Tag: Washington Nationals

Twins deal 2021 first round pick for 2011 first round pick

While most of us have been enjoying our week-end, the Minnesota Twins front office has been hard at work burning up the phone lines looking high and low as they work to improve the team. Today they made their second trade in as many days when they traded their 2021 first round selection (26th over all) RHP Chase Petty to the Cincinnati Reds for RHP Sonny Gray who himself was the Oakland A’s first round selection (18th over all) back in 2011 before moving on to the Yankees in 2017 and finally the Reds in 2019. The Twins also received right-handed minor league reliever Francis Peguero a 24-year old Dominican who pitched in High A ball in 2021.

This is one of those “potential for experience” kind of deals. A type of trade that the Minnesota Twins disdained over they years. In a way it is similar to the Kenta Maeda deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for prospect pitcher Brusdar Graterol a few years back. The big difference in that deal was that Graterol was big league ready and Petty is straight out of high school and has all of 5 innings of pro ball under his belt. Another trade that comes to mind was the 2010 deal with the Nationals when the Twins traded catcher Wilson Ramos for closer Matt Capps and Twins fans were not happy campers. Capps went on to save 45 games for Minnesota over three seasons. Ramos is still catching in the big leagues after 12 seasons (seven teams) and has two All-Star games and a Silver Slugger on his resume. You just never know how these kinds of trades will work out.

Continue reading Twins deal 2021 first round pick for 2011 first round pick

The Nats are the first team since the ’06 Twins to do what?

There is a nice piece over at MLB.com that you might enjoy taking a look at called “The Nats are the first team since the ’06 Twins to have a finalist for all four major BBWAA awards“. If you have a few minutes, check it out. The Twins traded or fired all four.

Swing and a miss – Twins high strikeout games

strikeoutTwins batters wore themselves out yesterday swinging and missing Tanner Roark pitches at Nationals Park when they whiffed 18 times and were shutout by the Washington Nationals 2-0 in 2 hours and 39 minutes. This is the second time in Twins history that they have struck out 18 times in a nine inning game. Their high water mark of striking out 19 times has been achieved three times in extra inning games.

The Minnesota Twins have struck out 15 or more times in a game on 46 occasions and their record in those games now stands at 10-36.

 Twins high strike out games

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H BB SO Attendance
1 2013-07-10 MIN TBR L 3-4 51 50 3 12 1 19 12,757
2 1968-07-03 MIN CLE L 0-1 36 35 0 6 0 19 21,135
3 1967-08-09 MIN WSA L 7-9 80 75 7 17 4 19 16,901
4 2016-04-23 MIN WSN L 0-2 33 29 0 2 4 18 35,974
5 1995-09-13 MIN SEA L 4-7 36 33 4 6 2 18 16,469
6 2014-09-13 (1) MIN CHW L 1-5 32 30 1 4 2 17
7 2013-09-23 MIN DET W 4-3 50 44 4 14 5 17 24,647
8 1993-08-31 MIN CLE W 5-4 85 78 5 17 7 17 17,968
9 1986-06-09 MIN TEX W 3-2 40 37 3 9 3 17 10,782
10 1972-09-30 MIN CAL L 2-3 35 32 2 5 3 17 5,901
11 1967-08-22 (2) MIN DET L 1-2 43 39 1 7 3 17 40,921
12 2015-10-03 MIN KCR L 1-5 36 32 1 6 4 16 30,181
13 2015-08-23 MIN BAL W 4-3 46 46 4 7 0 16 35,144
14 2015-05-10 MIN CLE L 2-8 31 29 2 2 2 16 13,769
15 2013-09-29 MIN CLE L 1-5 34 32 1 5 1 16 30,935
16 2013-08-07 MIN KCR L 2-5 39 35 2 10 4 16 20,198
17 2012-05-26 MIN DET L 3-6 34 34 3 8 0 16 37,360
18 2000-09-28 MIN CLE W 4-3 41 34 4 7 6 16 42,821
19 1999-08-24 MIN BOS L 1-7 31 30 1 5 1 16 12,332
20 1998-08-02 MIN TOR L 4-6 37 36 4 9 1 16 40,096
21 1997-09-27 (1) MIN CLE L 6-10 42 41 6 14 1 16 42,854
22 1997-08-23 MIN BAL L 4-5 39 35 4 8 3 16 48,263
23 1973-09-27 MIN CAL L 4-5 49 42 4 10 7 16 9,100
24 1972-08-10 MIN CAL L 1-3 36 32 1 5 4 16 7,865
25 1972-05-12 MIN MIL L 3-4 92 77 3 17 12 16 8,628
26 1968-09-09 MIN CLE L 1-6 35 32 1 5 3 16 7,042
27 2015-08-26 MIN TBR W 5-3 42 39 5 13 1 15 9,205
28 2014-09-21 MIN CLE L 2-7 35 34 2 7 1 15 24,451
29 2013-08-09 (1) MIN CHW W 7-5 42 34 7 7 8 15 17,439
30 2013-07-26 MIN SEA W 3-2 48 45 3 8 2 15 23,162
31 2013-05-06 MIN BOS L 5-6 49 42 5 10 6 15 31,088
32 2009-05-30 MIN TBR L 2-5 37 34 2 6 3 15 36,052
33 2003-05-15 MIN KCR L 5-9 60 49 5 12 9 15 17,219
34 2000-08-01 MIN BAL L 0-10 32 30 0 1 2 15 35,107
35 1997-05-10 MIN TOR L 4-6 37 35 4 10 1 15 20,932
36 1995-06-28 MIN CHW L 3-4 38 33 3 7 4 15 15,982
37 1995-06-18 MIN SEA L 1-2 37 31 1 5 5 15 24,707
38 1995-05-04 MIN KCR L 0-6 35 34 0 7 1 15 11,935
39 1993-05-22 MIN TOR L 0-7 36 33 0 6 2 15 50,510
40 1982-05-30 MIN NYY L 6-8 46 38 6 7 8 15 16,352
41 1980-08-07 MIN CAL L 2-4 63 58 2 16 4 15 24,195
42 1975-06-30 MIN CAL L 3-10 37 34 3 8 2 15 7,033
43 1974-09-28 MIN CAL L 0-4 35 27 0 0 8 15 10,872
44 1973-08-30 MIN TEX W 5-2 45 37 5 7 6 15 4,012
45 1965-06-20 (2) MIN NYY W 7-4 41 38 7 10 3 15 71,245
46 1964-10-01 MIN KCA L 4-5 54 46 4 13 6 15 2,728
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/24/2016.

UPDATE: So what happens the day I post this blog? Later that afternoon the Twins play the Washington Nationals and lose 6-5 in the 16th inning and they strike out 20 times, just a day after striking out 18 times. I watched the entire 5 hour and 56 minutes of the game on TV. Boxscore

According to Elias

Trevor Plouffe
Trevor Plouffe

Trevor Plouffe was 4-for-5 with two doubles in the Twins’ win at U.S. Cellular Field. Plouffe is 16-for-35 (.457) against the White Sox this season. The only major-leaguer with at least 35 at-bats versus one team this season and a higher average than that is Freddie Freeman, who is 20-for-41 (.488) against the Nationals.

Twins minor league player of the week

Alex Meyer pitching for New Britain in 2013
Alex Meyer pitching for New Britain in 2013

Rochester (AAA-International League) right-handed pitcher Alex Meyer is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Meyer made one start for the Red Wings on April 23 at Pawtucket, tossing 6.2 scoreless innings with three hits allowed, three walks while tying a career high with 11 strikeouts, his third career double-digit strikeout performance. The Greensburg, Indiana native has gone 0-0, 3.48 ERA (20.2 IP, 8 ER) with eight walks and 24 strikeouts in four starts for the Wings this season. The 6″9″ 24-year-old was acquired by the Twins in late November of 2012 in exchange for Denard Span and is ranked as the club’s top pitching prospect by Baseball America.

 

Twins Minor Leaguer Hinojosa suspended

Jonatan Hinojosa batting during spring training 2014
Jonatan Hinojosa batting during spring training 2014

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that Minnesota Twins Minor League infielder Jonatan Hinojosa has received a 50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for metabolites of Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in effect prior to the recent changes to the Program. The suspension of the 21-year-old Hinojosa who is currently on the roster of Single-A Cedar Rapids of the Midwest League is effective immediately.

Hinojosa spent his first three seasons playing in the Dominican Summer league where he hit .147, .186, and .174 with zero home runs and had 28 stolen bases. Last season Hinojosa played for the Gulf Coast League Twins and hit .236 again with no home runs in 48 games. This season Hinojosa appeared in just one game for Cedar Rapids and was hitless in 3 at bats.

Walker’s skills, passion led to career in baseball

There is a nice piece about Ft. Myers Mircale outfielder Adam Walker that you can check out here.

The Twins Trivia Magic 8-Ball comes into focus

The Twins are in Chicago by now having left Florida and their spring training record of 9-16-3 in their wake. Earlier today the Twins won their final 2014 Grapefruit League outing by a score of 7-4. The Twins scored more than five runs in just five exhibition games and scored two or fewer runs on 10 occasions. The Twins ended spring training with a .360% winning percentage, the worst in the American league. All that being said, the team along with every other team in the American League stands at 0-0. With the regular season just around the corner, some teams have high expectations and others are left with hope and a prayer. The Twins who finished last season at 66-96 and booked their third straight 90+ loss season are part of that latter group and strangely enough this team does not have a single player on their opening day roster that qualifies as a rookie. How strange is that?

So how many games will the Twins win in 2014? I see the Twins improving this year in spite of what has been a horrendous spring going back to when Terry Ryan announced he had cancer, to Miguel Sano‘s injured elbow that needs surgery, all the way through the spring training season where Twins players acted as if it was a crime to get more than two hits in an inning or that they would be sent to prison if they attempted to steal a base. The Twins can brag up the 2014 All-Star game all they want but many Twins fans have jumped off the band wagon and others are mystified as to how a team this bad for so long has no rookies on the roster while players like Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett grace the roster. How about  Chris Colabello who spent 2005-2011 playing in an independent league before the Twins gave him a shot? This team will improve as the season goes along but there are numerous players on this opening day roster that will not be wearing TWINS on their chest when the 2014 season comes to an end.  I have no doubt in my mind that Byron Buxton will be playing centerfield in Target Field some time this summer and Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia will be his wingmen. So without further ado, here is what the Twins will do….

According to Mr. Einstein there will be no fourth straight 90+ loss season for the Twins. Although not a SABR member, the man knows his numbers.
According to Mr. Einstein there will be no fourth straight 90+ loss season for the Twins and that there will actually be an 11 game improvement. Although not a SABR member, the man knows his numbers.

The 2014 MLB season should be exciting once again and Twins Trivia has consulted with the experts, reviewed all the stats and more importantly shaken the old  Magic 8-Ball and here is what will happen in 2014.

NL West

1. Dodgers
2. Giants (wild card)
3. Diamondbacks
4. Rockies
5. Padres

..

NL Central

1. Cardinals
2. Pirates (wild card)
3. Reds
4. Brewers
5. Cubs

..

NL East

1. Nationals
2. Braves
3. Mets
4. Phillies
5. Marlins

..

AL West

1. Rangers
2. A’s
3. Mariners
4. Angels
5. Astros

..

AL Central

1. Royals
2. Tigers (wild card)
3. Indians
4. Twins
5. White Sox

..

AL East

1. Rays
2. Red Sox (wild card)
3. Orioles
4. Yankees
5. Blue Jays

..

New blood in the Series folks! When the smoke and fog clears, the Magic 8-Ball and I see the Washington Nationals beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4 games to three in a very exciting World Series. (I know Twins fans don’t want to hear this but the 26-year-old Wilson Ramos will finally stay healthy all year and have a break-out season and become one of baseball’s top catchers)

 

Trade a catcher and sign a catcher

Kurt Suzuki
Kurt Suzuki

According to a report by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle earlier today the Twins and catcher Kurt Suzuki have reached agreement on a one-year deal $2.75 million base salary that also includes some incentives just two days after sending catcher/outfielder Ryan Doumit to Atlanta.

The 30-year-old Hawaiian was the Oakland A’s second round pick in 2004 and made his big league debut on June 12, 2007 against the Houston Astros. Suzuki took over the starting catching role in 2008 and kept the job until the 2012 season when the A’s started to platoon him more and more. In August 2012 the A’s traded him to the Washington Nationals after their catcher Willie Ramos was injured and he stayed there for a year before the Nats traded him back to Oakland in August 2013.

According to the MLB Rumors site,  “Suzuki has thrown out 26 percent of opposing base stealers throughout his career, though that number fell to only 12 percent in 2013. He was significantly better in 2012, when he picked off 30 percent of potential thieves. In 2013, he was above average in blocking pitches, per Fangraphs, and was average in terms of pitch-framing, per Matthew Carruth’s report at StatCorner.”

Suzuki’s best season may have been 2009 when he hit .274 with 15 home runs and 88 RBI. Since 2009 his average has fallen each season to .242 in 2010 then .237, then .235 and finally last season to .232. I have always liked Suzuki and I think he will be a very good fit in Minnesota as he backs up Josmil Pinto (assuming his shoulder woes get resolved) and teaches him what it takes to be a starting catcher in the big leagues. I remember a few years back when Suzuki was coming back off an injury and some baseball show was following his workout in a swimming pool. I was amazed when Suzuki was standing in the pool about waist deep and he jumped straight up and landed on his feet on the edge of the pool, that was pretty cool. I am looking forward to seeing Suzuki in a Twins uniform and I really think he will hit better than he has the last few years. I think the Twins made a very nice move here and the price was certainly right.

With MLB baseball you just never know

Since the all-star break I have found it difficult to sit down and come up with something interesting to write about the Minnesota Twins. It is not the Twins fault, they have won two series (Indians and Angels) in a row and are 4-2 since the break but I am just stuck in rut.  I don’t want to spend time writing about possible trade scenarios that have no chance of  taking place, there are plenty of blogs writing about that. Fire Ron Gardenhire? I have been there and given my thoughts about that. I think the problem is that I know this team is not going anywhere and it frustrates me because I know this team is going to go through streaks of playing winning baseball when they are fun to watch and then they will play like crap for a series or two and drive me nuts. Yet I know and understand that is how young players play the game and learn to win.

But the Twins are not the only team playing inconsistent baseball. When the season started I had the Blue Jays, Tigers, and Angels winning their divisions with the Rays and Royals as wild cards in the AL. When I look at the American League standings now I see the Tigers, Red Sox, and A’s winning their divisions with the Rays, Orioles, and the Rangers in hot pursuit as possible wild card candidates. The Blue Jays have stunk and are playing .455 baseball, who would have predicted that? I thought that the Red Sox would suck again this year and they have 61 wins in the bank, better than any team in baseball. In the NL I had the Nationals, Reds, and Dodgers as division winners with the Braves and Pirates as wild card winners. The standings in the NL now show us that the Cards are going head-to-head with the Pirates, The Dodgers are battling with the D-Backs and the Braves are running away from the Phillies and the third place Nats. Heck, the Miami Marlins have won more games than the Astros and almost as many as the White Sox.

It just goes to show how unpredictable MLB baseball really is from year to year and why it is such an interesting and great game. A team can sign a slew of free agents or make a mega trade (hello Blue Jays) and all the baseball experts or talking heads as I like to call them jump on the bandwagon and predict great things and guarantee a cake walk to the playoffs. But when the season ends you find this teams players packing their bags and cleaning their golf clubs when game 162 is in the books. I had originally picked the Detroit Tigers and the Washington Nationals to play in World Series 2013 and for the Nats to win in six games. Now the Nationals will have to play some amazing baseball just to get in to the playoffs. Last time I looked, the Twins were 100 to 1 to win the World Series. Those are some long odds indeed but I remember back in 1987 when I made my annual February trip to Las Vegas and put $10 down on the Twins to win it all and I put $400 in my pocket later that year.

Twins career best K/9

I watched Clubhouse Confidential on MLB TV yesterday and in one of the segments host Brian Kenny talked about the climbing rate of the strikeout per 9 innings ratio (K/9) over the years. It was a very interesting piece and Kenny pointed out how last year the leader was Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel who had an amazing 16.66 strikeouts for every nine innings pitched, that is a truly crazy number and he accomplished that while throwing  14.9 pitches per inning. The top starter K/9 ratio belonged to Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg who had a mark of 11.13 and he was followed closely by Detroit Tiger starter Max Scherzer who posted a 11.08 mark. The best K/9 ratio for a Twins pitcher in 2012? That honor goes to closer Glen Perkins at 9.98.

The Twins top ten career K/9 leaders with a minimum of 500 innings pitched are:

Johan Santana pitched for Minnesota from 2000 -2007. Santana is tied for third most wins in Dome history (46) and second-most strikeouts (754). Johan was a three-time All-Star and won Cy Young Awards in 2004 and 2006. Won 17 consecutive games in the Dome from 2005-2007.
Johan Santana pitched for Minnesota from 2000 -2007. Santana is tied for third most wins in Dome history (46) and second-most strikeouts (754). Johan was a three-time All-Star and won Cy Young Awards in 2004 and 2006. Won 17 consecutive games in the Dome from 2005-2007.

Rank Name W/L Innings K/9
1. Johan Santana 93-44 1,308.2 9.50
2. Francisco Liriano 50-52 783.1 9.05
3. Eddie Guardado 37-48 704.2 7.79
4. Rick Aguilera 40-47 694 7.60
5. Dick Stigman 37-37 643.2 7.52
6. Dave Boswell 67-54 1,036.1 7.51
7. Mike Trombley 30-34 645.2 7.36
8. Scott Baker 63-48 958 7.23
9. Bert Blyleven 149-138 2,566.2 7.14
10. Jim Merritt 37-41 686.2 6.91

The players on the above list that were originally drafted or signed by Minnesota are Guardado, Boswell, Trombley, Baker and Blyleven, the remainder were acquired in some fashion.

Twins active but lots of work remains to be done

It has been awhile since my last post but web site hosting issues have caused me a lot of extra work and taken me away from more fun activities like keeping up with the MLB Winter meetings and the changing Twins roster.

With the recent trades of former first round pick (2002) outfielder Denard Span to the Washington Nationals for 2011 Nats first round pick RHP Alex Meyer and just a few days later sending another former Twins first round pick (2007) outfielder Ben Revere to the Phillies for RHP’s Vance Worley and Trevor May the Twins and GM Terry Ryan have held true to their word that changes were coming and that they were going to snag as many pitchers as they could. These trades should also clear up any confusion that some Twins fans may still have had that the Twins were going to be “reload” and try to become a playoff team once again after suffering through two dismal seasons. The Twins are in a full-scale rebuilding mode but not the kind of rebuilding mode that we may have seen from the Twins in the past. In the past they would get rid of all their high salaried players and start from scratch but that is a much harder sell now days with the Twins just having moved into their new digs at Target Field in 2010. The Twins aren’t stupid, they know they can’t afford to totally alienate their fan base that they have built up with a with a new ballpark and a nice run since 2002 but they also know that they let their starting pitching fall into disrepair the last few years and in the process have lost 90+ games two years in a row. The team grew stale, changes were few and far between on the player, coaching and management sides and their “smoke and mirrors” approach to their pitching staff caught up with the team so quickly it seemed to catch the entire Twins organization off guard.

The Twins are not a huge market team but they can not plead poverty as they have in the past. The team has a decent fan base, a relatively new ballpark and ownership that has money to spend but I am not sure that they are willing to spend it. The Twins like to brag that they are one of the top organizations in baseball but when it comes to taking out their wallet to bring in some high-priced talent the team claims it is not all about the money. I understand if they can’t put Zack Greinke in a Twins uniform but I can’t get a handle on why you can’t get Joe Blanton for example if the Angels can get him for 2 years for $15 million. This team has just two starting pitchers going into 2013 and I surely don’t grasp why the team would supposedly make an offer to Francisco Liriano after his history with the team between 2005-2012. I think Terry Ryan is a very good GM but I sure don’t know what his logic is for this move. At least throw us a bone Mr. Pohlad, give us some new blood and something to at least give us some hope instead of having us pay to watch that same old crap. I understand loyalty but you can only keep hitting your head against the same old wall for so long before someone shows up to haul you away in a white coat. Show us some loyalty and a reason why we should pay big league prices to watch the Twins in 2013.

This Twins team has more holes than my fishing net but I still love baseball and every year teams come for nowhere to play winning baseball and I can only hope that the Twins will do so sooner than later. There are still serviceable pitchers out there on the FA market and I hope that Jim Pohlad lets Dave St. Peter and Terry Ryan know that his checkbook is there and he is willing to carack it open long enough to sign at least one if not two more starting pitchers. It all starts at the top. The recent splash the Twins have made in the trade market should be just the beginning of what the Twins need to do to become competitive again and not the final chapter.

Josh Hamilton is still a free agent and if Texas doesn’t resign him they could use a power hitting outfielder and if I were the Twins I would be happy to send Josh Willingham to Texas for a shortstop like Jurickson Barthelomeus Profar that could fill that shortstop hole at Target Field for many years to come. The Twins recently announced that they had signed 35-year-old pitcher Jason Lane who played the outfield for the Astros and Padres from 2002-2007 and turned to pitching in 2009. The team also signed 1B/C Jeff Clement who has played in the big leagues with the Mariner and the Pirates for parts of 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012 and hit .218 in 385 at bats. Why in %#@* do you spend the money on players like this? You don’t win with quantity, you win with quality, I am not sure the Twins look at it that way.

In the recent major league portion of the Rule 5 draft the Twins selected 23 year-old RHP Ryan Pressly from the Boston Red Sox. After starting since 2008 Pressly was turned into a reliever late in 2012 and pitched well in that role in the AFL over the last month or so.

It is still early in December and the 2013 season is several months away but the Twins brain trust needs to keep their nose to the grindstone if this team is going to break their two-year death grip on last place. If I was Ron Gardenhire, the way things looks right now, I would be signing on to the PC and updating my resume.