Updated one Man’s opinion of top300 Twins-55 years of numbers

Looks like this is year 4 of putting my pet project on the WGOM site, SBG put it on his old site a few years before this. A little movement from last year. Joe still can't quite catch TonyO. Hunter moves up a spot over Jim Perry. Perkins and Dozier jump up in the top60, Plouffe joins the top100, and Sano/Rosario/Hicks/Pelfrey/Milone/Ervin are new to the list with Sano/Rosario/Gibson new to the top200.

I stole most of the idea from when Gleeman started his top40 list years ago (forever unfinished right?) The below quote is his, and the rest is an excerpt from a book I put together 5 years ago. Some of it is outdated, but I’ve updated the list and stats through 2015.

“The rankings only include time spent playing for the Minnesota Twins. In other words, David Ortiz doesn’t get credit for turning into one of the best players in baseball after joining the Red Sox and Paul Molitor doesn’t get credit for being one of the best players in baseball for the Brewers and Blue Jays. The Twins began playing on April 11, 1961, and that’s when these rankings start as well.”

I used a variety of factors, including longevity and peak value. Longevity included how many years the player was a Twin as well as how many plate appearances or innings pitched that player had in those years. For peak value, I looked at their stats, honors, and awards in their best seasons, as well as how they compared to their teammates. Did they lead their team in OPS or home runs or ERA for starters or WPA? If so, that got some bonus points. I factored in postseason heroics, awards (gold gloves, silver sluggers, MVPs, Cy Youngs), statistical achievements (batting titles, home run leaders, ERA champs, etc), and honors (all star appearances), and I looked at team success as well. If you were the #1 starter on a division winning champ, that gave you more points than the #1 starter on a cellar dweller. I looked at some of the advanced stats like WPA, WAR (as calculated by fan graphs and baseball-reference.com), WARP (as calculated by Baseball Prospectus), and Win Shares (as calculated by Bill James). For hitters, I also looked at OPS and the old school triple crown statistics like batting average, home runs, stolen bases, and RBI (and not only where you finished within the AL in any given year, but where you appear on the top25 lists amongst all Twins in the last 50 years). For pitchers I looked at strikeouts, innings pitched, win/loss percentage, ERA as well as ERA+). If there was a metric that was used for all 54 years of Twins history, I tried to incorporate it. I tended to give more credit to guys who were starters instead of part time/platoon players, more credit to position players over pitchers (just slightly, but probably unfairly) and starters over relievers (and closers over middle relievers). There’s no formula to my magic, just looking at a lot of factors and in the end going with the gut in all tie-breakers. Up in the top10 I’m looking at All star appearances, Cy Young and MVP votes, batting average or ERA titles or top10 finishes, etc, and placement in the top25 hitting and pitching lists in Twins history as well. In the middle 100s, it’s more about who started a few more years or had 2 good seasons rather than 1 with possibly an occasional all-star berth or top10 finish in SB or strikeouts. Once you’re in the latter half of the 200s there are none of those on anyone’s resume, so its basically just looking at peak season in OPS+ or ERA+, WAR, Win Shares, and who started the most years, had the most at bats, or pitched the most innings. What the player did as a coach, manager, or broadcaster is not taken into consideration for this list, so Billy Martin, Tom Kelly or Billy Gardner weren’t able to make the top 300 since they were poor players and Frank Quilici didn’t improve his status due to his managing career.
Continue reading Updated one Man’s opinion of top300 Twins-55 years of numbers

1965 Rewind: Game Twenty-four

CALIFORNIA 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Thursday, May 13.

Batting stars:  Jimmie Hall was 2-for-3 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with two doubles and a run.  Bob Allison was 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.

Pitching stars:  Camilo Pascual struck out seven in 6.1 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and one walk.  Mel Nelson pitched two shutout innings, giving up a walk with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Fred Newman pitched eight innings, allowing three runs on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts.  Jose Cardenal was 2-for-5 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.  Costen Shockley was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his second.

The game:  The Twins put together a two-out rally in the first, with a Harmon Killebrew RBI single and Allison's run-scoring double giving them a 2-0 lead.  Cardenal doubled in a run in the third and it stayed 2-1 until the sixth, when Hall hit a homer to make it 3-1.  Shockley shocked the Twins with a two-run homer in the seventh, tying the score.  Each team threatened in the ninth, but neither scored.  In the tenth, Cardenal led off with a single, took second on a passed ball, went to third on a bunt, and scored on a Willie Smith single.  Bob Lee struck out the side (Zoilo Versalles, Joe Nossek, and Oliva) in the bottom of the tenth to preserve the victory for the Angels.

Of note:  Versalles was 0-for-5.  Jerry Kindall was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .153.  Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 16-8 and dropped them back into second place, a half game behind Chicago.

Notes:  Jerry Zimmerman again caught, with Earl Battey coming into the game in the eighth when Zimmerman came out for a pinch-hitter.  I had never heard of Fred Newman either, but he was a solid major league starter for the Angels in 1964 and 1965.  He threw 260.2 innings in 1965 at age 23 and did not have a good year again.

1965 Rewind: Game Twenty-three

MINNESOTA 4, CALIFORNIA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, May 12.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his fourth and fifth) and three RBIs.  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4.  Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Mudcat Grant pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and no walks with five strikeouts.  Al Worthington struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Rudy May struck out six in six innings, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks.  Albie Pearson was 2-for-3 with a home run.  Jose Cardenal was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.

The game:  Yesterday the Twins gave up a home run to the first batter; today it was the second, as Pearson homered to give the Angels a 1-0 lead.  Bobby Knoop doubled and scored in the third to make it 2-0, but the Twins got on the board in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Jerry Kindall.  Joe Adcock singled in a run in the sixth, but Killebrew hit a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth to cut the lead to 3-2.  With two out and a man on first in the eighth Killebrew struck again, hitting a two-run homer to give the Twins their first lead of the game at 4-3.  The Angels got a man on first with one out in the ninth but did not advance him.

Of note:  Kindall was 1-for-3 with an RBI.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-4.  Bob Allison was 0-for-4.

Record:  The win was the Twins' fifth in a row, moved the Twins to 16-7, and kept them in first place, a half game ahead of Chicago.

Notes:  Earl Battey apparently suffered a minor injury on May 8, as Jerry Zimmerman has started the games since then at catcher, but Battey caught in this game and yesterday's game after Zimmerman was lifted for a pinch-hitter.  Albie Pearson, who homered in this game, was one of the smallest men to play major league baseball, listed at 5'5", 140 pounds.  Vic Power, in his last major league season, was used as a defensive replacement, but was removed in the ninth for pinch-hitter Costen Shockley.  I can honestly say I had never heard of Costen Shockley before.

Happy Birthday–October 28

Tommy Tucker (1863)
Frank Smith (1879)
Doc Lavan (1890)
Johnny Neun (1900)
Joe Page (1917)
Bob Veale (1935)
Sammy Stewart (1954)
Bob Melvin (1961)
Lenny Harris (1964)
Larry Casian (1965)
Juan Guzman (1966)
Braden Looper (1974)
Nate McLouth (1981)
Jeremy Bonderman (1983)

This is my twenty-sixth wedding anniversary.  Coincidentally, it's Mrs. A's twenty-sixth wedding anniversary, too.  She has announced that she is picking up my option for another year, for which I am most grateful.

Johnny Neun managed two major league teams, the Yankees in 1946 and Cincinnati from 1947-1948. Each time, he was replaced by someone who was nicknamed “Bucky”.

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