Brock Beauchamp

I quite like this version of Simeon Woods Richardson. The version I've seen in the past, not so much.

Whew.

I shouldn't be shocked every time the Twins score a run, but I am.

It makes sense to rotate them at least somewhat, as Farmer is better against LHP and Castro is better against RHP.

Kevin Tapani was born in Des Moines, Iowa. Interestingly, only while typing this bio did I (Brock Beauchamp) discover that Tapani grew up in the town where I was born (Escanaba, Michigan). Fun trivia, for me at least. Tapani's high school (Escanaba) was too small to have a baseball team so he didn't play the sport until he attended Central Michigan University. He was originally drafted by the Cubs in the 1985 MLB Draft (9th round) but returned to Central Michigan for one more season, after which he was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the second round of the 1986 draft. In 1987, Tapani was traded to the New York Mets where he stayed until the trade deadline of 1989, when he was traded to the Twins as part of the Frank Viola trade. He had made his MLB debut earlier that season in New York but with the Twins he made his first MLB starts (five that season). Entering the 1990 season, Baseball America ranked Tapani as the 88th-best prospect in baseball. Tapani spent most of the 1990 season in the Twins rotation but it was 1991 that cemented Tapani in the minds of Twins fans. He posted a 6.8 Baseball-Reference WAR that season with a 2.99 ERA in 244.0 innings pitched. In stark contrast to how we evaluate pitchers in modern baseball, Tapani finished all the way back in seventh place in American League Cy Young voting that season. While Tapani was one of the most critical pieces of the 1991 Twins during the regular season, he did not pitch well in the postseason. He posted a 7.84 ERA in two starts of the ALCS and a 4.50 ERA in two starts in the World Series. Tapani stayed with the Twins through the 1994 season and came back from the MLB strike in 1995 still a member of the team. He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the 1995 trade deadline for Ron Coomer, Greg Hansell, and Jose Parra. Thus ended Kevin Tapani's tenure with the Twins. Over parts of seven seasons, he finished with a 4.06 ERA (108 ERA+) and 19.1 Baseball-Reference WAR. That 19.1 rWAR number puts him just outside the top ten of all-time Twins pitching WAR leaders at #12. Tapani signed with the Chicago White Sox for the 1996 season, then moved to the Chicago Cubs in 1997, where he pitched for five seasons. He retired after the 2001 season at 37 years old. View full player

I tuned out of the game after the Vazquez interference call, guess the Twins felt my bad vibes and did something about it.

Shane Mack is one of the more fascinating players in Minnesota Twins history. Originally drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 1981 MLB Draft out of Richard Gahr High School in Cerritos, CA he declined to sign and opted to attend UCLA. He was drafted again in 1984 in the first round by the San Diego Padres (11th overall). He toiled in the Padres farm system for years, posting gaudy numbers in AAA Las Vegas in limited playing time; a .930 OPS in 1987 and a .981 OPS in 1988. After struggling to hit in 1989, the Padres failed to protect him on the 40-man roster, leaving him open for the Twins to select him in that winter's Rule 5 Draft. Mack is a testament to how much baseball has changed since the 1980s. It's almost unfathomable to believe a team would leave someone like Mack unprotected in the modern day. Mack wasn't a one-dimensional hitter, he was a legitimate centerfielder who hit for average, had very good plate discipline, and also had decent power. He was the entire package. Because he was selected in the Rule 5 Draft, the Twins had to keep him on their 25-man roster for the entirety of the 1990 season. That wasn't a problem, as Mack raked in 1990, posting a .326/.392/.460 triple slash over 125 games. Mack was quietly one of the best Twins players during his five-year stint with the team from 1990-1994, posting a 130 OPS+ in a Twins uniform and compiling 19.7 Baseball-Reference WAR. He peaked with a 6.5 rWAR season in 1992. In the 1991 postseason, Mack was instrumental to the Twins beating the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, as he hit for a .881 OPS in 21 plate appearances. Mack's career took yet another bizarre (and frankly inexplicable) twist when the baseball work stoppage happened in the middle of the 1994 season. He packed his bags and headed to Japan instead of waiting out the strike, playing the 1995 season for the Yomiuri Giants of the NPB. When the strike ended in 1995, instead of returning to MLB he played yet another season in Japan. Shane Mack didn't return to MLB until the 1997 season when he signed a one-year contract to play for the Boston Red Sox. Only 33 years old, he posted yet another above-average season with a 109 OPS+. In 1998, Mack played for the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals, posting a 103 OPS+ in 69 games. After the 1998 season, the now-34 Mack retired from baseball. Shane Mack is a player that leaves me scratching my head every time I think about him. He was a player unappreciated in his era and would be a highly-valued commodity in the modern game. It's a shame he never rose to the stardom he deserved. View full player

Michael Tonkin was born in Glendale, CA and was drafted out of Palmdale High School by the Minnesota Twins in the 30th round of the 2008 MLB Draft. He entered the Twins' farm system where it quickly became apparent that Tonkin's arm was better suited for the bullpen than the rotation. After making 22 starts in the low minors from 2008-2010, Tonkin moved primarily to the bullpen in 2011 and started to show potential. He made his debut with the Twins on July 11, 2013 against the Tampa Bay Rays where he pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless ball. From 2013-2017, Tonkin became a regular in the Twins' bullpen, pitching 146.1 innings with a 4.43 ERA. He was released by the Twins following the 2017 season, after which he went to Japan to play in the NPB for the Nippon Ham Fighters for one season. He returned to Major League Baseball in 2019, joining the Milwaukee Brewers' Triple-A affiliate. From there, Tonkin began bouncing around baseball, playing in the Diamonbacks organization, the Atlantic League, the Caribbean Series, the Mexican League, and the Dominican Winter League. In 2022, he joined the Atlanta Braves' Triple-A affiliate and made it back to the majors with the Braves in 2023. He had a somewhat productive season with the Braves that year, posting a 4.28 ERA in 80 innings pitched. He then joined the Mets organization and pitched in three games for them in 2024 before being placed on waivers. The Twins offered the Mets some money to jump the waiver line and traded for Tonkin, returning him full circle to the team that drafted him way back in 2008. View full player

Billy Beane was born in Orlando, Florida and was drafted first overall by the New York Mets in the 1980 MLB Draft. He flourished in the Mets system, culminating in his posting an .842 OPS in AA Jackson in 1984, followed by an .821 OPS in AAA Tidewater in 1985. After brief appearances with the Mets in 1984 and 1985, in January of 1986 he was traded to the Twins (along with Bill Latham and Joe Klink), with Pat Crosby and Tim Teufel heading to New York in return. Across 1986 and 1987, Beane received the bulk of his career MLB plate appearances with the Twins, accumulating 209 total PAs. He posted an underwhelming .561 OPS (52 OPS+). Before the 1988 season, Beane was offloaded to the Detroit Tigers for Balvino Galvez. Beane was a free agent following the 1988 season and signed a one-year contract with the Oakland Athletics, where he ended his MLB career after the 1989 season. Beane has been quite open in discussing his status as a first-overall draft pick, ensuing struggles, and how it opened him up to the idea of evaluating baseball differently on his path to a wildly successful career in the Oakland Athletics front office. View full player

Damn, he was safe. Still a heck of a play from Julien.

Dan Gladden was born in San Jose, CA in 1957. He went to college at California State University - Fresno and was drafted by his hometown team, the San Francisco Giants, in the 1979 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut in 1983 and played with the Giants through the 1986 season, after which he was traded to the Minnesota Twins for Jose Dominguez, Ray Velasquez, and a player to be named later. Gladden immediately became a fixture at the top of the Twins lineup, swiping 116 bags in his five seasons with the team. He was a member of both Twins' championship teams and performed well in the postseason, posting a .771 OPS across 1987 and 1991. He famously scored the winning run in the tenth inning of game seven of the 1991 World Series. In 2000, Gladden joined the Twins radio broadcast team as the color commentator where he continues to work today. View full player

Here is a brief tutorial. As a long time TD user, you can skim several of the early parts.

The Minnesota Twins Players Project is wrapping up its second week of existence. Here are the most popular players pages of the past week. Two weeks ago we launched the Minnesota Twins Players Project. We're nearing 50 players added to the project, let's look at some of the most popular of the past week. What is the Players Project? It's a community-driven, wiki-style project that focuses on Twins players of all stripes. It's open to all Twins Daily users and we've had contributions for current players, past players, and players who never even made the major leagues but played in the Twins farm system. 1. Royce Lewis Kudos to @CoasterProductions for being the first person courageous enough to add a popular and/or great Twins player. Up until the creation of Lewis, no one had created a page for a player of his caliber. That means we still need someone to create pages for current greats like Byron Buxton, Pablo Lopez or Carlos Correa and past greats like Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Rod Carew, etc... *hint hint* Unsurprisingly, the moment the Lewis page was created, it became wildly popular with users, collecting nearly 1,000 reads. But the page could use more video, trivia, and biography information. Feel up to the task? 2. Bobby Darwin While I love seeing people collect cool videos for current Twins players, guys like Darwin are what really got me invested in this project. Did you know that Bobby Darwin received a single MLB plate appearance with the Angels at age 19 and then didn't make another MLB appearance for seven more years? That's the kind of oddity that I love about this project. Props to @Greglw3 for digging up such an interesting tidbit on Darwin. 3. Jason Kubel Man, what could have been with Kubel. Once a pretty athletic corner outfielder on the cusp of being an MLB All-Star, he grenaded his knee in the Arizona Fall League and was almost immediately relegated to designated hitter duties for the rest of his career. Still, who doesn't remember that grand slam against Mo Rivera? While I created Kubel's page myself, a thanks goes out to @MMMordabito for coming back around and adding some interesting trivia I had forgotten, such as the fact that Kubel hit the first home run at Target Field! The Minnesota Twins Players Project is open to all Twins Daily users. If you're a Twins history buff or just want to dive into the background of your favorite player, come on board! View full article

Don’t see the upside in running a contact play with Buxton at the plate. He hits the ball too damned hard.

Josh Willingham was born in Florence, Alabama. He was drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 17th round of the 2000 MLB Draft. He played in Miami for several years before playing two seasons with the Washington Nationals and another with the Oakland A's. On December 5, 2011 Willingham signed a three year, $21 million free agent contract with the Twins. Minnesota was coming off a disastrous 2011 campaign, with the team finishing the season 63-99 after winning the division in 2009 and 2010. In 2012, Willingham had what is probably the best season of his career, posting an .890 OPS with 35 home runs as the Twins continued their slide into oblivion, posting a 66-96 record. That offseason, Twins fans were torn between trading Willingham and going into a full rebuild or keeping the veteran slugger in hopes of staying respectable. Terry Ryan, now in his second stint as General Manager of the Twins, decided to keep Willingham. That decision was likely a mistake, as Willingham's back issues began to take hold of his career. In 2013, he played only 111 games and posted a 96 OPS+. As a left fielder with a bad back, that put him close to a replacement-player level of play. In 2014, Minnesota was once against the worst team in the American League Central and Willingham was dished off to the Kansas City Royals at the trade deadline for right-handed pitcher Jason Adam, who never pitched in Minnesota. Josh Willingham retired following the 2014 season. View full player

I was including minor leaguers, who also qualify for this project (but obviously, will not be as popular to create).

Richard Warren Aguilera was born in San Gabriel, California and was originally drafted by the St Louis Cardinals in the 1980 MLB Draft. He declined to sign and instead attended Brigham Young University. He was drafted again in 1983 by the New York Mets and signed. He made his MLB debut in 1985 and the Mets used him primarily as a starting pitching from 1985-1988. In 1989, he moved to the bullpen and was later traded to the Minnesota Twins in the Frank Viola blockbuster trade at the trade deadline. With the Twins, Aguilera became one of the best closers in baseball, posting an ERA of 2.77 and collecting 149 saves from 1990-1993. As the Twins headed into organizational freefall through the mid-90s, Aguilera was traded to the Boston Red Sox at the 1995 trade deadline, bringing Frankie Rodriguez to the Twins. At the end of the 1995 season, Aguilera became a free agent and promptly returned to Minnesota. He started 19 games in 1996, posting a 5.42 ERA. In 1997, he returned to the bullpen and never started another major league game. In 1999, Aguilera was once again traded by the Twins, this time to the Chicago Cubs, with Kyle Lohse going to the Twins. Aguilera pitched with the Cubs through the 2000 season, at which point he retired from Major League Baseball. In all, Aguilera played parts of 11 seasons with the Twins and is second in all-time saves for the Twins, just behind Joe Nathan. View full player