Tag: Paul Molitor

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

Molitor no longer the Minnesota Twins manager

 

Derek Falvey Executive Vice President, Chief Baseball Officer of the Minnesota Twins, speaks to reporters during a news conference announcing the firing of Twins manger Paul Molitor at Target Field in Minneapolis Oct 2, 2018. (Photo/Craig Lassig)

A lot of writers have written that they are surprised by the Minnesota Twins move yesterday to fire Paul Molitor as manager and offer him another position in the organization. To me this seemed obvious and surely would have happened at the end of the 2017 season had the Twins not been handed a wild card spot.

Paul Molitor

I am not a fan of Paul Molitor the manager but am a fan of Paul Molitor the player, two completely different things. This move was inevitable, you knew it was coming, just like you know the Sun will rise in the East every day. The only question was when and we got our answer yesterday.

No Head of Baseball Operations wants an inherited manager under his watch, his job depends on that manager. Baseball is like any other business, if the people under you fail then you will fail too. Derek Falvey like most everyone else in his position has a large ego and they want to be surrounded by people who agree with their style and their way of thinking. Falvey seems to have a very hands on managing style and working with a Hall of Famer probably made that more difficult and uncomfortable. Having a coaching staff that was split between loyalty to Molitor and himself compounded the problem. If you can solve that problem for a little over $3 million why not jump on it? Falvey can now feel comfortable being in the position knowing that if he fails now, he has only himself to blame.

I think Falvey and the new manager whomever they select will be in a good place with a young team that will bounce back next season and have a legitimate shot at contention in the weak AL Central Division. They desperately need Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton to succeed if they want to get better quicker. Having said that, remember that neither one of these players was brought into the organization by Falvey. He finds himself in a good spot with these two players because he can reap the rewards if they turn out to be the players that they are expected to be and if things don’t turn out well, he can always say I had no part in bringing them in. Life isn’t fair, get used to it.

It is going to be an interesting next few months for Twins fans. From here on in the ball is in Derek Falvey and Thad Levine’s court, I can’t wait to see if they are up to the challenge. The Twins have built a huge front-office under the Falvey regime and they have more analysts and bean-counters than they can count but in baseball when all is said and done all that really counts is wins, and you need good players on the field to get wins. It is not a game played on the computer with the team with the best analysts winning.

The Twins also let the following people go:

Perry Casstellano – Strength and Conditioning Coordinator
Erik Beiser – Strength and Conditioning Assistant
Alan Rail – Chattanooga Trainer
Chad Allen – AAA hitting coach
Ivan Arteaga – AA pitching coach
Henry Bonilla – Low A pitching coach
Asdrubal Estrada – Dominican Republic hitting coach

Are we watching Paul Molitor’s final days at the Twins manager?

You can bet your bippy that we should be. There are just five days left in the 2018 season for the Minnesota Twins and they will play them all at home against the Tigers and the White Sox. The 72-84 Twins would have to lose all their remaining games to have a 90 loss season so that is unlikely to happen, it is just as unlikely that they will win all six and finish 78-84. Either way the season has been anywhere between disappointing and disastrous. I love to watch the Twins play ball but I am ready for this season to end and see what the Twins front office can do to make this team better.

Paul Molitor

The first order of business on Monday morning should be to announce that Manager Paul Molitor has decided to retire. I can’t see how Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have any choice but to dump Paul Molitor after resigning him to a new deal after last season. You can’t blame them for re-signing Molitor last season because they really had no choice with the love that owner Jim Pohlad has shown for Molitor and the fact that the Twins won 85 games in 2017 after winning just 59 games the year before.

Derek Falvey would be foolish if in his first opportunity to run an organization he kept a manager from the previous regime and didn’t put his own man in that job. Falvey and Levine came into an organization that had no place to go but up and so far they have managed to do nothing but keep it downtrodden. A second place finish in your division when the team is under .500 means nothing. 

Paul Molitor has been nothing but a puppet under Falvey, how many coaches did Molitor bring in, probably zippo. Since Falvey and Levine were forced to keep Molitor as manager when they came in they figured that they better fill the coaching staff with their types of coaches. How has that worked out for you?

Molitor has to go and Falvey has to finally show that he is really in charge of this organization. If not, Falvey and Levine should be updating their resumes next year. It is all about winning, if you don’t win you failed, simple as that. 

Today Twins fans are tired of being losers, they don’t want to accept the fact that they should be lucky to have a MLB team and accept whatever crumbs are thrown in their direction. Twins ownership can’t have it both ways, they can’t have fans that are passionate about their team and yet tell fans that it is all about what is coming in the future. Passionate Twins fans want a winner now and it is the Twins organizations responsibility to put a winning staff and team on the field.

Maybe I am getting old and cranky but I have followed and watched this team since they moved here in 1961 and the Twins have rewarded me with sub .500 baseball. When exactly is the future going to arrive? 

Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year

In the last five days of July the Falvey/Levine regime traded five experienced players off their big league roster and acquired 12 players that includes five pitchers, 4 outfielders and 4 infielders. The departed players have appeared in 2,674 games and the pitchers have notched 160 wins. The acquired players have no wins by the pitchers in the big leagues and have played in a total of 899 big league games of which Logan Forsythe has 807.

I grant you that Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar were both going to be free agents at the end of the season. Lance Lynn has not performed up to expectations, Zach Duke performed pretty much as expected and Ryan Pressly was probably over-worked but was a decent relief pitcher. The team itself has under-performed dramatically but to be fair I think the same can be said of the Twins “on the field” management staff. 

Continue reading Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year

Twins should give Paul Molitor his final ejection sooner than later

Paul Molitor

The Minnesota are coming off a 2017 season where they made an appearance in the playoffs for the first time since 2010 and finished with a 85-77 record. The Twins had such an up-beat season that Derek Falvey and Thad Levine had no choice but to sign manager Paul Molitor who was in the last year of his contract to a new deal. When the Falvey/Levine regime took over they were told by ownership that Molitor stays as the Twins skipper. With the team playing as well as it did, albeit most in the second half of the season, Falvey’s hands were tied behind his back, he had no real choice but to re-sign Molitor, probably not his first choice to manage the team under the Falvey/Levine umbrella. 

In 2018 the team has played terribly in spite of several free agent starters brought in to bolster one of the worst starting pitching staff in the big leagues. Why is this team playing so poorly and inconsistently? We could probably make a long list of reasons and not all necessarily the fault of manager Paul Molitor. But, he is the manager so the responsibility it totally his, it is his job to manage the team so that it wins ball games, Molitor has not done that.

Molitor is a Hall of Fame baseball player but managing is not his thing, he is best suited to teach and not to manage. I hope that Falvey and Levine understand that and have the gonads to let Molitor go and put their own man in charge. I know that Molitor was just signed to a new 3-year deal after last season but I would bet that Falvey and Levine were not behind the big push to get that done. 

Instead of starting to replace players the organization should replace the real problem here, the manager. This team needs a manager that has some bite and is willing to get this team back on the winning track by bringing a “in you face” managing style. The team need to start playing the game right and if they can’t, it should end up costing them money from their wallet or in terms of playing time. 

Ozzie Guillen

The change in managers should take place sooner than later, Molitor should not be wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform after the All-Star break. Who should manage the team? I am not paid to answer that question but I will tell you who I would hire if I was Derek Falvey. My new Twins manager would be Ozzie Guillen, a man with experience who has been there before and a man not afraid to tell players where they stand. Besides, if the team can’t give us some excitement at the ballpark, I know that Ozzie can.

Falvey and Levine should DFA Molitor

Paul Molitor

Should Derek Falvey and Thad Levine be looking for a new manager for the Minnesota Twins? I know, I know, they signed him to a new deal after last season right after the Twins made the playoffs after a seven-year absence.

I can’t believe that Paul Molitor is their guy, and they in essence had no choice but to sign Molitor or get run out-of-town. The Twins are playing terribly, way below expectations in spite of good starting pitching. The bullpen started out decent but Molitor’s bullpen management quickly put an end to that.

You can’t put all the blame on Molitor but you can’t get rid of the players so the easiest thing to change is the manager. This team needs new leadership before the problem gets even more serious. The team doesn’t look like it is having fun or even takes the losses very seriously. Come on now, eight walk-off losses in 50 games, that is crazy.

Too many injuries? Every team has injuries, you just need to know how to manage them. Miguel Sano has been terrible so far and I think a part of that is because of Jorge Polanco being out due to suspension and not much can be done about that. Sano and Polanco are best buddies from way back and when I watched them this spring they were like joined at the hip, if you saw one you saw the other.

Derek Falvey and Thad Levine

Falvey and Levine aren’t blameless in this fiasco this year either. If Polanco is out, and Nick Gordon is tearing it up in AA and now hitting well in AAA why not bring him up and see what he can do and see if he can kick-start this anemic offense? It obviously is not breaking any barriers to bring up a guy from AA with little to no time in AAA.

Having said all this, Falvey and Levine deserve a chance to determine their own fate and that is difficult to do if you don’t have “your guy” managing your team. I know that Paul Molitor was a heck of a ballplayer, is in the Hall of Fame and is a local boy made good but that does not necessarily make him a good manager. Thank him for his service and let’s move on. Baseball is about winning, if you can’t do the job, its next man up. I am waiting to see of Falvey and Levine will “man up”.

 

The Twins seem lost and no one seems to care

The Minnesota Twins play this season has been pitiful, I really don’t know any other way to describe it without using language not fit for this site. The Twins record in April was 8-14 and the team scored 90 runs (4.09) but gave up 129 (5.86) runs. Playing .364 baseball is totally unacceptable for a team that made the playoffs in 2017 and was expected to be even better this season with the additions the Twins made this past off-season. If you look back over all the April baseball that the Minnesota Twins have played since 1961 through 2017 you will find that the team has won 565 games and lost 610 and tied 2 games for a winning percentage of .480, but this years team isn’t even play up to that low bar.

Those of you that have watched the Twins play this season know the team is playing hideous baseball. In the 16 losses this season the team has lost by five or more runs seven times, to get blown out in 44% of your games is a bad sign. 

Yes, the team has had its shares of injuries, but who hasn’t? From what we have seen of Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton in their relatively short careers we can be pretty confident that neither one will have long consecutive game played streaks on the back of their baseball card. We can only wait and hope that Sano and Buxton aren’t a would of, could of, should of, type of player’s. 

Paul Molitor

So what is causing this team to play so bad? Everything, the pitching is bad, the hitters aren’t hitting, the fielding leaves a lot to be desired. When nothing seems to work you can’t fire the players, it comes down to leadership. The people in charge are responsible, for the Twins won-lost record and it starts with the manager Paul Molitor. I know the man just signed a new three-year deal but……. How about the pitching coach Garvin Alston? I haven’t heard his name mentioned in weeks, is he still on the coaching staff? Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have such a low profile that you wonder if they still work here. The only time these two guys show their faces is when something good happens.

Sure, this team will improve their play, but when? Is this going to be another wasted season when when the Twins organization tells us we have to be patient and give the young players a chance to mature? Winning is contagious, but so is losing.

The worst scenario is that the Twins play bad all season and management decides to “blow it up” and start over. That would be the final straw!

If you have a need to see some interesting facts about Minnesota Twins history on May 2nd  just click on our new This Day in Twins History.

 

So how good will the Twins be in 2018?

Twins Opening Day in 2018 is just a couple of days away as the Minnesota Twins prepare to open season number 58 and take on the Baltimore Orioles. I can’t wait for the Twins and all the other teams to start playing baseball games that count for something. 

Spring Training is fun after a long and cold off-season but the exhibition games start to wear on you and I am tired of hearing about all the complaining about the free agents and their problems getting contracts.

I think the Twins made some nice off-season moves that look good on paper but now we have to see if those moves translate into more wins, after all, wins are the only way to measure if the team is better than it was last year. You can say whatever you want but the bottom line is all about wins and losses and how deep the team goes in the playoffs.

The Twins have already suffered a couple set-backs and the season hasn’t even started. Their starting pitcher Ervin Santana, a 16 game winner in 2017 had surgery on a finger on his pitching hand and is out until probably sometime in May. Recently MLB suspended starting shortstop Jorge Polanco for 80 games after he tested positive for Stanozolol. Not exactly how the Minnesota Twins would like to start 2018 but it is what it is and we will have to see if Paul Molitor can get his team off to a good start, something I thing that is crucial to a young team.

I have put together a Twins Opening Day quiz to test your knowledge of the past 57 Opening Days so go ahead and give it a try over at my Twins Trivia Questions page and see how you do.

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.

 

And the games keep getting longer

Baseball fans certainly got their moneys worth when they showed up at a major league ballpark to watch the Minnesota Twins play this past season. First and foremost they were able to see Paul Molitor‘s boys win 85 games and an average Twins game lasted 3 hours and 11 minutes. Four minutes longer on average than their previous longest game average of 3 hours and 7 minutes back in 2014. That is getting your moneys worth.

An average MLB game in 2017 averaged 3 hours and 5 minutes according to MLB about 4 1/2 minutes longer than a 2016 baseball game. 

Average MLB Game Time Rises to Record 3:05

In 2017 the Twins played 108 games that lasted 3 hours or more as compared to a season low of just 10 games over 3 hours back in 1981. The Twins longest game in 2017 lasted 386 minutes (6 hours and 26 minutes) and took place at Target Field back on May 28 in a 15 inning 8-6 loss to the Tampa Rays making it the second longest game in Twins history in terms of time and the longest game in terms of time in MLB in 2017. Nine Twins pitchers threw a total of 289 pitches and eight Rays pitchers threw 264 pitches. The Twins only had six extra-inning games in 2017 and only the 15 inning affair lasted 12 or more innings.

The Twins longest game in terms of time was played at Jacob’s Field on May 7, 1995 when the Twins and Indians played for six hours and 36 minutes and the Indians came out on top 10-9 on a Kenny Lofton walk-off single off Twins reliever Mark Guthrie in the bottom of the 17th inning with one out. It took nine Twins pitchers and 322 pitches to play that game.

Back in 1961 when major league baseball first moved to Minnesota, an average Twins game took 161 minutes (2 hours and 41 minutes) and just 32 of those games lasted more that three hours. That is exactly a half hour shorter for each Twins game from 1961 to 2017. Even back in 1984, Twins games averaged just 2 hours and 31 minutes and only 11 games went beyond three hours.

For additional information on the length of Minnesota Twins games in terms on time and/or innings, please visit our Length of games including longest Twins games page.