mikelink45

What a wonderful letter. I am a college instructor so I really appreciate that he is too. I think that is a perfect addition to his resume. Thanks for your thoughtful note.

No - they should not feel good. They signed a level three reliever - damn near level four. They did nothing to raise the level of the pen to a winning level.

“So you are trying to find a good, reliable, knowledgeable pitching coach for yourself or your son? Well there are a few things you need to remember when choosing who will be giving you instruction. It is very important to take your time and consider all your available options when selecting a pitching instructor, as there are a lot of them out there. First, you must consider what your intentions for hiring a pitching coach. Do you want to throw harder? Develop a new pitch? Work on your footwork? Etc. Different coaches might specialize in different areas of the pitching game, and it is important to find a coach that will be able to really help you work at what you want to accomplish.” "]http://www.thecompletepitcher.com/pitching_coaches.htm[/url] 2019 Wes Johnson – our new hire who breaks the mold and gives us a college teacher, someone who has studied the stats, observed and researched and hopefully knows how to transfer his ideas to the pitchers themselves. We have nothing but hope and wait and see. "When he was hired at Arkansas the Razorbacks sports site said this, "Known nationally for his player development and ability to increase velocity throughout his staff, Johnson arrives in Fayetteville after serving as the pitching coach last season with Mississippi State. Before that, he spent four years at Dallas Baptist University, helping build the Patriots into a perennial national baseball power. “I am pleased to add Wes Johnson, one of the nation’s premier pitching coaches, to our staff,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “He is an experienced college baseball coach and has played an instrumental role in the recent successes of Mississippi State and Dallas Baptist. Wes has developed a stellar reputation throughout the country, based on his ability to develop his players, both individually, and his pitching staffs, collectively, into some of the most successful performers in college baseball. I am happy to welcome Coach Johnson and his family back to his home state of Arkansas and look forward to getting him on campus to get started with our program.” https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/wes-johnson-hired-as-new-razorback-pitching-coach/ 2018 Garvin Alston – short term solution who I expected to last longer than the hitting coach since his arms were doing better than the bats. After pitching six games for the Rockies he immediately began to coach in both the majors and the minors. The Twins made him one of there big new changes, but obviously the fact that the pitching was succeeding more than the hitting did not save his job. 2017 Neil Allen was 58 – 90 with eight teams after being the Mets closer and finishing his career with 75 saves. After his career he was a minor league pitching coach with the Jays, Yankees, and Rays before joining the Twins. An arrest and suspension for a DUI led to his downfall and dismissal. 2016 Neil Allen/Eric Rasmussen Rasmussen was the Twins Minor league pitching coach who had to step up to the majors to fill in for Allen. 2015 Neil Allen 2002 – 2015 Rick Anderson Rated by Bleacher Report as the 43rd best pitching coach of all time. He “preaching a theory based on control, pitching to contact and allowing the defense behind the pitchers to do their job.” 1986 – 2001 Dick Such 16 years with the Twins after three with Texas. He only pitched in 21 games in his career, all with the Washington Senators. He was Tom Kelly’s right hand man and is ranked #16 all time among pitching coaches. BR writes that “for the next 16 seasons oversaw a Twins' staff that didn't always lead in major categories, but through his guidance and theories based on control and command, kept Twins' teams in games longer than most.” “Such helped guide pitching staffs that were instrumental in World Series championships in 1987 and 1991, and nurtured pitchers such as Scott Erickson, Kevin Tapani, Eddie Guadardo, Brad Radke and Johan Santana.” With a cup of coffee in the majors, Anderson was a career coach with 13 years in the minors before coaching in the majors. 1985 Johnny Podres/Dick Such The manager that was hired and caused Johnny Podres to quit in protest was Ray Miller. Miller was a complete flop as a manager, too bad he had the wrong job – according to Bleacher Report Miller, when he was with the Orioles was the 13th best pitching coach of all time. 1984 Johnny Podres Johnny won 148 games and accumulated 30 WAR during his career and then became a Minnesota Twins pitching coach. But he had an alcohol problem in in 1983 he left the team for treatment. “Podres is 50 years old. He said all the cocktails finally caught up with him. ''I was getting sick,'' he said. ''It got to the point where my stomach was killing me.'' Finally, one night in May, Podres went to Dr. Leonard Michienzi, the Twins' physician, and told him about his stomach pains. ''Johnny was acutely ill with a lot of abdominal pain,'' Dr. Michienzi said. ''It could have been a number of things, but I knew Johnny had some ... drinking habits. I had talked to him for two years about it. I checked him into Hennepin County Medical Center, and they found that he had pancreatitis. Pancreatitis and drinking don't go together. I told Johnny he couldn't drink, but I know him and he was going to drink. I was afraid of what might happen. I had a friend who kept drinking and died. We discussed it, and he agreed to have the treatment.'' One Is Too Many After he entered St. Mary's, Podres finally admitted to himself that he was an alcoholic. ''You've got to admit it to yourself,'' he said. ''Then you can do something about it.'' He spent four weeks at St. Mary's, leaving June 21 with a new body, a new mind and a fresh outlook, but also with a new battle ahead.” NYT July 30, 1983. 1983 Johnny Podres/Jim Shellenback 1981 – 1982 Johnny Podres 1978 – 1980 Camilo Pascual The Twins great pitcher who had a 174 – 170 record pitching for terrible Senator Teams before they became the Twins. He had 40.9 WAR and a 3.63 career ERA. He is in the Cuban baseball HOF, the Latino HOF and the Twins HOF. 1976 – 1977 Don McMahon was a relief specialist for the Milwaukee Braves during their 1957 – 1958 world series years and continued to pitch relief until 1974 when he was 44. In 18 years he won 90 games and had a 2.96 era. 1975 Lee Stange Is rated as the 48th best pitching coach of all time by Bleacher Report. He pitched 10 years and served primarily as Boston’s pitching coach after 14 years. 1974 Buck Rogers had a nine-year career as a catcher and became a manager in 1980 and managed four years with three teams. He was a bullpen coach before taking over the pitching staff. 1972 - 1973 Al Worthington was a great relief pitcher for the Twins. For six years out of a 14-year active pitching career. He and Johnny Klippstein handled the bullpen and combined for 73 games in the world series year. In his first year Lee Stange who would also be a pitching coach was on the staff with him. 1970 – 1971 Marv Grissom was in the majors for ten years and was 47 – 45 for his career and appeared in 356 games. He also missed four seasons in the service. In 1954 he paired with Hoyt Wilhelm in the Giants bullpen. He had a 15 year career as a pitching coach. 1969 Art Fowler Was ranked #17 best pitching coach of all time by Bleacher report. Fowler followed Billy Martin wherever he went and because of that was a pitching coach for five different teams. He was with Martin all four times he was a Yankee manager and is credited with helping Guidry with his amazing season. 1967 – 1968 Early Wynn A Hall of Fame pitcher with exactly 300 wins. He hung on until he got the magic number at least two years beyond when he should have retired, but he was a workhorse and deserves his HOF status. He began with the Senators and had his best years with Cleveland. He would then go one to manage in the Twins Minor leagues. 1965 – 1966 Johnny Sain - Spahn and Sain and pray for rain was the motto for the Boston Braves when he was pitching. Then he became the 7th best pitching coach in history according to Bleacher Reports. He was a success for eight teams and the record of improvement in pitching was amazing. His problem was with management and his own irascible personality. He wore out his record regularly like he did with the World Series Twins in 1966 after going to the series in 1965. In Minnesota he guided Mudcat Grant to a 20 win season back when wins counted. 1962 – 1964 – Gordon Maltberger “compiled a 20–13 record in 135 appearances, mostly as a relief pitcher, with a 2.70 earned run average and 136 strikeouts.” He died 10 years later in Texas. 1961 – Eddie Lopat won 166 games and had his best years with the Yankees. His career era was 3.21. He lost his position as Yankee pitching coach when they let Stengel go. He was with the Twins one year and then the As for a year as pitching coaches. So we have a range of no major leagues to Hall of Fame, mostly pitchers, one catcher in the role of pitching coaches. Three are ranked by bleacher report in the top 50 of all time, but who really knows? Like managers we tend to judge by wins and losses, but pitching coaches can only work with what is given to them and cannot field or hit for the pitcher. What is their role? Communications and cheer leading. Observe, film, make sure the pitch maintains the repetition that is his most effective. Watch the feet on the rubber, the grip, the arm angle, and the release point. Cheer lead, talk to the manager, have the bullpen players ready. Maybe the important thing is to manage the manager. The full Bleacher Report top 50 can be found here - https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1047146-the-50-best-mlb-pitching-coaches-of-all-time#slide50

I realize I made too complicated a posting. Here is my revision. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's look at the Starters. When starters go well bullpens go well. Get Romero in the rotation, build those arms and their innings and we do not have to go through so many relievers. If we are bullpenning like the some in the league do we have enough arms that can go 90 to 100 innings in the pen? Can we avoid the problem everyone blamed on Molitor and have enough options so we can have three to four good arms every night and not burn them out or have to use inferior talent. The bullpen ideas have not been matched with good bullpen strategies. Among all the young arms I have no idea who is any good and in the FA market I do not know if the "good arms" were burned last year and thus will fail like Reed this next year.

Romero over Mejia - that is where the upside is. These pitchers are just fillers and if we had a weak rotation in Rochester they would be okay, but we have DeJong, Gonsalves, Littell, Thorpe, and Stewart with Grandal coming up quickly - we do not need fillers.

I just went and looked at the list of unsigned pitchers and I have a hard time seeing why we would sign any of them instead of working with our own minor league prospects. Of course the list includes Pelfrey, Liriano, Belisle, Boyer, Colon, Garcia, Hughes, and Duke - any of them sound familiar? Go young or make a trade. These pickings are not worth pursuing.

The issues are injuries. Not something that can be projected. I see the SP rotation having some outsider. If Sano turns it around he will be here with a big extension, if not your projection is right on. 3B just does not work in any of these projections. We have not put 3B players into our minor league system. Of course the BP is not projected and there is good reason not to guess - it is so volatile, but I will add a prediction - there will be a system for use of relievers developed throughout the league and if they are smart the roster will be 28 men so we can have bench and platoons again.

I really like this projection.

It really does not matter if Cleveland has stepped back or forward. The only thing that counts is whether we are moving forward and doing all we can do to win. Waiting years for two players to reach their potential should be a side issue, not the force that drives decisions. If we improve and so do Buxton and Sano we are great, but if we improve so that we contend whether they do or not is a better place to be.

I just thought I would add a divergent thought. I do not have a television, I listen to the radio. If you have a TV and can see what is happening what difference does the announcer make? Answer to my own question: Pace of game gives so much down time there must be someone to fill the void. On radio I am usually cutting wood, working in my garden or doing something so pace is not so obvious.

You are absolutely right about the volatility of relievers. Because no one really knows the answer to how often and how long we see relievers have great years followed by terrible. So Reed could be the player this year we expected last year. My disagreement is on the closer idea - I remember Hawkins who became a long term very good reliever. Unfortunately the pressure of closing brought out his worst. There is a different mentality in the great closer. As for Opener - I have nothing good to say so I will say nothing.

The problem with signing relief pitchers is that overall the performance is erratic and the use that gives great stats one year can mean a down year that follows. One of the problems, and it is not Molitor' problem, is that the new extreme use of relievers has not been matched with a good strategy for when and how often to use, and when to rest. We just guess at that. So the relievers perform and under-perform regularly. I suspect that Reed will be what we were signing this year, but his value was built in an over use year.

It is past time for the FO to be wondering about the players they inherited. Just put a good team on the field.

No money to bet, but at the end of the year I am leaning white Sox

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2018-positional-power-rankings-bullpen-1-15/ the bullpen that ranked just below the Twins was the Angels and they DFA'd him. Not the kind of signing I was hoping for, but congratulations to the white Sox who signed Herrera.

Before I get excited by the twins pitching stats I am hung up on the league 10.7 swing and miss rate. I am glad we are moving towards the trend, but in perspective we are at and not over the trend which means an average staff unless Romero jumps in and pushes the rate up higher. The dig at Gardy and his win loss rate should also be tempered by the very fact in the article that he nothing to work with. who could win with those players.

Who were the Twins managers and were they any good? There is something strange about the manager position in baseball. It is not like we grow up hoping to be a manager. There seems to be no particular qualification, it is at the whim of the team. "In his essay "From Little Napoleons to Tall Tacticians", Thomas Boswell identifies four main personality types among baseball managers, corresponding to archetypes based on the nicknames of their earliest representatives in Major League Baseball, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame: The Little Napoleons, modeled on John McGraw, intense, emotional and competitive, embodying passionate leadership. The Peerless Leaders, modeled on Frank Chance, disciplined, courageous and dignified, embodying leadership by character. The Tall Tacticians, after Connie Mack, savvy, intelligent and trusting in their judgment, embodying intellectual leadership; and The Uncle Robbies, after Wilbert Robinson, compassionate, humorous and understanding, embodying leadership by wisdom." https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Manager Did they deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? Does any manager belong in the Hall of Fame? Casey Stengel led the Yankees to 10 World series wins in 12 years - surely he deserves his HOF plaque, right? He managed the Braves and Dodgers for nine years before that and had a high finish in nine years of 5th place. He managed the Mets for 4 years after the Yankees and finished 10th four times. So if we put all 25 years together is in a HOF manager for the Boston Bees/Braves or the Mets or the Dodgers? Probably not. Joe Torre managed 30 years and became HOF because of the years he had the Yankees 12 years and his worst finish was 2! But what about the other 18 years? Five years with the Mets and he average a finish below 5th place. Three years with the Braves and an average finish of second place. Six years with the Cardinals and an average finish of 3.5 and finally three years with the Dodgers, two first, one fourth. So was he HOF with the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals? Sometimes managers are brought in when the team dumps talent and then dumps the manager when the talent arrives. How do you judge his performance? Even the worse managers do well when their team is loaded with all-stars. So who are the worst managers and how are they judged? Ted Williams was a bust in four years with the Senator/Rangers according to baseball historians, but he was MOY in his first year - just like our HOF manager - Paul Molitor, but Ted was just irascible and irritating everyone because he wanted perfection. Ned Yost is often sited as one of the worst managers, but his KC Royals won a series and changed the way MLB looked at the bullpen. And finally the manager that Bleacher Reports puts number one on the all time worst manager list is Buddy Bell who had been a really fine player. Just to note that ball clubs can't really judge managers any better than the rest of us - Bell was hired three times by three different clubs, the Tigers, Rockies and Royals. He had a 418 percent for his nine years. Ace Wilson actually had a worse percentage - 401 with the Cubs and Phillies in nine seasons. Note how these terrible managers get nine seasons to show how bad they are? in 2016 Fangraphs tried to evaluate managers https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-should-we-evaluate-a-manager/ and Paul Molitor was rated below average. Eno Sarris wrote this article and based his scores on four areas of managing - 1.When he uses his best relievers. 2.How rigid his approach to the bullpen is. 3. Where he puts his best hitters in the lineup. 4.How often he bunts with non-pitchers. Those four items seem too arbitrary to me. How about Morale, responding to injuries, use of young players and old players... In 2009 Hardball times ranked the 25 HOF managers and made a case that Billy Martin - one of our managers actually belongs for his managing ability. https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/evaluating-managers/ I would agree. Billy Martin burned out his pitchers, but if you wanted to win - Billy won. Billy might beat up his best player and the teams press secretary, but he won. His record was better than his predecessor and the next in line. He managed to win, but could not manage himself. How do you evaluate that? He was 240 wins above 500 in his managing career. So who have the Twins had? The first manager was Cookie Lavagetto who had managed the Washington Senators to 8,8,8,5 out of 8 and then came with the Twins to Minnesota where he was fired half way through the year and replaced with Sam Mele. We finished 7 of 10 in 1961. He had a 414 winning percentage. He was a third baseman when he played 10 years with four years in the service and is best known for the Cookie game when he broke up Bill Bevan's no-hitter with a pinch hit double. He played for Pittsburgh and Brooklyn. He was replaced by Sam Mele, a former RF who played 10 years for six teams including the Senators twice. He managed the Twins for seven years and took the Twins to the 1965 World Series with perhaps the best roster in team history. After the World Series he finished second the following years, but no playoffs in those days. He finished with a career 546 percentage. During his term, his coach Billy Martin had a fight with his pitching coach Johnny Sain giving a preview of coming attractions. He was fired in 1967 after 50 games because the team was 500 and replaced - not with Martin as expected - but with Calvin Coolidge Ermer. Cal finished that year and managed one more. His record was 589 for the remainder of his first year and then only 488 his first full year. His playing career was one game for the 1947 Senators. He was with the organization 60 years and was minor league manager of the year in 1958. In 1969 Billy Martin got his chance and we were first in the west division but lost 3 - 0 in the ALCS. Alfred Manuel Martin, Jr (Billy) was the Twins second baseman in 1961, he then became our scout, managed the Denver Bears and became our manager. He was fired after winning. As a scout he tried to get Griffith to sign pitcher Jim Palmer but skinflint Griffith refused, of course. In 1966 Martin got into a fight with traveling secretary Howard Fox on a charter flight ruining his chance for that years managerial promotion. Fox had demanded that Martin get his former Yankee teammates to quiet down on the flight and he refused. Fox then refused to give Martin his key, eventually throwing it at Martin. Martin hit Fox in the face! Martin ended up with the Denver Bears, where he took a poor team and made it a winner. Craig Nettles from the team said Martin made them afraid to lose. Martin was then given the Twins job and Griffith said, "I feel like I am sitting on a powder keg." Griffith insisted on a daily meeting with Martin, so Martin showed up when it was time for Griffith's daily nap. Then when Dave Boswell (20 game winner) got in a fight with Bob Allison Martin joined in and punched Boswell. Griffith wanted to fire Martin but he was winning and so was Boswell. His relationship with the Twins was also damaged when he kicked Hubert Humphrey out of the locker room. Fox and others prevailed and Martin was fired, the fans were angry. Bill Rigney, a big name at the time, replaced Martin. They had to have a famous name to try to calm fandom. Bill Rigney had an 8 year career as an infielder with the Giants. Then he went on to be the manager of the Minneapolis Millers and 18 years as a mlb manager starting with the Giants. Then three years with the Twins where his team finished 1, 5, 3 in the AL west. Rigney was fired during his third year and replaced by Frank Quilici. Quilici, who passed away last year, played for the Twins for five years as a second baseman. Including the partial first year he managed for four years with a 494 winning pct. finishing 3,3,3,4 in the AL west. He was beloved and went into the radio booth after his career. He was replaced by legendary Gene Mauch another former 2B who was a manager for 27 years. As I said, how do you judge a manager. He was beloved by management and got a job for 27 years despite being the manager for the Philadelphia Phillies in one of the most famous collapses of all time. His team was ahead by 6 1/2 games with 12 to go. He decided to pitch Jim Bunning and Chris Short in 7 of the last 10 games - burning them out (maybe) and the lead disappeared. The team 'pholded' and yet Mauch kept managing. In 1985 with the Angels his team lost in the last game of season and finished second to the Royals. In 1961 his Angels team established the record for a losing streak - 23 games. In 1969 his Expos team lost 20 in a row. From 1976 - 1980 he managed the Twins and his nephew Roy Smalley. His teams finished 3,4,4,4,3. 378 - 394 490. With all the luck they had with 2B they chose Johnny Goryl in 1981. After going 11 - 25 he was replaced by Billy Gardner another 2B, infielder who had 10 years in the majors. He managed six years with the Twins and one with KC. His Twins had a 432 pct. and he was fired in 1985 and replaced by Ray Miller. Miller finished the season and was fired half way through the next season. He is in the Orioles HOF as a pitching coach, but his magic did not extend to Minnesota. Johnny Podres our pitching coach quit in protest of the Miller hire. Miller was universally disliked in twinkie land. The man who replaced him is Minnesota legend Tom Kelly who lasted 16 years. Kelly had two world series teams and three second place finishes in 16 years with an overall pct of 478 which leads me back to the beginning of this blog - great because of two WS or lousy because he had less than 500 record? MN thinks of him as our greatest manager, but there is no quantifiable way to determine or prove this. Ron Gardenhire another 2B player - we really do hire a lot of second basemen to manage - was next in line. He managed us for 13 years with a 507 pct which surpasses Kelly by a lot. He had six first place finishes, one second and two thirds. Then the Twins players stunk and we tired of our old friend and decided he was no longer a good manager. I hope he succeeds in Detroit. Paul Molitor continued our love affair with second base managers and after a HOF career became manager for four years and became the target for criticism that I believe is erroneous and unfair. He finished 2,2,5,2 in his four years. Those are misleading finishes since we are in the worst division, but he was also MOY so good for him. Why was he bad? I know - BP - which was filled with such great arms as Matt Belisle... And now Rocco Baldelli a seven year pro who was damaged by injury and is supposed to lead us to the promised land like all the other managers. I hope he does.

It is never too early. Do not wait for the Indians to retool, go now.

The middle is the place for the proverbial half full/half empty decision. Personally I think it stinks. In our division wild card is not an option at this stage. Since 2010 we have finished 5/5/4/5/2/5/2/2 - how is that for middle? Games behind - in our division: 32/22/27/20/12/35/17/13 - no wild card hopes there. The dreary sense of being in suspended animation is in the middle. Unless you are on your way up and this is a temporary step towards the future greatness it means lower draft numbers, selling off your assets, dreaming of the big FA, projecting your prospects to be superstars. The end of the 1990s we had 8 years of 4/5 finishes. This team has had bursts of success and in fact are much better than all but the Lynx among our professional teams. The Twins and the Lynx are the only ones to win championships unless we go back to the original dynasty - the Minneapolis Lakers. I can handle a couple years in the middle, but to see that as a positive is not in me.

I looked at your overall list and other than the top five or ten it really does not matter where they rank. I would probably drop Gordon from the list - he just is not progressing as we had hoped. I would drop Javier from the list because we have not seen him and he is still a long ways away. The questions about Rooker are valid, but the Cron/Cruz/Austin signings seem to say that the Twins do not see him as that valuable a piece right now and Larnach seems a little further off, but in fact as I read TD reports, he sounds better. I would love to see a listing of the top 20 pitchers - in order. It is interesting to see Berrios so high (where he belongs) Gibson on the list but down low and no Odorrizi, or Pineda. What does that say about our pitching staff? If I were looking into the future I see Kiriloff in the OF and Kepler somewhere else unless this is his big break out year. But if there is one OF that I think is rated way to high it is Buxton. I know what a great prospect he was, but his development has to show me something this year before I put him in the top ten. Here are the top Twins Pitchers by your rating - who else would be here if you removed all the position players? I would love to see us have more than 8 in the top assets rankings and I would like to see more quality because ultimately the pitchers have to lift us in the standings. 18. Adalberto Mejia, LHP 15. Stephen Gonsalves, LHP 13. Kyle Gibson, RHP 12. Trevor May, RHP 10. Taylor Rogers, LHP 6. Fernando Romero, RHP 5. Brusdar Graterol, RHP 2. Jose Berrios, RHP

No to Clemens and Bonds. Look at Clemens records for 1993 - 1996 with the Red Sox. Would they have let him go to Toronto if he looked like HOF? NO, then he suddenly becomes a 20 game winner and a horse like he had been when he was younger - is that just from breathing Canadian air? Bonds had over 45 home runs once 1986 - 1999, then the publicity from McGwire and Sosa drive him crazy and he suddenly gets big headed (literally) and cranks 73 followed by 46,45,45. Nothing suspicious there. These two were caught. They destroyed the way we look at stats. No one is excited by 73 or 70 for that matter. We still talk about 60,61 with reverence. They do not belong! They can form their own little hall, buy a house in Cooperstown and hang their photos with Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose and Ed Cicotte, Lefty Williams, Chick Gandil, Fred McMullin, Swede Risberg, Happy Felsch, and Buck Weaver. There are 10 more names, but you get the idea.

Nicely done, I am still skeptical and think Kepler has been over rated because we all hoped so much that he would turn in to a really solid player - Bob Allison was my hope.

I have to drop Kepler lower in the rankings. His lack of progress makes him less of an asset now than I expected. I would put him back with Sano. I am impresed with Romero's ranking. It seems too high for me at this stage. We do not even know if he is relief or starter. Rosario I would move up in the ratings. I expect Berrios, Lewis, Kiriloff are top three and I have to feel that Schoop is a one year player at this stage and therefore is not top five, Castro is okay, but not that valuable. I expected to see Buxton about 10 but you must see him as a top five. Odorizzi is sure not in that ranking for me so I guess I will have to go with the surprise #1 - Willans Astudillo!

The team that would become the Twins – the Washington Senators set the pace that the Twins would follow, with lots of mediocrity and last place teams with occasional flourishes of quality. “First in War, Last in the American League.” Since it is a new year, I thought it would be fun to look back at our legacy and see what happened in 1919 and each decade after: 1919 The team was 56 – 84 and seventh place out of eight teams. Walter Johnson had a 10.8 WAR for this collection and a record of 20 – 14. Clark Griffith was the manager. They had three outstanding players on their roster – Bucky Harris (his rookie year, only a few appearances), Sam Rice (10th in batting average – 321) and Joe Judge (288/386/406). It was not enough. They were last in Batting and last in Pitching, but still managed to finish ahead of the Philadelphia As. 1929 The year that the Great Depression hit the nation the team was 71 -81 and up to fifth place! Firpo Marberry (19 – 12 and 9 saves) had 7.1 WAR and Walter Johnson was the manager. They were 34 games behind and there were no playoffs or other options to hope for in those years. Marberry was one of the first really great relief pitchers with four years of double figure saves when that was not a stat nor did anyone care much about it. Yet he was by far the most valuable player on the team. Sam Rice was now 39 but had a line that read 323/382/424. Goose Goslin was .288/366/.461, Joe Judge was .315/.397/.442, Buddy Myers at 2B was .300/.373/.403 and Joe Cronin was .281/.388/.421 which proves again that pitching is what wins games! 1939 World War II begins, but not much changes for the Senators. There record is 65 – 87 and they are in 6th place 41 ½ games out. Bucky Harris is now the manager and will be for 8 seasons. Buddy Lewis is their WAR leader with 5.7. A third baseman and outfielder his line was 319/.402/.478. The attendance for the year was just over 329,000. Amazingly Dutch Leonard was 20 – 8 – winning 31% of the team total! Their only other star was right fielder Taffy Wright .309/.359/.435. Of note was September call up Early Wynn who was 0 – 2 in his debut but would go on to win 300 games. In 1949 when I was 3 ½ the Senators really stunk. 50 – 104 and 47 games out of contention. Of course they were in 8th place. J Kuhel was in second and last year as manager and Eddie Robinson lead the team with 2.5 WAR as a first baseman with .294/.381/.459. and the attendance for the year was up to 774,000! A familiar name for Twins history was on this roster – Sam Mele 242/.288/.337. He started out the year in RF for the Red Sox and then came to the Senators in the season and played RF/CF/1B. Another familiar name is Eddie Yost who became famous for fouling off pitches, his line was .253/.383/.391. Member of the Twins front office Sherry Robertson was on the team and played 2B/3B/RF/LF. 1959. Two years from coming to Minnesota the team was 63 – 91 and in 8th place again. Cookie Lavagetto was manager and would be for the Twins in 1961 before giving way to Sam Mele. Camilo Pascual had 8.6 WAR. Always my favorite pitcher in the early Twins years Pascual was 17 – 10 that year giving him 27% of the team wins. In September Jim Kaat came to the team – 21 years old, 0 – 2 record! Jack Kralick and Pedro Ramos were also in the rotation and would becomes Twins staples! Both underrated in Twins history. At 23 Harmon Killebrew was finally given a full time position after rotting on the bench due to the bonus baby rule (another stupid rule from baseball’s hierarchy). With 42 HRs the Killer had a line of 242/.354/.516. Familiar names on the roster included Bob Allison, Jim Lemon, Lenny Green, Zoilo Versalles, Roy Seivers, and Reno Bertoia. Bad team with some great players. 1969 In the playoff era, one of our greatest teams finished first – 97 – 65 and then lost 3 – 0 in the ALCS. What a shame. Jim Perry with 6.5 was tops in WAR and 20 – 6! He was amazing that year. Dave Boswell was 20 – 12, Jim Kaat was 14 – 13, Tom Hall (who physically resembles Jose Berrios) was 8 – 7 and Dean Chance was 5 – 4. What a rotation! Ron Perranoski and Al Worthington were the top relief tandem. Then there were the bats – 36 year old John Roseboro at Catcher, Reese at 1B, Carew 2B - .332/.386/.467, Cardenas SS, Killebrew (49 HRs) at 3B, Allison (24 HR), Uhlander, and Oliva (.309/.355/.496) in the OF. The manager was a story in himself – Billy Martin! 1979 82 – 80 and fourth in the West. Gene Mauch was the manager (Roy Smalley’s uncle) and Jerry Koosman led in WAR (7.2). The Twins drew just over one million fans. In 1974 when Blyleven led the way they drew only 660,000. Koosman was 20 – 13, Dave Goltz was 14 – 13, and Geoff Zahn, Roger Erickson and Paul Hartzell rounded out a ½ good rotation. Mike Marshall was the pen – 90 appearances, 32 saves, 142 innings pitched. The Batting order did not match the sixties. Roy Smalley was probably the best, Kenny Landreaux was good and Butch Wynegar was Calvin Griffith favorite. We also had the great name – Bombo Rivera! 1989 80 – 82. Two years from our world series in – we only won five more regular season games that year and the year before we were 91 – 71 and better than any of the other teams in this time frame, but we finished second. This year had a similar record to ten years earlier, but we were below 500 and finished 5th. Kirby Puckett led in WAR (4.9) 339/.379/.465 and it was Tom Kelly’s third season as manager. We drew 2,200,000 fans! The rotation was led by Allen Anderson 17 – 10, Frank Viola 8 – 12, and Roy Smith 10 – 6 and Jeff Reardon was in the pen with Juan Berenguer. The big bats were Puckett, Harper, Hrbek, Gagne, Gaetti, and Gladden. It was also the year of Wally Backman at second base and that was some mistake. 1999 63 – 97 and in fifth place out of 5. Kelly was still the manager and Brad Radtke led in WAR – 6.5 and was 12 – 14. Terry Steinbeck was the catcher – nice to have the Minnesotan come home. He had a line of .242/.310/.410. A guy by the name of David Ortiz played 1B .277/.371/.446, but of course we did not like the way he swung the bat! Ron Coomer and Matt Lawton were regulars and a guy named Molitor was DH .281/.335/.382 – we liked that, we didn’t like Ortiz. In the rotation Radtke was joined by LaTroy Hawkins 7 – 14, Eric Milton 8 – 14 and Bob Tewksbury 7 – 13. Rick Aguilera and Eddie Guardado held the pen. 2009 – Current history. 87 – 67 and first place in the Central, then a 3 – 0 loss in the LDS. Joe Mauer led in WAR with 7.8 (28 HRs, .365/.444/.587 and Ron Gardenhire managed. Blackburn and Baker each won 12, Slowey and Perkins each won 11, and Livan Hernandez won 10. Joe Nathan was joined by Boof Bonser – another of the best names in Twins history – Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, and Dennys Reyes. Mauer, Morneau, Span and Kubel led the lineup with Carlos Gomez in CF and Nick Punto all over the field. 3B Buscher, 2b Casilla, and the famous Delmon Young in LF! 2019????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? That’s the decade review. When we were senators we finished 7/5/6/8/8 – very consistent. The Twins in the years that ended with 9 were 1/4/5/5/1 – somewhat erratic but some fun teams. What can we expect this year? There are so many questions – Happy New Year.