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
Do you know what pitcher has started the most games for the Minnesota Twins and hasn’t completed a single one of his starts?
Mike Pelfrey
The Minnesota Twins franchise leader in starts without a single complete game on his resume is Mike Pelfrey but Pelfrey does have a couple of complete games with the New York Mets. Ironically former Senators and Twins pitcher Jim Kaat holds the Washington Senators franchise record for most starts with 11 and zero complete games and he did that between 1959-1960. Oddly enough three of the ten pitchers on the list below pitched for the Twins in 2016.
The MLB record holder in this category is still active and he is Bud Norris (a free agent I believe) with 185 starts and zero complete games in the books between 2009-2016 while pitching for five different teams.
The MLB leader by the way, in complete games is Cy Young with 749 and Bert Blyleven leads the Twins in complete games with 141 which comes out to 41% of his starts.
A pitcher gets credit for aquality start (QS) any time he allows three earned runs or less in a start that lasts at least six innings. John Lowe who was writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time developed and coined the term Quality Start back in 1985.
Most arguments against the QS begin with the statement that a QS equals a 4.50 ERA and an ERA of 4.50 is not seen as top-notch by anybody. If you look up QS on Wiki you can find some strange situations for and against the term QS, for example, in 2000 Mark Mulder goes 6 and 2/3 innings giving up 15 hits, nine runs but only two were earned and so he gets a QS, in 1982 Mike Scott goes the required 6 innings giving up 7 hits, 5 walks, zero strikeouts, allows 7 runs albeit only 3 earned and he get a QS, on the other side of the coin, back in 1974 Gaylord Perry goes 15 innings and allows 4 earned runs and get no QS, same with Randy Johnson who pitches a complete game while striking out 19 but gives up 4 earnies and gets no QS.
Since 1961, the most MLB QS in a single season record is held by White Sox knuckleballer Wilbur Wood who had 37 QS in 41 starts in 1971. Next on the list is Dodger great Sandy Koufax with 36 QS in 1966 (his final season) in 41 starts. The career leaders in QS from 1961-current are Don Sutton with 483, Nolan Ryan with 481, and Greg Maddux with 480.
But how close is the relationship of a QS to what really counts, a team victory. If you look at the list that I have provided below that shows the Minnesota Twins QS and the team record you can get a feel for how the two compare. Sure, there are outlier seasons like 1972 when the team had 114 QS and finished the season with a 77-77 record or when the opposite happened in 2006 when the Twins went to the play-offs with a 96-66 record but only had 73 QS. By the way, I don’t remember seeing any Rick Anderson for governor buttons back then.
The Twins historical QS numbers are kind of strange, almost a bell-shaped curve. The Twins have had 90 or more QS in a season 11 times and went to the playoffs zero times. No Twins team with 72 or less QS has sniffed the playoffs either. The Twins have advanced to the playoffs 11 times and their QS were always in the 73-89 range and if you exclude the 2006 season with just 73 QS, the other ten fall between 78-89. Having said all that, in the past 54 seasons the Twins have had 4,266 QS, the team record during that period is 4,274-4,335. 4,266 QS and 4,274 wins over 54 seasons, is that strange or what?
The chart below shows you in a pictorial fashion the relationship of QS and Twins victories. Click on the chart to make it larger.
Twins Quality Start History
YEAR
QS
RECORD
1972
114
77-77
1967
105
91-71
1968
100
79-83
1966
99
89-73
1963
95
91-70
1973
93
81-81
1978
92
73-89
1974
90
82-80
1984
90
81-81
1988
90
91-71
2005
90
83-79
1965*
89
102-60
1970*
89
98-64
1991*
89
95-67
1969*
88
97-65
1971
88
74-86
1989
88
80-82
1964
86
79-83
2008
86
88-75
2010*
86
94-68
1976
83
85-77
1992
83
90-72
2004*
83
92-70
1980
82
77-84
1987*
80
85-77
2001
80
85-77
2003*
80
90-72
2007
80
79-83
2011
80
63-99
1962
79
91-71
2009*
79
87-76
1998
78
70-92
2002*
78
94-67
1961
75
70-90
1990
75
74-88
1985
74
77-85
1979
73
82-80
2006*
73
96-66
1975
71
76-83
1986
71
71-91
2000
71
69-93
1977
70
84-77
1993
69
71-91
1996
69
78-84
1983
67
70-92
1982
66
60-102
2014
66
70-92
1999
63
63-97
2012
62
66-96
2013
62
66-96
1997
61
68-94
1981
56
41-68
1995
43
56-88
1994
37
53-60
TOTALS
4,266
4,274-4,335
* = went to playoffs
.
Twins QS data by decade
DECADE
QS
AVG. QS PER SEASON
1960’s
816
90.7
1970’s
863
86.3
1980’s
764
76.4
1990’s
667
66.7
2000’s
800
80.0
2010’s
356
71.2
Data provided by Baseball-Reference Play Index.
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I asked Jim Kaat if he would comment on Quality Starts and here is what Jim had to say-
Thanks John,
I’m happy to comment on “Quality Starts”. It’s one of my favorite subjects because it is misunderstood. My pitching stats person, Merrianna McCully, has compiled a 25 year profile on QS’s in her book ‘Three Up Three Down’. She kept all sorts of pitching stats for me from 1988-2006…
The MINIMUM DAILY REQUIREMENT,[ like a vitamin pill] is 6 ip. 3 er or less..the actual earned run averages in a Quality start is a little under 2 in the NL and about 2.05 in the American league..DH factor…The IP’s in a QS game will close to 8 innings pitched. The records show that if a team got just a minimum daily requirement for a QS they would win about 2/3 of their games unless they had an extremely ineffective bullpen.
2013 has just about come to a close and spring training is 41 days away and the MLB free agent list still has numerous serviceable players looking for work. The plums of the free agent market have pretty much been plucked but there are still a few decent players out there. The fact that Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka was dangling in the wind probably has a lot to do with some of the top rated free agent starters still on the market not signing but now that he has been posted thing may start to break free. If you look at the available free agents you can see how some positions have been stripped bare and others still have innumerable free agents still in the unemployed corner. Strangely enough with everyone looking for starting pitching there seems to be plenty of arms still on the market, sure, they are not aces but they can certainly fill a spot in many teams rotations.
I thought it would be interesting to compare some of what I deem to be top free agents still looking for work to what might be the 2014 Twins team when they head to Chicago to open play in 2014. If you compare the free agent and the corresponding Twins player, who would you rather see in a Twins uniform? Don’t forget what it might cost to sign this free agent versus the player the Twins currently have because you don’t have an unlimited checkbook. This is just a fun little exercise to help you get through these cold snowy days in Minnesota as you wait the hear that “play ball” call once again. Are any of these free agents possible Twins in your eyes?
I don’t know how much it would take to sign Stephen Drew but I wouldn’t mind seeing him play some short here in Minnesota. I also would like to see Michael Young play some 3B instead of Trevor Plouffe while waiting for Miguel Sano to slide into that 3B position. Both probably looking for more than the Twins want to spend but if I was Mr. Ryan I would open my checkbook and get Drew’s John Henry on a Twins contract, he would be a huge upgrade and there is no prospect beating down the shortstop door in Minnesota. Tanaka would be a slick addition but I can’t see him wanting to play here plus the financial risk of paying that much for an unproven MLB player is more than I would like to do. There are a few relief pitchers that I did not include on this list that would be nice in the Twins bullpen too.
I used the ESPN MLB Free Agent tracker to determine who was still available, are there players on the list you would like to see in the home dugout at Target Field that I did not mention here?
The Twins have had a reputation for protecting their starting pitchers for many years and their method of choice for accomplishing this is to limit the number of pitches that their starters throw in a game. The Twins are not alone in counting pitches, all teams do it these days and a 100 pitch per game seems to be the “gold standard” that most teams follow.
Before pitch counts started to become prominent in the 1980’s ball clubs expected their starting pitcher to pitch a complete game unless he was injured during the game or just could not get anyone out. In days gone by relievers were often starters that were past their prime and were finishing their careers, being a reliever was looked upon as a step down from being a starter. In some ways it is not really that different today, hardly anyone comes out of high school or college hoping to be a reliever but there have been a few exceptions over the last couple of years. For the most part, relievers are still failed starters and yet baseball managers bring in these guys that are not good enough to start for his team to bail out the starter after the starter gets in trouble or reaches his pitch limit.
So what brought on this change? When I first started following baseball in the 1950’s teams usually had four starters and these starters were now and then called upon to pitch in a few games in relief each season as needed. Then baseball evolved from four to five starters, the Twins joined that bandwagon in 1963. As baseball payrolls started to escalate and pitching talent became diluted due to expansion, starting pitchers became a more valuable commodity. I don’t have good Twins payroll data prior to 1980 but it appears that the Twins highest paid player was always a position player until 1986 when Bert Blyleven became the first Twins pitcher to lay claim to that title and to make over a million dollars a season when he pocketed $1,450.000. In the last 28 years the Twins highest paid player has been a position player 16 times, a starting pitcher 11 times and a closer on one occasion. You can see the numbers and the names at http://wp.me/P1YQUj-22 . I am not sure anyone knows for sure but somewhere along the line, either the players agents or team management (I doubt it was a player) decided that starting pitchers needed to be protected and that limiting the number of pitches thrown was the best way to accomplish that goal. Counting pitches isn’t very scientific but it is easy to do and that might by why pitch counts were chosen as the tool of choice. The stress of the game, if there are runners on base, the weather and many other variables are not taken into consideration when all you do is count pitches to determine how hard a pitcher worked on any given day.
One way to make a case for pitch counts is that you can argue that each pitcher has only so many “bullets” to throw before his arm or elbow gives out. I have always found the concept that pitch counts limit injuries to be kind of a strange notion because when we want to strengthen a muscle or ligament we do what? We exercise it and work it. After a knee or arm or elbow surgery we do what? We exercise it to make it stronger and that just seems to go against the grain of limiting pitchers throwing.
Have pitch count really limited injuries? I don’t think anyone knows for sure but the thinking must be that it has because pitch counts are becoming more entrenched than ever before. Let’s take a look at this from the Twins historical perspective. From 1994 through 2013 the Twins have played 3,173 games, during that time frame Tom Kelly/Dick Such and Ron Gardenhire/Rick Anderson have allowed their starting pitcher to throw 100 or more pitches in a game 1,134 times or in 35.74% of the games the Twins have played. Over the last 20 years Minnesota Twins managers and their pitching coaches have allowed their starters throw 100 or more pitches fewer times than any team in the American League and it is not even close. Have Twins starters suffered fewer injuries then all the other teams, I don’t think so. Heck, even the Tampa Rays have 1,259 games with 100 or more pitches and they have been in existence in only the 16 of the 20 years I am looking at here.
AL games with starter going 100 or more pitches 1994-2013
(Houston excluded since they have been in AL only one season)
Team
Total
Avg games per year
1
WSox
1711
85.55
2
Angels
1668
83.4
3
Yankees
1621
81.05
4
Mariners
1597
79.85
5
Rays
1259
78.69
6
BJays
1548
77.4
7
Orioles
1482
74.1
7
Indians
1482
74.1
9
Rangers
1476
73.8
10
RSox
1470
73.5
11
Tigers
1458
72.9
12
A’s
1434
71.7
13
Royals
1403
70.15
14
Twins
1134
56.7
So why the huge disparity in how often the Twins starters throw 100+ pitches and the rest of the American League? The time period covers two different Twins managers along with their personal choices as pitching coaches. The Twins have not always had bad starting pitchers when you look back over the years covered here. With that big a difference it has to be some type of organization philosophy to keep the starters limited in the number of pitches they throw. For the most part relievers are cheaper and more expendable then starters, would the Twins rather burn out the bullpen staff then their starting pitchers?
It seems to me that the Twins are sending a bad message and doing a disservice to their starters when they don’t allow them to throw more pitches. Who wants to come to pitch in Minnesota for an organization that pulls you at the first sign of trouble and does not allow you to work out of your own jams. Pitchers can only get better if they learn how to extricate themselves from predicaments they find themselves in. For the most part Twins teams have had decent bullpens, it would seem logical that they might be even better if they were not over worked.
What have the Twins gained by keeping the number of pitches down for their starters? Who knows, I don’t see it. In the last 20 years the Twins have had the least 100+ pitched games by starters four times, as a matter of fact they have not once in the last 20 years even reached the AL average of starters with 100+ pitches. That is just plain amazing. The chart below shows in a graphic form how the Twins starters compare to AL league high, average, and low in games that starters threw 100 or more pitches.
Brad Radke
In the past 20 years only four Twins starting pitchers have averaged 100+ pitches a game for the entire season and they were Brad Radke with 103.7 in 2000, Joe Mays with 100.2 in 2001, Johan Santana in 2004 with 100.8, in 2005 with 101.1, in 2006 with 101.5, in 2007 with 101.4 and Carl Pavano in 2011 with 102.5 and their innings pitched fell between 219 and 233.2 per season. The Twin leader in average pitches per game in 2013 was Samuel Deduno with 96.8 in 18 starts.
The intent of this piece is not to say that the Twins pitching would better if Kelly and Gardenhire had allowed them to throw more pitches, it is more for pointing out the peculiarity of how the Twins handle their starters versus how the rest of the AL league does.
Yesterday the Minnesota Twins announced that they have added Minnesota native and former Twins player Paul Molitor to their major league coaching staff. Molitor will oversee base running, bunting, infield instruction and positioning, plus assist with in-game strategy from the dugout for manager Ron Gardenhire. I don’t consider this as any kind of bold move by the Twins and I don’t see it adding any wins to the Twins victory total but with the way the Twins have run the bases the last few years it can’t hurt. Molitor served as a bench coach under Tom Kelly back in 2000 and 2001 and coached for the Seattle Mariners in 2004. Despite what has been written over the last couple of years, I still don’t see Molitor as a strong candidate to replace Gardenhire when he vacates the managers seat. I don’t think it is a secret that Molitor covets a big league managers job but teams have not exactly been knocking down his door to discuss a possible managers position with him. I find it interesting however; that Molitor has turned up as a coach with the Twins when TK was nearing the end of his tenure and with Seattle in Bob Melvin‘s final season at the helm in Seattle. Molitor isn’t exactly “Mr. Personality” so I will be interested to see how he interacts with the Twins fans in Ft. Myers come February.
Wilkin Ramirez
Outfielder Wilkin Ramirez was activated from the 60-day disabled list and then outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. Ramirez may exercise his right to declare free agency and determine if anybody else wants him or he can choose to resign with Minnesota as Doug Bernier did recently. The Twins 40 man roster is 36 but is expected to go to 37 when Samuel Deduno is taken off the 60-day disabled list.
Glen Perkins
The Twins also announced yesterday that Twins closer Glen Perkins underwent arthroscopic surgery two days after the 2013 season ended, but he should be ready for spring training in February. Perkins, who saved 36 games in his first full season as the Twins’ closer, had the procedure to repair the meniscus in his right knee. So why did the Twins wait so long to announce this? What would they have to gain? The Twins continue to keep team medical issues close to the vest.
Darin Mastroianni
Outfielder Darin Mastroianni underwent surgery last week to have the pin in his left ankle removed. The hardware, removed last Wednesday, had been inserted during his May surgery to repair the broken bone in his foot, suffered during the final week of spring training. He too also is expected to be fully healed by spring training.
Minor League Baseball and the Topps Company announced on October 22nd that outfielder Byron Buxton, the second overall pick in the June 2012 Draft by the Minnesota Twins, is the 2013 winner of the 54th annual J.G. Taylor Spink Award as the Topps/Minor League Player of the Year. Buxton finished among the top 12 MiLB™ players in six offensive categories, including a Minor League-best 18 triples. His 109 runs ranked second.
Lincecum
The San Francisco Giants announced that they have agreed to sign free agent to be RHP Tim Lincecum to a two-year $35 million no-trade deal pending a physical. The 29-year-old Lincecum just completed a $40.5 million, two-year contract that paid him $22 million this past season, that come out to $1.2 million per win this past season. Lincecum has a career record of 89-70 with a 3.46 ERA but that is not the whole story. After posting a 40-17 record with a 2.90 ERA in his first three seasons in the majors, his last four seasons have been a different story. During the last four seasons in which the Giants have won the World Series twice, Lincecum has won 49 games while losing 53 and his ERA has jumped to 3.87 and if you look at the last two years, he has a 4.76 ERA. His KO/9 have dropped from a league leading 10.5 in 2008 to 8.8 in 2013 and his velocity has dropped noticeably. This deal is just plain outlandish and will make this years off season hunt for free agent starters even that much more difficult for teams like the Twins that are desperate for starting pitching. I know Lincecum has won two Cy Young‘s and has thrown a no-hitter but there are many people out there that feel that Lincecum is sliding quickly and he may spend more time in the near future coming out of the bullpen then he will as a starter. This is a bad signing for the Giants and for baseball in general, the only winner here is Tim Lincecum.
The Cardinals and the Red Sox play game 1 of the 2013 World Series starting tonight and I really have no clear cut preference as who wins the Series but it might be an interesting series to watch. I am leaning a bit towards the Red Sox to win but we will have to wait and see how it turns out. Here is a little something fun for you to look at to see how the Cardinals and Red Sox regular season prices compared at the register courtesy of Team Marketing Report FactBook.
Baseball America announced today that Byron Buxton is the 2013 Minor League Player of the Year joining Joe Mauer (2003) as the only Twins players to be so honored. The Twins second overall pick in the 2012 draft from Appling County High in Baxley, Georgia is on the fast track to Minnesota. A few days ago the Twins announced that Buxton will be joining the Twins contingent of players heading for the Arizona Fall League where he will join infielders Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler along with pitchers Trevor May, Alex Meyer, A.J. Achter, and Zach Jones playing for the Glendale Desert Dogs.
Buxton started the season at low Class A Cedar Rapids and was promoted in late June to high Class A Fort Myers, Buxton hit a cumulative .334/.424/.520 with 49 extra-base hits, 55 stolen bases and a sparkling 76-to-105 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 125 games. He led the minors with 18 triples, finished second with 109 runs scored, one behind Marcus Semien of the White Sox and 12th in stolen bases. Even more impressive, Buxton ranked sixth in the minor league batting race, 10th in hits (163) and seventh in on-base percentage, despite being a full year younger than any other member of those top-10 lists.
Twins minor league attendance numbers
I enjoy the work that Ballpark Digest does and check their site every day, as a matter of fact I have their RSS feed going to this site whenever they publish anything new. This past Monday they published their 2013 minor league attendance totals and averages for every team as well as how they ranked over all. They also have affiliated attendance by league. Check them out, they are interesting to look at and see how the Twins minor league teams rank.
September Call Ups
The Minnesota Twins announced on September 8th that they have recalled infielder Eduardo Escobar, outfielder Chris Parmelee, left-handed pitcher Scott Diamond and right-handed pitchers Michael Tonkin and Cole De Vries from Triple-A Rochester. Additionally, the Twins have selected the contracts of catcher Eric Fryer and right-handed pitcher Shairon Martis from Rochester. To make room on the Twins 40-man roster right-handed pitcher Sam Deduno and outfielder Wilkin Ramirez have been transferred from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL.
Samuel Deduno recorded his fourth win in seven starts for the Twins this season by holding the Royals to one run in seven innings yesterday. Deduno has recorded twice as many wins as any other Minnesota pitcher since May 24, when he made his 2013 major-league debut after being recalled from the minors. Deduno has pitched at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs in each of his four wins this season. Deduno has beaten the Royals three times this season.
Michael Cuddyer set a record for the longest single-season hitting streak in Rockies’ history – 24 games – with his second-inning single against the Mets’ Jeremy Hefner yesterday. Before that single, Cuddyer had been tied for the Colorado franchise record with Dante Bichette, who hit safely in 23 consecutive games in 1995. For the moment, the Rockies remain one of the two current major-league teams that have never had a player register a single-season hitting streak of 26 or more games. The other team without a hitting streak of that length is Tampa Bay, whose team record is 19 games by Jason Bartlett in 2009.
Today was the first time this season I did not watch a single inning of the Twins game. My modem and router went on the blink and so I spent most of the day troubleshooting that issue and getting a replacement so I could get back on the internet.
The Twins lost in Atlanta today 8-3 and it marked their eighth loss in a row. The team is playing really poorly right now and it is hard to find any silver linings or moral victories. Moral victories are meaningless anyway, all that counts is wins and the Twins can’t find a win to save their life right now. The Twins starters keep allowing the opposition to score first and it just sucks the life out of the team and to be honest it really makes watching a Twins game a real chore. I love baseball and the Twins and I will keep watching but I want to see a team that is showing some life and making some progress towards being a competitive team and right now this bunch of players wearing the Twins uniform is doing nothing for me. These players realize they are not a very good team and they are playing to their expectations.
The Twins management stubbornly hangs on to their statement that the team is doing all it can to win but I think that management is starting to realize that a major rebuild is in order here. The other day they sent starter Pedro Hernandez down and brought up reliever Caleb Thielbar to help with all the extra innings the bullpen has had to throw. Reports are that Samuel Deduno will be brought up to start in Detroit on Friday and he will probably takes Vance Worley‘s spot on the roster since he was the second starter in the last few days to change his address to Rochester. The Twins will need to make another roster change in a couple of days to get a starter to pitch on Monday in Milwaukee and you have to think that Kyle Gibson might be the guy. Trevor Plouffe took a knee to his head on Tuesday night at second base, reminiscent to Morneau getting hurt in Toronto a couple of years ago and the Twins called up last weeks Twins minor league player of the week 1B/OF Chris Colabello to fill in for Plouffe while he recuperates on the 7 day concussion DL. You can sense that the Twins will be making roster changes frequently as the season approaches the 50 game mark in the next week.
I have always liked Ron Gardenhire as a manager and Terry Ryan as the GM but right now it appears to me that they have no plan and the Twins look like a “Chinese fire drill” and the team seems to be in a death spiral. Gardy appears to be grasping at straws and trying to go with who ever was hot the day before and making them a regular part of the line-up. Mr. Ryan seems to be missing in action when he should be leading the charge to make this team better. This team is going nowhere this year! Put the young guys in the line-up day in and day out and let them make their mistakes and learn the game until they get so sick of losing that they start playing the game the right way. Gardy keep pulling players like Chris Parmelee and Brian Dozier and putting them on the bench when they struggle and he would do the same with Aaron Hicks if he had anyone that could play center field. You only hurt the long-term future of the Twins when you don’t let these guys play every day. Jamey Carroll is a utility player and a good one but I should not be seeing his name in the line-up 3 or days in a row unless he is filling in for an injury like with Plouffe.
You won’t hurt fan interest by going with the young guys, everyone knows the team isn’t going anywhere so bring us the future and let’s see what and who we can look forward to watching in the next few years. I can take short-term pain for long-term gain but if major changes are not made to this team soon we are doomed to watching a team that has no wins, no hope and no future. You kill a fan base by taking away their hope, I hope that is not where the Twins are taking us.
No one said that running a baseball team was easy but that is what Gardy and Mr. Ryan signed up for and they get paid the big bucks to make the Twins a winning baseball team. I know these gents are up to the task, but we need to see some results soon boys!
CBSSports.com is reporting that the Twins have agreed to sign 29-year-old RHP Mike Pelfrey to a one year deal for $4 million and another $1.5 million in possible incentives. The former Mets first round pick (ninth overall) in 2005 has pitched for the Mets since 2006 and has a 50-54 record with a 4.36 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP in 149 big league starts. Pelfrey only had 3 starts in 2012 before under-going season ending TJ surgery. Prior to last season the 6’7″ Pelfrey had thrown between 184 and 204 innings from 2008-2011 but on the down side Pelfrey has always given up more hits than he has innings pitched. Sources indicate that Pelfrey throws a four-seam fastball between 92-95, a two seamer between 88-92, an 82-85 splitter, a slider between 83-87 and a 74-80 MPH curveball but then again that was before the TJ surgery so who knows what Pelfrey will show us now. History seems to show that Pelfrey has pitched well in even-numbered years but guess what, next year is 2013.
In current times $4 million for a starter is a drop in the bucket and with the Twins pitching staff in shambles I would like to say that this is nice sign but I just can’t bring myself to believe that. I have never been a Pelfrey fan and I can’t see why if GM Terry Ryan didn’t want to pay Scott Baker who was coming off TJ surgery why he would be willing to take a chance on Mike Pelfrey. Then again, Ryan is the Twins GM and I am just a fan so I will wait and see what happens but I am still one of the few that thinks that the recent Kevin Correia signing is a better deal.
No team seems to value quantity as much as the Twins do and they have been busy signing players this off-season but when I look at the list, I can’t help but think, why?
Clete Thomas – OF
Kevin Correia – RHP
Reynaldo Rodriguez – 1B
Brandon Boggs – OF
Bryan Augenstein – RHP
Ray Olmedo – 3B
Virgil Vasquez – RHP
Michael O’Connor – LHP
Scott Elarton – RHP
Lester Oliveros – RHP
Jason Lane – LHP
Jeff Clement – 1B
P.J. Walters- RHP
Samuel Deduno – RHP
Tom Boleska – RHP
Tim Wood – RHP
Jason Christian – 3B
Eric Fryer – C
James Beresford – 2B
Josh Roenicke – RHP
Tommy Field – SS (then lost on waivers)
It is difficult for me to have hope for the immediate future of this team when they continue to sign players like this. With the ownership this team has and a brand new stadium at Target Field it is hard for me to understand why they continue to act like they have no money to spend. Last year they signed Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit as free agents and at least gave us something to look forward to but so far this year that has not been the case. Then again, it is still mid December.
Twins rookie Samuel Deduno improved his record to 4-0 in seven starts this season this with a victory over the Tigers at Target Field last night. Deduno earned the win despite issuing five walks, bringing his season total to 30 bases on balls. Deduno is the first major-league pitcher to go undefeated in a span of seven starts in one season while walking 30 or more batters over that stretch since Tampa Bay’s Victor Zambrano in 2004. The last pitcher to do that for the Washington/Minnesota franchise was the Senators’ Ed Linke in 1935. Source: Elias
