Tag: Warren Spahn

The Southpaw Legacy: Celebrating Minnesota Twins’ Left-Handed Pitching Greats

Jim Kaat

Left-handed or “southpaw” pitchers are relatively rare in Major League Baseball (MLB). Approximately 10-15% of pitchers in MLB are left-handed. This scarcity makes left-handed pitchers quite valuable, as they can exploit the platoon advantage against predominantly right-handed hitting lineups.

The Twins have had some good lefty starters over the years like Jim Kaat, Frank Viola, Johan Santana but there have not been very many of them. Historically starters that were left handed did not throw as hard as most right handed starters and were considered as being “crafty”. That seems to be changing now as there are more hard throwing left-handed pitchers than ever.

The Warren Spahn Award is presented each season by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame to the best left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). The award is named after Warren Spahn, who holds the MLB record in wins for a left-handed pitcher with 363.[1] The Warren Spahn Award was created in 1999 by Richard Hendricks, the founder of the Territorial Capital Sports Museum, formerly Oklahoma Sports Museum, to honor Spahn, who resided in Oklahoma. The award has been won by 15 different pitchers through 2024. The winner is chosen based on rankings, which are based on wins, strikeouts, and earned run average. The only Twins pitcher to win this award is Johan Santana who won it 2004 and 2006.

Determining the MLB team with the best left-handed pitchers can be subjective, but one team that stands out is the Los Angeles Dodgers. They’ve had legendary left-handed pitchers like Clayton Kershaw, who has been a dominant force for over a decade, and Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. Other teams with notable left-handed pitchers include the New York Yankees with Whitey Ford and Andy Pettitte, and the Boston Red Sox with Lefty Grove and Chris Sale.

The most left handed starters the Twins have ever had with ten or more starts in a season were four in 1964 when Gerry Arrigo, Jim Kaat, Jim Roland and Dick Stigman started 88 games between them. In the 64 seasons the Twins have played, there have only been six seasons in which they have had no left handed pitchers with at least ten starts and they were in 1995, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2023, and 2024. See a trend here? In 2024 there were 16 MLB teams with zero left handed starters with at least ten starts.

How many of the Twins lefties on the list below have you seen pitch and who was your favorite?

Minnesota Twins left-handed starters from 1961 through 2024 with 10 or more starts

Senators/Twins franchise left handed pitchers with one or more career starts

Most starts by a Twins SP

Bert Blyleven

I get a number of emails each day and one of them pointed out the following about my favorite pitcher all-time, Warren Spahn.

“Today’s definition of a durable pitcher is more lenient than the guidelines in place between 1942 and 1965, when Warren Spahn totaled 382 complete games for the Braves, Mets, and Giants.

Managers are happy these days if a starter can work six innings, maybe seven. Complete games are very rare, indeed. Just 35 CG’s were registered in the American and National Leagues last season — and only 379 were posted over the past eight years combined. That latter total, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, was three fewer than the number of complete games that Spahn recorded himself.”

Only two Twins starters have over 100 complete games, Bert Blyleven with 141 and Jim Kaat with 133 and the nearest to them for CG’s in Minnesota is Dave Goltz with 80. By the way, the most starts by a Twins starter stands at 42 by Jim Kaat in 1965.

I have attached a B-R Stathead search link for Minnesota Twins pitchers that have had 100 or more starts. The list is relatively short since only 26 pitchers from 1961-2023 have started that many games wearing the Twins uniform. The nice thing about it is you can re-sort the list in any way you want to see who had the most strikeouts, wins, etc. Check it out, I’m sure you will find some things that will surprise you.

For combined seasons, from 1961 to 2023, At least 60% games started, Playing for MIN, in the regular season, requiring Games Started >= 100, sorted by descending Games Started.

This Day in Twins History – July 2

1969 – In a very unusual 3 game series against the Chicago White Sox, the Twins play the first and last game against the White Sox in White Sox Park but play the middle game in County Stadium in Milwaukee. This is the second year in a row that the Twins have played a game against the mighty whitey’s in Milwaukee and the Twins win the game again, this time by a 4-2 score. The game started at 10:02 PM due to a 1 hour 39 minute rain delay and the game was called in the middle of the ninth inning due to rain. In 1969, Bud Selig again arranged with White Sox ownership for them to play some home games in Milwaukee County Stadium. The league had expanded from 10 teams to 12 that season and the White Sox schedule in Milwaukee was likewise expanded to include 11 home games (again, one against every opponent) as part of an attempt to attract an expansion franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

LHP Jim Kaat pitched for the Senators/Twins from 1959-1973

1972 – The Twins split a twin-bill at White Sox Park winning the first game 6-4 and losing the second game 2-1. The big story here was in game one. Jim Kaat (9-2) and the AL leader in ERA was facing knuckleballer Wilbur Wood (12-7). The Twins were leading 5-2 after 5 innings. In the top of the 6th inning Kaat reached based on a fielder’s choice and was forced at 2B on Tovar’s ground ball to the shortstop. Sliding into 2B Kaat jammed his left wrist but stayed in the game and pitched into the 8th inning before his swollen hand prevented him from going any further. After the game it was determined that Jim had broken a bone in his pitching wrist and he was out for the rest of the season. Wow, pitchers were tough in those days. When I asked Jim about it, his response was “Adrenalin is an amazing hormone”!

1982 – The Twins trade 2B Larry Milbourne to the Indians and in turn the Indians send outfielder Larry Littleton to the Twins.

2007 – With skipper Joe Torre watching from his Yankee Stadium dugout, Roger Clemens, throws eight innings of two-hit ball in a 5-1 win over the Twins and becomes the eighth pitcher to record 350 career victories. The New York manager was the catcher for Warren Spahn’s 350th win making him a participant of the only two occasions that a pitcher has reached the milestone since 1928.

Don’t forget to check the Today in Twins History page every day.