Tag: P.J. Walters

It is all uphill from here – tough starts by Twins starters

Since the Minnesota Twins started play here in 1961 they have played 9,451 games through August 31, 2020. The Twins obviously needed a starting or in recent times an opening pitcher for each of those games.

Sometimes the starts don’t go exactly as planned as the pitchers on the list included here can attest. If you watched one of these games you were probably saying “get him out of there” but did you know that you were watching something pretty rare? A Minnesota Twins starter getting pulled and sent to the showers before he hardly had a chance to work up a sweat doesn’t happen very often, as a matter of fact it hasn’t happened since 2012 when P.J. Walters was the unlucky victim. Just looking at Twins history, it has happened just 17 times in 9,451 games or in just .0017% of the starts.

If you take a closer look at the list you will see there are some pretty good starters on this list. One of these types of starts doesn’t always guarantee that the team would lose either, in four of the seventeen cases the Twins came back to win the game. In six of the seventeen cases shown here the starter didn’t walk away with the “L”.

Al Schroll
Results
Rk Player Date Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB HR UER BF
1 Al Schroll 1961-08-26 BAL L 4-7 GS-1, L 0.0 3 4 3 2 1 1 6
2 Jim Kaat 1962-04-19 CHW L 3-10 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 2 0 0 2 4
3 Ray Moore 1963-07-05 (1) BAL L 3-4 GS-1, L 0.0 2 4 3 2 0 1 5
4 Jim Roland 1964-08-06 BOS W 6-5 GS-1 0.0 2 4 2 2 1 2 5
5 Tom Hall 1968-08-09 NYY W 4-3 GS-1 0.0 2 3 2 3 0 1 6
6 Dave Boswell 1970-06-28 (2) CHW L 10-11 GS-1 0.0 1 2 2 1 0 0 2
7 Ray Corbin 1974-06-30 (1) CHW L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 0 0 0 4
8 Vic Albury 1974-07-19 DET W 7-5 GS-1 0.0 2 3 3 1 1 0 3
9 Ray Corbin 1975-06-30 CAL L 3-10 GS-1, L 0.0 6 6 6 0 1 0 6
10 Pete Redfern 1982-06-26 TOR W 4-3 GS-1 0.0 2 1 1 0 0 0 2
11 Bryan Oelkers 1983-06-21 TOR L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 1 1 0 5
12 Ken Schrom 1985-07-20 NYY L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 3 4 4 1 1 0 4
13 Frank Viola 1986-05-20 BOS L 7-17 GS-1, L 0.0 5 6 6 1 0 0 6
14 Roy Smith 1989-05-26 TEX L 3-5 GS-1, L 0.0 5 4 4 0 0 0 5
15 Kevin Tapani 1990-07-13 (1) BAL L 5-8 GS-1 0.0 2 2 2 0 0 0 2
16 Frankie Rodriguez 1996-07-30 BAL L 4-16 GS-1, L 0.0 2 5 3 2 0 2 5
17 P.J. Walters 2012-06-13 PHI L 8-9 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 0 0 0 4
Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 8/29/2020.

If you want to check out some Twins historically bad starts in terms of runs allowed, I did a piece on that called “Historically bad starts by Twins pitchers” back on 2015 that you can also check out.

According to ELIAS

Gibson goes the distance in a Twins win

Gibson, Kyle 2016Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson notched the first complete-game win of his major-league career with a 10-3 victory last night over the Braves in Atlanta. It was the first complete-game road win by a Twins pitcher since May 22, 2012, when P.J. Walters went the distance in a victory over the White Sox in Chicago. Gibson was the first Minnesota pitcher to post a complete-game road win over a National League opponent since June 2010, when Carl Pavano did so twice in a seven-day span, beating the Phillies and the Mets.

Twins call up Walters, lose Benson and break 10 game losing streak

PJ Walters
PJ Walters

The Minnesota Twins announced prior to todays game with the Tigers in Detroit that they have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher P.J. Walters from AAA Rochester. Walters started 12 games for the Twins in 2012 going 2-5 with a 5.69 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP. Walters started strong and finished strong in 2012 but in between he had 5 games where he gave up 25 earned runs. The 28 year-old Walters has also seen big league action with the Cardinals (2009-2011) and with the Blue Jays in 2011. The Twins had signed Walters to a free agent contract in December 2011 and then in October 2012 Walters became a free agent again only to resign with Minnesota a couple of days later. This season Walters made nine starts for the Rochester Red Wings, going 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA (54.1 IP, 20 ER), 46 strikeouts, 16 walks and one complete game.

Benson, Joe 2013Additionally, the Twins reported that AAA Rochester outfielder Joe Benson was claimed off outright waivers by the Texas Rangers, making room for Walters on the Twins 40-man roster. Benson was drafted by the Twins in the second round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft. Benson had appeared in 21 games for the Twins in 2011 and in 74 at bats hit .239 with 6 doubles, 1 triple and no home runs and struck out 21 times. Benson has had injuries issues the last couple of seasons and the Twins brain trust has seemed to lose faith in a player they once though would be their five-tool center fielder of the future. I hate to see Benson leave the Twins but I wish him the very best.

The Twins beat the Tigers 3-2 this afternoon and broke their 10-game losing streak. The Twins scored 3 in the first and then hung on behind Walters 6 solid innings (2 earned runs) and a number of relievers before Perkins finally closed the door on the Twins losing streak. Gardenhire did not get to take part in the Twins post game celebration as umpire Joe West had excused Gardy earlier in the game. Who knows, with the Twins on a 10 game slide maybe West thought he was doing Gardy a favor?

Max Kepler
Max Kepler

Twins prospect Max Kepler continues to have some arm issues that he has been rehabbing since earlier this spring. Now,, after appearing in a couple of games, pain has returned and now Kepler has been diagnosed with tendinitis tendinosis so he will be shut down for about the next two weeks. Hopefully this Twins prospect can get healthy again soon and join the Cedar Rapids Kernels which is where he was expected to open the season.

I also wanted to let everyone know that I just added my 1,000th item to my Today in Twins History page and I will continue to add new items frequently as we move forward to continue to add Twins history to the Twins Trivia site. Make sure you check in frequently to keep up with what has transpired each day in Twins history.

Twins Trivia 2013 predictions

crystal ballThe 2013 season is just around the corner so it is time to make my annual predictions on who will finish where and who the 2013 World Series champion will be.

AL East
 
Toronto Blue Jays
Tampa Bay Rays (wild card)
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
 
AL Central
 
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals (wild card)
Cleveland Indians
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
 
AL West
 
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland A’s
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros
 
NL East
 
Washington Nationals
Atlanta Braves (wild card)
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Mets
Miami Marlins
 
NL Central
 
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates (wild card)
St. Louis Cardinals
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs
 
NL West
 
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Francisco Giants
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
San Diego Padres

 

The Detroit Tigers and the Washington Nationals play in the World Series with the Washington Nationals winning it all in 6 games.

 ……………………………………

The Minnesota Twins 2013 season opener at Target Field against the Detroit Tigers is just over a week away so after watching and listening to Twins in spring training and consulting with some of the worlds foremost baseball experts, here is what I see happening in 2013.

Einstein 2013

 

  1. Josh Willingham will be traded and Oswaldo Arcia will be called up to take over a starting outfield position. Arcia will fill the role nicely.
  2. Trevor Plouffe will not be able to hang on to the starting job due to injuries and inconsistent hitting and fielding and third base will be a black hole all season with Jamey Carroll, Eduardo Escobar, and Mark Sobolewski all getting a shot to win the job and none of these guys turns out to be the answer. The Twins will make a deal to fill the 3B hole but it will just be a stop-gap as they wait for Miguel Sano to finally fill the hole late in 2014.
  3. Anthony Swarzak and Tyler Robertson will lose their bullpen jobs and will be replaced by PJ Walters and Ryan Pressly.
  4. Jeff Clement will win a roster spot and be the Twins third catcher leaving Drew Butera out in the cold but not for long because the Twins will do him right by trading him to a team that will give him the back-up catching job.
  5. Pedro Florimon and Brian Dozier give the Twins their first decent infield combo in some time playing well in the field and hitting better than expected.
  6. The Twins will open the season with a starting staff of Vance Worley, Mike Pelfrey, Kevin Correia, Cole De Vries, with Scott Diamond joining the staff in early April. Kyle Gibson will be called up by June 1 and will replace….. Mike Pelfrey in the rotation.
  7. Manager Ron Gardenhire not only makes it through the season but gets a new two-year deal.
  8. Justin Morneau will be resigned to a multi-year deal before the All-Star game and will continue to call Minnesota home.
  9. Tickets to watch the Twins will be easy to get as attendance at Target Field plummets by about 20% and the Twins will be lucky to hit 2.2 million in attendance with attendance dropping by over a half million.

Twins cut 12 including Nishioka and Tosoni

Tsuyoshi Nishioka

The Twins announced today that they had reassigned 12 players to their minor league teams. The biggest names were 2B/SS Tsuyoshi Nishioka and outfielder Rene Tosoni. Nishioka is guaranteed $3 million this season and next and he just has not shown that he is the player that the Twins thought they were getting when they paid $5.3 million just to gain his negotiation rights. Nishioka does not seem comfortable playing second or shortstop in the big leagues and the man who won a batting title in Japan has not shown anything to speak of with his bat. One of the main reasons for signing Nishioka last season was that Gardenhire wanted to add some speed to the team but all Nishioka could muster was two stolen bases in six attempts. Couple that with the perception that Nishioka appears to want to do things his way versus the Twins way and did not seem to fit in with the rest of his teammates and you have a player that will cost you $3 million for the next two seasons and if you are really honest, you would say that he does not even deserve to be in AAA Rochester with what he has shown the Twins in his year with the club. In my opinion, the Nishioka signing was one of the main reasons that Bill Smith was fired as the Twins GM, not the only reason, but it was a key contributor. If you spend $15 million of Pohlad money and make a “Nishioka” mistake, you had best be prepared to suffer the consequences. But why send Nishioka down about half way through spring training? It has to be a message that Ryan is sending to Nishioka and to the rest of the Twins team. The Twins are not exactly blessed with an abundance of infield prospects so sending Nishioka down should give players like Sean Burroughs, Pedro Florimon and Mike Hollimon some hope for a utility role with the big club. At this point the Twins have to look at Nishioka as sunk money and just want to move on without his distraction. I don’t see Nishioka as one of Ryan’s favorite players and Ryan really has no ties to Nishioka so sending him packing will not cause Ryan to lose any sleep at all. Besides, there is always the chance that Nishioka will be embarrassed by his demotion and ask the club for his release and that would be a win-win for all parties and would end a very sorry but hopefully short chapter in Twins history.

The numbers game has caught up with Rene Tosoni who is 25 and probably a career utility outfielder who is not talented enough to garner a starting role but would make an adequate 4th or 5th outfielder. However; with Willingham, Span, Revere, Plouffe, and Doumit a cinch to make the team and Joe Benson pushing hard, there is no room for Tosoni at this time.

Pitcher Carlos Gutierrez, 25, was also sent down to get more experience and prove that his control issues are a thing of the past. Gutierrez had no serious control issues in his 5 innings pitched this spring but in 66 innings at Rochester in AAA, Carlos has walked 33 batters. The other players that the Twins sent down today were pitchers Jason Bulger, Luis Perdomo, Daryl Thompson, Esmerling Vasquez and P.J. Walters; catchers Chris Herrmann and Daniel Rohlfing; infielder Aaron Bates; outfielder Wilkin Ramirez.