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.
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!
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
| Rk | Name | Strk Start | End | Games | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | BB | SO | HR | Tm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felix Hernandez | 2014-05-18 | 2014-08-11 | 16 | 9 | 2 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 121.0 | 69 | 20 | 20 | 134 | 4 | 1.41 | SEA |
| 2 | Tom Seaver | 1971-07-17 | 1971-09-16 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 114.1 | 72 | 15 | 25 | 114 | 5 | 0.94 | NYM |
| 3 | Mike Scott | 1986-05-17 | 1986-07-07 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 96.1 | 58 | 16 | 19 | 99 | 4 | 1.40 | HOU |
| 4 | Dwight Gooden | 1985-09-06 | 1986-05-06 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 105.0 | 63 | 10 | 21 | 88 | 2 | 0.69 | NYM |
| 5 | Gaylord Perry | 1974-04-23 | 1974-06-12 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 11 | 10 | 2 | 98.1 | 56 | 14 | 35 | 61 | 3 | 0.92 | CLE |
| 6 | Larry Dierker | 1969-08-03 | 1969-09-17 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 94.2 | 50 | 14 | 16 | 79 | 5 | 1.33 | HOU |
| 7 | Bob Gibson | 1968-06-06 | 1968-07-30 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 99.0 | 56 | 3 | 13 | 83 | 0 | 0.27 | STL |
| 8 | Jim Merritt | 1967-06-25 | 1967-08-13 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 94.0 | 70 | 16 | 6 | 59 | 4 | 1.53 | MIN |
| 9 | Johnny Cueto | 2013-09-23 | 2014-05-15 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 79.0 | 36 | 12 | 21 | 81 | 8 | 1.25 | CIN |
| 10 | Don Sutton | 1976-08-10 | 1976-09-27 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 90.2 | 53 | 9 | 18 | 54 | 5 | 0.89 | LAD |
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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