could be invoked indefinitely.

 

Curt Flood

After the 1969 season, 14-year outfielder Curt Flood was traded by the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies. Flood appealed in vain to commissioner Bowie Kuhn to be declared a free agent, then sued for it, writing that he was not property to be bought and sold regardless of his wishes and that “any system that produces that result violates my basic right as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States.” On June 19, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 against him.

After the 1974 season Oakland A’s pitcher Catfish Hunter claimed that the Oakland A’s owner Charles O. Finley had violated a portion  of his contract and an arbitrator agreed allowing Hunter to sign with any team of his choice and on December 31, 1974 signed a five-year $3.75 million contract with the New York Yankees. Those damn Yankees spent big money even back then.

Unhappy with their contracts, pitchers Andy Messersmith, 30, of the Dodgers and Dave McNally, 33, of the Expos played the 1975 without signing contracts and when the season ended they declared themselves free to sign with whom they pleased. A three-man panel made up of an owners representative, a players representative and an independent arbitrator, Peter Seitz heard the case. You can guess how the owners rep and players rep voted and then Seitz cast his vote in favor of the players making them free agents. The baseball owners quickly fired Peter Seitz and appealed their case in Federal Court but in February of 1976 they lost their appeal. In the spring of 1976 after instituting a spring training player lock-out the owners and players finally agreed on a free agency system. McNally never benefited from the system retiring from baseball before the 1976 season began but Messersmith signed a 3-year, $1.75 million contract that contained “renewal clauses after each season” and Braves owner Ted Turner  stated that “Messersmith will never be traded, he will be a Brave as long as I am”. However; after two seasons in Atlanta where Messersmith put up a 16-15 record the Braves sold him to the New York Yankees who kept him for one year before releasing him, Messersmith with his tail between his legs returned to the Dodgers in 1979 but in August the Dodgers said they had seen enough and Messersmith’s big league career was history. I guess you can make a case that paying big bucks for multi-years to free agent pitchers didn’t work back then and seldom works now. Keep this in mind when you get after the Twins brain-trust to pay big money for a free agent pitcher.

Sports Illustrated did a rather lengthy piece about the 1976 MLB free agent class back in their April 16, 1990 issue called “the first to be free“.

Check out the other Twins events that occurred on November 6th in our Today in Twins History page.

Twins Trivia post season award winners

The 2012 baseball season was not a great season for the Minnesota Twins or their fans but there are teams, players and managers that had a great year and one that they will remember for a long time. Now that the regular season is complete, members of the Baseball Bloggers Association are voting for their post season award winners by picking who they feel deserved to bring home the hardware for their efforts. Here is how I see it.

American League

The Connie Mack (Top Manager) award goes to Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics for leading the A’s to a division championship (94-68) after the team finished with a 74-88 mark in 2011. On June 30th the A’s were 13 games out of first and had a 37-52 record after three consecutive losses to the Texas Rangers. From that point on the A’s went 57-26 and won the division title on the last day of the season. My runner-up award goes to the Baltimore Orioles Buck Showalter who took his team to a wild-card playoff spot and a second place finish in a tough division. My third place finisher was a true rookie manager, Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox who had never managed before and piloted his team to a second place finish when I had the White Sox picked to finish dead last in the AL Central.

The Willie Mays (Rookie of the Year) award is the easiest pick of all, the award goes to outfielder Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Trout started the season in AAA and was called up at the end of April. Even with the late start Trout led the league in runs scored (129) and stolen bases (49) while finishing second in batting average hitting .320. Trout lead all AL rookies in every hitting category and even had the two longest rookie hitting streaks this past season. What an amazing season! My runner-up was the Oakland A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes who finished second to Trout in every AL hitting category except stolen bases (finishing fourth) and in any other season would have easily won the award. I have three pitchers rounding out the top 5 with the Oakland A’s Tommy Milone and  Yu Darvish finishing in a tie for third and the Minnesota Twins Scott Diamond rounding out the top five.

The Goose Gossage (Top Reliver) award goes to closer Fernando Rodney of the Tampa Bay Rays. The 35 year-old Rodney had a career year in his 10th season in the big leagues with 48 saves in 50 opportunities with 76 strikeouts in 74.2 innings and posting a 0.60 ERA with a 0.78 WHIP. Talk about lights out and to think he never had an ERA of under 2.68 any other season. The Rays signed Rodney as a free agent on January 4, 2012 for $1.75 million, what a bargain. The runner -up is the Baltimore Orioles Jim Johnson who led the league in saves with 51 in 54 chances. I have Rafael Soriano of the New York Yankees finishing third, Joe Nathan from the Texas Rangers in fourth and my fifth place vote goes to Tommy Wilhelmsen of the Seattle Mariners.

The Walter Johnson (Top Pitcher) award goes again this season to the Detroit Tigers Justin Verlander who pitched 238.1 innings in 33 starts and went 17-8 with an ERA of 2.64 and a 1.06 WHIP and a .217 batting average against to go with his 239 strikeouts. Tampa Bay Rays David Price was my runner-up by an eye lash, Price had a great season going 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA but I gave the nod to Verlander for innings pitched and strikeouts. My third place vote goes to the Seattle Mariners Felix Hernandez, fourth goes to Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox and fifth goes to Jeff Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Stan Musial (Top Player) award goes to the American League’s first triple crown winner since 1967, the Detroit Tigers 3B Miguel Cabrera. This was a very tough choice over my runner-up, outfielder Mike Trout of the Angels but in the end I think Cabrera earned it because of his triple crown and because he volunteered to move to 3B to make room for the recently acquired Prince Fielder. Both players had amazing seasons but I had to go with Cabrera this year. My third place vote goes to the Texas Rangers 3B Adrian Beltre, Twins catcher Joe Mauer gets my fourth place vote and my fifth place vote went to the shortstop from the New York Yankees because he played in 159 games and led the league in hits, and at bats at the age of 38.

National League

The Connie Mack (Top Manager) award goes to the Washington Nationals skipper Davey Johnson who took over the manager reigns late in 2011 and took the Nats to their first division championship and 98 wins this past season. Previous to taking over the Nationals manager role in 2011, Johnson last manged the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2000. My runner-up for NL skipper of the year goes to rookie manager Mike Matheny of the St. Louis Cardinals. In his first job as a manager the former catcher Matheny took his team to a wild card playoff spot and 88 victories after losing his best player (Albert Pujols) to free agency and losing one of his best pitchers (Chris Carpenter) for all but 3 games in 2012. The third place vote goes to the Cincinnati Reds skipper Dusty Baker for leading that team to a 97 win division winning season in his fifth year on the job.

The Willie Mays (Rookie of the Year) award goes to the Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper. The Nationals rookie also started his big league career in late April after starting the season in AAA and hit .270 with 22 home runs, 59 RBI’s, scored 98 runs and stole 18 bases. My runner-up may surprise some people but I think catcher Wilin Rosario of the Colorado Rockies had a fantastic rookie season hitting .270 with 28 home runs, 67 runs scored and 71 RBI’s while playing in just 117 games with just 396 at bats. My third place vote goes to lefty Wade Miley of the Arizona Diamondbacks who was 16-11 in 29 starts and 194.2 innings with a 3.33 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP for a team that went 81-81. Fourth place goes to 1B Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs and my fifth place vote goes to 27 year-old rookie pitcher Lucas Harrell who won 11 games for the worst team in baseball, the Houston Astros who won a total of 55 games this year.

The Goose Gossage (Top Reliever) award easily goes to the 24 year-old Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel who had 42 saves in 45 opportunities and posted a 3-1 record with a 1.06 ERA and a 0.65 WHIP. In 62.2 innings Kimbrel struck out 116 batters allowing only 27 hits and 14 walks and allowed opposing hitters a .126 batting average. The man is a machine. My runner-up is Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds who also had 42 saves and struck out 122 batters in 71.2 innings while posting a 1.51 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP. Hitters hit .141 against Chapman. Third place goes to Jason Motte of the St., Louis Cardinals, fourth goes to Jonathan Papelbon of the Philadelphia Phillies and my fifth place vote goes to Joel Hanrahan of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Walter Johnson (Top Pitcher) award is a tough call but I am going with the New York Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey as my choice. Dickey pitched a league leading 233.2 innings and struck out a league leading 230 batters. The 37-year-old Dickey was 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA with a 1.05 WHIP for a team that won a total of 74 games. My runner-up is Gio Gonzalez of the division winning Washington Nationals who was 21-8 with a 2.89 ERA and an amazing 0.4/9 home runs allowed. My third place vote goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers Clayton Kershaw, fourth place goes to the Atlanta Braves Craig Kimbrel and my fifth place vote is for Cincinnati Reds Johnny Cueto.

The Stan Musial (Top Player) award goes to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun again this year. Yes, I know all about last years fiasco with Braun but what can I say, the man puts up the numbers and without him the Brewers are nothing. Look at the numbers, a league leading 41 home runs to go with a league leading 108 runs scored, second in RBI’s (112) and a .319 batting average. Top that off with 356 total bases and you have the best player in the NL this season. The runner-up this year is Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen who had a wonderful season. My third place vote goes to San Francisco catcher and part-time first baseman Buster Posey. Posey almost single handedly led the Giants to the NL Western Division title and if he had played as well the entire year as he did in the second half of the season he might have been my choice to win this award. Posey hit .385 and knocked in 60 runs during the last half of 2012 coming off a horrific injury in 2011. I will go with New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey fourth in the voting here because without Dickey the Mets would have been not worth watching. Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel gets my fifth place vote.

So there you have it, the players that I think deserve to bring home the hardware after another great season of baseball in 2012. You may agree or disagree with my choices but that is what makes baseball such a great game and so much fun for us as fans to enjoy. When the BBA announces their winners in the near future I will share them with you.

This Day in Twins History – October 2

10/2/1974 – Harmon Killebrew wears the Twins uniform for the last time as a Twins player and appears as a pinch-hitter with two out in the bottom of the ninth but takes a called third strike from Steve Foucault for the final out of the game and the 1974 season. Only 2,570 fans see Harmon play his last game as a Minnesota Twin. Texas Rangers manager Billy Martin elects not use a designated hitter, and allows starting pitcher Ferguson Jenkins to bat for himself. Although Fergie gets a hit in the Texas 2-1 victory over the Twins at Metropolitan Stadium, the Rangers manager refusal to use a DH prevents the position from being employed for the entire game according to the rules.

10/2/1981 – The HHH Metrodome is inflated for the first time. It took two hours to inflate over 310 tons of fabric, covering the world’s largest air-supported multi-use stadium.

10/2/1988 – The Twins draw 35,952 fans in their season finale against the California Angels to become the first American League team to pass 3 million in attendance in a single season. They finish the season with a total attendance of 3,030,672. By the way, the Twins won the game 3-2.

10/2/1992 – Chili Davis hits home runs from each side of the plate against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium in a 5-1 Twins victory and becomes only the second Twins batter to accomplish this feat.

10/2/2002 – The Twins lose game 2 of the 2002 ALDS in Oakland to the A’s by a score of 9-1. Joe Mays was the losing pitcher and the Twins scored their only run on a Christian Guzman home run.

10/2/2004 – The game against the Indians at the Metrodome was suspended after 11 innings with the game tied at 5 because the playing surface had to be prepared for a Gophers football game. I was there and walked away feeling like I got cheated, baseball games are not supposed to end in a tie. The Twins won the game 6-5 in the 12th inning the next day. Kyle Lohse who pitched the 12th inning was the winning pitcher and he went on to start the regularly scheduled game for that day but he only lasted 4 innings and was the losing pitcher. Box score for suspended game.

10/2/2009 – Joe Nathan recorded his 46th save of the season and in the process broke the club single season save record held by Eddie Guardado who had 45 saves in 2002. Joe finished the 2009 regular season with 47 saves

Don’t forget to stop by daily and check out what transpired on our Today in Twins History page.

According to Elias

Glen Perkins

The Twins defeated the Royals, 3-1 and 8-7, in yesterday’s doubleheader, marking the second time this season that Minnesota has taken two in one day from Kansas City. On June 30, the Twins swept two from the Royals, 7-2 and 5-1, in Minneapolis. This marked the first time that the Twins have swept a specific opponent in two games in one day twice in the same season since they gave that treatment to the Athletics way back in 1978. The Twins were on the wrong side of such a thing as recently as last year, which they twice dropped a pair of games on the same day to the Indians. By the way, in all, the Twins played twice in a day four times last season-and lost all eight games! Glen Perkins saved both games for the Twins on Saturday, becoming the first Twins pitcher to earn two saves in one day since Rick Lysander saved a pair of games at Boston on Aug. 18, 1984. Source: Elias

This Day in Twins History – August 8

1974 – The Royals – Twins game at Royals Stadium is briefly interrupted by President Nixon’s resignation speech. The speech is broadcast after it begins and the next inning is delayed until the conclusion of the speech. The Twins prevail over the host Royals‚ 3 – 2 in 14 innings when Tony Oliva’s sacrifice fly drives home Rod Carew. Bill Campbell pitches 7 innings of relief for the win.

1987 – The Twins beat the Oakland A’s 9-2 at the Metrodome as Twins pitcher Steve Carlton wins the 329th and final game of his Hall of Fame career. Carlton pitches 8 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs while striking out two batters

1988 – The Indians and the Twins were scoreless after 3 innings at the Metrodome with Allan Anderson on the mound for the local nine. In the top of the fourth inning with no one out, the Indians Ron Washington and Willie Upshaw singled to put runners on first and second and then Joe Carter smashed a long drive to the left field corner where Twins outfielder Dan Gladden snagged it for an out and wheeled and fired a strike to Steve Lombardozzi at 2B to nail Washington and then Lombo relayed the ball to Gene Larkin at first to get the runner there by at least 5 feet and completed the unusual 7-4-3 triple play. The Twins went on to win the game by a 7-2 score with Gladden going 3 for 5 with a run scored, a stolen base, and a RBI. Catcher Brian Harper was 4 for 4 but played second fiddle to Gladden on this day.

1998 – Paul Molitor stole his 500th base in Minnesota’s 6-3 loss to Baltimore to become only the fifth player ever with 3,000 hits and 500 steals. Molitor joined Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Lou Brock.

2004 – The A’s beat the Twins 6 – 5 in 18 innings. It is the second-longest game in the 23-year history of the Metrodome. With the score tied 3 to 3, the A’s score 3 in the top of the 18th off Terry Mulholland to take a 6-3 lead. The Twins come back with 2 in the bottom of the 18th with a Morneau home run but leave Matthew LeCroy stranded on first when Koskie and Cuddyer fly out to end the rally and the Twins hope of a huge comeback victory. The game lasts 4 hours and 57 minutes.

2005 – One time Minnesota Twins manager (1976-1980) Gene Mauch passes away at the age of 79. Mauch was the seventh manager in Twins history. I think one of my favorite Gene Mauch quotes was “I’m not the manager because I am always right, but I am always right because I am the manager”.

2009 – The Twins third manager, Cal Ermer passed away at the age of 85 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Ermer replaced the fired Sam Mele in June 1967 with the Twins in sixth place with a 25-25 record. The Twins went 66-46 the rest of the season but lost the American League pennant on the final day of the season. Ermer was fired after the Twins finished in seventh place in 1968 with a 79-83 record.

According to Elias

The Twins scored 10 runs in the second inning en-route to a 14-3 victory over the Indians in Cleveland on Monday night. It marked only the fourth time that the Twins scored 10-or-more runs in an inning on the road since the team moved to Minnesota. The Twins scored 11 runs in the tenth inning at Oakland on June 21, 1969, 10 runs in the fourth inning at Detroit on April 30, 1985 and 10 runs in the fourth inning at Oakland on June 28, 1992. Source: Elias

Twins minor league player of the week

outfielder Matt Carson

Rochester outfielder Matt Carson is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week for July 29-August 3. Carson played six games for Triple-A Rochester, batting .367 (11-for-30) with two doubles, seven RBI’s and scored five runs. Carson, 31, who was signed by the Twins as a free agent prior to the season was originally selected by the New York Yankees in the fifth round of the 2002 First-Year Player draft out of BYU. Carson has also spent time in the Oakland and Tampa organizations after leaving the Yankee organization as a fee agent after the 2008 season.

Carson spent some time on the Oakland A’s big league roster in 2009-2010 playing in 46 games while hitting .200 in 100 big league at bats with 5 home runs, 14 RBI’s and stealing 4 bases. At the age of 31 the right-handed hittiong Carson is not really a prospect and is more or less filling out the roster in Rochester.

 

This Day in Twins History – July 25, 1977

Coming off a double header sweep (with the 2nd game going 12 innings) of the A’s the day before, the Twins are again going up against the boys from Oakland at Met Stadium. The game goes 11 innings before the Twins prevail 2-1 on a bases loaded single by Larry Hisle. But, the real story of the game is Twins starter Dave Goltz who pitches all 11 innings throwing 180 pitches. Goltz improves his record to 12-6 as he faces 41 batters giving up 8 hits and walking 1 while striking out 14 Oakland A’s. In spite of all of this, the game is over in 2 hours and 39 minutes. Goltz goes on to finish the season with a 20-11 record and 303 innings pitched in 39 starts and a 3.36 ERA. The SABR bio for Mr. Goltz can be found here.  Box score

Check out the other events that happened on July 25th by going to the Today in Twins History page.