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
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”.
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.
Appearing in a big league game and stepping on a major league pitching mound for the first time is something you never forget. It makes no difference if you are the starter or if you enter the game in relief, you have reached the goal that has been waiting for you since you first started playing baseball in your backyard as a child.
Many a pitcher has made his major league debut with Minnesota across his chest and some have had good games and others have not been as lucky but only 20 Twins pitchers can lay claim to the fact that they earned the “win” in their first big league game. Bill “Shorty” Pleis was the first Twins pitcher to accomplish this feat and he did so in relief.
It took more than 10 years for the Twins to have a starting pitcher start his major league career and get credited with a “W” and it was none other than Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven and as he has told us many times, the first batter he faced, Lee Maye, did indeed hit a home run off him at RFK Stadium. Bert however; maintained his composure and earned the win with seven innings of five hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk and the Twins went on to beat the Washington Senators in a 2-1 game.
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
Pete Redfern (P) – May 15, 1976 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (1st pick) of the 1976 amateur draft (January Secondary). Redfern was drafted in January and pitching for the Twins in May with 4 games of minor league experience. Earned a “W” in his first big league game.
The Minnesota Twins have a long history of problems developing starting pitching. Using 100 starts as a barometer, since 1961 the Twins have signed and developed just 11 pitchers in their system that have gone on to get 100 or more starts in a Twins uniform. The only first round pick in the bunch is Pete Redfern, three round tw0 picks, two round three picks, one fourth round pick, one fifth round pick, Brad Radke was an eighth round pick, one 29th round pick and an amateur free agent (Dave Boswell).
Since the June amateur free agent draft started in 1965 the Twins have drafted 31 pitchers in round 1 or as round 1 supplementary/compensation picks. Actually part of the Twins issues with starting pitching relates to spending money or the lack there of. The first two right-handed pitchers drafted by the Twins in round 1 were Dick Ruthven in 1972 and Tim Belcher (first overall pick) in 1983 who both refused to sign with Minnesota and went on to have long careers in MLB. The first left-handed pitcher drafted in round 1 to start any games was Eddie Bane and his Twins career lasted 25 starts. As I mentioned earlier, the draft started in 1965 but the Twins only drafted starting pitching in round 1 twice (Ruthven in 1972 and Bane in 1973) between 1965-1981. The first RHP that they drafted in round 1 that actually started a number of games (45 in Twins career) was Willie Banks who the team drafted in 1987. Since 2000 they have drafted a pitcher in round 1 a total of 17 times.
Starting pitching signed and developed by the Twins since 1961
If you can’t find, sign, and develop your starting pitching, you only have a few options at your disposal, you could make a trade, you can sign a free agent, or you can find one on the waiver wire (ha, ha, ha).
The option I want to write about here is the Twins attempts to trade for starting pitching since the turn of the century, a total of 17 years. Trading for starters hasn’t exactly gone as planned either.
The Twins have a reputation now days of bringing their young players, particularly their young pitchers along very slowly but that has not always been the case. In today’s game pitches are counted and innings are watched from year to year to make sure that pitchers do not have a huge jump in innings pitched from one year to the next. We fans sometimes complain about how long it takes a player to reach the majors but think what its like for the team itself. They draft the guy and then they have to pay him as he develops his skills, they get no return on their investment unless the player reaches the major leagues and becomes a successful player. The temptation must be huge to push the guy along to get a quick return on the money spent, but if you push him too quickly all kinds of bad things can happen.
Let’s take a look at the case of RHP Roger Erickson who the Twins drafted in round 3 of the 1977 June amateur draft. Erickson signed and was sent to “AA” Orlando where he pitched 109 innings in 16 games (14 starts) with 10 complete games. This is all after he pitched in college that spring. I was not able to locate any of Erickson’s college stats. The next year Erickson gets a spring training invite and makes the 1978 Twins starting rotation. The 21-year-old rookie makes his major league debut when he starts the second game of the season for the Twins and beats the Seattle Mariners 5-4 at the Kingdome. Erickson goes on to start a club leading 37 games for the Twins with 14 complete games and an amazing 265.2 innings pitched. Erickson finished the 1878 season with a 14-13 record with a 3.96 ERA , a WHIP of 1.306 and 121 strikeouts. Erickson was not a strikeout pitcher but more in the mold of a Brad Radke type of pitcher. In 1979 Erickson went 3-10 with a 5.63 ERA in 21 starts (zero complete games) and 123 innings, in 1980 his record was 7-13 with a 3.25 ERA in 191.1 innings and in 1981 Erickson went 3-8 with a 3.84 ERA in 91.1 innings. In May of 1982 after a 4-3 start the Twins had seen enough and traded Erickson and catcher Butch Wynegar to the New York Yankees for pitchers Pete Filson and John Pacella and infielder Larry Milbourne and a suitcase full of cash. Roger Erickson pitched in a total of 21 games for the Yankees in 1982 and 1983 and at the age of 27 his big league playing days were behind him. Erickson tried to come back in 1984, again in 1987 and still again in 1989 in the minors with the Tigers and the Cardinals but he never again put on a big league uniform.
This is one of baseball classic cases of pitcher abuse, a situation where Twins manager Gene Mauch and pitching coach Camilo Pascual could not see the forest for the trees and killed a promising career before it really had a chance to get started. Erickson’s career ended prematurely at the age of 27 primarily because he pitched too many innings at too young an age. When he last pitched in the big leagues he was just 27 but he had already been in the majors for 6 seasons and he had already logged almost 800 innings with 265 of those in his first season. In the end the Twins lost a promising pitcher and Roger Erickson was robbed of his career. A loss-loss for both sides. Just a sad story all around.
Almost every day you hear about another big league pitcher having forearm or elbow tightness and the next thing you know they are off to see Dr. Andrews or someone like him to get a second opinion before undergoing “Tommy John” surgery. Are there more problems of this type now even with all the attention given to limiting innings and pitch counts. What are today’s pitchers doing differently that is causing these problems? Is it all about the fact that the pitchers today seem to throw harder than the pitchers of the past did? Are pitchers just not getting enough rest between seasons end and the start of the next season? Or maybe it is just the opposite, maybe the pitchers are not throwing enough? Is specialization of the athletes at much younger ages adding to the pitching arm woes? Or have these problems always been there and we just called it elbow tendonitis or a sore arm in the past and prescribed rest and/or retirement?
Roger Erickson
Here is a list of Twins pitchers who have thrown at least 100 innings in their rookie seasons. *
* = From 1947 through 1956, each BBWAA voter used discretion as to who qualified as a rookie. In 1957, the term was first defined as someone with fewer than 75 at bats or 45 innings pitched in any previous Major League season. This guideline was later amended to 90 at bats, 45 innings pitched, or 45 days on a Major League roster before September 1 of the previous year. The current standard of 130 at bats, 50 innings pitched or 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club (excluding time in military service or on the disabled list) before September 1 was adopted in 1971.
The Twins have been in Minnesota for 53 years and have played 8,455 games winning 4,204 and losing 4,243. (just a FYI, the Angels who also started play in 1961 have won 4,220 games). Over the 53 years and 8,455 games Twins starters have pitched 9 innings or more in a start exactly 300 times (3.55%). Keep in mind that I am talking 9 innings or more pitched in a start, not complete games.
But sometimes just going 9 innings does not get the job done as you can see in the table below. In these 71 games the Twins starter took the mound in inning number 10 and sometimes even innings 11 and 12. The last Twins starter to hurl more than 9 innings in a start was Brad Radke in 1997.
But only one starting pitcher for the Twins, Jim Merritt has gone 13 innings and that remains a team record that in today’s pitch count world will probably never be broken. The franchise record is 18 innings held by Hall of Famer Walter Johnson who went the distance in a 1-0 Washington Senators win over the Chicago White Sox at Griffith Stadium in just 2 hours and 50 minutes on May 15, 1918.
But it is not just starting pitchers that have toiled long and hard to win a game. Here I look at relievers who have pitched 7 or more innings of relief in a game and Ray Corbin holds the team record for pitching 10.1 innings of relief against the Tigers in 1975. Corbin who was a starter/reliever during his five years in Minnesota pitched in just 11 more big league games after this long relief outing allowing at least one earned run in each appearance and never again pitched in a big league game.
The Twins will have three starters that will start 20 or more games during this 2013 season. Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, and Scott Diamond have all passed that mark and there is no chance of anyone else joining that group. Samuel Deduno had 18 starts but he is done for the season. In 2012 the Twins had just one starter with 20 or more starts and that was Scott Diamond. 2012 was the first time in Twins history that they had only one starter with 20 or more starts. The Twins had only two starters with 20 or more starts only twice and those were the strike shortened 1981 and 1995 seasons. The Twins have had three starters start 20 or more games 12 times, four starters with 20 or more starts 17 times and five starters with 20 or more starts on eight occasions with the last two being 2010 and 2011. Only 6 teams in AL history have had 6 starters with 20 or more starts in a season and they were the 1937 White Sox, the 1942 Tigers, the 1944 Philadelphia A’s, the 1962 Senators, and the 2001 Rays. The Rays will be joining that group again on Monday when Alex Cobb makes his 20th start of 2013.
Kyle Gibson defeated the Royals and struck out five batters in his first game in the major leagues yesterday. Only two other Twins pitchers started and won their major-league debut while striking out five or more batters since the team moved in Minnesota in 1961: Bert Blyleven in 1970 at RFK Stadium against the Senators and Darrell Jackson in 1978 at Metropolitan Stadium against the Tigers; they each had seven strikeouts.
Gibson becomes the first Twins first-round draft pick to win his major league debut, nine others have tried and failed. Gibson joins Anthony Swarzak (5/23/09), Dave Gassner (4/16/05), Eric Milton (4/5/98), Scott Erickson (6/25/90), Darrell Jackson (6/16/78), Roger Erickson (4/6/78), Paul Thormodsgard (4/10/77), Pete Redfern (5/15/76) and Bert Blyleven (6/5/70) as Twins starters that have earned a win in their MLB debut.
September 1, 2010 – With the Tigers in town and Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel hit by Tiger pitcher Phil Coke and Tiger catcher Avila being hit by Twins hurler Brian Duensing, it brings back memories of the big Twins/Tigers brawl of May 14, 1982. The Twins were in the midst of their worst season ever from a loss perspective as they would finish 1982 with a 60-102 record under manager Billy Gardner. When they arrived in Detroit, they were 2-10 in the month of May and they immediately proceeded to lose the first of a four game series 6-2 to Jack Morris on Thursday, May 13th and with that defeat they dropped into the cellar of the AL West Division where they would stay for the rest of the season.
The following day the Twins sent Pete Redfern (2-4) to the mound against Tigers starter Dan Petry (3-2). The Twins jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the second inning on a couple of singles, a walk and an error. The Tigers came back with one in the bottom of the third and held the Twins scoreless in the fourth. In their half of the fourth the Tigers catcher Lance Parrish doubled and was sacrificed to third by Lou Whitaker. Shortstop Mark DeJohn, who had a total of four hits in his 24 game major league career singled in Parrish to knot the game at 2-2. The next batter was outfielder Chet Lemon and Redfern hit him on the wrist, Lemon charged the mound and the battle ensued. The game was halted for 20 minutes as the umpires sorted things out. When the smoke cleared Lemon was ejected and Redfern had to leave the game with a spike wound to the right foot. Bobby Castillo replaced Redfern and retired the next two batters. The game remained scoreless through the ninth and went into extra innings. In the 10th inning Dave Rozema held the Twins scoreless and Ron Davis did the same to the Tigers in their home half of the 10th. Rozema then retired the Twins 1-2-3 in the 11th inning and Ron Davis took the mound in the bottom of the 11th. Allan Trammell flew out to center for the first out but Lynn Jones singled and then Davis brushed Tiger third baseman Enos Cabell back, words were exchanged and Cabell went after Davis. During the melee Tigers pitcher Dave Rozema suffered ligament damage to his left knee and was carried off the field on a stretcher and eventually required surgery. Twins players stated that Rozema hurt himself trying to kick Twins third baseman John Castino as you can see on the attached video (since taken down) but the Tigers claimed that Rozema hurt himself coming out of the dugout to participate in the brawl. Both Cabell and Davis were ejected and the Twins brought in Terry Felton to pitch. Felton dispatched Tiger Tom Brookens for the second out of the inning but Kirk Gibson hit a two run walk-off homer and the Tigers were the 6-4 victors. The Twins lost the next two games in Detroit, were swept in the four game series and won only one more game that month.
There was some video of the fight but MLB Advanced Media had it taken down. Towards the end of the video you could see Tiger pitcher Dave Rozema come flying in from the left hand side of the screen and try to kick Twins player John Castino. You can see a second short video with Tigers manager Sparky Anderson expressing his view of the situation by clicking here.
