Monthly Archives: December 2017

Cup of Coffee

December, 7 2017: Swing And A Miss

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The Twins miss out on the Ohtani sweepstakes. They had the "small market" box checked off, though there was a bit more distance between them and Japan compared to the West Coast teams.

Though we'll likely never know, I wonder to what degree their past handling of Nishioka (as well as Park) played into the situation. They probably never were actually in the running, but I could see those past case studies causing a quick axe against an option that wasn't appealing to begin with.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-three

FLORIDA 6, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, June 9.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 3-for-5 with a double.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-2 with three walks.

Pitching star:  LaTroy Hawkins pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Andy Fox was 3-for-5 with three runs and a stolen base, his eleventh.  Derrek Lee was 2-for-4 with two home runs, his eleventh and twelfth.  Julian Tavarez pitched six innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out four.

The game:  Corey Koskie had an RBI triple in the first to put the Twins ahead 1-0.  Lee tied it with a home run in the second and the Marlins took the lead in the third on a single by Mike Lowell.  Lee homered again in the fourth and took a 3-1 lead.  The Marlins added two more in the fifth, getting run-scoring singles by Lowell and Kevin Millar.  The teams traded sacrifice flies in the seventh, making the score 6-2.  The Twins got one more in the eighth on a home run by A. J. Pierzynski, but did not threaten to get back into the game.

WP:  Tavarez (4-3).  LP:  Rick Reed (6-3).  S:  Vladimir Nunez (15).

Notes:  Jones raised his average to .321...Torii Hunter was 0-for-5 to make his average .308...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-4 and dropped to .327...Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .330.  The home run was his second...Reed made it through 6.1 innings, but he gave up six runs on ten hits and two walks, striking out three...The Twins stranded eleven runners and went 0-for-10 with men in scoring position...This was the only season Vladimir Nunez got as close, and he couldn't hold the job.  He came up with Arizona, getting a September call-up in 1998.  He was pitching pretty well for them in 1999 when he was traded to Florida in a deal that included Brad Penny and Matt Mantei.  He had been a starter in the minors and the Marlins tried to move him back to that role, but when it didn't go well for the rest of 1999 and didn't go much better in AAA in 2000, they moved him back to the bullpen.  He was very good in a set-up role in 2001 and became the closer and the start of the 2002 season.  He was doing well in that role through this game.  He would blow saves in three of his next five chances, however, and by the end of June he had lost the closer job to Braden Looper.  He was awful for Florida in 2003, did not get a lot better in AAA, and then started bouncing around, playing (mostly in AAA) for Colorado, Texas, St. Louis, Arizona, Pittsburgh, and the White Sox.  He was not in the majors from 2005-2007, but made it back with Atlanta in 2008 and had a half-decent two and a half months with them.  He made just one more big league appearance, in 2009, was in the minors in 2010, and then was done.  For his career he was 21-34, 4.83, 1.42 WHIP, 21 saves in 442 innings (254 games).  It appears that he is now working for The Hot Corner, a baseball instructional facility in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Record:  The Twins were 36-27, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 6

Jocko Conlan (1899)
Tony Lazzeri (1903)
Stan Hack (1909)
Dan Dobbek (1934)
Tony Horton (1944)
Larry Bowa (1945)
Tim Foli (1950)
Chuck Baker (1952)
Gary Ward (1953)
Juan Carlos Oliva (1954)
Steve Bedrosian (1957)
Larry Sheets (1959)
Kevin Campbell (1964)
Kevin Appier (1967)
Jose Contreras (1971)
Chris Basak (1978)
Jason Bulger (1978)

Jocko Conlan played two seasons of major league baseball, but is best known as a National League umpire from 1941-1965.

The younger brother of Tony Oliva, Juan Carlos Oliva was a star pitcher in Cuba and later became a successful pitching coach there.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 6 →

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-two

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MINNESOTA 5, FLORIDA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, June 8.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a walk and a double.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Tony Fiore pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk while striking out one.  Mike Jackson pitched a perfect inning while striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning while striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Cliff Floyd was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourteenth), a double, and a walk.  Mike Lowell was 1-for-3 with a home run (his ninth) and a walk.  Andy Fox was 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his tenth.

The game:  The Marlins scored in the top of the first, as Luis Castillo led off with a single and scored on Floyd's double.  The Twins tied it in the second when Corey Koskie walked, went to third on a stolen base-plus-error, and scored on a Mohr double.  Hunter's two-run double in the third put the Twins ahead 3-1, but Florida come right back in the top of the fourth, getting back-to-back homers by Floyd and Lowell to tie it 3-3.  Mohr led off the bottom of the fourth with a double and scored on Jones' single to give the Twins a 4-3 advantage.  The Marlins led off the sixth with two walks, but Fiore came in to retire the next three batters to get out of the inning.  In the bottom of the sixth, back-to-back doubles by Luis Rivas and Jones made the score 5-3.  Florida put men on first and third with two out in the seventh, but J. C. Romero came on to retire Cliff Floyd on a ground out and the Marlins did not get a baserunner after that.

WP:  Matt Kinney (2-5).  LP:  Kevin Olsen (0-4).  S:  Guardado (18).

Notes:  Jones raised his average to .316...Hunter went up to .314...Mohr was batting .336...A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 to make his average .331...Romero's ERA fell to 0.79...Jackson now had an ERA of 1.07...Koskie had stolen twenty-seven bases in 2001, more than double what he did in any other year.  He would steal ten in 2002 and eleven in 2003, the only years when he reached double digit stolen bases.  He had seventy-one for his career...Kinney struck out six in five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks...Florida starter Kevin Olsen pitched 4.1 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out four...This was one of only ten starts Olsen made in his major league career.  Florida drafted him in the twenty-sixth round in 1998.  He got a September call-up from AA in 2001 and pitched quite well, throwing seven shutout innings against Montreal on October 3.  He appears to have been the fifth starter for Florida at the start of the 2002 season, pitching out of the bullpen when a fifth starter was not needed due to off-days or rainouts.  He did okay in nine relief appearances, but was not very good in eight starts and was sent down in early July.  He was pitching really well in AAA Albuquerque in 2003 and came up to the majors in June.  He made on good appearance and three really bad ones.  In the last one, on June 27, he was hit in the head by a Todd Walker line drive, landing him on the disabled list.  He came back in September and had one really bad outing and two good ones.  He apparently was still dealing with injury in 2004, as he made just ten starts for Albuquerque.  He signed with Pittsburgh for 2005 but never threw a pitch for them all year and was released after the season.  He started 2006 in independent ball and finished it in AA for Oakland, doing very well in thirteen starts.  He made just two bad starts in AAA in 2007, however, before being released.  A quick Google search did not reveal whether the later injuries had to do with concussion symptoms or if they were independent of that.  He might not have done much in the majors anyway, but it's too bad that he couldn't stay healthy so he could find out for sure.

Record:  The Twins were 36-26, in first place by six games over Chicago.