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
In baseball, a switch hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed, usually right-handed against left-handed pitchers and left-handed against right-handed pitchers, although there are some exceptions. Is it beneficial to be a switch hitter? Left-handed batters get a better jump out of the batter’s box to first base. This means the left-handed batter will get more infield hits. Hitting the ball to the first base side of the field has many built-in advantages for his team (such as hitting behind the runner), so he becomes a more valuable hitter.
If you look at position players only, then about 13% are switch hitters, 54% right-handed and 33% left-handed hitters. I believe that at last count there have been 20 switch hitters elected into the Hall of Fame. Many consider Mickey Mantle the greatest switch hitter of all time while others might tell you that it was Pete Rose but that is a whole different story. The switch hitter in the HOF with the most hits is Eddie Murray and the only HOF switch hitting player with more home runs than Murray (504) is Mickey Mantle with 536. So a case can certainly be made for Eddie Murray being the best switch hitter in MLB history.
The Minnesota Twins have had their fair share of switch hitters over the years. Who was their best switch hitter? That would depend on what you are looking for in a hitter but you have to start with Roy Smalley. Up until this past season Roy Smalley led Twins switch hitters with 110 career home runs in a Twins uniform but this past season in 2023 Jorge Polanco took over the team lead in switch hitter home runs with 112. Lets take a look at the Twins switch hitters from 1961 to 2023 at https://stathead.com/tiny/hYPg4. The list shows us the Twins have had 77 switch hitters (both position players and pitchers) over the years but only 68 of them had a plate appearance and 66 of them had at least one hit while 44 of them slugged at least one home run.
Cy Young winner Jim Perry was the Twins best switch hitting pitcher hitting 5 home runs and getting 46 RBI with 117 hits and hitting .191 in 613 AB’s over 380 games in his Twins career. Pitcher Pedro Ramos was no slouch with the stick for Minnesota as he hit three home runs in his one season (1961) pitching for Minnesota in just 93 AB’s. Ramos was the Minnesota Twins very first switch hitter to appear in a game and get a hit with two RBI off future Hall of Famer Whitey Ford when he batted on Opening Day in 1961 at Yankee Stadium. He also became the first Twins switch hitter to hit a home run when he hit one out on May 12 at Met Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels pitcher Eli Grba in a 5-4 Twins victory.
April 3, 1982 – The Twins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0 in an exhibition game, the first event ever held in the new Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Pete Rose of the Phillies gets the first hit in the new stadium and Kent Hrbek hits the first two home runs in the Metrodome.
April 3, 2000 – TC Bear is introduced as the Twins new mascot. The TC stands for Twin Cities. A case could be made that TC Bear “bears” some resemblance to the Hamm’s Beer Bear, a mascot used in advertisements for Hamm’s Brewery, an early sponsor for the Twins dating back to the early 1960’s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TC!
April 3, 2015 – The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced that Minnesota Twins right-handed pitcher Ervin Santana has received an 80-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Stanozolol, a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The suspension of Santana will be effective for the first 80 games of the 2015 regular season. Santana, who was to earn $55 million over the next four seasons, was suspended for 80 games for violating Major League Baseball’s drug prevention and treatment program. The earliest he can return to action is July 4, when the Twins visit the Kansas City Royals. Scheduled to earn $13.5 million this year as part of the richest free-agent deal in club history, Santana will not be paid during the suspension, costing him more than $6.6 million.
I seldom missed a day of school back in Taylors Falls and I continued that practice at work during my working career. The Navy of course reinforced the idea that going to work every day was the only way. I am old school and retired now but back in the day when I worked I took a lot of pride in the fact that I showed up for work day in and day out rain or shine. I figured I was being paid to work so I showed up day after day. It used to drive me crazy when I knew that certain co-workers stayed home because they were hung-over or just plain didn’t feel like working. There were probably times when it would have been safer to stay home due to the snow or ice but not me, I was off to work.
Working every day carries over to my enjoyment of baseball, I like players that come to play ball each day and don’t take time off because they are tired or have a hang-nail. These players are being paid big bucks to play, not to sit on the bench and rest, they can rest on their own time like the rest of us.
So where am I going with this? Today we are going to take a look at the Minnesota Twins players that came to play. Today’s players are playing fewer games then their compatriots did 50 or so years ago for a variety of reasons. The change however; is not as great as I expected to find. When was the last time that a Twins player played in every game that season? That would be Justin Morneau in 2008 when he appeared in all 163 regular season games. Since 1961 and 55 baseball seasons only six Twins players have played in every game and Harmon Killebrew is the only one to do it more than once.
It won’t be long before the MLB Hall of Fame announces its newest members so it is time once again for me to dream and pretend that I have a vote that counts. Heck, I have probably seen more games and follow baseball more closely than a lot of the clowns that have a vote but that is a whole different story. If I had a vote I still can’t find it in my heart to vote for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and that bunch. I am not going to waste my time and yours on my reasoning because we have heard all those pro’s and con’s before. Maybe some time in the future they will get my vote but it won’t be this year. Just to show how time can change your thinking I am just about ready, not quite there yet but very close to saying that Pete Rose has served enough time in purgatory to get elected to the Hall of Fame. I know he has been a jerk at times but he could play some baseball and who could argue his hustle? The rub is that “hustle” can have several meanings. I am not going to quote a bunch of stats here because if you want to see them then go to B-R and check them out for yourself.
Randy Johnson gets my first vote, simply because I think he was the most intimidating pitcher in my era. Johnson has to be the pitcher that most batters would hate to face and the man was just scary to watch but you couldn’t help but stay focused on the mound whenever he pitched.
Vote number two goes to Pedro Martinez, 5 foot 11 and 170 pounds and I think 170 may have been pushing it. Are you kidding me? The man could throw a baseball and he knew how to pitch. He never pitched for teams I liked so I was always hoping he would lose but the man seldom did, a career .687 winning percentage over 18 seasons. Hall of Fame in my book.
Tim Raines gets vote number three. Again, small in stature at 5 foot 8 and 160 pounds but the “Rock” could play some baseball. Not as well-known as some because he played in Montreal for so long but Raines had six straight seasons with 70 stolen bases or more to go with his .810 OPS.
Vote number four goes to Craig Biggio. The man was a catcher, second baseman and a center fielder and through out all those position moves he still found time to post a .281 career batting mark in over 10,800 at bats. Heck, playing for 20 years for the Houston Astros should get you a few bonus votes too.
My fifth vote goes to one of my favorite all-time players, John Smoltz. 213 wins and 154 saves to boot spread over 21 seasons. I still remember that fateful day in August 1987 when the Detroit Tigers traded him to the Atlanta Braves for Doyle Alexander. When someone mentions the word “winner”, I have an image of Smoltz in my mind. A great pitcher and a real gentleman.
My final vote this season goes to Jeff Bagwell. OMG, those Houston Astros sure cleaned the Boston Red Sox’s clock when they acquired Bagwell for Larry Andersen. Only 15 seasons but 449 home runs along with a .948 OPS is good enough for me.
How will my votes compare to the “real” votes? I am thinking I will be 4 for 6 with Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell coming up short of the 75% required. That will be a shame but we all know that life is not always fair and that there is no crying in baseball. Good luck to all the Hall of Fame candidates, you had to be a pretty special ballplayer just to make the ballot.
Just think how much fun it would be to have a have a vote for the MLB Hall of Fame. There are many deserving candidates on the list this year as there are every year but this years ballot seems extraordinarily loaded. You have three pitchers with 300+ wins, you have five hitters with 500+ home runs, two players with 3,000+ hits, a player with 800+ stolen bases and a closer with 478 saves.
According to MLB HOF rules, electors may vote for as few as zero (0) and as many as ten (10) eligible candidates deemed worthy of election. Write-in votes are not permitted.
Any candidate receiving votes on seventy-five percent (75%) of the ballots cast shall be elected to membership in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.
For me that is where the “kicker” comes in to play. The words integrity and character are specifically mentioned in the voting rules. I know that not all the players in the Hall are saints but what is in the past is not something I can change. If I had a vote today I could not vote for players that have been accused of cheating. I know all about innocent until proven guilty but that is not how things really are in life. These players that are being accused of cheating are hiding behind the veil of time and waiting for time to pass by. If these players were really innocent, I think they would be putting forth some effort to show that they are innocent. Come on, step up and show me why you should not be lumped in with that bunch of cheaters. When and if the Hall decided that Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose can be enshrined in the Hall, I will be open to placing a vote for players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro. Until then, these guys have to wait on the bench.
The Twins Trivia Hall of Fame ballot for 2013 would look like this.
The Twins off-season got started with bang yesterday when the Twins announced that six-time All-Star and former AL MVP catcher Joe Mauer was leaving the tools of ignorance behind and moving to first base full-time. The Twins having been saying all along that Mauer was free of his concussion symptoms and that he was their catcher unless they heard differently. But yet GM Terry Ryan needed to know for sure where Mauer was going to play in 2014. Mauer is a foundation player the team needs to build around and they need to know what building blocks they need and the sooner that Mauer made a decision on his future, the sooner Ryan can begin to assemble his team. So I can’t help but wonder how much pressure the Twins applied to Mauer to get him to make a decision on what position he wanted to call home in 2014 and beyond. I know that Mauer is a great player but how many baseball teams have waited on one of their players to tell them where he wants to play?
Mauer said the decision was both difficult but yet easy, I think I can understand what he is saying. Mauer had to be thinking he had a shot at being the Twins catcher for as long as he wanted and that down the line the Hall of Fame would be calling. But then Joe’s life changed when he got married after the 2012 season and before he knew it, he was the father of twins himself. Later in the 2013 season he suffered through a serious concussion and his season ended 6 week earlier then he had planned. Mauer is a proud man and giving up catching, something he has done his entire life had to be hard. But Mauer is also a smart man and he understands that family and health always comes first. Money will never be an issue for Joe and his family but his health could become a problem if he continued to catch. Mix in what his good friend Justin Morneau went through, all the other catcher concussion issues in 2013 and all the recent reports of football players and their problems and Joe really had no choice. Joe Mauer, always the team player and being the good guy he is stepped up and informed the Twins that his decision was made.
The griping is rampant that first base is a power position and it normally is but there have been a number of very good first basemen since 1960 that hit 15 or fewer home runs, knocked in 90 to 111 RBI and hit for a high average. Players like Rod Carew, Keith Hernandez, Mark Grace, and Pete Rose come to mind and they were pretty good players. It will be interesting also to see if moving from a tough position like catcher to an easier position to play like first base actually makes Mauer an even better hitter. Something akin to a pitcher moving from starting to relief and picking up a few MPH on his fastball.
Mauer moving to first base has huge implications on numerous players. I doubt that Justin Morneau entertained thoughts of returning to Minnesota anyway but this move puts an end to that possibility. Chris Colabello might as well call his agent and ask him to pursue a trade. Chris Parmelee instantly became an outfielder and sometimes first baseman. But who is going to replace Mauer behind home plate? The Twins have four catchers on the roster at the present time, Josmil Pinto, Chris Herrmann, Eric Fryer and Ryan Doumit. Each and every one of these guys has some warts, Doumit is a decent hitter but a poor catcher plus he had his own bout with a concussion last season, you have to wonder if he wants to catch any more. Herrmann seems like he has been around for ever but he is only 25 but I don’t think the Twins envision him as a full-time catcher. The 28 year-old Fryer can’t hit a lick and the Twins are the fourth organization that he has played with. That leaves us with Josmil Pinto, 24, who was a September call-up and appeared in 21 games hitting .342 with four home runs. With just 21 big league games under his belt and just 19 AAA games you have to wonder if he is ready to make the jump to the big leagues as a full-time catcher. Mauer only caught 5 games in AAA but Pinto is not Joe Mauer. You also keep hearing that Pinto’s catching skills still need work but you can use that excuse on most any catcher. The Twins could go out and sign a free agent veteran but does a team that lost 96 games two years in a row want to spend money on a veteran catcher? I am not sure I would but there is one catcher that I would sign if the price was right and if he was willing to come back to Minnesota. A.J. Pierzynski would be the one catcher I would be willing to spend a few dollars to sign. Why? Because the man comes to play every day, he can hit, he is a decent catcher that would help the Twins pitching staff, he can teach Pinto what it takes to be a big league catcher and most of all Pierzynski will teach the entire team what it takes to win. The Twins could do a lot worse than signing A.J. for a year or two.
Jason Bartlett
Almost lost in all the Joe Mauer news is the fact that the Twins signed former Twins shortstop Jason Bartlett to a minor league deal. The Twins originally acquired Bartlett from the San Diego Padres in a trade for Brian Buchanan in July 2002. Bartlett played short for the Twins from 2004-2007 but did not earn a full-time gig at short until 2007. Then after the 2007 season then GM Bill Smith sent him, Matt Garza, and Eduardo Morlan to Tampa for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie. Bartlett spent 2008-2010 in Tampa before being traded back to the Padres who had originally drafted and signed him in 2001. Bartlett spent 2011 as the Padres shortstop but injured his knee early in 2012 and missed the remainder of the season and didn’t play at all in 2013. Now that Bartlett feels that his knee is healthy again he wants to play again and the Twins are going to give him that chance.
What I find interesting about the Twins signing the 34 year-old Bartlett is that he only plays short. Bartlett has played ever inning of his big league carer at short except for one inning back in 2004 when he moved over to second base for the Twins. This does not Bartlett much of a candidate for the utility man role. That means that the Twins are bringing Bartlett to push Pedro Florimon for the starting shortstop job. Florimon was rated one of the leagues better fielding shortstops but hitting .221 in 134 games has left a lot to be desired. Every team including the Twins claims to value defense, particularly up the middle, but in reality offense trumps defense. Particularly with a team like the Twins who had trouble scoring runs, you sacrifice some defense to score some runs. If Bartlett is healthy and shows that he can still hit, he could well be the starting shortstop when the Twins open the 2014 season.
In baseball, a switch-hitter is a batter that bats either from the right side or the left side depending on if the pitcher is right or left-handed. Most curveballs break away from batters hitting from the same side as the opposing pitcher making such pitches often harder to hit than those from the other side. History tells us that most right-handed batters hit better against lefty pitchers and left-handed batters hit better against right-handers. This so-called platoon benefit is why managers use pinch hitters and LOOGY’s and why some players want to become switch-hitters.
Switch-hitting at its best
Switch-hitters have been around for ever it seems and yet according to sources that I have researched, only about 6% of baseball batters have been switch-hitters. You have to wonder if switch-hitting is such an advantage, why haven’t more of baseball best hitters been switch-hitters? The best career batting average for a switch-hitter is .316 by Frankie Frisch and he currently ranks 71st all-time. Some of the best switch-hitters in our era have been Chipper Jones at .306 and Pete Rose at .303. Detroit Tigers DH Victor Martinez has a career average of .302 making him the highest currently active switch-hitter. Switch-hitters have been around for a long time and there have been some pretty good ones over the years, in addition to the players I just mentioned, you have to add players like Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, Roberto Alomar, Bernie Williams, George Davis, Lance Berkman, Tim Raines and Chili Davis to the list of switch-hitting greats.
Switch-hitting and the rules
A question often asked is can a batter switch for right to left or left to right during an at bat. The only rule that I can find that seemingly applies is 6.06(b) which states that “A batter is out for illegal action when he steps from one batter’s box to the other while the pitcher is in position ready to pitch.” Based on that, it appears you can switch from one batters box to the other as often as you want as long as you do it before the pitcher gets in his pitching position.
In the Twins 53 years of existence the team has had 62 players that were switch-hitters but not all of them actually batted and we will touch more on that later. The Twins very first switch-hitter was actually a pitcher, Pedro Ramos. Ramos pitched and batted (1 for 4 with 2 RBI) in the Twins very first game when Ramos and the Twins shut out the New York Yankees 6-0 on April 11, 1961 at Yankee Stadium. The first Twins switch-hitting position player to appear in a game was SS Marty Martinez when he had an at bat against the Yankees at Met Stadium on May 30, 1962 in game 2 of a doubleheader. Martinez actually appeared in 3 earlier games as a Twins but was used strictly as a pinch-runner by manager Sam Mele. It wasn’t until 1976 however; that the Twins actually had a regular position player switch-hitting and that year they had two, rookie catcher Butch Wynegar and SS Roy Smalley. The Twins are playing their 53rd season and there has only been one year, 1973 that they have not had a switch-hitter step into the batters box wearing a Twins uniform. On the other hand, they had nine switch-hitters (Cristian Guzman was the only starter) at one time or another on their 1999 team that finished 63-97.
Twins switch-hitting pitchers
Looking at the Twins 62 switch-hitters, eleven of them were pitchers and claimed to be switch-hitters but only Pedro Ramos, Jim Perry, Dan Serafini, JC Romero, and Joe Mays actually set foot in the batters box. The other six, Stan Perzanowski, Darrell Jackson, Pete Filson, Jason Ryan, Pat Neshek, and Eric Hacker were switch-hitters only on the back of their baseball cards because they never batted in a Twins game. Jim Perry actually hit five home runs as a Twin.
Home runs from each side of the plate club
The Twins switch-hitter with the most home runs is Roy Smalley and he hit 163 career home runs and 110 of them were when he was a Minnesota Twin. The “home runs from each side of the plate” club is relatively exclusive but three of the members were Twins. Roy Smalley accomplished that rare feat twice, once against the Boston Red Sox at the Metrodome on May 30, 1986 and once earlier in his career as a New York Yankee in 1982. Chili Davis became the second Twin to join the club when he did it against the Royals on October 2, 1992. Ryan Doumit became the third Twin to do so when too joined the exclusive fraternity against the Royals on July 22, 2012. Chili Davis hit a home run from each side of the plate 11 times in his illustrious 19 year career. Just for comparisons sake, Mickey Mantle did it on 10 occasions.
One oddity that seems to stand out to me is how few of the switch-hitters employed by the Twins over the years actually threw left-handed. If you exclude the 11 switch-hitting pitchers from the list you are left with 51 switch-hitters and only one of the 51 threw left-handed, the other fifty were right-handed. Kind of strange. The lone left-handed position player was John Moses. But keep in mind that John Moses an outfielder by trade, actually pitched in 3 games for the Twins and it gets even stranger.
Twins best switch-hitters
So let’s take a look at the Twins top switch-hitters, there is no good way to rank them so I will list here all the Twins switch-hitters that have 1,000 or more plate appearances in a Twins uniform. The chart also shows positions played, games played, home runs and batting average. All the numbers on this chart are their Twins career numbers. Many of these players played for other teams but those numbers are not included here, I am only interested in their numbers as Minnesota Twins for this story.
Some interesting numbers and players on this chart, about half the players were starters and half were utility players. No surprise that Smalley is the leader in home runs or that Chili Davis is second on that list but finding that Cristian Guzman is number 3 in the Twins switch-hitter home run list really surprised me.
A bonus question for you, this Twins switch-hitter had a career .425 batting average albeit in just 43 plate appearances, do you know who he is?
