mikelink45

It was a good choice - Versalles really electrified the game for those of us who were watching in 1965, but Oliva would have been a good choice too and overall was the better player, just not in 1965. ESPN had an article on "one hit wonders" for each team. They chose Versalles for the Twins. It is a choice I disagree with, but this is what they said, "In the National League list of one-hit wonders, I wrote about Jim Konstanty, the 33-year-old relief pitcher for the Phillies who won the MVP award in 1950. Versalles is in some fashion the American League version of Konstanty, probably the least accomplished player to win an AL MVP. While he had a fairly long MLB career, including seven seasons as a regular, Versalles finished with just 12.6 career WAR, and the only season he topped 3.0 was in 1965. While he finished with just a .319 OBP, the lowest ever for a non-pitcher MVP, Versalles did a lot of other things that season: He led the AL in runs (126), doubles (42), triples (12), extra-base hits (76) and total bases (308) while also winning a Gold Glove. He stole 27 bases in 32 attempts. The Twins won the pennant and, in a weak season for star performances, Versalles led all position players in WAR (only Cleveland pitcher Sam McDowell was higher). It's hard to picture a guy with a .319 OBP being the best player in the league, but Versalles was a worthy selection and received 19 of the 20 first-place votes. Versalles was only 25 that season, but never came close to replicating that performance. In 1966, he battled a severe case of the flu into May and got off to a slow start, then injured his heel, which led to a painful hematoma in his back (blood leakage and tissue swelling). He would suffer recurring back pain the rest of his career, and his power numbers nosedived. It didn't help that he had always been error-prone at shortstop (he made 39 errors in 1965). He would spend his post-baseball years in the Minneapolis area, unemployed much of the time and subsisting on disability and Social Security checks and a small baseball pension. He was forced to sell his MVP trophy and was found dead from heart disease in his home in 1995, just 55 years old." It is true he did not replicate that season, but he did not fall off the map like a Bob Hazle with the Milwaukee team. We have our share of players who came up and looked great only to fade the next year.

Take Chacin out of the discussion and I agree completely with your well written essay. Thanks for the reflection. But give me Dobnak, Thorpe, Balazovic, Duran and let Chacin move on.

It is really hard to compare eras. In the past only a few - Feller, Ryan, Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Christy Mathewson...were potential triple digit guys and now - we are seeing all kinds of relief and starters, minor and major leaguers hitting triples. Why? Training, techniques, good food. It was not bad to control the batter with other techniques - see Spahn and Maddox for great pitchers who were not overly aggressive on strike outs. In the past players wanted to hit 300 and they hated to strikeout. So many things change. But pitchers who come up and have a short period of success is something that has been common throughout baseball history.

That sounds great - let us know if any Twins besides Boof appear. Thanks for the information.

So glad you could enjoy and find new information! Baseball is so fun.

I think that the way this season is playing out is to the disadvantage of Cruz. As we look ahead he is not only facing age, but uncertainty. Staying sharp, being ready is a challenge to everyone, 39 year old bodies have less flexibility.

I just went through the roster of everyone who ever played for the Senators/Twins franchise. Only with Coronavirus would I do that. Well it was kind of fun and I put together a 26 man roster of the best names - from my perspective. These were last names only and it was hard to ignore the nicknames. Vic Power led off at first for the Twins since Power is our calling card and Early Wynn (perfect names) is our starting pitcher. Some are a little more obscure - actually I never heard of many of them. But here it is. Have at it - add and subtract as you like. 1B Vic Power 2B Jimmy Bloodworth 3B Rocky Bridges SS Sam Crane C Earl Battey OF Steve Braun OF Eric Bullock OF Goose Goslin P Early Wynn P Red Bird P Boof Bonser P John Butcher P Matt Capps P Jim Constable P Skipper Friday P Eric Hacker P Jim Hoey P Jim Kaat P Joe Klink P Spencer Pumpelly Bench B Brian Dinkelman – 2B B Jake Early – C B Butch Huskey – OF B Clyde Kluttz – C B Elmer Klumpp – C B Bob Unglaub - U I also played with individual letters. This meant letters with a lot of names like "S". The weakness in this is apparent right away - the players were not Senator/Twins for their entire career so their numbers are inflated. For my exercise it is as if they were potentially on our teams their entire career and if they were this is how they stacked up. 1B George Sisler HOF 56.4 2b Germany Schaefer 8.9 3b Miquel Sano 7.8 Ss Roy Smalley 27.9 C Terry Steinbach 28 Of Tris Speaker HOF 134.2 Of Al Simmons HOF 68 Of Roy Sievers 25.5 P Jack Sandford 18.6 P Johann Santana 51.7 P Ervin Santana 26.6 P Bill Singer 18.7 p Lee Stange 9.2 464.5 total WAR The R team does not have a total WAR because you will see that the list does not have enough potential to be beat the S team. 1B Rich Rollins 2b Luis Rivas 3b Rich Reese Ss Pete Runnels C Phil Roof Of Ben Revere Of Sam Rice HOF Of Eddie Rosario P Brad Radtke P Pedro Ramos P Jeff Reardon P Kenny Rogers p Dutch Reuther The P team had 302.9 WAR but lacked the total star power. 1B Vic Power 15.3 2b Trevor Plouffe 7.2 3b Mike Pagliarulo 10.6 Ss Roger Peckinpaugh 44.9 C A J Pierzynski 23.8 Of Wally Post 18.2 Of Kirby Puckett 51.1 Of Albie Pearson 13.1 P Jim Perry 41.6 P Camilo Pascual 40.9 P Carl Pavano 16.4 P Mike Pineda 10.9 p Glen Perkins 8.9 302.9 The M's make a big push with 378.8 WAR 1B Justin Morneau 27 2b Buddy Myer 47.8 3b David McKay 0.1 Ss Pat Meares 4.8 C Joe Mauer 55.3 Of Paul Molitor HOF 75.7 Of Heinie Manush HOF 47.2 Of Shane Mack 21.6 P Firpo Marberry 30.3 P Tippy Martinez 8.6 P Joe Mays 9.4 P Eric Milton 16.5 p Jack Morris HOF 43.5 378.8 1B Ron Coomer 1.4 2b Rod Carew HOF 81.3 3b John Castino 15.2 Ss Joe Cronin 64.1 C Juan Castro -5.4 Of Ben Chapman 41.9 Of Marty Cordova 7.7 Of Michael Cuddyer 17.8 P Steve Carlton HOF 90.2 P Stan Coveleski HOF 61.4 P Dean Chance 29.9 P Al Cicotte 0.3 p Bartolo Colon 45.8 451.6 comes in second thanks to the HOF players Those were the letters I chose. K has Killebrew and Kaat, but not enough supporting cast. B has a lot of players but only Blyleven is HOF. D has only Ed Delehanty. W does not have as many players, but Walter Johnson has 164 WAR by himself. I cannot continue - my boredom has been replaced by being tired.

I can see this is not going to be a guy that we look forward to having interviews with. Of course all I really want is to see him on the mound.

I'm all for tovar. He just did so many things on the field, on the bench, with his attitude. He was a spark that ignited the great twins teams of the '60s. I'm not sure war is the measure for the question you've asked. I would even venture to say that Nick Punto might belong in this discussion. Radtke during his time gained accolades. Maybe Dave Goltz belongs in the pitcher discussion.

I have never discounted RBIs and I have not like the modern way of saying they don't matter. They do and this is a great article the demonstrates that they do. Way to go Rosario. Despite the naysayers your stats show how valuable you were

Oh my - Vic Power was the best. I loved to watch him play. https://alchetron.com/Vic-Power-(baseball) No one owned the base like he did. He was criticized for his flashy moves and unorthodox style (and it was style) but he was named the 81st greatest first baseman in Major League history by historian Bill James and that is underrated. He was flash, he was fun, and he was very good. He had seven gold gloves in 12 seasons. Three seasons he was in the top ten in fewest errors. Six seasons he had the most assists for a first baseman and 8 seasons he was in the top ten. Two seasons he was judges to have the top range for a 1B and 8 seasons he was in the top ten. He is ninth overall in total zone runs at 1st Base. He is my number one!

It looks like you're having fun. I used to play aPBA and really enjoyed it even though it was far from realistic.

This is a very thoughtful and interesting post. It really does take a different strategy and approach depending on the length of the season. Part of the issue will be if they try to crowd the games into a short span without the normal off days for travel that are part of the 162 game season. Many of the things that we want to see are only going to be answered when we finally see the season plan unfolded. As a person who is seen his work disappear I can tell you that my planning for the year changes weekly and all I can do is try to anticipate what might happen. The same will be true for the twins. but it appears as if they have a very thoughtful and coordinated front office through field management and that is the best thing we can ask for.

I wish I knew Thorpe's reasons for skipping what could have been his most important ST of his career. Without that knowledge the ability to look at him and where he is going is too limited.

We have to realize that pandemics like this usually reduce in the summer and then come back in the fall, often worse. The planning has to take this into consideration too.

Bob Allison is the best comp I can come up with in Twins history - eye test, not stats.

Pleasantly surprised - when the pitcher was good the previous regime did move them quickly. If only there had been more good ones.

One of the most interesting thing I have found in researching the virus and the Spanish Flu is this article on the affect of social distancing? https://qz.com/1816060/a-chart-of-the-1918-spanish-flu-shows-why-social-distancing-works/ For baseball fans who like to look at charts and graphs this is a really good study of St Louis and Philadelphia during the 1918 epidemic. "The extreme measures—now known as social distancing, which is being called for by global health agencies to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus—kept per capita flu-related deaths in St. Louis to less than half of those in Philadelphia, according to a 2007 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." “I think the critical lesson from both the modeling and the historical work is that the benefits of multiple interventions are greatest if they are introduced early (before 1% of the population is infected) and maintained,” wrote Hatchett, who has also directed medical preparedness in the Obama White House." The history channel describes a very similar tactic to what the states are trying to do now, "The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain. Citizens were ordered to wear masks, schools, theaters and businesses were shuttered and bodies piled up in makeshift morgues before the virus ended its deadly global march." Should we think 2 weeks or a month is going to take care of us, here is another quote from the History.com, "The first wave of the 1918 pandemic occurred in the spring and was generally mild. The sick, who experienced such typical flu symptoms as chills, fever and fatigue, usually recovered after several days, and the number of reported deaths was low. "However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year. Victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate. In just one year, 1918, the average life expectancy in America plummeted by a dozen years." Why was it called Spanish Flu? "By 11 March 1918, the virus had reached Queens, New York. ... The Allies of World War I came to call it the Spanish flu, primarily because the pandemic received greater press attention after it moved from France to Spain in November 1918. Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship." So do we assume that once the summer comes and the seasons change that we are done? No. "The second wave of the 1918 pandemic was much deadlier than the first. The first wave had resembled typical flu epidemics; those most at risk were the sick and elderly, while younger, healthier people recovered easily. By August, when the second wave began in France, Sierra Leone, and the United States,[93] the virus had mutated to a much deadlier form. October 1918 was the deadliest month of the whole pandemic." Sports Illustrated described - "There’s a face mask on the hitter, the bench and the crowd. Underneath their standard equipment, the umpire and catcher have them, too. "This is how the Pasadena Merchants and Standard-Murphys played a game in the Southern California Winter League on January 26, 1919." "The 2016 Marlins-Pirates series in Puerto Rico, which was moved to Miami due to Zika virus." In 1909 " as typhoid fever spread in California, the San Francisco Examiner ran the front-page headline “Epidemic Threatens to Ruin Ball Team” as the Pacific Coast League saw several players fall sick at once. The illness-related charity games have evolved with the times, too: The St. Louis Cardinals had an annual “Tuberculosis Day” game for more than two decades, and years later, President Eisenhower declared “Baseball Polio Day,” when MLB games were used to raise money for the disease on July 4, 1957." We think of our athletes as men of good health and conditioning, but we have the following list of players who died during their career - only two from flu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_baseball_players_who_died_during_their_careers And finally for Twins fans there is this February 20 LA Times article that tells about Brusdar Graterol overcoming the flu - https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2020-02-20/dodgers-brusdar-graterol-over-flu-100-mph-fastball

In 1918 Spanish Flu became the last act in the horrible loss of life that had been WWI, "By the time it had spread across the United States, the deadly event had killed an estimated 675,000 Americans." If you wonder why the world is reacting so vigorously to Corona think about this from MLB.Com history - "In just 15 months Spanish flu killed, according to best estimates today, between 50 million and 100 million worldwide. It infected an estimated 500 million people around the world, about a third of the planet’s total population." United States Surgeon General Rupert Blue in September 1918. “People are stricken on the streets or while at work. First there is a chill, then fever with temperatures from 101 to 103, headache, backache, reddening and running of the eyes, pains and aches all over the body, and general prostration. Persons so attacked should go to their homes at once, get into bed without delay and immediately call a physician.” MLB.com reports, "the flu took: Cy Swain, a minor leaguer from 1904 to 1914 who slugged 39 home runs in 1913; Larry Chappell, a big league outfielder for the White Sox, Indians and Boston Braves between 1913 and 1917; catcher Leo McGraw, a minor leaguer between 1910 and 1916; catcher Harry Glenn, a minor leaguer from 1910 to 1918 who spent time with the 1915 Cardinals; minor league pitcher Dave Roth, who played between 1912 and 1916; and minor league pitcher Harry Acton, who played in 1917." The death of umpire Silk O'Loughlin shocked everyone. He was the name most people recognized. "O’Loughlin umpired in the American League from 1902 to 1918 while working the World Series in 1906, 1909, 1912, 1915 and 1917." The Philadelphia Inquirer reported - "Officials responded by banning most public gatherings. Impacted sporting events included high school and college football games, amateur soccer matches, and a fight between Jack Dempsey and Battling Levinsky." The Inquirer added - "Penn’s game against Georgia Tech was canceled. The Quakers postponed a contest with the Navy Yard’s Marines, and when it took place on Oct. 26, it was played at an empty Franklin Field. A campus rally for a much-anticipated game against eventual national champion Pitt was called off, as was a war-bond fund-raiser featuring movie star William S. Hart. "Penn wasn’t alone. Most college football teams, including an unbeaten Michigan squad, had to shorten their schedules because of the epidemic." "Major League Baseball got lucky. Because of World War I, its season had ended a month early, on Sept. 2, before the worst of the outbreak. Still, throughout organized baseball, at least seven players, including Negro League star Ted Kimbro, eventually died from the flu." In the World Series that was played in September the paper reported, "Boston’s Babe Ruth, then a robust 23-year-old, was stricken twice but fought it off sufficiently to pitch and win a pair of games for the victorious Red Sox." Baseball is a wonderful sport, but health is first and should always be first in our nation, politics, and decisions.

Let's assume everyone is harmed the same way - there is no option - imagine if a group of fans gets the virus at a game or some of our players go down. Lets just assume this is another season with a different story line. The only winner in this might be the Astros.

I always laugh at the NFL coverage - 6 days of speculation and then one day of games. In MLB it is 4 months of speculation and 8 months of games - I like that best. What no system can predict beyond injuries is the wild career year of some player who will impact the game from the mound or the batter's box. If I give myself a challenge of predicting the season I would start with last year - then subtract any losses and add the WAR of the newest additions. Of course that would mean a 110 win season for the Twins so I have to adjust for quality of opponents and that brings me back to last year's record. Unlike the past, I expect us to win the division and my nerves are set on edge only as I look at the playoffs.