Seth Stohs

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2644[/ATTACH] On Tuesday, many of us voted. Maybe your candidate won. Maybe not. But here at Twins Daily, we also voted for the Top 10 Twins Hitters of All-Time. Generally speaking, the top three players were the same on most ballots. It was also interesting to see how people chose to vote 6-10. Today, I will present a group of twelve of the best pitchers in the Twins 52 year history. You can see how long each spent with heir Twins, how many innings they pitched and how well they performed. Each is pretty good, but the choice is yours. Put your ballot in the comments section, ranking them 1-10. In a couple of days, we’ll be sure to tally the votes and see how these pitchers rank. With that, here are a couple of charts looking at the top Twins pitchers statistically. These lists are alphabetical so as not to provide any bias. [TABLE=width: 432] Player Yrs w/Twins W-L (S) ERA ERA+ WHIP Rick Aguilera 1989-1999 40-47 (254) 3.50 130 1.18 Bert Blyleven 1970-76, 1985-88 149-138 3.28 119 1.19 Dave Goltz 1972-1979 96-79 3.48 112 1.31 Mudcat Grant 1964-1967 50-35 3.35 107 1.21 Jim Kaat 1961-1973 190-159 3.34 110 1.23 Joe Nathan 2004-2011 24-13 (260) 2.16 204 0.96 Camilo Pascual 1961-1966 88-57 3.31 113 1.22 Jim Perry 1963-1973 128-90 3.15 113 1.20 Brad Radke 1995-2006 148-139 4.22 113 1.26 Johan Santana 2000-2007 93-44 3.22 141 1.09 Kevin Tapani 1989-1995 75-63 4.06 108 1.27 Frank Viola 1982-1989 112-93 3.86 111 1.30 [/TABLE] As you can see, I did include two closers in the analysis. They certainly stand out compared to other relievers. So, how will you vote for them relative to the starters. It’s also fun to see the Adjusted ERA (ERA+) from the various eras. Johan Santana’s 3.22 ERA during the first eight seasons of this millennium shows an ERA+ of 141 while Jim Perry’s 3.15 ERA through the ‘60s and early ‘70s is ‘just’ a 113 ERA+. [TABLE=width: 376] Player WAR Innings Walks:Strikeouts K/9 Rick Aguilera 14.6 694 179:586 7.6 Bert Blyleven 46.3 2,566 674:2,035 7.1 Dave Goltz 22.5 1,638 493:887 4.9 Mudcat Grant 5.0 780 163:377 4.3 Jim Kaat 27.2 3,014 729:1,851 5.5 Joe Nathan 17.8 463 134:561 10.9 Camilo Pascual 16.9 1,284 431:994 7.0 Jim Perry 24.2 1,883 541:1,025 4.9 Brad Radke 42.6 2,451 445:1,467 5.4 Johan Santana 34.0 1,308 364:1,381 9.5 Kevin Tapani 17.8 1,171 255:724 5.6 Frank Viola 25.0 1,772 521:1,214 6.2 [/TABLE] So how important are the number of innings pitched to you in your rankings? In other words, how does Santana’s or Nathan’s dominance over less innings compare to the longevity of pitchers like Kaat and Blyleven? How important is the strikeout statistic to you? In other words, Santana and Nathan are clearly the most dominant pitchers on this list, but the numbers that guys like Perry and Goltz put up while barely striking out a batter every other inning are also incredible. It also speaks to the era they pitched in, when hitters took pride in not striking out. So, what does your Top 10 list look like? I’ll post mine in the Comments section, but be sure to have your voice heard!

Maybe not, but that is certainly the risk of rushing someone too quickly. Guys like Griffey Jr, Harper, Trout, Cabrera, they are the RARE exceptions. Trout and Harper didn't strikeout nearly as much as Sano did. They were all terrific defensively. I'm not at all ready to say the Twins are moving Sano too slowly. He put up very good power numbers in Low A (and was still a good 2 years younger than the average player there), but he struggled with the defensive side of the game, and he struggled making contact at times, he had a couple of pretty big slumps. And, there have always been maturity questions about Sano (which I heard he greatly improved this year). I see them moving him at the Mauer/Revere pace, which is incredibly quickly. But he's going to have to warrant that promotion next year.

Correct, Kepler is certainly the better prospect right now with much higher upside. I certainly hope that Kepler can continue to improve. He's so raw as a baseball player that his tools are exciting and putting up strong numbers in his second year at Elizabethton are very encouraging. By the way, three terrific blog postings here today... Keep it up. Great topics, well written, thought provoking. I did move one up to the front page as well. Thank you!

Benson skipped elizabethton. Morales had one of the best seasons at E-Town by a young player in the 8 or so years I've paid a ton of attention. He's the poster child for what we prospect hounds should be looking for in a top prospect, and he's a reminder that what we see in Elizabethton is not always what we get.

Definitely not a term of endearment!

I definitely have my thoughts, but I thought it would be interesting to hear other people's opinions before I weigh in with mine...

I always liked Guthrie when he pitched in Baltimore. In fact, I think I had him in a blueprint of mine one of the last two years. I like him. I think he can be a solid #3. I'd be good with Guthrie at 2 years and $12 million or so, but I just couldn't go higher than that.

I'd want Manship, Waldrop, Tosoni and Beresford back.

Carson is a free agent. The Twins did sign Perdomo to a minor league deal.

Baseball America mentioned the list of minor league free agents. The Twins could still sign any of these players still, but so can any other team. RHP: David Bromberg, Jeff Gray, Jeff Manship, Kyle Waldrop, Brendan Wise LHP: Luke French, Matt Maloney C: Rene Rivera, JR Towles 2B: Shawn Roof 3B: Ray Chang, Anderson Hidalgo, Michael Hollimon SS: James Beresford, Estarlin de Los Santos OF: Junior Boni, Clete Thomas, Rene Tosoni Some former Twins who are also minor league free agents: Dusty Hughes (ATL), Terry Tiffee (ATL), Steve Tolleson (BAL), Lew Ford (BAL), Matt Tolbert (CHC), Loek Van Mil (CLE), Brendan Harris (COL), Brandon Roberts (COL), Doug Deeds (LAA), Rob Delaney (MIA), Chase Lambin (MIA), Dustin Martin (NYM), Matt Rizzotti (OAK), Luis (!) Rodriguez (SEA), Willie Eyre (TEX), Yangervis Solarte (TEX), Yohan Pino (TOR), Luke Hughes (TOR).

1.) Rod Carew, 2.) Harmon Killebrew, 3.) Kirby Puckett, 4.) Joe Mauer, 5.) Tony Oliva, 6.) Chuck Knoblauch, 7.) Kent Hrbek, 8.) Justin Morneau, 9.) Bob Allison, 10.) Torii Hunter.

At least there are games to write about... more than weekly would probably be a bit much though!

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?1149-Rock-the-Vote-Twins-Top-Hitters-of-All-Time

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2619[/ATTACH] Happy Election Day 2012! It may be happy for you for many reasons. Maybe your candidate will win. Or, maybe you are just happy that you don’t have to see any more political advertisements on TV for a couple of years. In any case, be sure to take time today to make your voice heard on a ballot. Here are Twins Daily, you haven’t read any articles on the politicians, and you won’t. However, on this election day, I did think it would be fun to take another look at some of the greatest Minnesota Twins players over their 52 seasons in Minnesota. Below, I will list 12 candidates. Of course, there are a handful at the top of everyone’s list, but I encourage you to ‘vote’ in the Comments below. Rank them 1-10, and at the end of the day, we can take a look at see who Twins Daily ranks as the Top 10 Twins hitters of all time. Of course, on your voting ballot today, you can feel free to write-in me (or anyone else). Likewise, if I missed a candidate you would consider, feel free to write him in. With that, here are a couple of charts looking at the top Twins players statistically. These lists are alphabetical so as not to provide any bias. [TABLE=width: 441] Player Yrs w/Twins Games H-AB 2B/3B/HR Bob Allison 1961-1970 1236 999-3926 167/41/211 Rod Carew 1967-1978 1635 2085-6235 305/90/74 Michael Cuddyer 2001-2011 1139 1106-4072 239/35/141 Gary Gaetti 1981-1990 1361 1276-4989 252/25/201 Kent Hrbek 1981-1994 1747 1749-6192 312/18/293 Torii Hunter 1997-2007 1234 1218-4492 259/26/192 Harmon Killebrew 1961-1974 1939 1713-6593 232/21/475 Chuck Knoblauch 1991-1997 1013 1197-3939 210/51/43 Joe Mauer 2004-Curr 1065 1270-3933 247/20/94 Justin Morneau 2003-Curr 1151 1190-4254 257/16/204 Tony Oliva 1962-1976 1676 1917-6301 329/48/220 Kirby Puckett 1984-1995 1783 2304-7244 414/57/207 [/TABLE] I notice that each Twins decade is represented by at least one or two players. In other words, even through some of the bad times, the Twins have always had a hitter or two in their lineup that put up numbers. Here are some more numbers: [TABLE=width: 379] Player WAR BA/OBP/SLG OPS (OPS+) Bob Allison 28.4 .254/.361/.479 .840 (131) Rod Carew 60.4 .334/.393/.448 .841 (137) Michael Cuddyer 10.2 .272/.343/.451 .794 (111) Gary Gaetti 24.8 .256/.307/.437 .749 (100) Kent Hrbek 35.7 .282/.367/.481 .848 (128) Torii Hunter 24.7 .271/.324/.469 .793 (104) Harmon Killebrew 56.1 .260/.383/.518 .901 (148) Chuck Knoblauch 36.3 .304/.391/.416 .807 (114) Joe Mauer 37.0 .323/.405/.468 .873 (135) Justin Morneau 19.2 .280/.351/.492 .842 (123) Tony Oliva 39.7 .304/.353/.476 .830 (131) Kirby Puckett 48.2 .318/.360/.477 .837 (124) [/TABLE] What role does defense play in your vote? The Twins player with the best defensive WAR in their years is Greg Gagne, and he isn’t on this list at all. However, this overall WAR number does include defense which clearly has helped a couple of players and hurt others. I also find it interesting comparing the OPS+ numbers from era to era. So, what is your Top 10? How does your ballot look? I’ll post mine in the Comments section, but be sure to have your voice heard today!

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?1148-Twins-Week-in-the-Winter-Leagues

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2617[/ATTACH] Last week, Twins Daily got you caught up on how the Twins players were doing in the various Winter Leagues. Obviously the entire seasons are Small Sample Size, so looking at just this week has to be taken for what it is worth. In some cases, there were really good weeks had by certain players. In other cases, they may be in a one-week slump. We’ll take a look at who is hot and who is not in Arizona, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Australia. Feel free to ask questions and discuss. Also, via Twitter on Monday, infielder Brian Dozier mentioned that he will soon be headed to Venezuela to get some additional at bats. ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE Who’s Hot? The answer to this question remains the same as it has been for most of the AFL season. Nate Roberts had another terrific week. He went 8-17 (.471) on the week. Overall, he is still hitting .465/.579/.558 (1.137). He had a 4-5 game and a 2-4 game among the four games that he played. Who’s Not? Caleb Thielbar had an impressive 2012 season at three levels for the Twins, and many believe that he really can be a solid left-handed reliever, but he has really struggled in the AFL. This past week, he pitched twice and gave up four runs on four hits and three walks in 2.2 innings. His season ERA is now at 11.57. Rising Stars Two Twins pitchers were selected to play in the Arizona Fall League’s Rising Stars game. Kyle Gibson started and gave up two runs on three hits and a walk in the game’s first two innings. Michael Tonkin came in to the Rising Stars Game to start the fifth inning. In seven AFL appearances, he is yet to give up a run in nine innings. He had given up just five hits, walked one and struck out six. However, in the AFL “All Star” game, things didn’t go so well. He faced five batters. He gave up three hits, hit a batter and the other reached on an error. All told, he was charged with five runs (4 earned) without recording an out. Others Logan Darnell pitched just once during the past seven days. He gave up one run on two hits and two walks in 0.2 innings. Both outs he recorded came on strikeouts. Evan Bigley went 3-9 on the week. He played in two games and in one of them he went 3-5. He’s hitting .217/.280/.326 on the season. VENEZUELAN WINTER LEAGUE Who’s Hot? Oswaldo Arcia got off to a slow start. However, in the past week, he is 6-15 (.400) with two doubles and a home run. He also walked four times while striking out just three times. That raised his season totals to .250/.321/.438 (.759) in 48 at bats. Angel Mata pitched two more times. He went 2.1 scoreless innings. The 19-year-old now has a 0.87 ERA in 10.1 innings over 7 games. He has given up nine hits, walked four and struck out 12. He started for Elizabethton during the season. Who’s Not? After getting off to a fast start, Aaron Hicks has gone cold. In the last week, he has one hit in 12 at bats (over 5 games). Overall, he is now 11-54 (.204/.306/.296 (.603)). Others Josmil Pinto went 2-7 with two doubles during the week. He’s now 2-11 (.182) on the season. David Bromberg made one start. On Halloween, he gave up six runs on six hits (including two home runs) and three walks in just three innings. He struckout four. He is now 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP. Edgar Ibarra also made one start. The lefty gave up two runs (1 earned) on three hits and four walks in five innings. He struck out two. Dakota Watts didn’t pitch for a week and then in the past week, he pitched three times. He gave up no runs on just one hit and three walks in five innings. He struck out just one. Overall in six games, he is 0-1 with a 4.91. In 7.1 innings, he’s given up four runs on three hits and five walks. Eduardo Escobar went 4-14 (.286) during the week. Deolis Guerra pitched two innings over two games. He gave up three runs on four hits and two walks. In four games, he has a 9.82 ERA. In 3.2 innings, he has given up one hit and walked two while striking out three. DOMINICAN WINTER LEAGUE Who’s Hot? A week ago, Pedro Florimon was 4-35 through his first nine games and hitting just .114. In the seven games he played in the last week, he is 11-28 (.393) and has had five multi-hit games. Overall, he is now hitting .237/.328/.254 (14-59) in 16 games overall. Others Drew Butera went 2-8 with a double in four games this week. He’s now hitting .250/.385/.344 with three doubles overall. Wilkin Ramirez went 1-7 with four strikeouts. Luis Perdomo pitched 2.2 innings over two games. He gave up one run on one hit and three walks. Jhonathan Arias made his season debut. He is 0-2 in his at bats. Miguel Sano played in two games this week. He went 1-5. MEXICO WINTER LEAGUE Who’s Hot? In last week’s report, we noted that Chris Colabello had gone 2-28 (.071) over his previous eight games. In the six games he played in the last week, he has gone 9-21 (.429) with two doubles, three home runs and nine RBI. He walked three times and struckout twice. In 19 games overall, he is now hitting .294 with eight doubles, three homes and 15 RBI in 68 at bats. Others Anthony Slama pitched three times in the last week. In 3.1 innings, he has given up three runs on four hits. He walked two and struckout six. AUSTRALIAN BASEBALL LEAGUE The regular season of the ABL got started over this past weekend. Four teams opened their seasons. JD Williams went 2-12 with a walk and three strikeouts. Jacob Younis was 0-3 with an RBI. Tyler Herr pitched a scoreless inning. There is our weekend Winter League Update. Please feel free to ask question and discuss.

I think the idea of giving up on Joe Benson is absolutely crazy. It'd be like giving up on Gibson or Salcedo at this point. Injury was the primary reason that Benson struggled in 2012. Hamate bone is a big one that is painful and then takes awhile to return from. Then he had the knee injury that when they went in found out it was much more than they expected. The talent is still there and he's still just 25 years old. Just needs to be healthy. Now again, the Twins do have outfield depth, and we'll see what Arcia and Hicks do early next year to see if they are legit big league candidates for late in 2013. Benson (and Tosoni) play into that whole equation... I still 100% believe in Benson and that he will be good whether he is with the Twins or elsewhere.

I'm definitely a big fan of Boras, and he's right again in this case. If each team gets $25 million more, that's about $12.5million additional in payroll. Now, of course, that's all else being equal, including all other revenue streams. My assumption is that the Twins overall revenues were down at least $12.5M from 2011 to 2012, so for the Twins, it might just help them remain the same.

I get greengoblinz skepticism and on some level I share it. But, honestly, at this stage, almost a month before the Winter Meetings, I would expect to hear much more inquiring than dealing. I mean, it takes more than one phone call to make a deal, and all deals need to start somewhere. Generally, that's with an inquiring. Ryan needs to know if he's really available and an approximate starting point on what would get it to happen. The Rays will inquire about what the TWins might want to do. The Twins should downplay it some, but anyone in baseball knows that the Twins need SP. So, I'm excited to hear that a lot of inquiring is going on already. hat is good news. Whether anything will happen? Well, it takes two sides...