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
Unless something unforeseen happens the Minnesota Twins will not be booking a lot of frequent flyer miles in 2015 as they will only have to fly 23,866 miles this coming season. Only seven teams, the Indians with 23,499, the Brewers with 23,429, the White Sox with 23,180, the Tigers with 22,508, the Cubs with 20,953, the Cardinals with 20,875 and the Reds with 20,612 will fly fewer miles than our home town boys. The Mariners on the other hand will be on the other end of the spectrum and will need to fly 43,281 miles to play out their schedule of games in 2015.
The site I used to look up this information has information going back to 2009. Based on their numbers the 2015 Minnesota Twins will fly fewer miles than any Twins team has flown from 2009 through 2014.
Miles flown by the Minnesota Twins
2014 – 29,532
2013 – 29,043
2012 – 25,546
2011 – 32,199
2010 – 27,398
2009 – 25,315
So when you hear those Minnesota Twins radio and television announcers talk about the teams grueling travel schedule you can say, “what a bunch of BS”, they got it easy.
I have followed baseball for a long time and it seems like the New York Yankees are always beating the Minnesota Twins. Truth or myth? I decided to check it out with an assist from baseball-reference.com .
It turns that the Yankees are indeed the toughest team to beat for our home town nine. Since 1961 they have played the Yankees 600 times and won just 252 of those match-ups for a .421 winning percentage. Actually I am surprised that the winning percentage is as high as it is because it seems like the Twins always lose to the Yankees.
Who do the Twins beat up on most frequently? That would be the Senators/Rangers franchise whom the Twins have played 696 times and whipped them on 366 occasions for a .527 winning percentage. I have left the Houston Astros off the list since their time in the American League just started last season and I have included the Brewers/Pilots franchise since the Twins play them every year even though they have been in the National League for many of these years.
Here is how the Minnesota Twins stack up against the rest of the American League since 1961.
This past Monday the Minnesota Twins announced that they had concluded their search for a manager and that coach Paul Molitor would slide into the Twins driver’s seat. The Twins then held their introductory press conference on Tuesday. Molitor is a Hall of Famer and played from 1978-1998 with the Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays and the Minnesota Twins (1996-1998).
Molitor becomes the 13th Minnesota Twins manager but only the third since 1986. The St. Paul native has no managing experience on any level but has served as a coach with the Twins in 2000 and 2001 before moving on to coach with the Seattle Mariners in 2004. Molitor was also on the Twins coaching staff in 2014. Prior to 2014, he served as the Twins minor league baserunning/infield coordinator for 10 seasons (2003, 2005-13). The 58 year-old Molitor has agreed to a 3 year contract that runs through the 2017 season.
The Twins interviewed numerous internal and external candidates before narrowing the field to three finalists, Torey Lovullo, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Molitor. My preference from this list was Lovullo and my second choice was Mientkiewicz and Molitor was last on my list. Joe Maddon who opted out from his Tampa Bay gig would have been great but he ended up going to the Chicago Cubs.
I was sure, more than sure, I was positive the Twins would not hire Molitor since they could have easily have given him the job when Ron Gardenhire was let go and saved everyone a lot of time, angst and money. The fact that Molitor had substantial baggage (drinking, drugs, womanizing) from his time as a player I though would work against him but apparently that was discussed but didn’t seem to matter. The word is that Twins President Dave St. Peter and owner Jim Pohlad are big Molitor boosters so that probably helped persuade GM Terry Ryan to recommend Molitor for the job. I don’t like the choice but it is what it is and I hope I am wrong and that Molitor can turn this Twins team around and get them back on the winning track. Having said that, I won’t be purchasing any Twins season tickets until I see this team improve dramatically and start putting up some games in the “W” column. I am in the “you have to show me first” camp right now. Molitor claims to have the passion needed to do this job, let’s see what a losing team in 2015 will do to that passion.
Tom Brunansky
Now the Twins have announced that former hitting coach Tom Brunansky is coming back to fill the same role for Molitor in 2015. Again, I disagree with the choice. I though that Tom Brunansky should have been fired after his first season as the Twins hitting instructor in 2013 when the team scored just 614 runs and struck out a franchise record 14,30 times and hit for a putrid .242 average. Now after the Twins again finished with 90 plus losses and the Twins scored 715 runs the Twins make Brunansky sound like the best hitting coach ever. 715 runs scored is mediocre at best, the team still struck out 1,329 times so his teams now hold the two highest strikeout records in franchise history going back to 1901. The team batting average jumped to .254, whoopy dooo.
It will be interesting to see who the Twins pitching coach will be and who will fill the remaining coaching vacancies. Who will be the guy on the staff that Molitor goes to talk with and confide in when the going gets tough? We shall see.
The Twins entered the top of the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead over the Tigers. J.D. Martinez‘s three-run home run off Glen Perkins turned that lead into a 3-2 deficit before the Twins rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for the win. It’s been over 30 years since the Twins won a game in which they led entering the top of the ninth inning; fell behind in the top of the ninth before rallying in the bottom of the ninth for the win. The Twins last such win occurred on April 13, 1984 against the Mariners. Minnesota saw a 2-1 lead disappear when Alvin Davis and Ricky Nelson hit back-to-back home runs off Ron Davis to open the top of the ninth inning. The Twins rallied in the bottom of the ninth on RBI singles by Tim Teufel and Tom Brunansky for the win.
Seems to be some validity to the complaining that the Twins best paid player Joe Mauer isn’t hitting with runners on base. Joe Mauer had the go-ahead single in the ninth inning for Minnesota on Monday, after he entered the game hitting .171 (7 for 41) in Late Inning Pressure Situations. Over the past six seasons (2008-2013), Mauer hit .339 in LIPS, the highest in the major leagues among players with at least 100 plate appearances.
The Ft. Myers Miracle the Twins High-A team is now calling JetBlue Park their new home for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs as Hammond Stadium undergoes the second phase of their two-year remodeling effort. It will be interesting to see what Hammond Stadium will look like next spring.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels the Twins Low-A club and the Minnesota Twins extended their player-development contract (PDC) through the 2020 season. Another nail in the coffin for those that had hopes of St. Paul landing a Twins minor league affiliation in their new ballpark that is being built.
Minneapolis provided MLB with free rent and discounted services for the All-Star FanFest at the Minneapolis Convention Center when the Twins hosted the 2014 All-Star game.
Ron Davis – Twins pitcher from 1982 – 1986 (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
Twenty eight years ago today the Twins traded closer Ron Davis along with minor league pitcher Dewayne Coleman to the Chicago Cubs for relievers George Frazier and Ray Fontenot and shortstop Julius McDougal. Davis was the Twins closer from 1982 until he was traded in 1986. Davis saved 108 games for the Twins but it was the games that he didn’t save that made Davis one of the biggest villans in Twins history. Here is a piece about Davis in the LA Times. The Twinstrivia interview with Ron Davis can be found here.
In the last three weeks Terry Ryan and Rob Antony have been busy house-cleaning and they have cut about $8 million from the Twins payroll. First the Twins traded DH/1B Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for RHP Stephen Pryor. Then they traded outfielder Sam Fuld to the Oakland A’s for LHP Tommy Milone. Then RHP Kevin Correia was sent out to La La land where he will pitch for the Dodgers and the Twins will receive a PTBNL or cash. Their latest trade has outfielder/DH Josh Willingham headed south to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for minor league RHP Jason Adam. Here is what a KC blog site called Cover the Bases had to say about the deal. Are there still more trades on the horizon? You never know but if I was Jared Burton I might not be too quick to send out my clothes to the dry cleaners. Joe Mauer is now the oldest position player on the team, Wow!
Jim Merritt
A lot is being made of King Felix Hernandez and his run of history making starts this season where he has pitched seven innings or more and allowed two runs or fewer. There is even talk of him as a serious MVP candidate. Have any Twins pitchers had a nice run like that? Turns out that Jim Merritt had 11 games in a row back in 1967. This is actually a pretty amazing run by Hernandez, since 1961 there have only been 10 pitchers that have had a streak of 10 games or more that fit this criteria. Check out the list, there are some pretty good pitchers here.
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Streaks of seven innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed since 1961
Take a moment to check out Bob Gibson‘s numbers in the table above, they are absolutely incredible. His streak was 11 games long, his record was 11-0 and he had 11 complete games with 8 shutouts and a total of three runs allowed. No wonder Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver said that Gibson was the luckiest pitcher ever, he only pitched when the other team was not hitting.
The Minnesota Twins are still on track to have over 2.3 million fans at Target Field this summer. I think as the cooler weather approaches, the state fair gets in full swing and school begins, the attendance will fall off and the Twins will be around the 2 million mark but that is still an amazing mark for a team that has played as badly as the Twins have for the last four years.
So what about Ron Gardenhire and his staff? I think they are history within a week of the season ending. Who will be the Twins new skipper, it won’t be anyone currently associated with the Minnesota Twins today. Who would I like it to be? I think the Twins should swing a deal with the Marlins and bring Mike Redmond in as the Twins manager in 2015. The man had done well with the players he has been given. Will it happen? Nooooooo
Winning at just a .455% clip, the third worst in the American League and in last place in the AL Central division with the July 31 trade deadline looming the Minnesota Twins caravan stopped at the local bus stop on their way to Target Field to allow 1B/DH Kendrys Morales and RHP Matt Guerrier to get off the bus. Morales is heading for Seattle but Guerrier’s destination is unknown at the present time.
Matt GuerrierRyan Pressly
The Twins signed Matt Guerrier this past March as a free agent. Guerrier, 35, appeared in relief in 27 games and had a 0-1 record with a 3.86 ERA. Guerrier is in his 11th season in the majors but is about 40 some games short of hitting the 10 year pension mark. Guerrier had pitched for Minnesota from 2004-2010 before signing with the Dodgers as a free agent and then being traded to the Cubs last season. The Twins designated Guerrier for assignment and recalled Ryan Pressly from Rochester. Pressly who spent all of 2013 in the Twins bullpen was talked about as a possible starter this season but with Rochester this season all of his 35 appearances have been as a reliever. Hard to say what is in store for Guerrier at this stage of his career but the Twins front office likes him and if he can’t find a job as a player, the Twins might offer him a pitching coach position somewhere in their minor league system.
Stephen PryorKendrys Morales
The Twins surprised everyone when they signed free agent DH/1B Kendrys Morales to a $7.4 million deal on July 24. Morales however, has not exactly provided the punch the Twins were hoping to get when they signed the Cuban slugger that has had hit 34 home runs in 2009 and 23 last season as a Seattle Mariner. In 39 games for the Twins Morales had one home run, 18 RBI and a .234 batting average in 154 at bats. The Twins swapped Morales to the Seattle Mariners for right-handed pitcher Stephen Pryor. Pryor received his surprise birthday gift a day after his 25th birthday. Pryor was a 2010 fifth round pick by the Mariners and quickly made his big league debut with the Mariners in June of 2012. In only his 4th major league appearance for the Seattle Mariners on June 8, 2012, Pryor was credited with the win in a 1-0 combined no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Pryor appeared in 26 games as a Mariner in 2012 but only appeared in 7 games last season before under-going shoulder surgery. The 6’4″ Pryor has spent most of the season in AAA Tacoma but his solitary appearance with Seattle this season happened to be against the Twins on July 9th when he pitched 1.2 innings striking out one and allowing one unearned run. Pryor had been clocked near the 100 MPH mark in the past but is closer to the low to mid 90’s since his surgery. Having said that, his surgery was last season so there is always a chance he could regain his lost velocity. Pryor is not exactly a control pitcher as he has a 4.5 BB/9 mark in the big leagues and even worse 4.9 BB/9 in the minor leagues. The Twins assigned Pryor to Rochester. The Twins called up shortstop Jorge Polanco from Ft. Myers to replace Morales on the roster but I would expect that Polanco’s spot on the Twins roster will be short-term.
Who will be the next Twins player to be calling Minnesota a place he used to play?
Twins starter Phil Hughes did not allow a run while pitching one out into the eighth inning and earned the win in the Twins’ 2-0 victory over the Mariners in Seattle last night. Hughes has allowed only two earned runs in 29.1 innings pitched at Safeco Field in his career. His 0.61 ERA at Safeco is the lowest among the 209 pitchers that have hurled at least 20 innings at that stadium.
The Twins announced yesterday morning that they have signed free agent DH/first baseman Kendrys Morales to a one year, prorated, $12 million deal. The prorated dollars come out to about $7.5 million. Since Morales who is represented by Scott Boras will not spend the full season with the Twins, they will not be able to extend him a qualifying offer next off-season. Rumors were rampant as early as Saturday that the Twins and Morales had agreed on a deal but it was not announced until after a physical was completed. Morales will wear uniform number 17 as a Minnesota Twin.
The Cuban born Morales who will be 31 in a few days has played in 620 career games, hitting .280 with 130 doubles, 102 home runs, 345 RBI, 280 runs scored and 165 walks. He was originally signed by the Los Angeles Angels as an amateur free agent in 2005. The Angels traded Morales to the Seattle Mariners in 2012 for pitcher Jason Vargas. Morales became a free agent after the 2013 season.
Morales was one of several players this offseason who struggled in the free agent market after declining a $14.5 million qualifying offer. Stephen Drew only recently signed his prorated one-year deal with the Red Sox, and outfielder Nelson Cruz ultimately took a one-year deal with the Orioles. All three players ended up with significantly less than they would have gotten if they had accepted their qualifying offers.
The Twins immediately placed the switch-hitting Kendrys Morales on their 25 man roster and to clear a roster spot the team designated outfielder Jason Kubel for assignment. Kubel was the Twins 12th round pick in 2000 and made his big league debut with the club in August 2004. Kubel left Minnesota as a free agent after the 2011 season and signed with Arizona where he played in 2012 and part of 2013 before the D-backs traded him to Cleveland for cash and a PTBNL. Kubel again tried free agency after the 2013 season and ended up resigning with his original team, the Minnesota Twins. Kubel had a strong April but fell on difficult times in May. Kubel appeared in 45 games for the Twins this season, hitting .224 (35-for-156) with one home run, six doubles and 13 RBI.
The Morales signing was kind of surreptitious as Minnesota was not linked to being in the hunt for Morales. According to the so-called experts teams like the Orioles, Rangers, and the Yankees were the front-runners to sign Morales. The timing of Terry Ryan and the Twins however; was impeccable as the Rangers just lost Mitch Moreland for at least 3 months for ankle reconstruction and they might have made a serious run at Morales and priced the Twins out of the market. Just a week or so earlier the Rangers lost their starting first baseman Prince Fielder for the season due to neck surgery.
Most Twins fans were shocked or at the very least pleasantly surprised with the Morales signing which seems to go against the grain of how the club has operated and looked at free agents in the past. With the club in last place in the AL Central, adding a player of this caliber in early June with no guarantee of signing him for the future does not seem to make a lot of sense from a baseball perspective. The Twins are 29-32 and last in the division but they are only 5 games out of the first place and a case can be made that they are in the playoff hunt but realistically you have to say that the odds are slim at best. Jumping over four teams in your division is not an easy task when each team in the division has to play each other 18 times. The wild card is a better possibility but that too is a long shot this year.
There is no doubt that the 2014 Twins are hitting challenged. The Twins have scored 266 runs this season which averages out to 4.36 runs per game, at the current pace the team will score about 706 runs. The Twins best runs per game average was 5.41 in 1996 and their worst was 3.44 in 1981. Last year the Twins scored runs at a pace of 3.79 per game, third worst in team history. This years team is hitting for a .245 batting average, sixth worst in their 54 year team history. Their RISP average this season is .228 which is the second worst RISP in team history and the only Twins team that had a lower RISP (at .225) was you guessed it, the 2013 Twins. How long has Tom Brunansky been the hitting coach? Oh yeah, two years. Maybe the Twins front office should look to make some changes there also. I know you need to have good players but maybe the hitting strategy of the hitting coach is just not a good match here.
So why else would the Twins invest $7.5 million in a player for about 100 games with the team in last place? The Twins business side has to be screaming “help me!”. Fan attendance at Target Field has been dropping like a rock since 2011 and even the fact that Minnesota is hosting the 2014 All-Star game can’t stop the attendance slide. Since 2010 when Target Field opened with a season ticket base of 25,000, the season ticket holder base has dropped to 23,000 in 2012, 19,000 in 2013, and 17,000 this season and would have dropped a lot lower had the lure of tickets to the 2014 All-Star game not caused some fans to hold on for just one more season.
The Twins appear to have bottomed out in 2013 and are on the way back towards respectability with some nice free agents signings, some trades and a strong farm system bolstered by high draft choices due to the teams poor play since 2010. The Twins may be playing better baseball but attendance is down about 4,574 fans per game this season and the Twins need to turn that around as soon as possible and the best way to do that is to put a good product on the field. You can’t make the Twins a playoff contender over night but an investment of about $7.5 million in Morales sends a message to the team and its loyal fans that it is willing to spend money to make money. There is not a business in existence today that will not tell you that it is much less expensive to retain a loyal customer then it is to try to attract a new loyal customer. That is one of the reasons that the Twins signed Kendrys Morales to play at Target Field. The Twins are not stupid, they are being proactive for a change instead of being strictly reactive and doing what they can to generate fan interest while this team is rebuilding.
I understand why the Twins need a player like Kendrys Morales from a baseball perspective and why they need him from a business perspective but I can’t help thinking that there is more here then meets the eye. I believe in my gut feelings, don’t believe in coincidences and I have said many times before that my “glass is half empty and is leaking” philosophy has served me well during my years. I have followed the Twins since 1961 and I have found that the Twins front office has on occasion been less than forthright over the years. I don’t hold that against them as most professional teams keep their information close to the vest. An injury perhaps? Maybe there is reason they don’t want to divulge on why Joe Mauer is playing so badly other than bad luck? Maybe a big trade is in the works?
I personally like the move but I don’t see it making a huge difference in the standings, I see it more as a symbolic move to the fans that says “see, we will spend money to put a winner on the field; hang with us as we get better”. So what is the real reason the Twins are willing to fork over $7.5 million dollars to Kendrys Morales for 100 games and will there gamble pay off? I guess we will just have to wait and see, time will tell.
According to ESPNBoston.com, Boston Red Sox hitting coach Greg Colbrunn who is just 44 was diagnosed with bleeding in the brain, a potentially life-threatening condition, after being taken to the Cleveland Clinic before Wednesday’s game with the Cleveland Indians. You can read the rest of the story here.
Greg Colbrunn
Greg Colbrunn, just 44, played in the majors for 13 years between 1992-2004. Colbrunn played for the Expos, Marlins, Twins, Braves, Rockies, Mariners and Diamondbacks. Colbrunn signed with the Twins as a free agent in january 1997 and appeared in 70 games for Minnesota in 1997 hitting .281 with 5 home runs and 26 RBI before the Twins traded him to the Atlanta Braves on August 14, 1997 for a PTBNL who turned out to be outfielder Marc Lewis. Lewis spent two years in the Twins minor league system but never reached the major leagues.
We at Twins Trivia hope that Greg Colbrunn gets well soon and has a quick and complete recovery.
As I was doing some historical research for this site the other day I was saddened to find out that former Twins catcher Bud Bulling had passed away this past March 8th in Salem, Oregon at the age of 61.
Terry Charles “Bud” Bulling was born on December 15, 1952 in Lynwood, California and was drafted as a catcher by the Minnesota Twins in the 14th round of the June 1974 amateur draft. Ironically the only other player drafted by Minnesota that year that went on to play for the Twins was another catcher that the Twins drafted in the second round, Butch Wynegar.
Bulling worked his way up through the Twins farm system and got his first call to the big leagues at the age of 24 to back up the Twins starting catcher who was none other than Butch Wynegar. Bulling made his big league debut on July 3, 1977 in the Twins 6-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. In his only at bat that day Bud struck out against knuckleballer Wilbur Wood. Bud spent the remainder of the 1977 with Minnesota as the back-up catcher and appeared in 15 games hitting .156 in 32 at bats while knocking in 5 RBI with his 5 hits. Bulling spent the 1978 season with AA Orlando. In March of 1979 Bulling was purchased from the Twins by the Seattle Mariners.
Bulling spent the 1979 and 1980 seasons in the minors with the Spokane Indians before returning to the bigs in 1981. He caught Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry‘s 300th win in the Kingdome on May 6, 1982 going 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored and an RBI in the 7-3 win over the New York Yankees. After spending all of 1981 and 1982 with the Seattle Mariners Bud started the 1983 season hitless in 5 at-bats and was sent down to the AAA Salt Lake City Gulls where he played out his final season in pro ball. After leaving pro ball Bulling enjoyed spending time and traveling with his mother Iada.
Bud Bulling with his Mom Iada.
Bud Bulling passed away on March 8, 2014 in Salem, Oregon at the age of 61 after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was survived by his mother Iada Bulling, his son’s Casey and Joshua and his three mullions (nieces) Sheri, Kandi, and Kerri.
Thank you for the memories Bud Bulling and may you rest in peace. We at Twins Trivia and Twins fans everywhere would like to pass on our condolences to the Bud Bulling family and their friends.
I spent a few minutes today talking with Bud’s teammate Mike Cubbage and he shared a story about Bud with me that you can listen to here.
Follow up – Mike Cubbage was kind enough to give his bat to the Bulling family so they can treasure it as a family keepsake. What a wonderful thing to do! Here is a nice photo after the family received the bat, the smiles tell you all you need to know.
Unless something unforeseen happens the Minnesota Twins will not be booking a lot of frequent flyer miles in 2015 as they will only have to fly 23,866 miles this coming season. Only seven teams, the Indians with 23,499, the Brewers with 23,429, the White Sox with 23,180, the Tigers with 22,508, the Cubs with 20,953, the Cardinals with 20,875 and the Reds with 20,612 will fly fewer miles than our home town boys. The Mariners on the other hand will be on the other end of the spectrum and will need to fly 43,281 miles to play out their schedule of games in 2015.
