Tag: Rod Carew

Good Eye, Good Eye!

May 15, 2010 – The Twins preach to their pitchers that the batter should earn his way on base via a hit, just throw the ball over the plate and take your chances that the batter will hit it to one of your fielders. In recent years, the Twins pitching staff has always been one of the league leaders in fewest bases on balls allowed.

But the shoe is on the other foot when it comes to the Twins hitters where the coaching staff tries to teach patience at the plate, after all, a walk is just as good as a hit. Plus, the more pitches you see, the better the odds are of the batter getting a hit and the quicker the pitcher reaches their so called pitch limits. This year the Twins hitters have taken that advice to heart and after 32 games they have walked 147 times and are on pace for about 700 walks which would be the most not only in Twins history but in franchise history. The 1956 Senators walked 690 times and the most walks by a Twins team was the 1962 Twins when they walked to first base 649 times. Let’s take a look at the top 10 career Twins and Senators batters that believed that a walk was indeed as good as a hit.

Minnesota Twins

HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Harmon Killebrew 1,321 8,018 16.48%
2 Kent Hrbek 838 7,137 11.74%
3 Bob Allison 641 4,641 13.81%
4 Rod Carew 613 6,980 8.78%
5 Roy Smalley 549 4,675 11.74%
6 Chuck Knoblauch 513 4,571 11.22%
7 Kirby Puckett 450 7,831 5.75%
8 Tony Oliva 448 6,879 6.61%
9 Matt Lawton 408 3,150 12.95%
10 Tom Brunansky 394 3,760 10.48%

 Washington Senators

Eddie Yost
Eddie Yost
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Eddie Yost 1,274 7,461 17.08%
2 Joe Judge 943 8,906 10.59%
3 Buddy Myer 864 7,028 12.29%
4 Mickey Vernon 735 7,769 9.46%
5 Ossie Bluege 723 7,452 9.70%
6 Clyde Milan 685 8,312 8.24%
7 Sam Rice 680 9.879 6.89%
8 Buddy Lewis 573 5,937 9.65%
9 Joe Kuhel 530 5,234 10.13%
10 Goose Goslin 488 5,810 8.40%

Twins Home Run Leaders by Position

 

October 21, 2009 – I thought that it would be fun to take a look back over the Twins history just to see who the Twins leaders are in home runs at each position. Some of the numbers that I found from the Twins 49 seasons in Minnesota were really a surprise to me and I have followed the Twins since their inception in 1961.

POSITION PLAYER HOME RUNS AT BATS PER HOME RUN
Catcher Tim Laudner 77 26.46
1B Kent Hrbek 293 21.13
2B Rod Carew 46 96.74
SS Zoilo Versalles 86 48.23
3B Gary Gaetti 201 24.82
OF Kirby Puckett 207 35.00
DH Matt LeCroy 53 21.40
P Jim Kaat 14 71.00

You have to be thinking, this can’t be right, where is Twins all-time home run slugger Harmon Killebrew? But when you look at the numbers you will see that Harmon played 14 seasons with the Twins but he split his time playing four positions, he played 881 games at 1B, 481 games at 3B, 455 games in the OF, and 122 games as a DH. Killebrew smashed 191 home runs as a first baseman, 142 as an outfielder, 129 while playing the hot corner, and 13 more when he was the DH. The Twins currently have some players on the roster like Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, and Joe Mauer that could be slugging their way on to this list very soon.

When you look at the Washington Sentaors/Nationals numbers from 1901 to 1960 to get a franchise perspective you see how much different baseball is today from its earlier years. I think the one interesting number that jumped out at me here was Roy Sievers and the fact that he hit a home run in every 16.95 at bats when he played the outfield.It is always fun to look at historical numbers and to do comparisons.

POSITION PLAYER HOME RUNS AT BATS PER HOME RUN
Catcher Jake Early 29 68.76
1B Mickey Vernon 121 57.27
2B Buddy Myer 34 162.94
SS Joe Cronin 51 70.24
3B Eddie Yost 101 59.51
OF Roy Sievers 159 16.95
DH – – –
P Walter Johnson 24 96.83
 
 

Another visit to Hammond Stadium

February 26, 2009 – Yesterday I decided to go out to the stadium about 10 AM and catch the Twins practice before their home opener on Wednesday night against the Red Sox. When I got there I found a few fans and no players, none at all, not even anyone playing catch on the back fields. A lesson learned I guess, but without access to the Twins inside scoop like the regular press has it can be a hit and miss proposition sometimes.

But I don’t give up easy so I went out again this morning knowing that the Twins had an away game with Cincinnati so I was expecting to find a lot of the regulars left behind and that is exactly what happened. When I got there, Morneau, Young, Casilla, Cuddyer, Crede, Redmond and a number of others were taking batting practice. I guess these veterans had earned the right to skip some of the spring training bus rides. So there was no Gardy to run the show but TK was keeping things moving.

The Twins bring in some of their past stars to do a little spring training coaching and today I saw Rod Carew and Paul Molitor. When they players and coaches leave the field they usually have to walk through a gauntlet of fans looking for autographs and pictures. Most of the players and coaches stop, chat with the fans a little, sign some autographs, pose for some pictures and move on, but not Mr. Rod Carew the Hall of Famer. Today Carew just blew past everyone and his eyes never left his shoelaces and he didn’t utter a word. He reminded me of someone walking through a dairy barn barefoot making sure they didn’t step into a “cow pie”. Geez what a grump, Carew was a good player and maybe he is a good coach but he still lacks basic human relations skills that would make him one of the Twins fans favorites. Maybe I just caught him on a bad day….. Paul Molitor, who is not exactly as outgoing as Harmon Killebrew at least stopped, signed and posed for some pictures. Even TK who I always thought was a major grump as a Twins manager stopped and chatted with fans and posed for a picture with some kids. Believe it or not, he told the kids to smile, who would have “thunk” it? But you know who stayed out there the longest and signed until the last fan was satisfied? It was Justin Morneau; he must have been out there for a good half hour signing everything in sight and posing for anyone that asked. How cool is that? You know he was ready to call it a day and get in the clubhouse but he stayed out there until all the cards, balls, and bats were signed even when he knew that a number of them were for going to be put up for sale before the ink had dried. That is why Morneau is such a popular player; he knows how to treat his fans the right way. Thanks Justin, I was very impressed.