Tag: Ryne Sandberg

According to ELIAS

Dozier’s home-run streak ends, settles for tying MLB record

Dozier
Dozier

Brian Dozier contributed a single, a stolen base and a run scored to the Twins’ victory over the Royals on Wednesday night, but his streak of five straight games with a home run ended. Dozier tied the major-league record for consecutive games with a home run, all as a second baseman. The other players who did that were Rogers Hornsby (1928), Ryne Sandberg (1989), Robby Thompson (1993), Jose Castillo (2006), and Chase Utley (twice in 2008).

Should the Twins President, GM and Manager keep their jobs?

When the Minnesota Twins hired Hall of Famer Paul Molitor to manage the Twins starting with the 2015 season they had to know that they were swimming up-stream and that the baseball gods were against them. The list of “modern” MLB Hall of Fame players that tried their luck as managers is relatively short and none of them have turned out to be Hall of Fame managers.

Frank Robinson

Robinson, Frank ExposFrank Robinson may have been the best of the skippers that had Hall of Fame on his resume. Robinson managed four different teams (Indians, Giants, Orioles, Expos/Nationals) over 16 seasons from 1975-2006. Robinson took over the Orioles manager duties in 1988 after they had an 0-6 record and he managed them to 15 more consecutive losses before they won their first game of the season after an 0-21 start. The next season (1989) Frank Robinson was selected as the AL Manager of the year after leading his team to a second place finish and a 87-75 record. Although he may have been the best manager of the Hall of Fame group, he finished his managing career with zero playoff appearances. His career mark as a manager was 1,065-1,176 (.475).

Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra managed for all or parts of five season with two New York clubs, the Yankees and the Mets. Although his career managing record was 484-444, he did take both the Mets and Yankees to a pennant.

Bob Lemon

Bob Lemon managed for all or parts of eight seasons between 1970-1982 and had a lifetime managing record of 430 and 403 with the Royals, White Sox  and Yankees. He does have two pennants and a World Series championship on his resume but in both of these cases he took over the job during the season and never managed a team to a pennant from start to finish.

Ted Williams

Ted Williams managed the Washington Senators from 1969 through 1972 when he called it quits. He led the Senators to a 86-76 record in his first season (1969) as the Senators skipper but in 1970 his team was 70-92, in 1971 the team was 63-96, and in 1972 he was 54-100. Do you see a trend here? His career mark as a manager was 273-364 (.429) and zero play-off appearances.

Ryne Sandberg

Ryne Sandberg took over as skipper of the Phillies 44 games into the 2013 season and left after a 26-48 start to the 2015 season. Sandberg had a 119-159 mark as a skipper during his Phillies tenure.

Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor was hired to be the Twins manager prior to the 2015 season and todate his record as a manager stands at 94-113 (.454). Molitor took over a team that had not won more games than it lost since 2010 and in 2015 he led them to a 83-79 record. At first glance does not seem that bad over all, but, there is always that but.  In May of 2015 the Twins were 20-7, if you subtract that month Molitor managed the team to a 63-72 record. This year Molitor’s record is 15-35, the team is playing at a lousy .300 winning percentage but even that starts to look good when you look at their road record of 7-20 (.259). You want to see more? The Twins are 0-6 against the White Sox, 0-6 against the Tigers, and 1-5 against the Royals but on the positive side they are 4-2 against the Indians. A record of 5-19 in your own division does not cut it, it is totally unacceptable even if you are playing just for fun and the Twins are certainly not playing for the fun of it.

Continue reading Should the Twins President, GM and Manager keep their jobs?

Will Dozier become top Twins 2B home run slugger?

Tim TeufelTwins second baseman Brian Dozier has put on a nice power display this season while playing a position that is not expected to hit for power, at least not for the Minnesota Twins. The most home runs hit by a keystone position player was back in 1973 when Davey Johnson hit 43 long balls for the Atlanta Braves. The only other 2B to hit 40 or more home runs in a single season is Ryne Sandberg who hit 40 for Chicago’s Cubbies in 1990. The most home runs hit by an AL 2B was 39 by Alfonso Soriano of the Yankees back in 2002. No Twins 2B has come close to those kind of power numbers and the Twins top long ball hitting 2B is Tim Teufel who hit 14 in 1984. Here is a list of Twins second baseman that have hit 10 or more home runs in a single season while playing at least 75% of their games at second base.

 

Rk Player HR Year Age G AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB SO HBP SB BA OBP OPS
1 Tim Teufel 14 1984 25 157 568 76 149 30 3 61 76 73 2 1 .262 .349 .749
2 Rod Carew 14 1975 29 143 535 89 192 24 4 80 64 40 1 35 .359 .421 .919
3 Chuck Knoblauch 13 1996 27 153 578 140 197 35 14 72 98 74 19 45 .341 .448 .965
4 Brian Dozier 12 2013 26 103 380 51 92 25 4 48 35 81 5 9 .242 .312 .736
5 Todd Walker 12 1998 25 143 528 85 167 41 3 62 47 65 2 19 .316 .372 .845
6 Bernie Allen 12 1962 23 159 573 79 154 27 7 64 62 82 0 0 .269 .338 .741
7 Chuck Knoblauch 11 1995 26 136 538 107 179 34 8 63 78 95 10 46 .333 .424 .911
8 John Castino 11 1983 28 142 563 83 156 30 4 57 62 54 1 4 .277 .348 .751
9 Luis Rivas 10 2004 24 109 336 44 86 19 5 34 13 53 1 15 .256 .283 .715
10 Tim Teufel 10 1985 26 138 434 58 113 24 3 50 48 70 3 4 .260 .335 .734
Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier

It will be very interesting to see what happens next with Brian Dozier. Dozier has been playing great on defense and showing signs of becoming a better hitter. Hitting lead-off is not Dozier’s strong suit due to his poor OBP but since Gardy has no one else to fill the role, Dozier has been doing his best. Dozier is only 26 and in only his first full big league season so he still has a lot to learn but in my eyes he has earned the position. The question is if he can keep it since the Twins having been grooming Eddie Rosario for that role ever since they moved Rosario from the outfield a couple of years ago. Rosario may well be the better hitter long-term but you need a good defender at 2B and right now Dozier seems to fit the bill.

By the way, did you ever wonder why 2B is called the keystone position? Here is a nice explanation I found – It’s because first, second and third base can be connected to form an arch (think of the curved cut of the grass around the infield, for example) 2nd base is at the middle or top of the arch, and the stone that is put into the top of the arch is called a keystone. Ergo, the keystone position.

A few odds and ends about the draft

2013 draftThe 2013 MLB first-year player draft day has finally arrived and later this evening we will learn who the Twins have selected in a draft that many of the “talking head” experts claim has three sure-fire stars, but the Twins draft fourth.

There have been 61,666 players drafted since the draft was instituted in 1965 when the Kansas City Athletics selected Arizona State outfielder Rick Monday with the very first pick. So far, 24 of these players have gone on to become Hall of Fame players. Of these 24 HOF players, eight were selected in round 1 and no first pick overall is on this list. Not to build up hope and put too much pressure on the Twins selection tonight but three HOF players (Carlton Fisk, Dave Winfield, Barry Larkin) have been selected as the fourth pick overall. The Boston Red Sox (Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, Jim Rice) and the San Diego Padres (Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Tony Gwynn) lead the list of HOF players drafted with three each, the Minnesota Twins have selected two Hall of Fame players in Bert Blyleven in 1969 and Kirby Puckett in 1982. The latest round that a HOF has been picked? That would be the Philadelphia Phillies 20th round pick in 1978, Ryne Sandberg.

Just because a player is drafted does not mean that he will be signed. In 2012, 73.74% of the players drafted were signed, between 2000 and 2011 the percentages varied between 56.56% and 64.85%, so why the huge jump in 2012? Probably due to the fact that the draft was reduced from 50 rounds to 40 rounds for the first time. But percentages can be deceiving, in 2012 there were 913 players signed, the lowest number since there were 895 draftees signed in 2006.

Over the years first round picks were often signed to huge ridiculous contracts but now that a slotting system was implemented in 2012, that has changed the landscape for everyone. In addition a bonus pool is assigned to each team limiting them to what they can spend on their first 10 picks. These limits however are only “strong recommendations” and teams can spend more but they have to be prepared to pay a luxury tax and possibly even give up their first rounds selection for next year and/or the year after depending on how much they exceed the slot amount. The Twins bonus pool number for their top 10 picks for this year is $8,264,500 and their fourth overall pick has a slot limit of $4,544,400.

It has been reported that some teams are looking to limit what they pay to their top selections so that they have more pool money to spend on their lower top 10 picks. I find that an interesting concept but not one that I think I would pursue if I was the GM. For me, it is all about quality versus quantity. According to MLB, they looked at how the 2012 opening day rosters were structured and here is what they found.

23.36% were round 1 picks
11.37% were round 2 picks
9.03% were round 3 picks
7.76% were round 4 picks
9.35% were round 5 picks
14.80% were selected in rounds 6-10

It will be interesting to see if the Twins find diamonds with their picks or if their picks turns out to be no more than lumps of coal, but either way the Twins will pay big money to add these new prospects to their organization. Draft picks are no different than baseball in general, you never know what you will get each year. I think someone said some thing like this about a box of chocolates once upon a time…

UPDATE – The Twins selected right-handed pitcher Kohl Stewart who also was a star quarterback at St. Pius X High School in Houston, Texas with their first selection. Stewart throws about 95 MPH and has touched 97 MPH and is widely regarded as having a “high ceiling” but first, the Twins have to sign the high school star so he does not accept his football scholarship to Texas A&M. Stewart is a type 1 diabetic but that should be a non-issue. The Twins then selected right-hander Ryan Eades from LSU with their second pick. Eades is reported to throw a fastball between 90-95 and has a hard breaking ball as part of his arsenal. The down side with Eades is his injury history which reportedly includes a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder in high school.