Paul D

The answer has to be yes. Gordon provided versatility in 2022 and Castro in 2023, but you don't need both of them in 2024. There are 4 bench position players on most teams. You should have a 2nd catcher, an infielder who can play multiple positions, an outfielder who can play multiple positions (especially CF), and a guy who can come off the bench and hit. If Gordon and Castro are on the team you don't have the hitter sitting on the bench. I'd love to have Duvall to fill that spot.

Prospects are the most unknown of any teams assets. I have been a Red Sox fan much of my life and we always had that next great player. Guess what, the vast majority never came close to meeting the hype and our expectations. Some languished in the minors, some came up for a cup of coffee, but most will only be names we recall as part of our hope for the future. On the other hand, since following the Twins, their prospects seem to be real. Besides the Lewis, Julian, Wallner, etc., you can also include Miranda and the players traded to the Reds in those recent starting pitcher acquisitions. All seem to be players that have matched their hype and ranking within our Top 10 prospects. Good job, Twins!

That got Joe Torre into the Hall of Fame. If you were my age you would remember Casey Stengel. Not exactly a Rhodes Scholar, but his teams had all the talent you could want. I'm at a loss to think of a manager that could make up for a difference in talent. If you buy the hype, maybe Joe Madden. But I'm not sure if he made a huge difference.

My professional career lasted over 50 years and I can't remember any time where I would publicly criticize my boss. There are 30 jobs as major league managers, why you would give up that opportunity by making a statement that would not be taken kindly by your boss? Unless you own your own business you should be a YES-MAN publicly.

I concur on the strikeouts, but I blame the FO for the makeup of the team rather than the manager. With only 4 position players on the bench there is not a lot of ways of avoiding guys (like Gallo, Wallner, Vazquez that strikeout a lot). The Twins grounded into 119 doubleplays in 2023 and 30 were Carlos Correia. That's 1/4 of the DPs. The Twins were 12th out of 30 teams with the Marlins leading with 159. The average for all teams was 115. As far as moving runners along, teams are shying away from bunts because they almost always result in an out. Teams relying on analytics would rather not give away the out in favor of letting the batters hit away. Not sure if I agree but there were a total of 429 sacrifice bunts in all of baseball last year, which is around 14 per team for the season. The Twins had 12. As far as Rocco's use of the pitching staff, for the 2023 season their starting pitchers had more innings per start than any other team. That is a far cry from 2022 when their starters did not even average 5 innings per start. Of course the 2022 group included Dylan Bundy (29 starts), Chris Archer (25 starts), Devin Smelzer (12 starts) and Josh Winder (11 starts). That staff was nowhere as successful as the 2023 starters who went far longer into games.

An infielder HAD to be moved, the options were Farmer or Polanco. The FO announced that they would not trade for prospects and the deal needed to include major league players. We now have 6 potential starters and if Varland is not 1 of the 6, we have a solid bullpen piece. We also have a reliever who can replace Pagan. There was a $10.5M player leaving and a $6M and $1.5M player coming in (the Giants are paying $6M of DeScarfini's salary). Looks like the Mariners are adding $6M to the deal, meaning the Twins are plus $9M. That money, hopefully along with some out of the budget will be used to add a player(s) before the season starts. It could be another SP, a RH 1B or a RH COF. On top of it all Julien has a place to play, or Lee, who will probably make the 26-man will get his shot. And the DH spot will be available should Buxton need to sit for a 1/2 a season. The outcome was as good as we could have expected and we have another top 100 prospect and a lottery ticket.

What Does It Take To Be A Major League Manager? Sitting on my couch in the middle of a New England winter, trying to pick a topic to write about for my weekly blog, my attention turned to X (I’m not going to say formerly Twitter). Staring at me was a posting by Dan Hayes of The Athletic from TwinsFest with manager Rocco Baldelli in the photo. There are only 30 managers in Major League Baseball, so the odds of getting a managerial position are far smaller than the odds of being a major league ball player. It got me thinking about the criteria that teams may use when selecting a manager. The current group of major league managers are a very interesting group with varied backgrounds. There are 10 of the 30 managers who never appeared in a single major league game. Six of them (Brian Snitker, Brandon Hyde, Pedro Grifol, Joe Espada, Matt Quatraro, and John Schneider)reached AAA (a total of 435 combined games), 3 of them never got past A (Pat Murphy, Derek Shelton, and Oliver Marmol), and as far as I can tell Mike Shildt never played an inning of professional baseball. There would only be 7 of them that played on a regular basis over a lengthy career. They are (with the number of years they appeared in over 100 games): Craig Counsel (11 of 16), David Bell (9 of 12), Skip Schumaker (7 of 11), Aaron Boone (7 of 12), Mark Kotsay (13 of 17), Rob Thompson (8 of 11) and Dave Martinez (12 of 16). Of the 20 that played in the majors, the managers with the highest lifetime batting average were Skip Schumaker and Rocco Baldelli at .278, Craig Counsel and Dave Roberts with the highest OBP of .342, Rocco had the highest slugging percentage of .443, and also the highest OPS of .766, Rob Thompson would have the highest OPB+ with 105 (Rocco was 101), and Rob Thompson would have the highest WAR with 33.8. Success as a player certainly can’t be one of the major criteria with current baseball operations people. In order to be a good manager, you must fully understand the game. The best way is through observation. If you are on a team and are not a regular, you are spending a lot of time watching and observing. You’re also in the dugout and listening to discussions between the manager and his coaching staff. Maybe you are also asking questions about strategy and what was the reason for making a decision. You also have the entire field in front of you and are more aware of what each player is doing, rather than just worrying about yourself when playing in the field. What is also very interesting information about the 30 managers is that only two, Bud Black and Pat Murphy, were pitchers. I’m not really sure why this is true, but maybe some of you could give me your thoughts on why this is so. It is also interesting in reviewing the positional background on the 27 managers who didn’t not pitch (and Mike Shildt). Primarily 1B – 0, 2B – 3, Shortstop – 1, 3B – 1.5, Middle Infield (2B & SS) – 4, OF – 4.5 and Catchers – 13. The catchers were: Snitker, Hyde, Grifol, Vogt, Hinch, Quartraro, Gibbons, Shelton, Melvin, Servais, Cash, Bochy and Schneider. I can understand the number of catchers for a few reasons: 1) many of them call the game for the pitcher and work on formulating a pitching plan for each game, they will know more about each opponent than probably anyone else on the team, 2) they are playing the only position where they can see every player on the field and all of the action is in front of them, and 3) as catchers they tend to platoon with another catcher meaning they spend more time observing the game from the bench then those normally on the field. Many great players have managed baseball teams, but very few of them ever succeeded. These great players were lacking in areas that lesser players possessed. Perhaps things came too easy for them, perhaps they didn’t have to work hard to succeed and perhaps they couldn’t understand why players did not possess the skills needed to be great. When you look at the great all-time managers, those elected to the Hall of Fame, you are looking at men who were very similar to the current group of major league managers. Here are the Hall of Fame managers that managed from the 1950’s until the present: Casey Stengel, Al Lopez, Walter Alston, Earl Weaver, Tommy Lasorda, Sparky Anderson, Dick Williams, Whitey Herzog, Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre and Jim Leyland. By far, the best player of that group was Joe Torre. All the others were similar to today’s group of managers. Walter Alston play one major league game, Earl Weaver and Jim Leyland never made it out of the minors, and Tommy Lasorda was that rare pitcher. There were 3 catchers in the group (Lopez, Torre, and Leyland). In 2018 the Twins made a managerial change. Of all the available options and all the candidates that they interviewed, they picked Rocco Baldelli to lead their team. At the same time the Twins were interviewing, the Rangers, Reds, Blue Jays and the Orioles had vacancies. Rocco ended up interviewing with most, if not all, of those teams. I thought it would be a good exercise to see if I could find the positives that the Twins saw in Rocco that would make him their choice of all the options available. We should be able to agree that Rocco is a great communicator. The job of the manager is taking on more and more emphasis on communications. They need to communicate with: 1)the Front Office that is more involved in day-to-day than ever, 2) the players in the clubhouse so they know their roles and expectations, and 3) the coaching staff to make sure that they know their roles also. He also brought a playing career where he was a star player, and a bench player, before and after his illness. That helps, especially with the bench players and knowing that they need to make frequent appearances to stay sharp. When his playing days were over he was hired by the Rays as a “special advisor” working primarily in scouting and player development (that Rays pedigree is very much in demand). In 2014 Kevin Cash put him back in uniform as his 1st base coach. In 2017 they created the coaching position of “field coordinator” which involved analyzing the tendencies of opposing hitters, he also coached defensive skills, and helped the team implement defensive strategies during the game. Finally they chose him for his intellect. Rocco had a 4.25 GPA in high school (on a 4.0 grading system where extra quality points are given for taking honors or advanced placement classes), as well as having scored 1,300 on his SAT exams. He considered enrolling at Princeton, Yale, UCLA, the University of North Carolina before accepting enrollment at Wake Forest. Being draft as the 6th pick in the first round of the 2000 draft and offered a $2.25 signing bonus would convince Rocco to forego college and go directly into professional baseball. Please give me your comments on what talent and experience it takes to be a successful major league manager.

I think back to Earl Wilson with the Red Sox and Tigers. Had great power and was a decent pitcher. 35 HR in 838 AB.

Thanks. I did use a table but it looked good until it was published. I will switch font for the next time. I appreciste your help.

The airwaves have been flooded with all the hysteria of the otherworldly accomplishments of Shohei Ohtani, and rightly so. He is indeed a “unicorn”, a unique baseball player who has taken MLB by storm since coming from Japan to the US. To be able to hit and pitch with such excellence is almost unequal to any other baseball player ever, especially when you take into account that he is in the upper echelon of both pitchers and hitters at the same time. But is Ohtani not really unique and is he just following in the footsteps of someone who accomplished the same over 100 years ago? Of course I’m talking about Babe Ruth. Most of us know the story of Babe Ruth, the hitter. But when he began his major league career with the Red Sox he was a full-time pitcher. He joined the Red Sox in 1914 when the team purchased Babe, Ben Egan (a rather lackluster catcher with a career batting average of .165) and Ernie Shore for $25,000. Ernie Shore would have a great 4 years with the Red Sox (1914-17) where he had a 58-33 win-lost record and never an ERA under 2.63. Ernie and Babe would combine for one of the most bizarre games in baseball history. Babe was the starting pitcher in a game on 6/23/1917 when he walked the first batter. He ended up getting into an argument with the home plate umpire and was tossed from the game. Shore came on to replace him. The batter that Babe walked was thrown out trying to steal and the next 26 batters failed to get a hit or on base at all. It was initially call a perfect game, but with new rules to determine no-hitters and perfect games, it is now considered a no-hitter. Back to Babe. From 1914-17 Babe would have a 62-34 win-loss record and except for 4 games pitched in 1914, he would have no ERA higher than 2.44. In 1916 he would lead the league with a 1.75 ERA, 40 games started, 9 shutouts, an ERA+ of 158, 6.4 hits/9 and would not give up a home run. He would give up 230 hits in 323.2 innings pitched. Around that time the team started noticing that not only did they have one of the top pitchers in the league, but this guy could hit. In the 1915 season he had a batting average of .315 with 4 home runs and 20 RBI’s and an OPS+ of 189 while pitching and pinch hitting (11 times). He was not as successful in the 1916 season but did have a batting average .272 with 3 home runs and 16 RBI’s, to go along with an OPS+ of 122. He pinched hit in 24 games in the 1916 season. For the 1917 season Ruth hit 2 home runs, drove in 14 runs, batted .325 and had an OPS+ of 162. The big experiment began in 1918, when Babe pitched and also played in the field. He appeared in 95 games in total, and he pitched in 20 of them. As a position player he played 47 games in left field, 12 games in center field, 13 games at first base and pinch hit in 5. For the 1918 season, here are his pitching stats: W-L- 13-7, IP-166.1, BB-49, K-40, ERA-2.22, ERA+-122, FIP-2.75, WHIP-1.046 BB/9-2.7, K/9-2.2 The stat that jumps off this chart is strikeouts, Babe averaged 2.2 strikeouts per 9 innings. In looking at the American League pitching stats for 1918, the strikeout leader was Walter Johnson with 162 (326 innings, 4.5/9), Jim Shaw with 129 (241 innings, 4.8/9), “Bullet” Joe Bush with 125 (272 inning, 4.1/9), Guy Morton with 123 (214 innings, 5.2/9), Carl Mays with 114 (294 innings, 3.5/9) and Eddie Cicotte with 104 (266 innings, 3.5/9). Carl Mays would become infamous for an incident in 1920 when he hit Ray Chapman with a pitch fracturing his skull. Chapman would die the following day, being the only play to die directly from an injury received during a baseball game. And Eddie Cicotte would be remembered as one of the players banned for life in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. For the 1918 season, here are his batting stats: AB-317, Hits-95, 2B-26, 3B-11, HR-11, RBI-61, BB-58, K-58, Avg.-.300, Slug.-.555 OPS-.966, OPS+-192, WAR-4.7 These batting stats include games where Babe appeared as a pitcher. In 1918, Babe was tied for 2nd in doubles, tied for 5th in triples, tied for 1st in home runs (with Tillie Walker???), 6th in RBI’s, 8th in walks, 1st in strikeouts, tied for 7th in batting average, 2nd in OBP, 1st in Slug. Pct., 1st in OPS, 2nd in OPS+, and 7th in WAR. All of this was accomplished with Babe being 43rd in plate appearances and 44th in times at bat. His greatness as a batter was becoming more and more apparent. For the 1919 season Babe pitched in 17 games over 133 innings. His stats were: W-L 9-5, IP-133.1, Hits-148, BB-58, K-30, ERA 2.97, ERA+-102, FIP-3.58, WHIP-1.545, BB/9-3.9, K/9-2.0 There is no question that there had been a bit of a regression in his pitching performance. He was now 20th in ERA, 21st in ERA+, 32nd in FIP, 33rd in WHIP, and 33rd in K/9. Obviously pitching in 17 games and appearing in 116 games as a batter was taking its toll on his pitching success. The Red Sox would play 138 games that season and Babe would play in 130 of them (he had 3 games where he pitched and played in the field). While his pitching was on a downward trend because of pitching or playing the field in practically every game, his batting stats were on the upswing AB-432, Hits-139, 2B-35, 3B-12, HR-29 RBI-113, BB-101, K-58, Avg.-.322, Slug.-.657 OBP-.456, OPS+-217, WAR-9.1 In 1919, besides pitching in 17 games, Babe played 110 games in LF, 1 in CF, and 5 at 1B, he would also pinch hit in 1 game. In comparing the Babe to all the other hitters in the American League, he finished: 27th in batting appearances, 43rd in times at bat, he finished 1st in runs scored with 103, 21st in hits, 5th in doubles, 7th in triples, and 1st in home runs. Babe had 29 home runs in the 1919 season, finishing 2nd was George Sisler, Tillie Walker and Frank “Home Run” Baker who had 10 each. There were a total of 240 home runs that year and Babe had 12.1% of the league total. Four of the eight American League teams had fewer home runs as a team than Babe had by himself. His Red Sox teammates hit a total of 4 home runs for the season. Prior to Babe’s 29 home runs in 1919 the American League record for home runs was 16 in 1902 for Ralph (Socks) Seybold. In addition to the stats for 1919 already mentioned, Babe let the league in RBI’s, was 2nd in walks, was 2nd in strikeouts, 8th in batting average, 1st in OBP, 1st in slugging percentage (.657 to George Sislers’ .530), 1st in OPS, 1st in OPS+, and he lead the league in WAR with 9.1 with Bobby Veach 2nd at 6.7. After the 1919 season the New York Yankees received the best Christmas present ever. On December 26th they purchased Babe Ruth’s contract from the Red Sox for $100,000. This began the “Curse of the Bambino” in which the Red Sox would not win another World Series (they won in 1918) until 86 years later when they finally won in 2004. Ruth’s pitching career pretty much ended with the trade. He did pitch in 1 game (4 innings) in 1920, 2 games (9 innings) in 1921, 1 game in 1930 and 1 game in 1933. Interestingly in those 5 games he pitched 31 innings, gave up 40 hits, walked 16 and struck out 5, but had a W-L record of 5-0! Babe Ruth went on to have a legendary remainder of his career with the Yankees, but after the trade he would no longer be the “Unicorn”, just one of the greatest, or the greatest hitter of all time. The one major difference between Babe and Shohei was that when Babe was in the game as a hitter he would play in the field, however in his entire MLB career, Ohtani when not pitching, would only be on the field for 7 games! Are you ready to call both Babe and Shohei “Unicorns” or are you reserving the title for Shohei only?

I'll add George Thomas (Minneapolis) who played in the majors from 1957-71. The Twins were his last team and he only appeared in 23 games in '71. I remember him from his Red Sox days. Not a bad player and was a super utility type guy. Looking at his baseball-reference.com info, he played every position except he never pitched in a game. George Thomas Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

I'm thinking Luzado and Meyer for Lee and Rodriguez may get it done. I can't see them getting rid of Alcantra or use Jenkins. Pitching is getting a premium in trades now and the fact that Lee or Rodriguez are not yet major league ready may be a problem. How about Julien in the trade and Lee out?

I think that the Twins have absolutely no leverage in this deal, even in bankruptcy proceedings since their contract with Bally/Diamond has terminated. I believe we would be better served if we were able to join the teams that MLB took over mid-season and worked out a deal with different cable companies and MLB.TV (I believe SD was one of the two). What you need to know about MLB taking over Padres TV - ESPN

The Sox need a catcher who can run a pitching staff. They know Vazquez is worth more thsn his batting stats. I would stay clear of Jansen and would only bargain if Martin or Pivetta is in the deal. They may have interest if Farmer is in a deal but only if the Twins hold some money. They have 2B and SS covered but they can use a backup guy for both of them and a weak fielding Devers.

About the only thing good about being old is that I've seen some of the players you would have to read about, like Ted Williams. I learned about players before my time by going to the Hall of Fame and reading books like "The Glory of Their Times" which was a book written from taped interviews of players who played at the turn of the century. I also was an avid autograph collector and have an autograph of a guy who pitched in one game 1892,. John Hollison John Hollison Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com Ken Burns video series is a great resource also.

Filthy: It's a research project. I'm from RI but a baseball nut from the womb. I listened to Red Sox games on the radio and would have my card collection close to me so I could see the player and see his latest stats. I'm one of the fortunates. I went into the Army in 1970-71 and no one threw away my cards. I've got the complete Topps 1955 (Clemente, Koufax and Killebrew rookies), 1956 and 1959 and most of the other years. Since I'm now rooting for the Twins I've written about guys that I enjoyed watching, like Tovar and Versalles. The great thing about researching is learning a lot of little known facts. The Billy Martin connection is one example from Tovar.

I originally throught height equalled above average extension, but prior comments seem to indicate that's not necessarily the case. Since extension is probably known throughout the league there is little chance of uncovering a pitcher with above sverage extension thst is current team does not know about. How do the Twins recent signings rate on the extension charts?

It seems like the last 3 players to play every position was a publicity stunt. Tovar was certainly an event, but it wasn't outlandish since he played 6 of the positions regularly. You were so fortunate to be at that game.

One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar. His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing. Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s. In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?” Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva. Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield. On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo. Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season. Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF. He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB. For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols. Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched. What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965. According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision. Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier). Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base. Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins. Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd. He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro. After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”. He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season. Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.

Please don't take the title the wrong way. The whole concept of a blog is to get your inner juices working and get people to participate in discussions. I would never disrespect an MVP, but it is a topic that got a number of responses and that is the ultimate goal. If I picked the wrong title for the blog I am truly sorry, but it in naming my blogs I look for a phrase that may get someone to read and comment. If no one read or commented I would have wasted all the time it took me to pick the topic, research it and them put it together so that I don't embarass myself. I'm hoping others will jump in and contribute just as I am attempting!

I had a dilemma in choosing until you mentioned 1B for Julien. If they believe that's where he belongs then there is no redundancy, you need to retain both and look to another prospect to include. I would look to the next infielder prospect and possibly Wallner. The prospect has almost no shot of breaking the lineup. Wallner worries me because his profile is Joey Gallo. I hope I'm wrong.

Fan, if you read the article you will see that I intentionally didn't call him a one-hit wonder. The title and last paragraph was to get readers to express their opinion on the question. Personally, as a Red Sox fan back then, I would take him in a heartbeat, even if it wasn't his 1965 season. In that era there were not a lot of SS that could hit. The Sox had Don Buddin and he couldn't hit or field. A true "no hit wonder". And the readers are correct about Tovar. I have already written a blog piece that will be about that subject.

I'm more interested in a depth starter and I'm not sure Pomeranz fits that profile. I would like to see a left hander in the rotation, but not one of the soft tossing guys. Same with a soft tossing lefty in the bullpen. I'm more inclined on a Keller signing, but I'm not jumping for joy in anticipation of it. I have no confidence in SWR unless he begins the season with much more success than 2023. He seems to be a AA 1/2 pitcher rather than a AAAA guy. If I was to put together my list of minor league signings with invites to spring training it would be: Michael Lorenzen, Mike Clevinger (but I would refuse to watch a game where he is on the mound - makes me a nervous wreck), Carlos Carrasco or Hyun Jin Ryu, but I think most of them may require a major league contract.

Was Zoilo Versalles a One-Hit Wonder? When the Washington Senators relocated to Minneapolis/St. Paul for the 1961 season they brought a team that had finished 7th, 8th, 8th, 8th, and 5th the previous 5 years. After the move the team finished 7th in 1961, then 2nd, 3rd and 6th in the 10 team American League. The 6th place 1964 team had a starting lineup of Earl Battey-catching, Bob Allison, Bernie Allen, Zoilo Versalles, and Rich Rollins in the infield, and had an outfield of Harmon Killebrew, Jimmy Hall and Tony Oliva. Their most used subs were Don Mincher, Jerry Kindall and Jerry Zimmerman. The starting rotation was Camilo Pascual, Jim Kaat, Dick Stigman, Mudcat Grant and Lee Stange. Coming out of the bullpen was closer Al Worthington, along with Gerry Arrigo, Jim Perry, Bill Pleis and Johnny Klippstein. The 1965 team didn’t have a lot of turnover from the 1964 team. Don Mincher took over at first base and Jerry Kindall at second, Bob Allison played left field instead of 1st base and the rest of the lineup was the same as 1964. Because of injuries Harmon Killebrew only played in 113 games. 1964 starter, Lee Stange, was traded to the Cleveland Guardians along with George Banks for Mudcat Grant. Besides Grant, the other starters were Jim Perry, who went from a reliever to a starter, Jim Kaat and Camilo Pascual. Dave Boswell, got an occasional start. The bullpen still had Worthington, Klippstein, Pleis, and added Stigman (a converted starter) and Jerry Fosnow, who came to the Twins in an offseason trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo. Cesar Tovar would also come over in the trade, but he would spend most of 1965 with the Denver Bears. While there were not a lot of personnel changes from 1964 to 1965 the team would go from a 79-83-1 record good for 6th place to a 102-60 record that would win the AL pennant. WAR leaders in 1964 (batters only) according to Baseball Reference were: Oliva 6.8, Allison 6.4, Killebrew 4.7, Hall 4.0 and Rollins 3.0. For the 1965 season the WAR leaders were: Versalles 7.2, Oliva 5.4, Killebrew 4.4, Hall 4.3 and Allison 4.2. Jimmy Hall would show an increased WAR from 1964 of 0.3, but the major increase would come from Zoilo Versalles, who went from 2.5 in ‘64 to 7.2 in ‘65. Versalles would go on to win the American League Most Valuable Player award with 19 of the 20 votes. Tony Oliva would receive the other vote. While Versalles would have a solid baseball career, he never had another year that came close to approaching 1965. In 1965 he had career highs in plate appearances in (728), runs scored (126), hits (182), doubles (45), 2nd most triples (12), 2nd most home runs (19), most RBI’s (77) and stolen bases (27), 2nd highest Batting Average (.273), best OBP (.319), Slugging Pct. (.462), OPS (.781), OPS+ (115), and Total Bases (308). He led the American League in plate appearances, runs scored, doubles, triples, and total bases. He did make the All-Star team and won a gold glove that year. Versalles would never come close to repeating his accomplishments of 1965. The Twins would have some success by finishing 2nd in 1966 and 1967 and would again with the pennant in 1969, but Versalles would only have a WAR of 1.6 in 1966, -1.6 in 1967 and would be traded prior to the 1968 season to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Mudcat Grant, for Bob Miller, Ron Peranoski and John Roseboro. In Zoilo’s entire 12 seasons in MLB he had a total WAR of 12.6 with only 5.4 of his total over his other 11 seasons. Sadly, he passed away at age 55 in 1995 while living in Bloomington, MN. Zoilo would be the 1st of only 2 players in MLB history with the name Zoilo, the other would be Zoilo Almonte who played a total of 47 games (as an outfielder/DH) for the New York Yankees in 2013 and 2014. While Zoilo had 7 seasons as the Twins primary shortstop, would you consider him a “One Hit Wonder”?

Hi, just clarified my comment to an earlier post. I was commenting on the best players coming out of college programs and where they may end up after spending a few weeks in lower classifications. Interestingly pick #11 Nolan Schanuel did make it to MLB with the Angles for over 100 AB's. Sorry that I didn't make myself clearer.