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The Minnesota Twins bullpen was the dominant topic yesterday for...various reasons. It looks like it will remain a dominant topic as we head toward the July trade deadline. This blog series will be all about the Twins bullpen, but won't be concerned with internal or external additions. I wanted to take a look at how the coaching staff is tweaking the pitch selection of the current Twins relievers, and how that compares to the usage across their careers. I won’t pretend to know the reasons why pitch selection is changing, but it’s interesting to see the trends with a third-ish of the season under the belt.
 
Disclaimer: I am by no means a pitching analyst, and I have just started to dive into the world of Baseball Savant. I highly recommend you try it out, too. You'll probably find some things I am missing.
 
Taylor Rogers
 
No need to introduce this guy. Taylor Rogers has become a relief ace after years as a marginal starting pitching prospect, followed by some time as a lefty specialist. The pitch percentage by season chart shows a major clue to how his 2018 breakout began, and that is the usage of his slider.
 


 
Slider – “The Rog”
"The Rog" (the new nickname I have just bestowed for the slider) is the only pitch that Rogers has thrown at an increased rate in 2019. It jumped from 13.1% of his pitches thrown last year to 50.3% in 2019.It's a large key to his success against right-handed hitters, as he's able to paint both sides of the plate with superior break.
 


 
The results have not been quite as dominant as it was in 2018, but "The Rog" still holds opposing batters to a .244 BA and a .333 SLG (last year was .122 BA with a .195 SLG). For some context, he's thrown the slider 315 times since debuting in 2018, and given up a total of 4 extra base hits.
I’m confident the slider will continue to be filthy, as the spin has increased and exit velocity has decreased to 85.3 MPH from 87 MPH last season.
 
Curveball
 
The other obvious change in Rogers' repertoire is the decrease of his curveball. The fact that his curve has become a rarity is far more surprising to me than the increased use of his slider. Rogers threw a curve for 33.4% of his pitches in 2018, but only 1.8% so far in 2019. 1.8% translates to 7 whole pitches in 2019.
 


I'm not quite sure why Rogers isn't throwing his curve, because it was wildly effective last year. Rogers threw curveballs 316 times in 2018, allowing just 1 extra base hit with a .121 BA and .195 SLG. The spin on his curve was in the 89th percentile in 2018, and the average exit velocity was a paltry 82.7 MPH.
 
The spin has remained above 2700 in 7 tries this season. If he threw it more, it would warrant a nickname (a la “The Rog”). Jeremy Heffner and Wes Johnson must have their reasons. Maybe Statcast is classifying some sliders as curves. Maybe po-tay-to is po-tah-to?
Sinker
 
Statcast classifies Rogers’ fastball as a sinker. Sinkers averaging 94.2 MPH are usually quite filthy. It’s trending near his career average in terms of percentage of pitches thrown, but has been dethroned as his favorite pitch due the success of his slider. Regardless, the sinker is a key to establish his breaking balls and it’s going to appear in almost every plate appearance.
 


Rogers’ sinker has been more effective in 2019, nearly matching the performance of his slider this season. It’s always nice when average velocity increases on non-breaking pitches, and Rogers’ sinker has increased by 0.7 MPH from 2018. That seems to be a common trend across Wes Johnson’s pupils.
Four-Seamer
 
Rogers has thrown a four-seam fastball once this season. It deserves one sentence.
It nearly hit Gordon Beckham in 0-2 count with the bases loaded.
 
 
Overall Takeaway
 
Rogers has continued his dominance with breaking balls, but the pitch selection has shifted to favor his slider over his curveball. The slider hasn’t been quite as dominant as 2018, but improvements to the spin and exit velocity suggest that it’s a pitch worth throwing more than he did last year. That doesn’t quite explain the severe drop-off in curveballs thrown, maybe there’s an explanation that can’t be defined by Statcast. Regardless of this shift, he's still the ace of the bullpen.

It's been exactly one week since the Twins last off day, an unplanned off day prompted by a wet field in Los Angeles, so now is a good time to assess what has gone right, and what has gone wrong for the team since then.
 
The Good
A 5-1 record since the last day off. Simply put the Twins have been mashing in that time with a convincing win over the Angels, a sweep against the White Sox, and a well-played 2 game split against one of the National League's best teams the Milwaukee Brewers. In those 6 games, the Twins have outscored their opponents 51-23, Max Kepler has collected AL Player of the Week honors, and have increased their divisional lead from 7 games to 10 games. Obviously when you have that record a lot has gone well, but starting pitching has to be the biggest plus in those six games. Starters allowed just 7 earned runs in 36 innings in this time.
 
The Bad
Although the team has been playing well, there has been some rough patches, particularly for the Twins bullpen. Austin Adams gave up 5 earned runs while only recording 2 outs in the final game in Los Angeles. Luckily the Twins were up by 14 prior to Adams' appearance and would still win by 9. However, it led to Adams being waived and claimed by the Detroit Tigers. Adams' roster spot was taken by Zack Littell who pitched two clean innings against Chicago in the series opener on the 24th. The other bad out of the Twins pen is Taylor Rodgers being taken deep. Rodgers came into both games against Milwaukee and proceeded to give up a home run in both appearances. In the first game he gave up what would be a game winning 2-run shot to Orlando Arcia, and gave up a harmless solo homer to Yasmani Grandal last night. Of course this is not so bad if the team continues to have three-plus run leads, but Rodgers will be called upon in high leverage situation the rest of the way, and will need to find a way to avoid leaving pitches over the heart of the plate. Rodgers has been one of Minnesota's best relievers and I anticipate him finding himself again.
 
The Ugly
The Twins have been bitten a bit by the injury bug as of late. Mitch Garver has been on the injured list with a high ankle sprain, but looks to possibly return this weekend. Nelso Cruz has taken his time returning from a sore wrist. Starter Michael Pineda was placed on the injured list yesterday with right knee tendinitis. Finally, center fielder Byron Buxton had a nasty collision with Target Field's center field wall last night and is currently listed as day-to-day with a bruised right knee. All of these things sound benign enough, but the Twins need to remain healthy to continue their torrid pace, and any sort of setback could drastically hurt the team especially a setback to Buxton or Garver who have been among the league's best at their respective positions.

In part two of this series we will be looking at the 2010 MLB draft. This series is about looking at how the Twins did in the draft during the past decade, not a wine piece. We will see positives and negatives in the Twins’ draft prowess. Another intention of this piece is to simply show how hard it is to draft and develop MLB players.
 
With the 21st pick in the 2010 draft the Minnesota Twins selected RHP Alex Wimmers out of the Ohio State University. Wimmer never lived up to expectations that can largely be blamed on injury that greatly affected his development. In 2010 Wimmers was diagnosed with UCL issues but at the time the team and doctors, along with Wimmers seemed to think he could heal the ligament with rest and rehabilitation so he elected to not have Tommy John Surgery. After almost two years of this he finally had Tommy John and was never able to live up to the expectations that come with being a first round pick. Wimmers did end up making it to the majors with the Twins but did not do well. As of now he does not have a pitching gig and last pitched for the Marlins’ AAA affiliate in 2018. Wimmers’ career numbers are as follows:1-3 with a 4.38 ERA and a 1.662 WHIP. His WAR ended up being 0.2 in his 24.2 innings that span 22 games. Wimmers caught on with the Marlins organization in 2018 but only played four games with their AAA affiliate before being released.
 
The five picks that came after the Twins were:
22. TEX: Kellin Deglan, HS Catcher
23. MIA: Christian Yelich, HS First baseman
24. SF: Gary Brown, Cal State-Fullerton CF
25. STL: Zack Cox, Arkansas Third Baseman
26. COL: Kyle Parker, Clemson Outfielder
 
Kellin Deglan
While we think that most of these guys have probably already become whatever they are going to be, Deglan is the one guy in this group that might still have a chance, but it’s doubtful. We know that catchers take a little longer to develop than most other positions but Deglan has not shown any spectacular skills in the minors such as a guy like Mitch Garver did. Deglan is a career .223 hitter in the minor leagues. He spent a little time in the Australian Baseball League before coming back to the organization that drafted him in the Texas Rangers. The Rangers ended up letting him go and he has been splitting time between the AA and AAA affiliates of the New York Yankees ever since. If Deglan is ever able to make it to the show, it will be his good but not great defense that will earn him the call.
 
Christian Yelich
Just like in 2009, the Twins missed out a future MVP. Of course we don’t know if Yelich would have developed the same way with the Twins as he did with the Marlins but his career 29.4 WAR would look awfully good in the middle of this current Twins lineup. Drafted as a first baseman, Yelich has found a home in the outfield with two National League clubs in the Marlins and was traded to the Brewers for four prospects in the winter of 2018 and went on to win the NL MVP the ensuing season. In an absolutely loaded draft, Yelich may be the best but is certainly in the top five of all of the player drafted in 2010 in a draft that included, among others; Bryce Harper (1), Jameson Taillon (2), Manny Machado (3), Yasmani Grandal (12), Chris Sale (13), and a few other MLB stars. Before you get mad about the selection, just remember that this is a highly difficult process and 21 other teams also missed on this guy.
 
Gary Brown
Brown spent only six seasons in professional baseball, playing in seven career MLB games and checking in at a 0.1 career WAR. Brown got off to an amazing start to his professional career, he was the 2011 California Player of the Year in his first full professional season and was largely considered the Giants center fielder of the future. He had 53 stolen bases that season and was quickly shooting up the prospect lists. He never sustained any major injuries during his MiLB career but never came close to repeating his performance in A+ that got everyone excited in 2011. He shuddered through four more minor league seasons and got a chance with the Giants as a September call-up in 2014 where he got into seven games, went 3-7, and was then sent into DNF hell the following offseason. He got a chance with both the LAA and STL but was not able to do much with either of their AAA affiliates and faded out of the Independent league a year later. Brown would later blame the hype he received after his first full year’s success as the reason he stopped getting better, he stopped making adjustments because he already felt he was good enough. For more on that here is a very interesting article about Brown, https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/giants/gary-brown-never-recovered-field-2015-dfa-hurt-me-my-core .
 
Zack Cox
Early on Cox looked like the steal of this draft, ranking as Baseball America’s #62 prospect in the preseason of 2011 and #88 in 2012. Cox played well early on in his MiLB career but was later limited by injuries and then started to move around the league. He was traded to the Marlins for Edward Mujica at the deadline in 2012. After that he was drafted in the 2015 Rule 5 draft by the Nationals and then released in April 2016. He was signed by the Tigers in 2017 but elected free agency after not playing much and has not resurfaced in the MiLB since. In between his time with the Nationals and Tigers organization he did play fairly well for the Wichita Wingnuts of the International League but has since left baseball and was unable to ever make it to the “Bigs.”
 
Kyle Parker
Besides Yelich, nobody on this list has played more MLB games than Parker with 64. Unfortunately for him in the Rockies that equates to a -1.6 WAR. Parker got a chance but was never able to live up to expectations of the first round pick, just like four of the other five guys on this list. He went 24-132 in his career and was released following spring training in 2016. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds that April and played with their AAA team but was released in June of the same year. Parker does have an interesting story apart from his failed MLB career, he spent three years at Clemson University where he played both football and Baseball. He was Clemson’s starting QB for two seasons before leaving when he was drafted after his third college season by the Rockies. In his NCAA football career he went 15-12 with 4,739 passing yards and 32 touchdowns in two years as a starter.
 
Overall the 2010 MLB draft gave us a lot of great ball players, this group gave us one. This group would look like a complete bust if not for Christian Yelich. This again shows us how hard it is to draft baseball players. In the next edition of this draft we will look at the Twins’ first pick in the 2011 MLB draft, Levi Michael and the players that followed him.

With two months gone in the season, the Minnesota Twins big league club has the best record in baseball. In the minors, unfortunately, many big prospects are injured, some for a long period including Brusdar Graterol, Akil Baddoo, Stephen Gonsalves, Tyler Wells and Yunior Severino. However, there have been a number of bright spots in the minor league system. Many players have deservedly been already promoted this season. This list is for the players who should be moved up, and likely will be sometime relatively soon.
 
In this list, I avoided putting players in their first year with the level. Because of that, I did not put either Austin Schulfer or Gabe Snyder on this list, even though they have dominated at Low-A Cedar Rapids. Maybe they’ll make my August edition, if they are still with the Kernels at that time.
 
Honorable Mentions:
Michael Davis, SS, Cedar Rapids
Jared Akins, RF, Cedar Rapids
 
5. Gabriel Maciel, CF, Cedar Rapids
 
Maciel arrived in a July trade last season that sent Eduardo Escobar to Arizona. The 20-year-old is in the midst of his best year of full-season baseball. In his 30 games with the Kernels after the trade last season, he hit .263 and had an OPS of .683. He isn’t a power hitter, so his OPS will never be super high, but his OBP is .389, which is the best of his pro career, and his .728 OPS is the second-highest of his career. As a matter of fact, his OBP is the among the best in the Twins system, just behind Luis Arraez and Kernels teammate Gabe Snyder. Part of that strong OBP is his ability to draw walks, having coaxed 17 already this season. If Maciel keeps it up, I see him in Fort Myers sooner rather than later.
 
4. Jaylin Davis, RF, Pensacola
 
Davis is having one of his best seasons of pro ball. Not only is he hitting for power, his OBP is by far the best of his pro career at .386. That is helped by him cutting down on his strikeouts a bit and walking a lot more this season. In Fort Myers and Chattanooga last season, he combined to walk 44 times in 439 at-bats. However, in 142 at-bats this season, he already has 22 walks. Not only that, but his .430 slugging percentage is the best since he put up a .486 slugging percentage in 66 games with Cedar Rapids in the first half of 2017. He has a good batting average of .282 as well. Last year, in those 439 ABs, he had 11 homers, and he already has five this season. His numbers are up across the board, and should make an appearance in Rochester this season. However, Rochester is loaded at OF, so he might be blocked for the time being with Brent Rooker, LaMonte Wade, Luke Raley, Zander Wiel and Jake Cave all in New York.
 
3. Bryan Sammons, LHP, Fort Myers
 
Sammons has pitched extremely well in his first full season with the Miracle. Last year, he started the year in Cedar Rapids and dominated, going 5-5 with a 2.32 ERA, before being promoted to Fort Myers. In his first stint with the Miracle, he struggled, going 1-2 with an 8.49 ERA. He got a start with the Chattanooga Lookouts, but was knocked around there as well. He returned to Fort Myers to start 2019, and has been virtually unhittable. In his eight starts, he has given up four runs.....total. Sammons is 4-0 with a sparkling 0.94 ERA. He keeps the ball in the yard, having allowed just nine in his minor league career in 201.1 innings, and has given up just one in 38.1 innings this season. His strikeouts per nine innings is really good, as well, with 46 strikeouts in those 38.1 frames (10.8 K/9). Sammons’ .227 opposing batting average is impressive, and it is only a matter of time before he takes his talents to Pensacola to join the Blue Wahoos.
 
2. Hector Lujan, RHP, Fort Myers
 
Lujan got off to a slow start in 2019, as he allowed three runs in three innings in his first appearance of the season, and he allowed five in his first eight innings. Since then, he has been lights out. In his last 11 outings (21.1 innings), he has allowed just one earned run (0.43 ERA). Last season, he had a solid showing for the Miracle, going 5-5 with a 2.64 ERA. Although his numbers were solid across the board last year, he has improved significantly upon those numbers. He has a 1.84 ERA in 14 appearances. His strikeouts per nine innings rate has improved from 8.5 to nearly nine strikeouts per nine and from a 3.09/1 strikeout-to-walk ratio to 4.14/1. His batting average against has gone down significantly, from .248 in 2018 to .198 in 2019, and his WHIP has improved from 1.26 in 2018 to 0.95 in 2019. It is time for a challenge for Lujan, and I expect him to get that sometime in June.
 
1. Lewin Diaz, 1B, Fort Myers
 
Diaz was a big International Free Agent signing, and has had an up-and-down career so far with the Twins. He is just 22 years old, and doesn’t turn 23 until November. After a down season with the Miracle in 2018, he has turned the Florida State League into his personal launching pad. Diaz hasn’t put up numbers like this since his time in Rookie ball with Elizabethton. He already has more homers this year (9) than he had all 2018 (6) in half the at-bats. Diaz is still strikeout prone, but he has drawn more walks this season (8) and he drew 10 in all of 2018. I don’t know what has clicked, but numbers are so much better than 2018, even in a pitcher-friendly league. His OPS was just .598 last season, but that has sky-rocketed to an outstanding .911 this season. Diaz has shown he can be dominant, and he should move up to Pensacola relatively soon, especially with Taylor Grzelakowski struggling at first.

Brusdar Graterol Shoulder Impingement Q&A
Heezy1323
 
 
Heralded Twins prospect Brusdar Graterol was recently shut down and placed on the IL for ‘shoulder impingement’. This is concerning given how promising a start to the 2019 season Graterol has had and what it could mean for his future.
 
So what is ‘shoulder impingement’? And when might it need surgery? Let’s see what we can figure out:
 
[Disclaimer: I am not a team physician for the Twins. I have not treated or examined any Twins players. The information I am using is only that which is publicly available. My goal with these posts is to provide some education to TD readers around general injuries that are peculiar to baseball players.]
 
 
Question 1: What is shoulder impingement?
Shoulder impingement is a sort of catch-all term that can be used to mean a number of different things depending on the specifics of the situation. It Is a term that is often used in application to patients who have pain in their shoulders, often without any specific structural damage or a particular injury. Most frequently, people have pain in their shoulder area that gets worse when working above chest level. It is often treated with physical therapy, activity modification, oral medication and occasional cortisone injections. It is uncommon for these patients to require surgery, but it is sometimes needed after the preceding treatments have failed to provide adequate relief. Some also refer to this condition as shoulder bursitis. It involves irritation of the rotator cuff and the bursa, which lies between the rotator cuff tendons and a part of the bone of the shoulder blade (called the acromion). You may have friends or family members who have been told they have ‘impingement’- this is a fairly commonly used diagnosis. More specifically, this condition is referred to as ‘external impingement’.
 


 
Shoulder impingement in pitchers, however, often means something entirely different than what is described above. Whereas external impingement occurs between the rotator cuff and the acromion (outside of the ball and socket joint of the shoulder), pitchers more commonly have problems with what is called ‘internal impingement’. This occurs specifically in overhead athletes because of the tremendous motion that is necessary to hurl a baseball 90+ mph accurately. During the course of throwing, the arm is cocked back, placing it in an awkward position. In this position, part of the rotator cuff can get pinched between the bone of the ball and the bone of the socket (also often including pinching of the labrum). This may not seem like a big deal, but over time this repetitive motion can begin to take its toll. Experts agree that some changes/damage to the structures of the shoulder are likely normal and adaptive in pitchers rather than problematic. In some cases, however, these structural changes progress down the spectrum and become an issue- causing pain, lack of velocity and/or control and fatigue of the shoulder.
 


 
There is not perfect agreement amongst experts about why exactly these athletes begin to have pain in some cases. Regardless, it is likely a very complex combination of factors ranging from subtle changes in mechanics to core strength to gradual loosening of shoulder ligaments over time (and many others). Each individual case is likely different, and treatment needs to be tailored to the specifics of the athlete.
 
 
Question 2: How/when did this injury occur?
Typically, this is not an injury that results from a single trauma (though theoretically it can happen that way). It is much more typical for this to be the result of an accumulation of ‘microtraumas’ over a long period of time.
 
Question 3: Does this injury always need surgery?
No. As mentioned above, painful shoulder impingement in throwers is likely related to a complex set of factors. Because of this, treating any ONE thing with a surgery is somewhat unlikely to be effective. As a result, treatment is almost always begun by trying to calm down inflamed tissues. This typically involves rest from throwing. It may also involve oral medications and in some instances, cortisone injections. There is some discussion around PRP and so-called ‘stem cell’ injections (what orthopedists refer to as Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate or BMAC) for these types of problems, though this is not yet something I would consider standard of care.
During this time, the athlete is also likely to undergo physical therapy to work on improving some of the other factors mentioned above- core strength, range of motion, rotator cuff strength, etc.
As the pain and inflammation improve, the athlete is likely re-examined by trainers and physicians. This can take anywhere from a week or two to several weeks depending on the case. When things have improved sufficiently, the athlete is likely to begin an interval throwing program, which involves progressively more aggressive throwing sessions. Once they have completed this, they would likely return to the mound and begin throwing from there. Once appropriate progress has been made (and of course presuming no setbacks are encountered), they are likely cleared to return to play.
The success of non-surgical treatment for these types of problems is all over the map in the literature. There are ranges from percents in the teens to 70%+. Again, it likely depends on a large number of factors which makes prognosticating nearly impossible.
 
 
Question 4: How do we tell which cases of impingement need surgery and which do not?
This can be among the most difficult decisions to make when dealing with pitchers. One of the problematic elements is that surgery to treat this problem is comparatively not very successful. As noted above, in general there are likely a number of different structural abnormalities in the shoulder that are in play with this injury. Some of them are adaptive and are considered ‘normally abnormal’ for pitchers. Others are problematic. Separating these two is something about which even experts readily disagree.
It is difficult (and perhaps foolish in this setting) to quote surgery success rates, but in general they are not the best. There is a reason behind the old saying that for pitchers “If it’s the elbow, call the surgeon. If it’s the shoulder, call the preacher.”
 
 
Question 5: What is done during surgery?
This is widely variable depending on the specific structures that are injured, and (quite honestly) the particular views of the operating surgeon. I was recently watching a lecture on just this subject that featured a panel of a number of the preeminent North American surgeons that treat these problems. The differences of opinion and differences in strategy between surgeons were substantial. Yet another reason to make significant efforts to make non-surgical treatment successful.
 
 
Question 6: How concerning is this for Graterol?
This is hard to know from the information available. As stated earlier, the term ‘impingement’ can mean a wide variety of things- some more concerning than others. One of the positives in this case would seem to be that Graterol was pitching very effectively quite recently. Thus, this doesn’t seem to be something that has been festering for months. Hopefully that means they’ve ‘caught it early’ and can get things back on track sooner than later. I would imagine he will be out for a few weeks at least, but I would be surprised if he required any surgery in the near future.
Overall, many pitchers have occasional blips on the radar with things like this that are improved with rest and rehab and don’t recur in the future. Predicting the future is difficult for anything- and this type of issue especially- but hopefully Graterol can get back on the mound throwing gas soon.
 
 
Go Twins!

Have you ever heard of the Kansas City Antelopes? They were a baseball team before the Cincinnati club that has been give credit for being the first baseball club. They played from the end of the Civil War into the 1870s. We might not have recognized the game – the pitchers tossed underhand, they wore no gloves, and a ball caught on the first bounce was considered an out. When the cowbells rang a run scored. Hurls tossed to strikers and bad fielding with bare hands caused many muffs. And there were no fences and no bleachers. Fans sat in on the ground, the ball and players often mixing with the spectators.
 
The most famous game in their decade and a half history (and the third game they played) came when they played the Atchison Pomeroys and Wild Bill Hickok, a regular fan, was asked to umpire. With both six guns firmly on his hip the arguments were limited and the fans behaved. Previously KC had lost and when a return engagement was scheduled there was a riot and the game had to be called. With the legendary James Butler Hickok there was no worry about something like that happening again. When he was asked if he could be fair, he said, I am a US Marshall and to prove he was serious, he studied a rule book the day before.
 


When the game ended after two hours and fifty three minutes, it was a 48 – 28 win by the Antelopes, Wild Bill bowed to the crowd, left the field in a carriage pulled by two white horses, and went and played poker. He umpired one more game in Hays City.

This article appears in full on Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read it.
 
Power ranking things can be a fun exercise.
 
It can be exhausting.
 
But few things get people talking as much as seeing their favorite things — be it baseball teams, foods or pop culture phenomena — ranked in an orderly list.
 
We’ve done this in this space before, but here’s how we’d power rank the current 25-man roster of the Minnesota Twins. Like most power rankings, a special formula is used with room for the human — in this case, me! — to make slight changes to the order that it spits out, including adjustments for recent performance.
 
1. SS Jorge Polanco: It’s not even really close. He has an OPS over 1.000 and he’s playing stellar defense at short. At 26 in July, he could still be a superstar in the making.
 
2. CF Byron Buxton: What a turnaround. Buck is hitting, running and throwing at a well above-average level, and is starting to look like the guy who had a “Torii Hunter floor” when he was coming up. He’s still prone to some ugly strikeouts, but he’s come so, so far.
 
3.SP Jake Odorizzi: Odorizzi is proving that you can work with the high fastball and make it happen. In fact, hitters know it’s coming and have still been powerless to do anything about it. Literally, Odorizzi has allowed just 0.68 homers per nine innings — a career-low.
 
4. LF Eddie Rosario: Rosario is picking up where he left off before injuring his shoulder last year as a low-OBP, low strikeout slugger who can put a powerful swing on just about anything. It’s a fun skill set because it’s so rare in the current MLB landscape.
 
5. SP Jose Berrios: It says a lot when a player is still in the top five among his peers and people are talking about his relative ‘struggles.’ Berrios has set the bar that high, and has still pitched the best baseball of his career despite velocity that has alternated between 91 and 94 mph over his last few starts. He maintains he’s just adding and subtracting to mess with hitters — and we believe him.
 
6. RF Max Kepler: His season is not unlike Rosario’s so far, though with a little more OBP and a little less power. Of course, for a leadoff hitter that isn’t a bad thing.
 
7. SP Martin Perez: Sure, his command has slipped a bit of late, but nobody saw this coming from Perez. Well, maybe somebody did.
 
8. 1B C.J. Cron: He’s not a man of many words, but he can really hit. Cron has some trouble with pitches off the plate, but not nearly enough for it to be any sort of concern as he’s fanning just 21.1 percent of the time — well below league average. Has bat. Will travel.

Even a really great meal goes stale eventually.
 
I desperately wanted the Twins to do more to upgrade the bullpen this offseason, and was supportive of the idea of them pursuing Craig Kimbrel at one point, but I'm out now. I don't really want anything to do with him.
 
My frustration with the bullpen inactivity was never tied to any one particular reliever. Things have boiled own to that, since Kimbrel is the last man standing, but there were several attractive free agent bullpen pieces out there this winter. The Twins didn't sign any of them. I'm over it.
 
I'm not saying this bullpen is fine as it's currently constructed. While Ryne Harper has been a pleasant surprise and the backed trio of Blake Parker, Taylor Rogers and Trevor May has mostly looked good, there are some legit concerns about the depth.
 
But bringing in a project isn't the answer. Kimbrel is one of the greatest closers of all time. There's also a reason why he's still unemployed. Here are a few:
 
-He has to be rusty. This is item No. 1 with a bullet. There's no way he can possibly be sharp, I don't care what kind of simulated games he may be throwing.
 
-He had a 4.57 ERA in the second half and a 5.91 ERA in the postseason last year.
 
-His fastball velocity dropped from 98.72 mph in 2017 to 97.63 mph last year.
 
-It actually took him awhile to work up to that velocity last season, sitting below 97 mph through April. Yes, he's been working out, but I'd still be concerned it would take him some time to get up to full speed.
 
-His ground ball rate dropped from 37.0% to 28.2% last year.
 
-His line drive rate went up from 19.4% to 24.8% last year.
 
-He had a worse first-pitch strike rate (56.3%) than Fernando Rodney last year.
 
-He had the eighth-lowest rate of pitches in the zone (36.6%) of the 151 qualified relievers last year.
 
-He walked 12.6% of the batters he faced last year. That is horrible. It was the 20th-worst rate among 336 pitchers who logged more than 50 innings last year.
 
In nearly every single positive mention of the Twins I see, there is somebody in the comments who calls for Kimbrel. I get it, I just think the idea of Kimbrel doesn't even accurately reflect who he actually is at this point.
 
If the Twins seek to improve the bullpen, they should be looking for guys who are trending upward. Or at least, you know, active. Maybe Kimbrel will be great, I don't know, but I am comfortable with another team taking on that project. There are other ways to boost the bullpen.

With the announcement that Nelson Cruz suffered a wrist injury yesterday, my immediate thought was who would replace him in the lineup and on the roster if he had to go on the injured list. It would appear to me that the answer is the much-discussed Miguel Sanó, who is on his third and last stop in his rehab program.
 
Much has been written about Sanó. I wish to confine this discussion to the ballplayer between the lines. The other stuff has been beaten to death IMHO. What will the Twins get when a healthy Sanó is on the active roster?
 
Sanó came up to the big leagues with much hype in 2015. He was going to be the power hitter the Twins hadn't had since Harmon Killebrew. Another comparison, because of size, was Frank Thomas. Sanó's rookie year was excellent. Despite being called up only at midseason, he was a contender for Rookie-of-the-Year. His traditional state line--.269 BA, 18 homers, 52 RBI was very good. Double the homers and RBIs for a full season, and there is a perennial All-Star, future Hall of Famer. Plus, he was only 22 years of age. A deeper look at his rookie stats was probably even more encouraging, while Miguel struck out over 100 times (in a half season), he also walked more than 50 times, giving him a solid OBP of .385. His OPS was a stellar .916 which yielded an OPS+ of 149. After a minor injury, Miguel only played 11 games in the field, so we couldn't be sure about his defense. For his superior half-season of work, Miguel Sanó was voted the Twins' Player of the Year.
 
2016 started with Sanó installed as the new right fielder. He was never competent or comfortable there and it seemed to affect his hitting. After a month and a half of futility in right field, Miguel moved back to third to demonstrate a rocket arm, but less-than-soft hands. His metrics at third came in below average, but at least he could hit. Well, the hitting didn't go as well either. Sanó ended up playing in 116 game, having an OPS of .781 with 19 homers and 51 RBI as the Twins flailed and failed and lost over 100 games. Sanó missed over 30 games due to injuries. Again, a deeper look into Sanó's numbers is a mixed bag. In 160 additional plate appearances, Sanó only hit one more homer than 2015, his walk rate plummeted while his strikeout rate stayed basically steady. The batting average ended at .236 and his OBP fell to.319.
 
Sanó was a deserved All-Star in 2017. He came to camp as the third baseman, healthy and came out of the gate on fire. His first-half stats were outstanding--.276, 21 homers, 62 RBI and his defense at third was satisfactory. The strikeout rate remained about the same (35%), but he also walked 44 times, a big improvement over 2016 and the OBP was .368 at the break.
 
Since the 2017 All-Star break, Miguel Sanó hasn't been very good. The combined numbers from the second half of '17 and 2018 are .211 BA, 20 homers, 56 RBI. OBP at .292, slugging .408, with an OPS of .700. The walk rate is below 10% and the strikeout rate is 38%. These are not future Hall-of-Fame numbers. They aren't even starter numbers. In addition, according to metrics (and my eyes) Sanó remains a below-average third baseman, despite a plus-plus arm.
 
To summarize this rather elongated prologue, Sanó's on-field performance has been a roller coaster. He started looking like one of the brightest stars, faded, came back to that level again and faded again. Does this up-and-down have to do with injuries? Certainly. The point here is to suggest that the Twins shouldn't be counting on Sanófor too much. Expectations of another Frank Thomas or Miguel Cabrera should be tempered by now. I think they should expect more than they gotten since the All-Star break of 2017. They should get more than Mark Reynolds-like production. If the strikeouts keep coming and the homers are too infrequent, he can still be optioned. This club looks like at least a contender for postseason. If that is the case, they shouldn't be playing guys based on potential or upside.
 
Miguel Sanó is at a crossroads in his career (in my opinion). He soon will have a chance to step on stage with a good team and help them make postseason, and maybe have success there. He's now 26 and shouldn't be judged on what he might do, he should be judged by how he is actually performing on the field.As a Twins fan and a baseball fan, I hope he can find his earlier success. As someone who has seen a lot of hyped players come and go, I am a bit skeptical.

The home opening games:
We have a long history of opening games now and I got to wondering what our record is. Here is the summary of games.
 
1961 – Our first opening game was 1961 and who did we play – the new replacement Washington Senators. Pascual pitched and went 8 innings with three runs and reliever Moore gave up two and lost the game. Mincher and Green hit HRs. 3 – 5
1962 – Los Angeles Angels clobbered us 12 – 5. Jim Kaat started and gave up 4 in 4. Versalles, Green and Rollins hit HRs.
1963 – we lost our third straight opener – 4 – 5 to Cleveland. Pascual 5 runs in 7 innings. Green had a third opening game HR in three seasons and Vic Power added a HR.
1964 – finally we won, playing the Senators again and winning 7 – 6. Pleis won, but Kaat started and made it for 2/3 inning giving up 4 runs. Rollins, Oliva and Mincher slugged HRs.
1965 – Two in a row – this time 5 – 4 against the Yankees. Kaat went nine innings, but we won in 10 and a pitcher named Fosnow got the win. No HRs.
1966 – We beat KC 2 – 1. Mudcat Grant pitched a full game and won. No HRs
1967 – we beat the Tigers 5 – 3. Four in a row. Boswell went seven and Merritt ended the game and got the win. Allision and Versalles hit HRs.
1968 – Versus the Senators for the third opener in our short history. We won 13 – 1. Jim Merritt pitched a complete game. Killebrew, Hernandez and Tovar HRs.
1969 – We beat the Angels 6 – 0 giving us six openers in a row. Tommy Hall threw a complete game shutout. No HRs
1970 – Oakland went down 8 – 2. Kaat complete game win. No HRs.
1971 – The Brewers broke the winning streak 2 – 7. Perry went only 4.1 innings and took the loss. No HRs.
1972 – Back to winning 8 – 4 over Oakland. Blyleven complete game win. Darwin HRs for Twins.
1973 – Oakland 8 – 4 again – déjà vu. Kaat won, Hisle and Darwin HRs.
1974 – Twins over White Sox – 3 – 1. Blyleven wins and Hisle HRs.
1975 – The Angels beat us 3 – 7. Goltz gave up six.
1976 – White Sox beat us 1 – 4. Blyleven start and loss.
1977 – Oakland beat us 2 – 3. Thormodsgard (WHO?) was our opening day starter. Carew hit a HR.
1978 – We beat the Mariners 14 – 5. Zahn pitched complete game victory.
1979 – the Angels shut us out 0 – 6. Goltz loss giving up 5 in 4.1 innings.
1980 – Beat the Angels 8 – 1. Zahn complete game win and Smalley HR.
1981 – Loss to Oakland 1 – 5. Koosman 7 innings and 4 runs.
 
1982 – Seattle Mariners loss 7 – 11. Redfern loss, Engle and Gaetti HRs.
1983 – Loss to Detroit 3 – 11. A real WHO? – Havens starts and gives up 8 in 1.1 innings.
1984 – Detroit beat us 1 – 8. Williams ??? our starter. 6 in 6.1.
1985 – Angels beat us 0 – 5. Zahn beats his old team and Smithson continues the no-name set of opening starters and gives up 5 in 7.
1986 – We beat the Mariners 5 – 1. Blyleven won and that famous closer – Davis got the save. Gaetti and Brunansky HRs.
1987 – Victory over Oakland 5 – 4. Blyleven won and Frazier Save. Puckett HR.
1988 – Blue Jays lost 6 – 3. Blyleven one, Reardon save – three in a row, three different closers. Gladden and Gaetti HRs.
1989 – Viola lost to the Yankees 2 – 4.
1990 – Twins beat Angels 13 – 1. Tapani 8 shutout innings. Puckett and Harper HRs.
1991 – Twins shut out Angels 6 – 0. Tapani shut out.
 
1992 – Twins beat Texas 7 – 1. Tapani gave up one run and won. Mack HR.
1993 – White Sox won 5 – 10. Bad day for Tapani with 9 runs in 3 innings. Puckett and Winfield gave us two HOF HRs.
1994 – Loss 2 – 8 to the Angels. Tapani had another bad one – 7 runs in 3.1 innings. Munoz and Winfield HRs.
1995 – We beat the Oriols 7 – 4. Tapani gave up 3 in 5 innings and Aquilera saved.
1996 – Twins 8 – Tigers 6. Radtke six innings and one run. Stahoviak home run.
1997 – Twins 7 – Tigers 5. Radtke gave up 5 in 5 and Aquilera won. Pat Meares HR.
1998 – KC Royals won 5 – 9. Radke gave up 5 in 5 again. Ortiz HR.
1999 – We beat the Blue Jays 6 – 1. Radtke went seven for the victory.
2000 – Twins lost 7 – 0 to Tampa Bay. Radtke gave up 6 in 5 to continue a mediocre, at best, opening game record.
2001 – Twins 11 – Detroit 5. Radtke again 7.1 innings 3 runs. Mientkiewicz and Guzman HRs.
2002 – Twins 4 – Tigers 2. Radtke 6.2 – 2 runs.
2003 – Twins 2 – Blue Jay 7. Another no name opening day starter – Reed – pitched six and gave up 4. Mientkiewicz HR.
2004 – Twins beat Indians 7 – 4. Radtke 6 and 4 runs. Rincon won. Shannon Steward HR.
2005 – We lost to White Sox 1 – 5. Lohse lost 5.1 innings, 4 runs.
2006 – Twins 7 – Oakland 6. Radtke 7 Innings, 4 runs. Bautista and Morneau HR.
2007 – Twins 7 – Baltimore 4. Santana won. Six innings and four runs. Morneau and Hunter HRs.
2008 – Twins 3 – Angels 2. Livan Hernandez won.
2009 – Twins 1 – Mariners 6. Liriano lost – 7 innings, 4 runs.
2010 – Twins 5 – Boston 2. Pavano won and Kubel HR.
2011 – Twins 2 – Oakland 1. Pavano and Nathan for the Twins.
2012 – Twins 1 – Angels 5. Blackburn 6 innings, 5 runs. Willingham HR
2013 – Twins 2 – Tigers 4. Worley – remember him! – lost.
2014 – Twins 3 – Oakland 8. Correia and Deduno took the mound.
2015 – The Royals beat us 3 – 12. May started and gave up 5 in 5. Plouffe HR.
2016 – Twins 1 – White Sox 4. Gibson lost.
2017 – Twins 7 – Royals 1. Santana won. Sano HR
2018 – Twins 4 – Mariners 2. Gibson start, Duke win, Rodney save. Sano and Garver HR.
2019 – Twins 2 – Indians 0. Berrios start and won. Rogers Save.
The Twins have a 33 – 16 home opener record!
In Season openers there is a different set of statistics. Pedro Ramos started the very first season opener in 1961. Radtke had the most season opening starts and Blyleven was second.

When the Cedar Rapids Kernels host the Lansing Lugnuts in a three-game series beginning July 13 of this summer, Lugnuts players will have one significant advantage over their counterparts in the home team dugout.
 
They’ll be getting paid more than 50% more than the Kernels players.
 
http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/baseballMoney900.jpg
It doesn’t mean the Jays’ farm hands necessarily win every contest against the Kernels on the field, nor will they be swimming in riches on their paydays, certainly, but it’s a baby step in the right direction and players in every organization can only hope it’s a trend that spreads across affiliated minor league baseball.
 
According to a story by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Emily Waldon, Blue Jays executives told The Athletic that they are finalizing a plan to raise their minor leaguers’ pay by more than 50 percent across all levels from the Dominican Summer League through Triple A.
 
(The Athletic site has a paywall, but if there’s a single site that deserves your consideration for subscribing, it’s the Athletic, in my opinion.)
 
According to that article, Class A minimum salaries are rising from $1,100 to $1,160 per month this season, so players for Lansing, the Blue Jays’ Midwest League affiliate, will be north of $1,740, about $600 a month more than the Minnesota Twins are obligated to pay players assigned to Cedar Rapids.
 
Toronto vice president of baseball operations Ben Cherrington told The Athletic, “We hope that it allows our players to have the freedom and comfort to make some good choices, whether it’s where to live, where to eat, etc. We just feel like it’s consistent with our values of trying to be a player-centered organization and give them every resource possible to be at their best.”
 
We could debate whether $1,740 a month is enough money to provide much “freedom and comfort” but there’s no doubt it’s provides more of those things than $1,160 does.
 
Minor leaguers are not paid while attending spring training and extended spring training (MLB claims these are merely extended “try-outs”), receiving their meager pay only once assigned to an active minor league team’s roster.
 
A raise similar to what Toronto is offering would certainly benefit the Twins’ players in Cedar Rapids where players already benefit from a healthy and generous host-family program, which allows players to re-allocate money that would otherwise go toward rent.
 
Toronto’s move coincidentally (perhaps) came about roughly the same time that Waldon authored another article for which she interviewed over 30 people, many of them minor league players, concerning the plight of players trying to subsist on minor league pay.
 
The big question, now, is whether Toronto’s unilateral first volley on minor league pay will be answered by other MLB teams.
 
Certainly, there are 25 guys getting ready to fly to Cedar Rapids in April that hope so.

What is the roster? This is a real chore - as you might have noticed as I examined each of the positions in the previous weeks.The Bench for the Best in Twins history is made up of people who fill roles and not just the best players of all time. From the bench to the starters I have tried to find the men who would truly represent the Twins best of all time based on where they played and how they fit the roles.
 
The Bench in today’s game has to have some special qualities. The easy one is backup catcher. Battey will back up Mauer so one position is set.
 
Bob Allison could play all three positions in the OF and 1B. He also Pinch hit 117 times so he is my number four outfielder on the bench.
 
To fill the bench, I am looking at pinch hitters and Rich Reese has the most pinch hit grand slams in a career – 3. Not a bad place to start. Randy Bush had the most pinch consecutive pinch hits in a season – 7. Steve Braun had 113 pinch hits good for 12th all time. He played for the Twins the first six years of his 15 year career and PH 90 of his 496 PH appearances with us. Since he appeared in LF, RF, 1B. 2B, SS, 3B during those years he has to be added to the bench.
 
Utility player is harder to define – Killebrew had his primary starts in three positions – 3B, LF, 1B and he was DH, RF, and 2B too. Quite a versatile player that is seldom recognized for that fact. But the ones that stand out are Nick Punto, Cesar Tovar, Steve Braun, Jerry Terrell, Ron Washington, Al Newman, Jeff Reboulet, Denny Hocking, and Michael Cuddyer.
 
• Cesar Tovar 8 years .281/.337/.377/.714 25.9 WAR Every position
• Michael Cuddyer 11 years .272/.343/.451/.794 12.8 WAR Every Position except P/C/SS
• Steve Braun 6 years .284/.376/.381/.757 15 WAR Every position except P/C/CF
• Nick Punto 7 years .248/.323/.324/.648 10.3 WAR Every position except C/P/1B
• Jeff Reboulet 5 years .248/.335/.324/.659 5.8 WAR Every position except P
• Al Newman 5 years .231/.306/.275/.581 2.1 WAR Every position except P/C/RF
• Ron Washington 6 years .265/.294/.373/.667 1.5 WAR P/C/LF/RF
• Jerry Terrell 6 years .259/.295/.311/.606 0.9 WAR Every position except P/C
• Denny Hocking 11 years .252/.310/.351/.661 0.3 WAR Every position but C/P
I will take Tovar for Utility – Cuddyer did not play SS and that is really important for a Utility player.
 
My bench – four men
1. Earl Battey C
2. Bob Allison OF
3. Steve Braun – PH/Utility
4. Cesar Tovar – Utility
 
 
The Bullpen is the next big group so I would choose those who were in the discussion for the best closer.
1. Joe Nathan 7 years, 24 – 13 2.16 era, 260 saves 460 games, 463 innings 18.4 WAR
2. Rick Aquilera, 11 years, 254 saves, 3.50 era, 15.5 WAR.
3. Al Worthington 6 years 2.62 era 327 games 473 innings 88 saves and 10.1 WAR
4. Bill Campbell, 4 years, 3,13, 216 games, 460 innings, 7.6 WAR.
5. Mike Marshall 3 years 21 – 20 2.99 era, 162 games, 274 innings, 6.9 WAR
6. Eddie Guardado 12 years, 116 saves, 37 – 38 4.53 ERA, 648 games 704 innings. 9.5 WAR
7. Glen Perkins 35 – 25, 3.88, 120 saves, 409 games 624 innings (he was a starter for a while) and 8.8 WAR.
 
The Rotation is:
1. Johan Santana
2. Bert Blyleven
3. Brad Radtke
4. Jim Kaat
5. Jim Perry
That is 12 pitchers, a four man-bench and we have the following starters – second name is who would ranked second at each position in the look at all time leaders per position that I have just completed. This is also my batting order.
 
 
1. DH – Molitor – Thome
2. RF – Oliva – Brunansky
3. CF – Puckett – Hunter
4. 3B – Killebrew – Castino
5. 1B – Hrbek – Morneau
6. LF – Mack – Allison
7. SS – Cardenas – Versalles
8. 2B – Carew – Knoblauch
9. C – Mauer - Battey
 
One year manager - Billy Martin
GM Terry Ryan

The Best Twins General Manager and owner - really a difficult task - the manager, the owner, the GM, the players - who do you blame?
 
 
• Calvin Griffith. (1961 – 1984) It is not a long list since Calvin served as both owner and general manager. We won a World Series under Calvin, he moved the team to Minnesota, he insulted and lost Rod Carew.
 
• Howard Fox. (1985 – 1986) He was a member of the Twins organization for sixty years. When he was traveling secretary, he had a fight with Billy Martin on the team plane. After Calvin sold the team he stayed on as team president for two years under Pohlad.
 
• Andy MacPhail (Won WS twice in 1987 and 1991) Andy was the boy wonder. He was hired as VP for player development in 1984 and GM in 1985. He hired Tom Kelly, and traded for Jeff Reardon to close out games and pitchers Joe Niekro and Dan Schatzeder as well as outfielder Dan Gladden. Then after a last place finish in signed Jack Morris and we went on to another pennant while McPhail became Sporting News Executive of the Year. He then left for Chicago Cubs, which did not work out as well. Now he is president of the free spending Phillies.
 
• Terry Ryan (1995-2007, again from 2012 - 2016) From Janesville, WI, Ryan had an unsuccessful career as a pitcher, but became a prolific scout for the Mets where he developed his reputation for player evaluation. He was smart enough to trade Dave Hollins to Seattle for David Ortiz, but did not keep him long enough to see his true development. Stuck with tight budgets he often dumped vets, but was savvy enough to trade for Shannon Stewart when the team needed him. In 2002 the Twins were the victors over Oakland in the playoffs, and he was named executive of the year while the team was the Organization of the year. He left with a good reputation, but returned in 2012 and lost some of his luster as the changing times caught up with him.
 
• Bill Smith (2008-2011) was Ryan’s replacement. He was a loyal member of the front office and assistant to Ryan. However his star never rose and names like Matt Capps will forever stain his reputation. He was fired, the first GM to be fired by the team and Ryan came back.
 
• Terry Ryan became the second GM fired by the Twins, but then there are not very many and perhaps the first one would have been fired had he not owned the team.
 
• Rob Antony (interim 2016) A filler, not much to say.
 
• Thad Levine (2016-present) Too early to tell.
 
 
So how do I judge the best. We won world series under Griffith and MacPhail. Ryan and MacPhail both won Executive of the year.
 
 
Average wins per season under GM
Griffith 80 wins
Fox 79
MacPhail 71
Ryan – first round 85
Bill Smith 83
Terry Ryan – second round 71
 
 
At the end of this look and after reading a lot of material I conclude that I cannot really judge. MacPhail looked like the Wonderman, but his teams could not sustain. Was he the best? He could not do it with the Cubs and he went higher in the front office with the Phillies who have not done well, but have now tried to buy the championship. Ryan has the best average wins under his first stint.
 
 
Of course, this also reflects on the manager – these are the men who sign the players. They determine what the manager has to work with. It is really hard to figure out a really good metric for them. Was Calvin better than MacPhail – he has more wins per season – but long time Twins fans would faint at that decision.
 
 
I am not going to do a best owner – Calvin is here and was the owner until Carl Pohlad bought the team and then son Jim took over. Not a lot to look at and not a lot of difference. One WS under Calvin, 2 under the Pohlads. One contraction threat under the Pohlads, lots of racist statements from Calvin. The average wins per season does not vary much between the two families. So I have no choice in this and only hope the next one is the best.

The 6’ 7” beast Michael Pineda took the mound the other day in Fort Myers and fired off 2 scoreless innings to go with his 2 previous scoreless innings, giving him an easy to calculate ERA of 0.00 so far in spring training. Pineda last pitched in the majors for the Yankees but you might have also recognized him by his nicknames “Big Mike” or “Large Mikeal” or “Why is That Mountain Moving?” When he was signed in the offseason following the 2017 season, it was with the understanding that his value would mostly be in the 2019 season and he would most likely not pitch in 2018 for the Twins as he continued to rehab from Tommy John surgery. His 2 year $10 million deal essentially works as a 1-year deal and set the blueprint for Garrett Richards to sign a similar deal with the Padres this last offseason. Although, Pineda might have had better offers from Rick Spielman to start at guard for the Vikings for the upcoming season.
 
Pineda could prove to be an important bridge in an uncertain Twins starting rotation. While most teams would be happy with a 1-2 punch of Berrios and Gibson to lead the rotation, the names after them aren’t quite as exciting. Odorizzi is fine but should ideally be your 4th starter and the number of candidates for the 5th spot is as long as Santa’s nice/naughty list but has more naughtys than I care for. So getting 160-170 quality innings from Pineda could prove key to leading a strong Twins team in contending for the AL Central title against the Indians. But what does history have to say about starting pitchers who have had such an extended absence due to injury? Pineda’s last major league outing was on July 5th in 2017 which is a good 20 months ago, is it realistic to assume that he can come back and be the normal Pineda in 2019?
 
I looked through the long list of recent MLB starting pitchers who underwent TJ surgery between 2011 and 2017. I cut it off at 2017 because those players have not had their full season of performance yet following their surgery. Then I found the guys who hadn’t played in MLB in over 15 months after their surgery to get a sample size of guys more similar to Pineda. And finally, I only included pitchers who started the season on the major league squad so that they would have a full season of work on their plate as their first taste of the majors after surgery like Pineda and so that their innings totals wouldn’t be skewed. The list of players goes as follows:
 
Bronson Arroyo, Zack Wheeler, A.J. Griffin, Robbie Erlin, Lance Lynn, Matt Harvey, John Lackey
 
 
An interesting assortment of names, sure, but these are the most similar comps to Pineda that have come about in recent history as far as time off goes. Here they are broken down by innings totals in their first full year back from injury:
 
 
60-80 innings: Bronson Arroyo
80-100 innings: Zack Wheeler
100-120 innings: A.J. Griffin, Robbie Erlin
180-200 innings: Lance Lynn, Matt Harvey, John Lackey
 
 
Well, that’s certainly something. Arroyo was old and bad at this time so take that with what you will. Wheeler was seemingly in witness protection for a few years there as he was suffering from Metsitits before breaking out just this past year. Griffin missed some time due to injury in his first year back which ultimately hampered his innings total but that could very well be a problem for Pineda as well this upcoming year. Lance Lynn, Matt Harvey, and John Lackey all had seemingly normal years immediately following their extended recovery, but Harvey also presents himself as a cautionary tale of why innings limits exist for players recently removed from surgery. He went over his innings limit in 2015 and has not been the same pitcher since.
 
Personally, I find this data to actually be rather optimistic. While no pitcher was within that 160-170 innings total that I mentioned before, a few pitchers were able to come back and have normal years even after an extended break due to recovery. While I don’t want to go as far as thanking Lance Lynn for what he did, he is among those who represent a ray of hope that Pineda can be consistently relied upon in 2019.
 
Now, you might have noticed that I did not mention Robbie Erlin yet. Erlin worked this last year as a swingman for the Padres, or the Giants, be honest, you don’t know whether or not Robbie Erlin actually exists much less the team he plays for. But Fangraphs tells me that there allegedly was a player under the pseudonym “Robbie Erlin” for the Friars last year who got his innings out of the pen and as a starter, and I find that very interesting. The Padres most likely observed the Harvey fiasco and decided it was best not to follow that same path so they artificially reduced Erlin's innings totals by limiting his chances at getting a large number of outs.
 
Why do I find that interesting? The crafty Twins have recently been rather vague about their plans for getting outs in the 2019 season. Instead of referring to Fernando Romero as a reliever, they said that they will transition him to get him ready for “shorter stints”. Instead of saying that Adalberto Mejia is a starter, they said that he will be stretched out for “extended outings”. While GM talk is nothing new, the new wave of baseball strategy has been focused on getting the most outs you can in the most efficient way possible. Hell, Craig Counsell in his infinite wisdom just refers to his pitchers now as “out-getters”. You can say that baseball is getting more progressive in their old and archaic categorizing of pitchers, but it seems to me that teams are catching on to the most effective ways to get outs in today’s game.
 
Much like with the Padres and Erlin, I have to assume the Twins are also very concerned with Pineda’s innings limit. No specific number has become public, but there has to be one. And possibly as a way to limit those innings, we may see the Twins try a bevy of things for Pineda. Maybe they use an opener for him, maybe he is the opener for someone, maybe he occasionally works in long relief, maybe he closes some games! I absolutely would not put it past the Twins to try any number of these strategies to avoid a Matt Harvey situation in the future. Although that also begs the question, do they care? Is Pineda just here as a placeholder for another guy to come in in 2020? While it may be morally wrong, how much would the Twins care about ruining the arm of a guy they have no intention of keeping long term? As the season plays out, we shall see the answers to these questions, but keep in mind that it is realistic for Pineda to fire off a full season of work as a starter in 2019.

The best starting pitcher in Twins history
1961 The starting pitchers had a history that began in Washington DC with the Senators. For all the starters there years with team, w-l, pct, era, SO/W and WAR. We started out with a very good starting staff. In the early years the started averaged 34 starts per year.
 
Camilo Pascual 13 years starting in DC – 145-141 .507 3.66 SO/W = 2.07. WAR 33.2
Jim Kaat 15 years beginning in DC . 190- 159/.544 3.34 2.54 SO/W WAR 30.7
Jack Kralick 5 years 34-32/.515 3.63 1.99 WAR 11.7
Pedro Ramos 7 years 78-112/.411 4.19 WAR 5.8
In 1962 Kaat, Kralick, and Pascual continued to dominate the rotation. In 1963 Dick Stigman, Lee Stange and Jim Perry came on as starters. In 1964 Kaat, Pascual, and Perry were joined by Mudcat Grant.
 
Jim Perry 10 years 128-90/.587 3.15 1.89 WAR 26.4 Great Career.
Mudcat Grant 4 years 50-35/.588 3.35 6.0 WAR
 
In 1965 Grant won 21 games, Jim Kaat 18, Perry 12, and Pascual who had injuries 9. It was our world series year. Pascual had a reduced place in the Rotation with 19 starts in 1966 and Jim Merritt and Dave Boswell shared one of the four rotation spots. In 1967 we had six starters with Kaat first and joined by Dean Chance as the number 2, Boswell, Merritt and Perry were other primary starters.
 
Jim Merritt 4 years 37-41/.474 3.03 3.90 great SO/W ratio WAR 11.4
 
Dave Boswell 7 years 67-54/.554 3.49 1.88 11.2 WAR
 
Dean Chance 3 years 41-34/.547 2.67 Great Era. 13.1 WAR he was a star.
 
In 1969 Dick Woodson, Bob Miller, and Tommy Hall made significant starts in support of Kaat, Chance, and Bowell. Tommy Hall was my favorite. Hall was six foot and weighed 150. I am six foot and 230, I cannot imagine. His nickname was The Blade. In nine years, his record was of 52-33 with 32 saves and he was with the Big Red Machine their first two years.
 
Tommy Hall 4 years 25-21/.543 3.00 2.32 WAR 6.6
 
In 1970 behind Kaat and Perry were Blyleven 25 games, Bill Zepp (love the name, but I cannot remember him), Luis Tiant, Dave Boswell. 1971 Perry, Kaat, Blyleven and an assortment. 1972 Blyleven, Perry and Woodson were the big three, Kaat and Dave Goltz were behind them.
 
Jim Kaat 15 of 25 years a Twin, 190-159/.544 3.34. 2.54 K/BB rate – amazing for that many years. 30.7 WAR for Twins.
 
Bert Blyleven 11 of 22 years with Twins. 149-138/.519 3.28 and an amazing K/BB rate 3.02 WAR 49.4.
 
In 1973 Blyleven started 40 games, Kaat 28, then Joe Decker 24, Dick Woodson 23, Mike Adams 22. 1974 Blyleven, Decker, Goltz and Albury were the top five. 1975 Blyleven and Jim Hughes were 1 – 2 then Goltz and Albury. Goltz was the ACE in 1976 with Bill Singer, Jim Hughes, and Pete Redfern. 1977 Goltz was backed by Paul Thormodsgard (yup – him), Geoff Zahn, Pete Redfern. 1978 Roger Erickson had the most starts, then Geoff Zahn, Dave Goltz and Roger Serum. 1979 had Jerry Koosman and Dave Goltz leading the rotation. Paul Hartzell, Roger Erickson, and Geoff Zahn completed the rotation.
 
Dave Goltz 8/12 years, 96 – 79/.549 3.48 1.80 K/BB and 24.6 WAR
 
Geoff Zahn 4 years 53-53/.500 3.90 1.37 and 9 WAR
 
Koosman and Zahn in 1980 with Erickson, Redfern, and Darrell Jackson. 1981 had 8 pitchers start and Redfern had the most starts 23 and Albert Williams 22.
 
Jerry Koosman 3/19 years, 39-35/.527 3.77 1.94 K/BB 11.1 WAR
 
Brad Havens was sort of our ACE in 1982 with Albert Wiliams, Bobby Castillo, and Rookie Frank Viola. 1983 Viola took over ACE position and was backed by Ken Schrom (I am amazed by the names in the rotations), Albert Williams, and Bobby Castillo. 1984 Mike Smithson 36 starts, Viola 35, John Butcher 34, Schrom 21. 1985 Smithson 35, Viola 36, Butcher 33, Schrom 26, and Blyleven was back – 14. 1985 Viola, Blyleven, Smithson dominated the rotation.
 
The Champion season, 1987, Blyleven, Viola and that famous Les Straker were 1,2,3 and Smithson 4!
 
Mike Smithson 4 years 47-48/.495 4.46 1.93 K over BB and 4.7 WAR
 
Frank Viola 8 years, 112-93/.546 3.86 2.33 K over BB and 11.6 WAR
 
1988 Viola, Blyleven were joined by Alan Anderson and behind them were Charlie Lea, Freddie Toliver, and Straker. 1989 Allan Anderson, Roy Smith, Shane Rawley, and Frank Viola were the main rotation. 1990 saw a rotation of Anderson, David West, Kevin Tapani, Mark Guthrie, Scott Erickson, and Roy Smith.
 
Allan Anderson 6 years, 49 – 54/.476 4.11 8.5 WAR
 
The WS year of 1991 Jack Morris started 35 games, it is his durability that made him HOF, Kevin Tapani, Scott Erickson, Allan Anderson, Guthrie and West were our starters.
 
Jack Morris, 1 year, 18 -12/.600. 3.43 1.77, 4.3 WAR
 
Kevin Tapani 7 years 75-63/.543. 4.06 2.84 19.2 WAR
 
 
Allan Anderson 6 years 49-54/.476 4.11 1.61 8.5 WAR
 
 
Scott Erickson 6 years 61-60/.504 4.22 1.44 12.7 WAR
 
 
John Smiley joined Erickson and Tapani in 1992 with Bill Krueger and Bob Kipper. We also had Pat Mahomes, Willie Banks, and Mike Trombley – three young pitchers who were the promise of the future! Tapani, Erickson and Willie Banks lead 1993 with Jim Deshaies and Eddie Guardado. 1994 the same except banks was replaced by Mahomes and someone named Carlos Pulido filled the rotation.
 
1995 Brad Radtke and Tapani lead the rotation with Erickson, Trombley, and Frankie Rodriguez. 1996 Rodriguez was joined by Rich Robertson, Radtke, Aldred and Aguilera. 1997 It was Radtke, Robertson, Naulty, Tewksbury, LaTroy Hawkins, and Scott Aldred. 1998 LaTroy Hawkins started 33 games, Eric Milton 32, Radke 32, and Tewksbury 25.
 
Brad Radke 12 years. 148 – 139/.516 4.22 3.30 great K over BB! 45.7 WAR
 
Rick Aquilar will eventually make his mark as a reliever but was 40 – 47 as a starter.
 
1999 it was Milton, Hawkins, and Radke. Joe Mays, Dan Perkins, and Mike Lincoln were three more starters. 2000 we had a solid rotation of five guys who dominated the starts. Santana, Mays, Milton, Radke, and Redman.
 
Eric Milton 6 years 57-51/.528 4.76 2.66 14.8 WAR
 
2001 Milton, Mays, Radtke over 30 starts, Todd Jones 24, Kyle Lohse 19 and Santana only 11. In 2002, Lohse, Milton and Rick Reed +30 starts, Santana 13, Radtke 21, Joe Mays 17, Matt Kinney 12. 2003 Santana got only 18 starts out of 45 appearances (will we do this to Romero too) Lohse, Kenny Rogers, Mays and Radtke got the starts.
 
Joe Mays 6 years 48-65/.425 4.85 1.56 10.7 WAR
 
Kyle Lohse 6 Years 51-57/.472 4.88 1.94 WAR 6.6
 
2005 Santana is let loose and is the ACE, with Lohse, Mays, and Radtke. 2006 Santana still the Ace, Carlos Silva, Radtke, Boof Bonser, and Scott Baker. 2007 Santana, Silva, and Bonser all have 30+ starts, Scott Baker and Matt Garza are next. 2008 Nick Blackburn takes over with the most starts, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins and Livan Hernandez.
 
Johan Santana 8 mostly under-utilized years 93-44/.679 3.22 3.79 K/BB 35.7 WAR
 
2009 Baker, Blackburn, Liriano, Slowey and Perkins. 2010 Pavano, Liriano, Baker, Blackburn and Slowey.
 
Scott Baker 7 years, 63-48/.568 4.15 3.44 WAR 15.8.
 
Francisco Liriano 7 years 50-52/.490 4.33 2.43 9.4 WAR
 
2011 Pavano was followed by Brian Duensing, Blackburn, Liriano, Baker. 2012
 
Kevin Slowey 5 years 39-29/.574 4.66 4.70 excellent k/BB rate. 4.4 WAR
 
Nick Blackburn 6 years 43-55/.439 4.85 1.92 3.2 WAR
 
Carl Pavano 4 years, 33-33/.500 4.32 3.08 2.6 WAR
 
2012 Scott Diamond had the most starts, Blackburn, Liriano, De Vries, Pavano in that order. What can I say about 2013 – Kevin Correia had the most starts, Mike Pelfrey was second, Scott Diamond third, Sam Deduno fourth. I think I will stop there.
 
So who are the best starters? Here they are ranked by WAR.
 
Johan will have an argument if we look at WAR per year 4.4, Blyleven 4.5, Radke 3.8, Pascual 2.6, Perry 2.6, Goltz 3.1, Dean Chance 3.3, and Koosman 3.7!
 
1. Bert Blyleven 11 of 22 years with Twins. 149-138/.519 3.28 and an amazing K/BB rate 3.02 WAR 49.4.
2. Brad Radke 12 years. 148 – 139/.516 4.22 3.30 great K over BB! 45.7 WAR
3. Johan Santana 8 mostly under-utilized years 93-44/.679 3.22 3.79 K/BB 35.7 WAR
4. Camilo Pascual 13 years starting in DC – 145-141 .507 3.66 SO/W = 2.07. WAR 33.2
5. Jim Kaat 15 years beginning in DC . 190- 159/.544 3.34 2.54 SO/W WAR 30.7
6. Jim Perry 10 years 128-90/.587 3.15 1.89 WAR 26.4 Great Career.
7. Dave Goltz 8/12 years, 96 – 79/.549 3.48 1.80 K/BB and 24.6 WAR
8. Kevin Tapani 7 years 75-63/.543. 4.06 2.84 19.2 WAR
9. Eric Milton 6 years 57-51/.528 4.76 2.66 14.8 WAR
10. Dean Chance 3 years 41-34/.547 2.67 Great Era. 13.1 WAR he was a star.
11. Scott Erickson 6 years 61-60/.504 4.22 1.44 12.7 WAR
12. Frank Viola 8 years, 112-93/.546 3.86 2.33 K over BB and 11.6 WAR
13. Jack Kralick 5 years 34-32/.515 3.63 1.99 WAR 11.7
14. Jim Merritt 4 years 37-41/.474 3.03 3.90 great SO/W ratio WAR 11.4
15. Dave Boswell 7 years 67-54/.554 3.49 1.88 11.2 WAR
16. Jerry Koosman 3/19 years, 39-35/.527 3.77 1.94 K/BB 11.1 WAR
 
To continue the debate WHIP leaders
1. Jim Merritt
2. Dean Chance
3. Johan Santana
4. Rick Aquilera
5. Bert Blyleven
6. Jim Perry
7. Mudcat Grant
 
Best ERA – Chance 2.67, Milton
 
Most Wins and I count Wins – good pitchers are in enough innings to dominate a game.
Jim Kaat 190
Bert Blyleven 149
Brad Radke 148
Camilo Pascual 145
Jim Perry 128
Frank Viola 112
 
Best Win Pct.
1. Johan Santana 679
2. Mudcat Grand 588
3. Jim Perry 588
Hits per nine innings
1. Dave Boswell 7.147
2. Johan Santana 7.345
3. Dean Chance 7.373
4. Jim Merritt 7.641
 
 
Strikeouts – okay Walter was part of our franchise.
1. Walter Johnson 3509
2. Bert Blyleven 2035
3. Camilo Pascual 1885
4. Jim Kaat 1851
5. Brad Radke 1467
6. Johan Santana 1381
7. Frank Viola 1214
8. Jim Perry 1025
9. Dave Goltz 887
 
 
My starting Rotation has the following:
1. Johan Santana
2. Bert Blyleven
3. Brad Radke
4. Jim Kaat
5. Jim Perry
Camilo Pascual just misses and Dean Chance did not pitch long enough to make my list.

This is the second winter that Glen Perkins will not be gearing up towards playing in the regular season for the Minnesota Twins after his retirement following the 2017 season. The baby-faced pitcher with a bright smile that fans became used too, is still there, but now, it’s hidden behind a large grey beard. Like every Minnesotan, right now he’s just trying to survive winter, yearning for the days where he would be in Fort Myers for Spring Training at this time. The Stillwater native, who now resides in Lakeville, is at peace with how his career went.
 
Playing his whole career with Minnesota Twins was “surreal”. “I went to a lot of games in high school. In the spring, on Wednesday’s, they would have $5 tickets and $1 hot dogs. I still remember as a kid, sitting up in right field watching Tom Brunanski and Kent Hrbek play catch,” Perkins said. He hasn’t taken for granted how lucky he was to be a Twin for his whole career. Not only that, but to make friends with his childhood icons and former Twins as well. It’s every fans dream.
 
The Twins had three 1st round picks in the 2004 MLB draft. They selected Trevor Plouffe at pick number 20, Perkins at pick number 22 and Kyle Waldrop at pick 25. All three players made it to the major leagues. Many first-round picks don’t make the major leagues, the Twins had not one, not two, but three from one draft. For Perkins, being drafted by the Twins was the perfect match. “It kind of worked out that I was getting clumped into that 15-25 range, the Twins had three picks and they like local guys. I got picked to pitch for the Twins, pitch for the organization just out of pure luck,” he said. Perkins pure luck turned into joy for many fans who had followed him since his playing days at Stillwater high school and the University of Minnesota.
 
Throughout his career Perkins only experienced one playoff game playing for the Twins. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to what his most memorable moment on the field was, the 2014 MLB All-Star game in Minnesota. “That night running out on the field, the crowd and all those things, I had said at that time, unless I got to pitch a World Series game at Target Field nothing could top that.” Perkins went on to pitch one scoreless inning, striking out one and collecting the save as the American League All-Stars beat the National League.
 
Collecting saves was not always what Perkins had in mind for his playing career. Being a starter his whole career, relieving did not appeal to him. “My wife had asked me one time if I would ever be a reliever, as I was a starter coming up, I said no. I’m going to be a starter and all that, I’ll never be a closer or anything like that. That was 2008, 2009 and 2010 and all of a sudden four-years later I was closing an All-Star game,” said Perkins. Looking back at it now, Perkins wished he had switched to a reliever earlier in his career.
 
The days off in between starts for a guy who has ADD were quite boring for him and as a reliever he had a chance to be a part of the team every day. “I struggled with going to the field knowing that I’m going to be on my own today and I don’t even know if people would have known if I showed up or not.” Moving to closer was something he grew to love. “This team is trying to get me the ball at the end of the game and that’s a really cool feeling, that’s motivating and I think that’s what kind of helped me succeed as I got into that role,” he said. Perkins went on top be one of most dominant closers for a three-year span collecting 102 saves between the 2013 and 2015 seasons. His success came from a love for analytics.
 
Perkins developed a love for math in his early years and when he found out that baseball had advanced metrics to analyze, he jumped right on it. “There really wasn’t a whole lot of analytics or anything like that when I first started playing and then it was around 2009 when I kind of discovered that there was people talking about and it still was far from mainstream. That’s why I started to learn about pitch trajectories and spins rates,” said Perkins. In 2009, Perkins was already in pro-ball for nearly five-years, but when he found analytics it made baseball “fun” for him.
 
Leaving the Twins never appealed to Perkins, the idea of living out of suitcase throughout the entire regular season was not for him. Not only that, but being with the Twins and in his home state for his entire career was what he wanted most. “It was always cool to me to be able to watch Twins players growing up as a kid in Minnesota knowing that I got to be out on that field having kids in Minnesota watch me play. I think that was more important than money, more important than seeing what other teams were trying to go win with another team. It was always most important for me to stay home.” Perkins wanted to be home with his wife and kids, it was hard enough that he was traveling during the season, but he appreciates the fact he was able to be home more than most players on the team.
 
Perkins agent wasn’t always enthused that he wanted to stay home. “My agent always wanted me to make more money,” Perkins said with a hearty laugh. It didn’t matter to Perkins, home was where he always wanted to be. “I didn’t even want to know what it was like to play somewhere else.”

The Best Twins Centerfielder in history? The outfield is a challenge because so many times managers see them as interchangeable parts. But a great Centerfielder must have range and perhaps some flare. The NY press had a great time when there were three teams – and they had Mays, Mantle, and Snider.
 
Lenny Green Was our first year CF and Bill Tuttle backed him up when he was not playing out of position at 3B. The same two in 1962. Green was traded to the Angels for Frank Kostro and Jerry Kindall.
 
Green would play 6 years for the Twins/Senators .270/.359/.384/.743. 7 WAR.
 
The phenom Jimmie Hall took over center in 1963 after an injury to Green, but Green started more games. Hall, Allison, and Oliva played Center in 1964 which would make quite an outfield with all three in the same game. Hall had the most by far, but lost time after being hit on the cheek in the All Star game by Bo Belinsky. Hall, Nossek, Oliva in 1965. Hall would play 8 years in MLB. His last four years were a minus -1 WAR. Hall was traded to Angels with Pete Cimino and Don Mincher for Dean Chance and Jackie Hernandez. After the trade his career was terrible. A Sabr article said, “Little is known about Hall’s life after his baseball career ended. He returned to Elm City, North Carolina, and made his living as both a woodworker and longhaul truck driver. When he wasn’t working, he was an outdoorsman who liked to hunt and fish. He also enjoyed spending time with his children and grandchildren. Hall stayed away from the game entirely, even refusing to return to Minneapolis in 2005 for a 40th-anniversary reunion of the 1965 team.” https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/6ad8a4ec
 
Hall played 4 years. .269/.334/.481/.815 14.8 WAR
 
Ted Uhlaender took over with Hall and Oliva getting some action and kept the position in 1967, 1968, and 1969 with Tovar behind him. He was traded with Graig Nettles, Dean Chance and Bob Miller to the Indians for Luis Tiant and Stan Williams in 1969.
 
Uhlaender was a Twin 5 years. .262/.306/.354/.661. 3.2 WAR.
 
1970 Tovar was the centerfielder, and I would have had him there all the time, but he was so versatile. Holt was the most frequent CF in 1971, but Jim Nettles and Tovar matched him. Then in 1972 we had Bobby Darwin at CF with Nettles and Brye next in line. Darwin lost the position quickly and Larry Hisle took over in 1973, with Brye having just a few less games there. Hisle divided his time between LF and CF so Brye had the most CF games in 1974. In 1975 Dan Ford dominated the position with Lyman Bostock taking the majority of other appearances.
 
Then in 1976 Bostock took over CF and Brye still had 57 games. 1977 Bostock, Hisle and Norwood shared the position. Bostock had a total of 17 putouts in a doubleheader which is a good example of his fielding prowess, which set an American League record for outfielders. Then in 1978 Bostock was gone from MN and one year later he was just gone. In Gary Indiana while visiting his uncle, the uncle Turner agreed to give Hawkins and her sister, Barbara Smith, a ride to their cousin's house. “Turner drove his vehicle, with Hawkins seated in the front passenger's seat. Bostock and Barbara Smith rode in the vehicle's back seat. Barbara Smith had been living with Hawkins while estranged from her husband, Leonard Smith. Unbeknownst to the group, Leonard Smith was outside Hawkins' home in his car, and observed the group's departure in Turner's car. According to Leonard Smith, his wife was frequently unfaithful to him, and though he did not know Bostock, he later said that upon seeing Bostock get into the back seat of Turner's vehicle with his wife, he concluded that the two were having an affair. In fact, however, Bostock had only met the woman 20 minutes previously, when he and his uncle arrived at Hawkins' home.” Wiki. The gunshot that was intended for the wife, caught Bostock, a killing blow and a great young man and his career were finished.
 
By 1978 Bostock had 3 years and .311/.365/.427 /.791. 10.3 WAR
 
Steve Brye had 7 years in MN .261/.311/.360/.671. 4.7 WAR.
 
In 1978 Dan Ford was in CF. In 1979 Kenny Landreaux was the centerfielder. 1980 was another of those years where it did not seem like we could make up our mind. Landreaux 67, Rick Sofield 51, Dave Edwards, Greg Johnston 14. I liked Landreaux but he was not here long enough to get in the conversation. Of course in 1981 Mickey Hatcher had 86 games and he is not going to be the best and Gary Ward had 19. Bobby Mitchell who I do not remember was in 115 games as our CF in 1982 With Brunansky and Eisenreich behind him. Then the who is Hell is he continued in 1983 with Darrell Brown 76, Bobby Mitchell 44, Tom Brunansky (in center?) 38, and Rusty Kuntz 27.
 
Kenny Landreaux 2 years, .294/.341/.435/.776 1.8 WAR
 
Sigh of relief – 1984 and Kirby Puckett was in Center! Finally. Kirby dominated the CF position in 1985, 1986 with no others having any claim. Then in the WS year Mark Davidson had 20 games behind Puckett. Moses was behind him in 1987 and in 1988. Puckett, Mack and Moses in 1990. Puckett, Mack and Jarvis Brown in 1991. Puckett, Bruett and Brown in 1992. 1993 Puckett had a strong backup with Mack getting 67 starts and Puckett was moved to RF. “Puckett woke up on March 28 without vision in his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma and was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his professional career. Three surgeries over the next few months could not restore vision in the eye.” WIKI.
 
Puckett 12 years .318/.360/.477/.837 51.1 WAR
 
1995 Rich Becker took over CF with Alex Cole and Matt Lawton behind him. Becker stayed in control in 1996 with Roberto Kelly and Lawton behind him. 1997 Becker, Lawton and Darrin Jackson. 1998 Otis Nixon was in CF.
Rich Becker, 5 years. .267/.349/.379/.728. 6.5 WAR. Nixon was gone in 1999 and Torii Hunter was in CF with Jacque Jones getting substantial appearances. Hunter, Jones, Hocking were there in 2000. Torii with Kielty had 2001, 2002, and in 2003 Lew Ford backed up Hunter. Again, Hunter and Ford in 2004, 2005, and 2006 Tyner was behind Hunter and again in 2007. In 2008 Span was behind Hunter. Hunter was a first round pick, one of our best. As a free Agent Hunter went to the Angels, then at the end of his career reappeared in a Twins uniform. He had nine consecutive Gold Gloves!
 
Torii Hunter 12 years, .268/.321/.462/.783 26.4 WAR
 
2008 Carlos Gomez was in CF with Denard Span behind him (no wonder Denard left us). Same two in 2009. Span finally got the position he deserved in 2010 and Repko backed him with Revere. Revere started the most in center in 2011 and Span was second. Then in 2012 Span had most of the games and Revere a few. We traded Span for Alex Meyer.
 
Span had 5 years .284/.357/.389/ .746 17.2 WAR
 
Aaron Hicks took over in 2013 with Clete Thomas in 50, and Alex Pressley 28. Then Danny Santana got the most starts over Hicks in 2014 and Sam Fuld got too many too. Then in 2015 Hicks was pushed by Buxton and was soon to be a Yankee.
 
Who is the Best? Hicks could have been really good, but not for us; Gomez looked good but had a short shelf life, Eisenreich was exciting and faded fast.
 
1. Kirby Puckett 12 years .318/.360/.477/.837 51.1 WAR
2. Torii Hunter 12 years, .268/.321/.462/.783 26.4 WAR
3. Denard Span had 5 years .284/.357/.389/ .746 17.2 WAR
4. Bostock had 3 years and .311/.365/.427 /.791. 10.3 WAR
5. Jimmie Hall played 4 years. .269/.334/.481/.815 14.8 WAR
6. Lenny Green 6 years for the Twins .270/.359/.384/.743. 7 WAR
7. Rich Becker, 5 years. .267/.349/.379/.728. 6.5 WAR
8. Steve Brye had 7 years in MN .261/.311/.360/.671. 4.7 WAR
9. Uhlaender was a Twin 5 years. .262/.306/.354/.661. 3.2 WAR.
10. Kenny Landreaux 2 years, .294/.341/.435/.776 1.8 WAR
 

https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11386-the-twins-best-left-fielder-in-history/
 

https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11380-the-best-third-baseman-in-minnesota-twins-history/

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https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11371-%7B%3F%7D/

https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11365-the-best-catcher-in-twins-history/

Last full time position – Right Field – who fills out the rosters. For me Clemente epitomizes RF, the arm, the bat, the range so who do the Twins have?
 
In 1961 Bob Allison was there 150 games. He was written about in LF so I will not go into details here. Allison dominated 1962 as well with Tuttle and George Banks getting the other games. In 1963 it was Allison, Jimmie Hall and Wally Post. 1964 Tony Oliva sent Allison to 1B.
 
Tony Oliva was a dream. I loved to watch him. He was almost perfect in my eyes so my prejudice is showing. In 1965 he was backed up by Sandy Valdespino and Andy Kosco. In 1966 Hall and Allison picked up the games Oliva did not cover. 1967 Oliva still dominated. In 1968 Oliva had 126 games, Holt, Craig Nettles, Tovar and Kostro all had double figure appearances. Oliva was injured and missed 34 games. In 1969 he again joined the greats in the game leading the league in hits and doubles. Healthy in 1970 he played 154 games in RF and finished third for the batting title. He hit 325, with 23 home runs and 107 RBIs. He also led the AL in hits (204) for the fifth time, in doubles (36) for the fourth time, and finished second in MVP voting for the second time, this time to Baltimore's Boog Powell. In 1971, Oliva won his third AL batting title with a .337 average and led the league in slugging percentage (.546), but his knees began to ache and force him out of many games. Surgery took him off the field and Tovar took over RF in 1972 with Bobby Darwin. From there to the end he was DH.
 
Oliva 15 years .304/.353/.476/.830 43.1 WAR 1138 games out of 1676 in RF.
 
Bobby Darwin had the most starts in RF in 1973, Jim Holt had 21. Darwin had 142, Hisle 27 in 1974.
In 1975 Lyman Bostock was there 55 games, Steve Brye 51, Bobby Darwin 27, John Briggs 16, Mike Poepping 13! Dan Ford was there 139 games in 1976 with Brye and Hisle getting 18 each. Dan was there 135 in 1977 with Glenn Adams and Rich Chiles getting 20+ each. In the 1978 season Ford switched to center and Hosken Powell took over right. Then in 1979 it was Powell, Bombo Rivera, Willie Norwood, Dave Edwards, Rick Sofield and Glenn Adams, obviously an unsettled position. After a career year in 1979, Powell spiraled down in BA. Powell held on to RF in 1980 on the strength of 1979. And Dave Engle got the most starts in an Engle/Powell tandem in 1981.
 
Tom Brunansky was the number one RF starter in 1982 – 97 games, Engle and Gary Ward and Mickey Hatcher were all in more than 20 games. 1983 Brunansky 120, Hatcher 47. It was nearly all Brunansky in 1984, 1985, 1986, and in 1987 Brunansky was there 107 games, Randy Bush 73, Mark Davidson 33. In 1988 Brunansky was traded to the Cardinals for Tommy Herr. Big Mistake! Randy Bush took over right with Mark Davidson behind him
 
.
Tom Brunansky 7 years 163 HRs .250/.330/.452/.782 16.1 WAR
 
Randy Bush had the most games in RF in 1989 – 88, john Moses 63, Carmelo Castillo 61, and Gene Larkin 31. It was an unsettled position. 1990 had six players with 19 or more games in RF – John Moses, Shane Mack, Gene Larkin, Randy Bush, Carmelo Castillo and Pedro Munoz. Shane Mack was equally in all three OF positions in 1991 with Gene Larkin, Pedro Munoz, Randy Bush, Jarvis Brown and Kirby Puckett having 19 or more games there and still we won the WS.
 
1992 saw Pedro Munoz in RF 117 games and Larkin, JT Bruett, Randy Bush and Jarvis Brown having 18 or more. 1993 was another of those years I call a scrum. Puckett moved over from CF for 47, Pedro Munoz 41, Dave McCarty 34, DAVE WINFIELD 31, and Gene Larkin 25. In 1994 Puckett was in RF 95 games, but I have to put him in CF for this exercise. Munoz 19. Kirby kept RF in 1995 and it was Pedro Munoz last year.
 
 
Pedro Munoz 6 years .275/.316/.444/.760 minus -0.4 – I cannot rank him.
 
1996 saw four with more than 20 games starting with Matt Lawton and 60, Roberto Kelly, Denny Hocking, Ron Coomer. 1997 another mix – Lawton playing all three positions had 66 in RF, Roberto Kelly 57, Brent Brede 40, Rich Beckerr 14. 1998 Matt Lawton gave us a 100 game starter. Alex Ochoa and Orland Merced were next. Matt Lawton had 103 in 1999 and a big mix of 13+ by Marty Cordova, Coery Koskie, Jacque Jones, Torii Hunter, Denny Hocking. 2000 had Lawton bounce back and forth LF/RF with 83 games in RF, Midre Cummings 33, Brian Buchanan 24, Denny Hocking 19, Butch Huskey 15, and Chad Allen 13. Lawton continued was RF only 94 games in 2001 with Brian Buchanan and Bobby Kielty behind him. In conflict with the Twins over arbitration – “In February 2001, Twins general manager Terry Ryan stated that he did not plan on trading Lawton, contrary to other reports.[36] Furthermore, Twins manager Tom Kelley stated that he did not expect Lawton would be traded under any circumstances.[36] It was noted in spring training in 2001 that Lawton had gained 14 pounds (6.4 kg).[37] Lawton was taken out of the Twins starting lineup in May, due to lack of production.[38] As a member of the Twins that year, he batted .293 with 71 runs scored, 110 hits, 25 doubles, 10 home runs, 51 RBIs, and 19 stolen bases in 103 games played.” Wiki. In 2001 he was a Met.
 
Matt Lawton 7 years .277/.379/.428/.808 11.3 WAR
 
Dustin Mohr led in appearances in 2002 with Bobby Kielty, a Minnesota legend having 50, Cuddyer 25, Buchanan 24. Mohr and Kielty again in 2003 and Jacque Jones with Lew Ford in 2004. Jones, Cuddyer, and Ford – 2005, Cuddyer 142 in 2006 with Lew Ford 22. Cuddyer and Tyner in 2007. In 2008 Span had the most games in RF followed by Cuddyer and Kubel. Cuddyer was in 117 in 2009, Span 39 (playing mostly CF) and Kubel 30. Kubel then had 83 in 2010, Cuddyer 66, Repko 39. Cuddyer 77 in 2011, Kubel 50, Repko 27.
 
Michael Cuddyer 11 years .272/.343/.451/.794 12.8 WAR 903/1427 appearances in RF.
 
Ben Revere started 84 games in RF in 2012 which blows the great arm qualification. Mastroianni 34, Parmelee 18, Plouffe 15. Parmelee had 68 in RF in 2013 and Ryan Doumit 32 and Oswaldo Arcia 20 with Chris Herrmann 21. Looking at that group I can see why we were 66 – 96. Oswaldo Arcia had 100 games backed by Parmelee and Chris Colbello and Chris Herrmann in 2014 – yikes. Torii Hunter was the primary starter in 123 RF games in 2015, but he is in the CF rankings.
 
Now we have Kepler and he does not fit in this ranking.
 
In fact most of the names above do not; the best I can come up with is:
1. Oliva 15 years .304/.353/.476/.830 43.1 WAR 1138 games out of 1676 in RF. 220 HR.
2. Tom Brunansky 7 years 163 HRs .250/.330/.452/.782 16.1 WAR
3. Michael Cuddyer 11 years .272/.343/.451/.794 12.8 WAR 903/1427 appearances in RF.
4. Matt Lawton 7 years .277/.379/.428/.808 11.3 WAR

The best Left fielder in Twins history presents one more puzzle.
 
This is an addition. I got so caught up in Killebrew I forgot Jim Lemon. He played 120 games in LF in 1961 near the end of his career. I loved to watch him play. Lenny Green, Dan Dobbek and Joe Altobelli shared the rest of the leftfield games. He played seven years with the Senators before they moved. His career numbers Senators/Twins were .265 /334/.470/.805, but only 7.7 WAR because he was not a fleet fielder. He hit 38 and 33 HRs the years before they moved and 14 in 1961. In DC he teamed with Roy Siever to be the power tandum. His last year was with the Twins/Phillies/White Sox in 1963. He was a coach for us on the 1965 WS team.
 
Once again Killebrew is the on the best page. Because he played 22 years and in six positions he had enough time to spend as much time at 3B as any candidate, as much at first base and most of the candidates and he played 471 games in LF. His line of .256/.376/.509/.884 and 60.4 WAR has now been on three of my analyses. The only other significant place for him was DH 158 games, but the position did not begin until his last two years with the team.
 
He was not a great fielder, probably true in every position, but he was versatile enough to be in six positions. In was the primary LF in our first year. Lenny Green, Dan Dobbek, and Joe Altobelli also got a good number of games in the position. Harmon had 120 games so they started some and came in for defense in others.
In 1962 he went up from 120 games in Left to 151 and Lenny Green was his primary back up with 87 games and he was a terrific fielder and base runner. In 1963 Jimmie Hall got in 89 games behind Killebrews 137 and Lenny Green only 14. “Allison had 25 doubles, 35 home runs, 91 RBI, led the league in runs scored (99) and in OPS (.911), and earned his second All-Star berth.”wiki
 
In 1964 Killebrew 157 games, Bob Allison 27 and Lenny Green 6. In 1965 it was Bob Allison’s position with Sandy Valdespino and Jimmie Hall behind him. Hall was mostly in CF that year and Allison, Hall, Mincher, Killebrew, Oliva gave us an historic power lineup. He had a poor World Series except for game two when “His bases-loaded double against Sandy Koufax and a great backhand diving catch of a Jim Lefebvre fly ball were the main contributors to the Twins victory. This catch has been called the best catch in Twins history.” Wiki.
 
Allison only had 33 games in LF in 1966 and Jimmie Hall had 70, Andy Kosco 31, Sandy Valdespino 18. Allison “was hit by a pitch and missed 91 games, but returned at the end of the season to knock a pinch-hit three-run homer, sending the New York Yankees to the cellar in the American League.”
 
1967 Allison was in Left 139 games and Sandy Valdespino was in 64. 1968 Allison was backed up by Cesar Tovar and Jim Holt. The last year of the decade it was a scrum in LF – Allison 58 games, Craig Nettles (wrong position) 53, Ted Uhlaender 44, Charlie Manuel (you got to be kidding) 41, Cesar Tovar 40 and five more in single figures.
Allison only appeared in left 12 games in 1970 with Jim Holt and Brand Alyea getting the most appearances ahead of Cesar Tovar.
 
Allison finished with .255/.358/.471/.829 and 34 WAR for 13 years with the Senators/Twins. He had been Rookie of the Year. He had 528 appearances in LF. And also 196 CF, 631 RF. He will appear on another list.
His later history is perhaps best known. After retiring he worked for Coca Cola and faced a terrible disease that might have affected his latter years in the field – “Allison helped found the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center at the University of Minnesota along with his wife Betty, sons Mark, Kirk, and Kyle, and former Twins' teammates Jim Kaat and Frank Quilici. He continued to battle this rare degenerative neurological disease for eight years, eventually losing his ability to walk, talk, write, and feed himself. Allison died of complications from ataxia on April 9, 1995 at the age of 60 in his Rio Verde, Arizona home.” Wiki.
 
Tovar took over LF in 1972 with Alyea behind him and Steve Brye third. Jim Holt had only 14 appearances in LF. In 1973 Brye took over LF and Tovar backed him up with Charlie Manuel third. Holt was back with 80 starts in 1973 and Larry Hisle had 50, Mike Adams 23. Then the mix and match continued in 1874 at Steve Braun had 108 games and Larry Hisle 74. Braun 106 and Hisle 41 in 1975.
 
Hisle took over LF in 1976 and Braun was behind him. 1977 was a fascinating combination of Larry Hisle 71 and Lyman Bostock 60 – two great players. Bob Gorinski got in 30.
 
Larry Hisle would be with the Twins five years .286/.354/.457/.811 17.2 WAR 470 LF games, 500 CF, 101 RF.
 
Lets just say things went down in 1978 with Willie Norwood 101 games, Rich Chiles (who?) 59, and Bombo Rivera 32! Bombo Rivera started in LF in 1979 in 61 games, Ken Landreaux 49, Glenn Adams 45, and Dave Edwards 36. Six others had single digits in LF with Hosken Powell the most interesting name.
 
Willie Norwood would be with the Twins four years .286 /.354/.457/.811 and despite decent numbers had a total WAR of minus – 1.3. He was not a good fielder.
 
In the new Decade 1980 dropped to seventh in LF appearances. Rick Sofield started 71, Landreaux 55, Dave Edwards 28 ant then Ron Jackson, Glen Adams, Gary Ward and Bombo. Hoping for Bombo 1981 had Gary Ward 62, Rick Sofield 33, Hosken Powell 12 and Mark Funderburk (Another great name) for 6.
 
Gary Ward owned Left in 1982 with 127 games and Mickey Hatcher had 26. The same two in 1983 with Hatcher in 11.
 
Bombo was with us three years .266/.327/.372/.699 2.5 WAR NS 103 games in left.
 
Gary Ward was with us 5 years 285/.333/.461/.794 10.6 WAR 354 games in left for us. Mickey Hatcher took over in 1984 with 100 games and Dave Meier had 41 and Darrell Brown 19. The same two held down third in 1985 with Randy Bush in 38 games.
 
Mickey Hatcher – 6 years .284/.315/.383/.697 3.7 WAR
 
Then Randy Bush took over in 1986 with Billy Beane - Yes that Billy Beane .217/.258/.303/.561 in two years with the Twin and then on to Moneyball. We got him for Tim Teufel. Behind Billy was Mickey and Mark Davidson.
Then in 1987, the world series year we had Dan Gladden 105 games, Tom Brunansky 58, Mark Davidson 36. Gladden and Moses in 1988, Gladden, Moses and Bush in 1989, Gladden, Shane Mack, and Moses in 1990. Gladden, Mack, and Pedro Munoz in 1991,
 
Gladden would be 5 years .268/.318/.382/.700 5.7 WAR and into the radio booth after two years in Detroit.
Shane Mack took over in 1992 backed by Darren Reed. Mack split time with Pedro Munoz and Dave McCarty in 1993 and again in 1994, the strike year. He did play 180 games at CF, 180 RF, as well as 352 in LF. It is hard to separate OF since they switch so much.Mack was out greatest Rule V pick.
 
Mack was a Twin 5 years, .309/.375/.479/.854 19.6 WAR 352 games in left.
 
Marty Cordova took over in 1995 with Jerald Clark second in Left. And had 145 appearances in 1996, Rich Becker 15. Cordova had less in 1997 and Matt Lawton picked up the rest. Cordova still had LF in 1998 with Alex Ochoa, Denny Hocking, Chris Latham and Matt Lawton sharing the rest. Cordova had been Rookie of the Year and looked good, but like Castino his back ruined his career. “Between 1997 and 2000, he missed 240 games while on the injured list.” Wiki
 
Cordova played five years with the Twins .277/.348/.451/.799. 5.8 WAR
 
In 1999 Chad Allen took over with Hocking having the second most. Allen lasted one year and Jacque Jones took over in 2000 playing 90 games and Matt Lawton 67. Denny Hocking, Midre Cummings, Chad Allen, John Barnes, Brian Buchanan and TORII HUNTER all had games in left that year.
 
Chad Allen was with the Twins three years and had good stats 275/.332/.401/.732. But his fielding must have been bad because he finished with a minus -0.9 WAR.
 
2001 Jacque Jones, Chad Allen and Bobby Keilty. Jacque had 137 games. He had 143 games in Left in 2002 with Dustin Mohr and Bobby Kielty getting the rest. In 2003 Jacque had 90 games and Shannon Stewart had 46. Dustan Mohr and Lew Ford had a few. Then Jacque Jones moved to RF in 2004 and Lew Ford and Shannon Stewart split LF with Michael Restovich and Mike Ryan grabbing a few games. Shannon Stewart took over in 2005 with 125 games in LF and Lew Ford getting the rest. Jacque was in RF again. With Stewart, Hunter, Jones we had one of our best fielding and hitting OFs. Then Jacque turned down arbitration and signed with the cubs.
Jaccque Jones .279/.327/.455/.782 11.9 WAR in 7 years 461 games in LF.
 
2006 Lew Ford 64 games, Rondell White 38, Shannon Stewart 34, Jason Tyner 33, Jason Kubel 30. Then Kubel took over in 2007 84 games, Tyner 47, Ford 35, White 16, and Josh Rabe. Finally, cough, cough, we got a steady left fielder in 2008 when Delmon Young was acquired.
 
Lew Ford was with us 5 years and in 494 games hit .272/.349//.402/.750 8.3 WAR
 
Shannon Stewart was with us 4 years 333 games and hit .294/.354/.418/.772 and 4.9 WAR
 
2009 we backed off a little with Delmon getting 98 games and Span getting 74 which means a lot of defensive subs, and Jason Kubel 29 games. In 2010 Delmon was back out there for 149 games and Kubel 16. In 2012 we had one of those audition years like we have seen with other positions too. Young got in 75 games, Rene Tosoni 38, Jason Repko 24, Ben Revere 13, Joe Benson 11, Jason Kubel 9, Brian Dinkelman 5, and Trevor Plouffe 3! Wow, an entire lineup of LFs.
 
Delmon Young’s line looks good, .287/.324/.429/.753 but total WAR for 4 years was 1. With a -5,4 defensive WAR
None passed the test and in 2012 Josh Willingham played there 119 games, Darin Mastrioanni 25, Ryan Doumit 16, and Matt Carson (who?) 15. In 2013 Willingham played 72 games, Oswaldo Arcia 56, Clete Thomas 26 and Mastroianni 19. In 2014 we traded WIlllingham to KC for Jason Adam (P).
 
In Willingham’s three years his numbers are not as good as I remember, of course his 35 HR year is what is most memorable. .232/.353/.446/.799 4.8 WAR
 
 
Before he was traded Willingham had 53 games in 2014, Kubel 36, Schafer 34, Parmelee 22, Nunez 16, Herrman 12, Sam Fuld 10, and Aaron Hicks 2. Lots to sort out there, but hardly one great LF that year.
Eddie Rosario took over with 86 games in 2015 and he is the current LF so I will stop here. Rosario has a career left to define him and he could rise high on this list.
 
Here I am at the end of another long trail of players. This is my best guess and biased top ten.
1. Killebrew in 471 games set the standard. 256/.376/.509/.884 and 60.4 WAR
2. Mack was a Twin 5 years, .309/.375/.479/.854 19.6 WAR 352 games in left.
3. Bob Allison .255/.358/.471/.829 and 34 WAR for 13 years
4. Larry Hisle five years .286/.354/.457/.811 17.2 WAR 470 LF games, 500 CF, 101 RF.
5. Shannon Stewart was with us 4 years 333 games and hit .294/.354/.418/.772 and 4.9 WAR
6. Jacque Jones .279/.327/.455/.782 11.9 WAR in 7 years 461 games
7. Dan Gladden 5 years .268/.318/.382/.700 5.7 WAR
8. Lew Ford was with us 5 years and in 494 games hit .272/.349//.402/.750 . 8.3 WAR
9.Marty Cordova played five years with the Twins .277/.348/.451/.799. 5.8 WAR
10. Delmon Young’s 287/.324/.429/.753 total WAR for 4 years was 1 (I just had to get Delmon on the list).

Our best third baseman is another challenge. This completes the infield reviews it is not an easy task to find the best. I might choose Harmon for both first and third and he played so long that he has as many games at both positions as the others that he is competing with.
 
 
In 1961 Bill Tuttle played 3B 85 games and batted 5th behind Zoilo. He played one more full time year at 3B before leaving MLB. Bill suffered from cancer that was the result of chewing tobacco and from his playing days until he died in Anoka at age 35. This was the only year he played 3B, otherwise he was an outfielder. There was a lot of action at 3B that year with Harmon getting 45 games and Ted Lepcio, Reno Bertoia, and Jose Valdivielso dividing up the many opportunities.
 
Harmon Killebrew is often thought of as our third baseman, but in 1962 Rich Rollins played the bag and Harmon was in LF. George Banks is the other person who got on 3rd, but only for six games. 1963 was the same two with Johnny Goryl (future manager) getting a handful. In 1964 Goryl backed up Rollins and Frank Kostro got a few games in at the hot corner. Rollins held third again in 1965 with Harmon Killebrew getting 43 games there, but mostly playing at first.
 
In 1966 Harmon started at 3rd base 107 times and Rich Rollins got in 63. In 1967 Harmon went back to first and Rollins and Cesar Tovar split the most games at third. Ron Clark, Jackie Hernandez, Frank Quilici, Harmon Killebrew 3, and Frank Kostro were all there at times.
 
Reversing the previous year, in 1968 Tovar and Rollins again split third, but Tovar was in the most games of the two. The same backups with one addition, Craig Nettles, 23 years old got in 5 games! Considering Nettles career, he might have been our best if we had kept him. Rich Rollins was left available in the Expansion draft and went to the Seattle Pilots.
 
 
Rich Rollins played 8 years for the Twins .272/.333/.394/.727 Not considered a great glove man he still accumulated 11.9 WAR and appeared in 2 all star games.
 
 
1969 had a long menu of players – Killebrew 105 games, Quilici 84 (lots of defensive replacements), Rick Renick 31, Cesar Tovar – now an outfielder 23 and Craig Nettles 21. In 1970 Killebrew 139 was backed up by Danny Thompson, Rick Renick, and Quilici.
 
 
Harmon Killebrew 21 years a Twin, 258/.378/.514/.892 – 573 HRs (pre Peds) 60.4 WAR. In a total of 2435 games Harmon played 970 at first, 791 at third and 471 in the OF. He was HOF and much more versatile than many assume. It is hard to take Harmon out of the conversation – Rich Rollins had 828 games at third – Harmon had almost as many.
 
 
A new name entered the listing in 1971 when Steve Braun played in 73 games, Killebrew 64, Eric Soderholm 20, Danny Thompson 17. Soderholm and Braun split 1972. Craig Nettles was gone. He would win numerous gold gloves and is considered one of the top 3 defensive 3B of all time, plus he set the AL record for HRs by a third baseman. He was traded to the Indians along with Dean Chance and Ted Uhlaender for Luis Tiant and Stan Williams.
 
 
1973 Braun was in 101 games, Soderholm 33, Terrell 30, Dan Monzon 14. Then in 1974 Soderholm was in 130, Terrell 21 and Braun 17 with most of his time in Left Field. In 1975 it was still Soderholm with Dave McKay and Terrell in support. And that was the end of the Soderholm era.
 
 
Soderholm was with us 5 years and played 760 games at third. .257/.336/.389/.725 10.5 WAR
 
 
Mike Cubbage took over at third after the Twins acquired him in a trade in 1976. He kept the lead at third in 1977 with Jerry Terrell continuing to be the bench man. In 1978 with Cubbage still holding third a new name – Larry Wolfe appeared and was in 81 games at third. In 1979 John Castino grabbed third = 143 games and Cubbage was in 62 and was Rookie of the Year. The same ratio in 1980.
 
In 1981 Cubbage was gone, Castino was in 98 games and starting to have back pains. Gary Gaetti got in 8 games, Pete Mackanin 4.
 
Mike Cubbage played in 452 games at third in five years with the Twins. .266/.336/.378/.715 6.8 WAR
 
In 1982 Gaetti took over for Castino with 142 games while Castino got in to only 22. 1983 Castino played 2B and Gaetti had third. It would be the last full year for Castino.
 
Castino was with the Twins for six years - .278/.329/.398/.727 15.2 WAR 416 appearance at third, 232 at second.
Now it was Gaetti’s world. 154 games in 1984, 156 – 1985, 156 – 1986, 150 in 1987. Smalley and Newman were backups to third in the WS year. 1988 – 115 games and Al Newman got in 60. The same two dominated 1989, 1990, but by the WS year 1991 Gaetti was gone. After hitting just 229 he was allowed to leave as a free agent and went to the Angels.
 
Gary Gaetti played 10 years for the Twins. .256/.307.437/.744 and 27.2 WAR In 19 seasons he played 2282 games out of 2507 at third base.
 
Mike Pagliarulo was the third baseman for the WS run in 1991 and Scott Leius and Al Newman backed him up. Then in 1992 Leius took over 125 games, Pagliarulo 37 and Jeff Reboulet 22. 1993 had Pags back on third 79 games, Terry Jorgenson 45, Jeff Reboulet 34, Chip Hale 19. After the Auditions in 1994 Leius was back at third, Chip Hale played 21 games. In 1995 Leius was the starter and Reboulet, Stahoviak and Coomer were in line behind him. Then in 1996 Dave Hollins took over the bag with Reboulet, Todd Walker, and Coomer behind him.
Scott Leius was with us 6 years. .244/.316/.353/.669 4.8 WAR In his career he was 445 games at third and 557 total.
 
1997 Ron Coomer now had the bag with Todd Walker and Dennis Hocking in support. In 1998 Cooomer and Brent Gates shared the bag with Hocking and Jon Shave next in line. A guy named Corey Koskie showed up for 10 games. As you probably expected Corey Koskie was in the lead in 1999 with 79 games, Brent Gates had 61, Ron Coomer 57. Finally in 2000 the corner belonged to Koski with Jason Maxwell next in line ahead of Hocking. 2001 was the same. 2002 was the end of Maxwell and it was Hocking and Cuddyer behind Koskie. 2003 Koskie, Hocking and Chris Comez. 2004 still Koskie and a shifting line behind him – Cuddyer, Terry Tiffee and Alex Prieto. Punto made the list this year too.
 
Koskie in seven years out of nine he played for the Twins and had a line of 280/.373/.463/.836 He played 3B 908/928 games. WAR 22.2. Third was probably the right spot for the former hockey player and Canadian. Like Mauer and Morneau he suffered a concussion and this really ended his career.
 
Ron Coomer played 391 games at third and played 6 years for MN. 278/315/.431/.746 WAR 2.5
 
2005 things were in transition again – this time Michael Cuddyer held the hot corner with Luis Rodriguez, Tiffee, Castro and Punto in line behind him. In 2006 Nick Punto was at third 89 games, Tony Batista 50, Luis Rodrigues 29 and Terry Tiffee and Scott Baker had a few games. 2007 Punto was at third 108 games, Luis Rodriguez, Brian Buscher and Jeff Cirillo had games there as well as Tommy Watkins – soon to be our minor league manager.
Brian Bushcher with 64 games, Mike Lamb 55, Brendan Harris 34, Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto and Matt Macri had substantial games in this audition year – 2008. The auditions continued in 2009 with Joe Crede, Brendan Harris, Tolbert, Buscher, Punto all showing their skills. Since that did not work we held another audition year – 2010 with Danny Valencia 81 games, Nick Punto 48, Brendan Harris 27, Michael Cuddyer 14, Matt Tolbert 14, Alexi Casilla 14, and Luke Hughes 2.
 
They liked what they saw and finally settled on Danny Valencia in 2011 with Luke Hughes number 2. But that did not work out and in 2012 Danny was third on the list behind Trevor Plouffe and Jamey Carroll. Plouffe settled in with 120 games in 2013 and Jamey Carroll and Eduardo Escobar were behind him. In 2014 Carroll was gone, Plouffe was backed by Escobar and Nunez. 2015 Plouffe and Nunez held the bag. Then the auditions began again – 2016 Plouffe 63, Sano 42, Nunez 33, Ecobar 23, Polanco 9, Beresford 3, and Danny Santana 1. Then in 2017 we began the Sano era, but Escobar started almost as many games.
 
Nick Punto had seven of his 14 years with Minnesota. .248/.323/.324/.648 10.3 WAR He played 360 games at third, 408 at second and 337 at short.
 
Trevor Plouffe seven years in Minnesota. .247/.308/.420/.727 8.6 WAR.
 
 
There are the choices: Which do you want?
1. Harmon Killebrew 21 years, 258/.378/.514/.892 – 573 HRs 60.4 WAR. 791 games at third
2. Castino six years - .278/.329/.398/.727 15.2 WAR 416 appearance at third
3. Gary Gaetti 10 years .256/.307.437/.744 and 27.2 WAR 19 seasons 2282/2507 at third base.
4. Koskie seven years. 280/.373/.463/.836 WAR 22.2 3B 908/928 games.
5. Rich Rollins played 8 years.272/.333/.394/.727. 11.9 WAR 828 games at third.
6. Soderholm 5 years. .257/.336/.389/.725. 10.5 WAR 760 games at third
7. Trevor Plouffe seven years. .247/.308/.420/.727 8.6 WAR. 611 games at 3B.
8. Nick Punto seven years with. .248/.323/.324/.648 10.3 WAR 360 games at third.
9. Mike Cubbage five years. .266/.336/.378/.715 6.8 WAR 452 games at third
10. Scott Leius 6 years. .244/.316/.353/.669 4.8 WAR 445 games at third.
11. Ron Coomer 6 years .278/315/.431/.746 WAR 2.5 391 games at third
 

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The best Shortstop in Twins history This is a challenging position. No HOF candidates.

 
 
The first year of the Twins Zoilo Vesalles was the dominate Shortstop – 129 games. Jose Valivielso backed him up. Versalles was in 160 games in 1962, 159 – 1963, 160 – 1964, 160 in the World Series year of 1965 when he was the MVP of the league, he dropped to 135 with Cesar Tovar behind him in 1966, 159 in 1967. After developing a Hemotoma on his back, a lifelong condition, his average dropped and he was sent with Mudcat Grant to the Dodgers for an old Johnny Roseboro, Bob Miller, and Ron Perranoski. But Zoilo, nicknamed Zorro set the Twins standard.
 
 
Versalles played 9 of his 12 years with the club including two in DC before the move. .250/.296/.383/.679 14.7 WAR.
 
 
1968 was a scrum year. Lots of players trying to establish themselves at SS – Jackie Hernandez, Ron Clark, Rick Renick and Cesar Tovar. Even Frank Quilici and Rod Carew got in some games at SS. Then in 1969 we found the next infield anchor – Leo Cardenas who played there 160 games. Then he came back for 160 in 1970, and 153 in 1971. A five time all – star and slick fielder, he tied the American League record with 570 assists and his fielding percentage was the highest in AL history. Then Calvin traded him for relief pitcher Dave LaRoche. This allowed the Angels to then trade Jim Fregosi, their shortstop to the Mets for Nolan Ryan. Just think if we had skipped that intermediary step and sent Cardenas for Ryan!
 
 
In three years out of a 16 year career Cardenas hit .263/.325/.394/.719 with 11.1 WAR.
Danny Thompson took over at SS in 1972 and had the looks of a really good player, but of course, he died of Leukemia at the Mayo in Rochester at age 29. In 1973 he played in 95 games at short and Jerry Terrell 81. In 1974, the Leukemia weakening him he played 88 games at short, Luiz Gomez got in 74, Jerry Terrell 34, and Sergio Ferrer 20. Then in 195, the year before he died, he played 100 games at SS with the same three coming in late game or starting the other games. In 1976 Danny played in 34 games and then he was gone.
 
 
Danny Thompson’s line for six years .251/.289/.316/.605 with 2.4 WAR.
 
 
Next to grab hold of the position was Roy Smalley in 1976. We got Smalley in a trade along with Mike Cubbage and pitchers Jim Gideon and Bill Singer for Bert Blyleven and Danny Thompson. Why he would or could trade Thompson is another Calvin mystery. Why we traded Blyleven was a difficult thing to do, but a SS is important. Smalley was in 103 games under his uncle, manager Gene Mauch. He played in 150 games in 1977, 157 in 1978, 161 in 1979, and 125 in 1980 with Pete Mackinin, John Castino, and Lenny Faedo playing in the rest. In 1981 injuries limited him to 37 games and in 1982 he got in 4 games and was traded for Greg Gagne, and Pitchers Paul Boris and Ron Davis from the Yankees.
 
 
The rest of 1981 saw Chuck Baker, Pete Mackinin, Ron Washington, and Lenny Faedo at SS. In 1982 Ron Washington was our primary SS, Lenny Faedo the backup. In 1983 Washington remained number one, but there were multiple players getting time at short. Faedo was in 51 games, Houston Jiminez in 36, the newly acquired Gagne 10, and Gaetti 3.
 
 
Then in 1984 this streak of forgettables continued with Houston Jiminez and the number one, Washington number two then Faedo and Chris Speier. Finally, in 1985 Greg Gagne grabbed the position. With Roy Smalley back having been with the Yankees and the White Sox. He got in 49 games, Espinoza 31 and Ron Washington 31. The same four held the position in 1986 and Smalley took over DH with 114 games there.
 
 
In the championship season of 1987 Gagne was backed up by Al Newman and Smalley played there 4 games with the rest as DH or PH. This ended the Smalley era.
 
 
Roy Smalley in his two stints with the Twins played for us 10 years 262/.350/.401/.750 20.9 WAR
 
 
Gagne had no one looking over his shoulder in 1988 The others to play short were Al Newman – 28, Steve Lombardozzi – 11 and then Doug Baker, Gary Gaetti, and Tommy Herr. In 1989 the same top two with Baker the only other SS.
 
 
Starting the new decade – 1990 the top two stayed the same and Scott Leius became the third option. That stayed the same in 1991 with Knoblauch getting in 2 games at short. 1992 Gagne stayed at Short, but Al Newman was replaced by Jeff Reboulet and Donnie Hill. Gagne had been on both world series teams and hit a three run homer in game one of 1991, but in 1992 the Twins were only going to give out one big contract – Kirby Puckett and refused to give Gagne a raise. He left for KC.
 
 
Greg Gagne played 10 years for the Twins .249/.292/.385/.677 12.7 WAR.
 
 
Pat Meares was the next player that the Twins put at SS along with Reboulet, Hocking and Lieu in 1993. The same four were at the top of the list in 1994, 1995, 1996, and in 1997.1998 it was just Meares and Hocking. Meares left in FA to Pittsburgh.
 
 
Pat Meares was a 12th round draft choice and played six years with the Twins .265/.301/.381/.682 6.0 WAR
1999 became the year of Cristian Guzman with Denny Hocking the back up. The same two in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and in 2004 the back up was Nick Punto. Guzman had come from the Yankees in the Knoblauch trade. He led the league in triples three times and it was a pleasure to see him on the bases. The year he had 20 triples was the first time that number had been reached in 70 years. He left as a FA
 
 
Guzman played six years with the Twins .266/.303/.382/.685 WAR 7.5
 
 
In 2005 Juan Castro and Jason Bartlett split SS with Punto behind them. The same three in 2006, but Bartlett asserted himself as number one. Bartlett was SS in 138 games in 2007, with Punto and Casilla playing the rest.
 
 
In 2007 Bartlett lead the league in errors – 26 and then was part of the trade to get us Delmon Young!
Bartlett played 5 or his 10 years as a Twin 271/.340/.361/.702 8.9 WAR
 
 
2008 Nick Punto (the leader of the Piranhas) 61, Brendan Harris 55, Adam Everett 44, and Matt Tolber 14 split the SS position. 2009 saw Punto and Harris split the position with Orlando Cabrera. Then in 2010 we had a lead SS again – JJ Hardy with the other SS candidates sliding down the list.
 
 
2011 and Hardy is gone – that was quick, but we had Tsuyoshi Nishioki and he started 60 games, Trever Plouffe 45, Alexi Casilla 36 and Matt Tolber 31. Lots of maneuvering! With Nishioki gone, Hardy gone, we turned to our minor leagues and stared Brian Dozier at SS 83 games. Hard to remember or easy to forget. Others had innings and games at SS too in 2012. Pedro Florimon 43, Jamey Carroll (our oldest SS ever) 37, and Eduardo Escobar 6.
Lets call that a bad year too.
 
 
2013 Pedro Florimon takes the position 133 games, Escobar 38, and Doug Bernier 20. 2014 Escobar takes the position with Danny Santana playing in 34 games and Florimon 31 plus Eduardo Nunez 20. 2015 Escobar and Santana split the position with Nunez filling in and Polanco getting 4 games.
 
 
2016 Escobar gets the most games, but Nunez gets in 51 at short and Polanco 47. Polanco takes over in 2017, Adrianza is primary back up and Escobar gets only 16 because he is not primarily at third.
I just cannot choose the best out of the mess that is ten years of revolving door at SS and Polanco has a ways to go year.
 
 
Who is best – here are the candidates and my ranking – what do you think?
1. Cardenas 3 years .263/.325/.394/.719 with 11.1 WAR
2. Versalles 9 years 250/.296/.383/.679 14.7 WAR.
3. Roy Smalley 10 years 262/.350/.401/.750 20.9 WAR
4. Greg Gagne10 years .249/.292/.385/.677 12.7 WAR.
5. Bartlett 5 years 271/.340/.361/.702 8.9 WAR
6. Guzman 6 years.266/.303/.382/.685 WAR 7.5
7. Pat Meares 6 years.265/.301/.381/.682 6.0 WAR
8. Danny Thompson 6 years .251/.289/.316/.605 2.4 WAR.
 
 

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The Twins Best Second basemen
The second base slot has changed dramatically in this era. With all the strikeouts and flyballs there are fewer double plays, fewer ground balls, and if there is the shift complicates who is where. But I will not emphasize those changes, I just want to look at the names and skills of the people who players second in our history.
 
 
Billy Martin – that controversial manager (Twins and Yankees) that succeeded everywhere but off the
field. The original Spark plug player who had so much drive he pushed everyone else too. He was the very first Minnesota Twin second baseman and played there 108 games in 1961. Another former manager, Billy Gardner, played 41 games, Ted Lepcio 22 games, Jose Valdivielso 15 games, Rich Rollins, Billy Consolo, Jim Snyder and Bill Tuttle also played multiple games at the position.
 
 
By 1962, as often happened with Billy – he was gone and former Purdue QB Bernie Allen had the bag for every game! Allen was third in ROY ballots.
 
 
In 1963 Bernie got some days off and only played second in 128 games. Johnny Goryl, another future manager, played there 34 games and to my great shock – VIC POWER – the outstanding fielding first baseman played second 18 times!
 
 
1964 looks like one of the first base years. Bernie Allen only played 71 games there, Minnesotan Jerry Kindall (future gopher coach) played 51, Johnny Goryl 28, Jim Snyder 25, and then Jay Ward, Bill Bethea, Frank Kostro and Bud Bloomfield rounded out the field of eight.
 
 
1965 and Jerry Kindall took over for 106 games and Frank Quilici played 52. Rich Rollins 16 and Bernie Allen 10, Frank Kostro 7 and Cesar Tovar 4. Tovar played everywhere and in one game he did play all nine positions.
1966 Bernie Allen had the most starts – 89 and Tovar was second with 74. That year Tovar also played SS, LF, and CF. Rich Rollins had 4 games there.
 
 
1967 Rod Carew took over and started 134 games, Tovar played 35, and Frank Quilici 13.
1968 Carew played 117, Quilici (49) beat out Tovar (19) for second place and Ron Clark played 9.
1969 Carew played 118, Tovar 41, and Quilici 36.
 
 
The sixties had a variety of players and it wasn’t until Carew that we had a long term answer at the position. Martin started it, went to coaching, went to managing and then went elsewhere. Bernie Allen brought his football status for a while and Carew took over the position.
 
 
Jerry Kindall played for us for two years and you wonder why when you look at his line - .183/.254/.262.516 over his career he played 511 games at second and ended his nine year career with a (-3) WAR. As it says in Wiki – since 1920 “2,000 at-bats has a lower career batting average than Kindall's .213”. He had something special and went to Arizona as their baseball coach. “Kindall is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the author of Baseball: Play the Winning Way and co-editor of The Baseball Coaching Bible.”
 
 
Billy Martin played 11 years in MLB, the last one with the Twins. 246/.275/.361/.636 and (-1) WAR for that year. In 1969 he managed the Twins and then followed that up with 15 more managerial years.
 
 
Following the Kindall model, Frank Quilici played for us five years as a second baseman with the line .214/.281/.287/.569 and a five year WAR total of (-0.5).
 
 
So for those three players we have an accumulate WAR of (-4.5).
 
 
Along comes the All American boy, Purdue QB, Bernie Allen and he plays 5 of his 12 years with the Twins – 246/.316/.366/.682 and 3.2 WAR – almost enough to erase the other three on this list. Wiki has a summary of his college career, “Allen played college baseball for the Boilermakers, where he twice named Team MVP. A winner of 6 varsity letters, Allen was also a quarterback on the football team, selected as Team MVP in 1960. He platooned at quarterback in 1959, leading the Boilermakers to a 5-2-2 record and six weeks in the Top 15.[2] Earning the starting job in 1960, Allen led the Boilermakers to a record of 4-4-1 (2-4 Big Ten) and wins over #12 Notre Dame, Ohio State and #1 Minnesota, the AP and UPI National Champion.”
 
 
Cesar Tovar deserves some recognition here. He was with us 8 of his 12 years with a line of 281/.337/.377/.714 and would be the best except he was never the starter at second. In all he earned 25.9 WAR with the Twins, but he played everywhere – his career totals for appearances are: OF (all three positions) 945; 3B 227; 2B 215; SS 77; DH 90; and one game at C, P, and 1B.
 
 
So, the best of the sixties belongs to Rod Carew who plays 12 of his 19 seasons with the Twins. He hits - .334/.393/.448/.841, accumulates WAR 63.8 with the Twins, and he will play 1184 games at first and 1130 at 2B.
Jump to the seventies.
 
Who starts the most in 1970? Danny Thompson 81, Frank Quilici 74, and Rod Carew 45 with Tovar, and Minnie Mendoza getting the rest. Order was restored in 1971 with Carew at 2b 142 games and Steve Braun there 28. Danny Thompson plays 3 and Tovar came in from LF to play 2.
 
 
1972 Carew and Braun are still one and two and three is Dan Monzon. Monzon and Terrell are Carew’s caddies in 1973. In 1974 Monzon is out, Terrell is two and Luis Gomez and Sergio Ferrer get the crumbs. !975 Carew continues to dominate the bag, the same old backups continue to share what is available.
 
 
Then in 1976 there is a shakeup. Carew is at first and Bob Randall starts 153 games and Terrell 31, Gomez 8, Carew 7, and Cubbage 2. It seems strange to have Carew with so few, but this is the future.
 
 
With open season at second Randall holds on in 1977 to start 101 games and a new name – Rob Wilfong gets 66 games, Gomez, Terrell, Carew, and Sam Perlozzo share the rest. In 1978 the order stays the same Randall gets 115, Wilfong 80, Cubbage 5, Carew 4. And the decade ends with Wilfong taking the lead 133 games, Randall 71, and Cubbage 1.
 
 
Randall plays five years for the Twins and has a 3.8 WAR with a slash line of .257/.310/.311/.621. Not bad for the position.
 
 
Danny Thompson played 5 of 7 years with the Twins and had a 2.4 WAR. He is one of the sad stories in Twins lore as he died of leukemia at age 26. “Thompson appeared in 98 games in 1976 and went 1 for 3 in his final start for the Rangers on September 29, appropriately at shortstop in Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium. In his final game on October 2, less than ten weeks before his death, he was used as a pinch hitter.”
 
 
The only choice for the decade of the seventies is Rod Carew – the same as the sixties.
The 1980s
 
Rob Wilfong leads of the new decade at second base with 120 games at 2B and Pete Mackanin appeared in games. 1981 the same two dominated with 93 and 31. John Castino got in 4 and chuck Baker 3.
 
 
In 1982 John Castino took over the lead with 96 and Ron Washington played 37. Larry Milbourne was in for 26 and Wilfong was only in 22. Castino was the only one to have a positive WAR that year at second. In 1983 had 132 games and Tim Teufel was second with 18 and Ron Washington had 14. Rob Wilfong was gone.
 
 
Then Tim Teufel took over in 1984 with 157 and Ron Washington was his back up. Like the previous decades there was a constant turn over looking for the right guy. Teufel held on to 1985 with Ron Washington and Steve Lombardozzi splitting the rest of the appearances -26 and 24.
 
 
Like the previous seasons the understood took over for the leader and Lombardozzi was the 1986 starter with Alvaro Espinoza (not related to the philosopher) as understudy. Ron Washington, Chris Pittaro, Greg Gagne, and Gary Gaetti all had a turn. Steve kept the starting position as the team headed to the world series in 1987 and Al Newman was his primary backup. Although Pittaro and Gagne got a taste of the bag.
 
 
1988 kept Lombardozzi in the lead, 90, but Tommy Herr appeared and was in 73. Of course, Tommy fits with the great, not necessarily positive, characters in Twins history. The Cardinals traded him for Tom Brunansky. This was not a bargain for us. The Argus Leader wrote, “Herr didn’t hide that he wasn’t thrilled to be in Minnesota, announced midway through the season he wouldn’t return in ’89, and batted just .263 with one homer. He spent half the season on the DL, and teammates and media questioned the seriousness of his injuries. He was traded to the Phillies for Shane Rawley and Tom Nieto after the season.” No one came close to whining and complaining about being in MN. He will not be considered for our best. Al Newman stepped in for him and Greg Gagne and an outfielder named Dan Gladden played second.
 
 
The end of the decade the mix is really symptomatic of the 80s – now we start Wally Backman from the Mets. “Still uncomfortable with Steve Lombardozzi playing second and what seemed like a cast of thousands batting second, Minnesota sent three pitching prospects to the New York Mets on Dec. 7 for the 29-year-old Backman.
Almost immediately, Backman announced that he was thrilled to be with the Twins and bought a house on Lake Minnetonka.
 
 
"Tommy Herr never wanted to play here, so he didn't fit in with the rest of us," says first baseman and clubhouse leader Kent Hrbek. "Backman does fit in. You can see the difference just in the fact that Wally wants to have fun. Already, Backman and (Dan) Gladden are pulling pranks on each other." LA Times. Al Newman had the exact same number of games at second as Wally – 84, Doug Baker got in 25 times and Chip Hale 16.
Where do I start looking for the best of this decade?
 
John Castino played six years and lost his career on a bad back. .278/.329/.398/.727 and 15.2 WAR are pretty good, but he played 416 games at 3B and 232 at second.
 
Tim Tuefel in three seasons with the Twins was .265/.342/.409/.751and 5.5 WAR looks okay. In 11 seasons he played 806 games at second.
 
 
Steve Lombardozzi had a lot of promise, but produced .233/.307/.345/.652 and 4 WAR in four years. But to put it in perspective, the team was willing to trade Brunansky for Herr because they wanted to replace him.
 
 
Rob Wilfong was with us six years - .262/.322/.360/.681 and 5.3 WAR for the Twins. In 11 years he was at Second 839 games.
 
 
Wally Backman was in 87 games for the Twins, he does not qualify.
 
 
I know it is not a well-remembered name, but Tim Tuefel was the second baseman of the 80s and that is a statement about the team and the decade.
 
 
1990s
Al Newman began the decade with Fred Manique (a name I cannot remember) playing a significant number of games in reserve. Nelson Liriano also played many games at second. In the one game category were Chip Hale, Doug Baker, and OF – Kirby Puckett!
 
 
Al did not keep the starting job, in 1991 our last WS championship year we found a second baseman to make us forget the 80s and perhaps at the end also forget Tommy Herr. His name was Chuck Knoblauch. Al Newman was backup and I always enjoy the scrubs at the end of the list – this time they are Gene Larkin (you got to be kidding) and Mike Pagliarulo.
 
 
Or Course Knoblauch kept the position in 1992 and Jeff Reboulet was his primary backup. Donny Hill got in two games and so did that Kirby Puckett character again. Knoblauch again dominated 1993 with Chip Hale behind him, Reboulet next and Denny Hocking making a token stop at second. The same top two in 1994 with Jeff Reboulet. 1995 was the same but the scrubs were Brian Raabe and Puckett again. 1996 continued the stability with the same top three and then Todd Walker appears, Hocking and Raabe. In 1997 the only change were in number 2 and 3 – Hocking and Walker moving up.
 
 
1998 breaks up that lovely consistency and Todd Walker with all the promise in the world took over at the bag and Knoblauch was on his way to the big Apple from the Minneapple. Hocking and Brent Gates were two and three. The same three finished the decade with someone named Cleatus Davidson as the scrub.
 
 
I am afraid there is no doubt – this decade was Knoblauch’s. His line was .304/.391/.416/.807 for seven seasons with a WAR of 38. He was on his way to a potential HOF career until he got the yips in NY.
 
 
Todd Walker the heir apparent would have five years in MN with 285/.341/.413/.754 and 1.8 WAR. Like Ortiz he did not get along with Kelly’s ideas and seemed to be disliked for his college degree. He would play 12 years and get 10.5 WAR so he never achieved his first round draft expectations.
 
 
2000s
 
The new best second baseman was Jay Canizaro 90, Hocking 47, Jason Maxwell 30, Todd Walker 19, and Luis Rivas 14. Luis took over in 2001 with Hocking behind him and Jason Maxwell behind him Rivas was still the leader with 93 games in 2002, with Hocking, Canizaro, and the scrubs were Warren Morris and David Lamb. The Rivas years solidified in 2003 with Luis starting 134 games and Hocking, was followed by Chris Gomez, Alex Prieto, Michael Cuddyer, and (this must be a joke) Mientkiewicz. In 2004 Michael Cuddyer moved up to second at second with 48 games there. Augie Ojeda, was third followed by the famous Nick Punto! Jose Offerman and Jason Bartlett got token games too.
 
 
You could see it coming. In 2005 Rivas was second at second and Nick Punto was first. Behind them were Luis Rodriguez, Brent Abernathy, BRET BOONE, Michael Cuddyer and Juan Castro (no relation to Jason that I know). Luis Castillo played in 142 games in 2006, Followed by Punto, Rodriguez, Alexi Casilla. In 2007, Castillo’s days were numbered as we got into another scrum at second. Castillo 85, Casilla 52, Punto 25, Rodriguez 21.
Alexi Casilla was the primary starter in 2008, followed by Brendan Harris, Nick Punto, and Matt Tolbert. Then some appearances by Matt Macri, Brian Buscher, and Howie Clark. Alexi was in the next scrum – 2009 with 72 games, Punto 63, Tolbert 36, Harris 11, and one for Cuddyer.
 
 
Carew and Knoblauch were easy. Here is another tough choice.
 
Nick Punto was with the Twins seven years - .248/.323/.324/.648 and 10.3 WAR While he played all over, his 408 games at second are the most of any position in his 1122 games played.
 
Jay Canizaro .255/.308/.373/.682 for two years and (-0.4) WAR.
 
Luis Rivas was with the Twins 6 of 8 years. .262/.307/.383/.690 (-0.9) total for those six years.
 
Luis Castillo played 2 of his 15 years with the Twins. .299/.357/.363/.720 and 3.7 WAR for those two years.
 
Alexi Casilla played 7 of 9 years with the Twins .250/.305/334/.639 3.6 WAR
 
Base on WAR Rivas and Canizaro are out. Nick Punto was more productive in the same number of years than Casilla so I have to say that Luis Castillo was the best of the decade.
 
 
2010s
 
Orlando Hudson began our last decade with 123 games, Alexi Casilla had 24, Matt Tolbert 20, Nick Punto 12, then Plouffe and Cuddyer and Harris. 2011 was another scrum, we obviously were looking for something – Casilla 56, Hughes 37, Tolbert 36, Cuddyer 17, Plouffe 17, Brian Dinkleman 11, and Nishioka 6.
 
 
2012 Alexi Casilla was back on top with 95, Jamie Carroll had 66, Eduardo Escobar 8, Plouffe 4, Hughes 3, Nishioka 3, and Darin Mastriani 1.
 
 
In 2013 Dozier took over and was at second for 146 games. Jamie Carroll, Doug Bernier, Mastrioanni finished up. 2014 Dozier had 156 games and Escobar, Bernier, and Nunez had the rest. In 2015 the dominance was established and the same names appeared. The same was true for 2016, except the other names included Polanco, Danny Santana, and James Beresford. 2017 was the same except the other guys were Adrianza, Escobar, Goodrum (now a Tiger), and Santana.
 
 
There is no real discussion here. This is Dozier’s decade. .248/.325/.447/.772 and 23.9 WAR.
 
 
The choices come down to Rod Carew who plays 12 of his 19 seasons with the Twins. He hits - .334/.393/.448/.841, accumulates WAR 63.8 with the Twins, and he will play 1184 games at first and 1130 at 2B.
 
Or Knoblauch.304/.391/.416/.807 for seven seasons with a WAR of 38.
 
Or Dozier 248/.325/.447/.772 and 23.9 WAR
 
I would take Carew/Knoblauch/Dozier and there is no 4 or 5.
 
Compared to 108 first base candidates there were 77 men who played at second.
 

 

https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11367-the-best-first-baseman-in-twins-history/
 

https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11365-the-best-catcher-in-twins-history/

I have been following ESPN’s look at positions and comparing the position’s historically by statistics and currently by ranking the players and putting them in tiers. So of course, since I have been watching the Twins since their Minnesota debut I thought we should do the same things. Like ESPN I will start with the Catchers.
 
 
Earl Battey was our first catcher and in many ways was under rated. He was our catcher for 8 of his 13 years in the big leagues – starting with the White Sox and ending with the Twins. His slash line for those 8 years is .277/.354/.412 – OPS .766 – OPS + 109 and WAR 17.5 (an average for the 8 years of 2.2 per year). Now wouldn’t those lines be great today?
 
George Mitterwald was the next catcher – He started with the Twins and was in Minnesota for 7 years before playing four years for the cubs. 239/.304 /.373 OPS .676 was a come down from Battey. He had a WAR of 6 (0.85 per year). Phil Roof was his second, but George played 120 games.
 
In 1974 Roof stayed as the backup along with Randy Hundley and Glenn Borgmann played 128 games. Glenn played for the Twins for 8 years and then, like the previous three had a stint (1 year) in Chicago. 229/.325/.304/.630 lowered the standards again. His WAR was 5 for the 8 years (.6 average). You have to discount the WAR because he lost his starting role in 1976 so he had only two full seasons to create this WAR total.
 
Randy Hundley was replaced by the forgettable Tom Lundstedt as third catcher in 1975 and was gone in 1976 as Butch Wynegar (Griffiths – Love that Kid) took charge, Borgmann dropped to two and Roof to three. Butch had a good press but his .254/.340 /.342/.682 means he was somewhat overrated. He did acquire a WAR total of 15.3 for those seven years because his defense was very good. (2.2 average WAR).
 
In 1977 Bud Bulling replaced Roof as number three. Do you remember those days when rosters had number three catchers? Wow! After Bulling left – one year – we really just kept Wynegar and Borgmann for a few years.
 
In 1980 Borgmann went to the Cubs and we brought in, as backup, Sal Butera who started 32 games. Then in 1981 Butera played 59 games, Wynegar 37, Ray Smith 15 and Tim Laudner 12. Butera was with the Twins for four years and his slash line was .233/.303 /.274/.577 with a Total WAR for the four years of -0.8 or an average of -0.2.
 
In 1982 Tim Laudner took over, Butera was number 2, Wynegar number 3. Tim played nine years – all for the Twins and of course is a local Icon now. His line was 225/.292/.391/.682 and total WAR 3.2 an average of 0.3 per year.
 
In 1983 Laudner dropped to number 3 with 57 games behind Ray Smith 59 games and Dave Engle 72! Dave Engle played for Minnesota for five years with a line of .268/.316/.400/.716 and a low WAR of 3.4 which would have been okay for a catcher but in reality he played more OF/DH/3B. In 1984 he was still catcher number one, with Tim Laudner 2 and Jeff Reed as number three.
 
Then Engle dropped to number three in 1985 with only 17 games behind the plate, Laudner had 68, and a man I had forgotten – Mark Salas was number one with 115 games! Salas was with us three years and had a respectable line - .279/.320/.440/.760 He had a 2.7 WAR of .9 per year and he went on to play 8 years – with the Yankees, White Sox, Cleveland and Detroit.
 
In 1986 Salas had 69 games, Laudner 68, and Reed 64! In 1987 Laudner took over the position again with 101 games and Sal Butera was back as number 2 with Tom Nieto number 3 and Mark Salas number 4. And in 1987 Laudner kept the number one position for 109 games and Tom Nieto played in 24 and a guy by the name of Harper came in and played 48. Harper took over in 1988 and Laudner was second again. Behind Laudner for games at catcher that year were Orlando Mercado, Lenny Webster, and Greg Olson.
 
Harper took over for sure in 1988 and was backed up by Junior Ortiz and Lenny Webster. Harper played 16 years, 6 with Minnesota. In those six years he was .306/.342/.431/.773 with a WAR total of 13.4 or 2.3 per year. The same threesome was there in 1991 and in 1992/1993 Ortiz was replaced with Derek Parks.
 
In 1994 Derek Parks was the only hold over, but Matt Walbeck took over the starting position. In three years with the Twins his line was .230/.271/.300 /.571 and a WAR of (-1.5) giving him an average of -0.5 per year. He ended up playing in the majors for 11 years. In 1995 Parks was gone and Matt Merulo and Jeff Reboulet played back up.
Greg Myers took over in 1996 (and I cannot remember him at all) and Walbeck was second with Mike Durant Catching 34 games. Despite my amnesia, he played in the majors for 18 years! His two years with MN he had a line of .279/.323/.429 /.752 which looks really good and he had a WAR of 1.2 or .6 per year.
 
Myers became expendable when Terry Steinbach took over in 1997 and caught 116 games. Myers caught 38, Damian Miller 20 and Javier Valentin caught 4. In 1998 Valentin took over backup with 53 games, Terry caught 119 and a new guy – A J Pierzynski caught 6. Steinbach had a line of .256/.321/.399/ .719 for three years and WAR of 3.2 and average of 1.1.
 
In all Terry caught for 14 years in the big leagues with Oakland and Minnesota.
Steinbach was still number one in 1999 with 96 games and number two was not AJ – it was Valentin with 76 games. AJ caught 9. Then in 2000 we had a catcher mess! Marcus Jensen (who?) caught 49 games, Matt LeCroy caught 49 games, Chad Moeller (double who?) caught 48, AJ caught 32, and Danny (triple who???) Ardoin caught 15. Marcus was in the majors seven years. In his one with us he was .209/.325/.338/ .663 and WAR was 0.0.
 
In 2001 we cleared the field and AJ took over and caught 110 games with Tom Prince catching 64 and LeCroy catching 3. AJ has a 19 year career – amazing for a catcher. Based on rumors he has 19 friends too, but all we care about are his catching credentials. .301/.341/.447/.788 are fine numbers and his WAR 9.5 for six years needs to be factored with two of those being non-playing years so he really averaged 2.38 for the four years he was starter! Pretty damn good numbers.
 
In 2002 he was backed up by the same two plus Valentin. In 2003 Valentin was replaced by Rob Bowen. And in 2004 AJ was gone and we had another logjam. Henry Blanco caught the most games – 114 with a line of .206/.260/.368/ .628 and (-0.2) WAR which makes him forgettable as a Twin, but he had a 16 year career. His backup were Joe Mauer 32 games, Matt LeCroy 26, Pat Borders 19, Rob Bowen 15.
 
2005 began the Joe Mauer era and his back ups were Mike Redmond, Chris Heintz, Corky Miller, and Matt LeCroy for 1. LeCroy and Miller were gone in 2006. But LeCroy caught 4 again in 2007 and Jose Morales caught 1. Ryan Jorgenson caught 2 games in 2008 and the rest were Redmond and Mauer (139). 2009 Redmond and Mauer had Morales as the number 3. In 2010 Redmond was gone. Redmond was here for five years and had a line that read .297/.339/.359/.699 with a total of 1.3 WAR. Not bad for a back up.
 
The 2010 backups were Drew Butera – Sal’s son – and Jose Morales, plus a catcher by the name of Wilson Ramos got in 7 games. In 2011 we had a pivotal year and Mauer could catch only 52 games and Drew Butera caught 93. Mauer and Butera had Rene Rivera start 44 games and Steve Holm six. I do not have the ability to sort our all of Mauer’s Catcher stats from his 1B stats, but I did find that he hit .308/.391/.444 as a Catcher! And his legacy is affected by his .280/.359/.396 line at 1B. My best guess in 31.9 WAR as a catcher. BR has him with 11 seasons at a catcher which gives him an average WAR of 2.9.
 
In 2012 Mauer still caught 74 games, the famous Ryan Doumit caught 59, Drew Butera caught 41 and Chris Herrmann caught 3. This stayed about the same in 2013 with Mauer getting in 75 games, Doumit 43, Herrmann 27 and Josmil Pinto an exciting 20. But that is not all. Eric Fryer caught 5 and Drew Butera 2. It was Doumits last year with the Twins before going to Atlanta. Doumit in his two years was .261/.317/.428/.745 1.6 WAR which was really good as a part time player.
 
2014 We turned to Kurt Suzuki who is now with the Nationals and had a good run with Atlanta after leaving us. Josmil Pinto started 25 games, Eric Fryer 24, and Chris Herrmann 1. In 2015 Suzuki started 130 games, Pinto started 38 and Eric Fryer 15. Suzuki continued to be the number one in 2016 when he started 99 games, Juan Centeno started 53 and John Ryan Murphy was in 25. Suzuki had a three year run with .263/.316/.364/.680 and 3.3 WAR or 1.1 average.
 
Then we move in to Castro/Giminez/Garver/Wilson/Astudillo and even Graterol. These are not in my measures of the best. With time they may be, but lets look at what this long exercise has produced.
 
So how do we rate them?
Most years
1. Mauer 11
2. Battey 8
3. Borgmann 8
4. Mitterwald 7
5. Wynegar 7
 
Batting average
1. Mauer 308
2. Harper 306
3. Pierzynski 301
4. Redmond 297
5. Battey 277
 
OBP
1. Mauer 391
2. Battey 354
3. Harper 342
4. Pierzynski 341
5. Wynegar 340
 
Slugging
1. Pierzynski 447
2. Mauer 444
3. Salas 440
4. Harper 431
5. Myers 429
 
OPS
1. Mauer 835
2. Pierzynski 788
3. Harper 773
4. Battey 766
5. Salas 760
 
Total WAR
1. Mauer 31.9
2. Battey 17.5
3. Wynegar 15.3
4. Harper 13.4
5. Pierzynski 9.5
 
Average WAR per Twin Season
1. Mauer 2.9
2. Harper 2.3
3. Battey 2.2
4. Wynegar 2.2
5. Pierzynski 1.6 (2.4 as starter)
 
Mauer is obvious number 1 – then? Harper, Battey, Pierzynski, and Wynegar seem to show up the most.

Everyday Eddie Guardado has spent a lot of days in the Twins bullpen. Twelve of Guardado's 17 major-league seasons were spent playing for the Twins, and he added an extra four years as their bullpen coach under Paul Molitor's regime until he was let go this past fall.
 
At some point during his first 11 season with the Twins, he picked up the nickname "Everyday Eddie". A quick search shows that the oldest online reference to "Everyday Eddie" is from a March 2001 Peter Gammons article in which he says, mockingly:
 
At the time, the Twins were coming off of four straight 90-loss seasons, so it's hard to fault Gammons for thinking an above-.500 season was laughable. The Twins finished 85-77 that year, proving Gammons wrong, however—despite a very good year from Guardado—the Twins bullpen finished the year with the 5th-worst bullpen ERA.
 
We know that at some point before 2001, "Everday Eddie" took hold as a nickname, and now, nearly a decade removed from his final major-league pitch, we can look back and decide: was that really a fitting nickname?
 
Obviously Guardado didn't literally pitch everyday, it was hyperbole, but the nickname implies a couple of things: 1) he pitched in a lot of games, to the point where it might seem like he has pitched in every game, and 2) he pitched on zero days rest regularly, giving the impression that he was available everyday.
 
But were either of those things true?
 
Let's start with games played. In 1996, Guardado's first full season as a reliever, he appeared in 83 games which was tied for the league-lead with Tigers' reliever and international man of mystery Mike Myers. From 1996 through 2000 (remember, this nickname was established sometime before March of 2001), Guardado appeared in a total of 364 games, the 4th most among pitchers in that span behind Robb Nen, Buddy Groom, and Mike "Voice of Shrek" Myers.
 
That's a lot of appearances. Not the most, but a lot. Considering he played for the same team during during that span, unlike the players ahead of him, and that his "Everyday Eddie" is alliterative, it's reasonable that he'd get this nickname by playing in a bunch of games. And keep in mind, the Twins were abysmal during this stretch, so the fans were likely desperate to latch on to anything.
 
Now let's look at the second possibility: did Everyday Eddie pitch a lot with zero days rest?
 
A quick play index shows that in all of baseball history, Guardado had the 11th most games played on zero days rest among all pitchers. He sits behind three Hall of Famers (Mariano Rivera, Lee Smith, and Trevor Hoffman), some memorable good relievers with long careers (Jesse Orosco, Jose Mesa, and Francisco Rodriguez), and of course Mike "He Keeps Showing Up Like That Killer in the Halloween Movies" Myers.
 
Both are true: Guardado pitched in a lot of games and frequently pitch on zero days rest—he truly earned his "Everyday" nickname (and of course the alliteration really helps). However, I think that it is only fair that he henceforth shall share the nickname with Mike Myers. "Everyday Mike" may not have the same ring to it as "Everyday Eddie", but if anyone complains, they can just zip it.

I was caught up in Dave Schoenfield's article about which teams have the best chance to return to the playoffs from those who were there last year. When I got to the section on the Indians, it read more like an article on the Twins.http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25870218/which-2018-playoff-team-most-likely-miss-year
 
Schoenfield said, "Maybe the most frustrating comment from a front-office executive this offseason came over the weekend from Minnesota Twins general manager Thad Levine at the team's TwinsFest. Asked about Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, Levine answered: "My view ... for doing it is the best time to acquire players of that magnitude is when your window to win is wide-open. Not when you've got your fingers underneath the window and you're trying to jam the window open. I want to do it when we're projected to win the Central and we're ready to put our foot on someone's throat."
 
 
So, don't sign a star ... unless you're already expected to win the division?
 
 
Not that Machado and Harper want to sign with the Twins, but no team could benefit from adding a player of that magnitude more than the Twins, who are trying to chase down Cleveland.
 
 
 
The Twins have some strong rebound candidates, and the other three teams in the division are bad. Minnesota did add Nelson Cruz and Jonathan Schoop, but imagine Machado or Harper anchoring its lineup."
 
 
So when do you add a great player?
 
 
My thought is that you add them when they are available. Do you see any 26 year old stars lining up for next years free agency?
 
 
As the article states, they might not want to sign with the Twins, but among agents and Free Agents, I think our position is pretty obvious and not very inviting. I still see last years Darvish sweep stakes as more of a show than a real effort (and we are lucky that is all it was).
 
 
Puckett's Pond rates Brian Harper the best we have ever done. https://puckettspond.com/2011/11/03/best-twins-free-agents-ever/
 
 
Twinkie Town gives a depressing recap of Free Agents and
Trades https://www.twinkietown.com/2016/7/6/12101434/where-the-twins-have-gone-wrong-a-history
 
 
Rett Bollinger says Molitor was the best Free Agent signing we have ever made; https://www.mlb.com/twins/news/paul-molitor-is-twins-best-free-agent-signing/c-214194398
 
 
I remember when Shannon Sharpe was traded for and made a big difference, when we brought in Chili Davis, and Torrii Hunter to push the other players. Maybe that is what we are doing with Cruz. But the real question is - would you sign Harper or Machado if they were willing to come here? Or would you tell them to hang out for a year or two until we are a better team?