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Monthly Archives: December 2020
Mazatlan Recaps: Game Thirty-four
MAZATLAN 6, CULIACAN 2 AT MAZATLAN
Batting stars: Isaac Paredes was 3-for-4 with a home run, his second. Ricky Alvarez was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.
Pitching stars: Ignacio Marrujo pitched four innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks and striking out two. Five pitchers each pitched a scoreless inning: Marco Antonio Duarte, Gabino Avalos, Marco Antonio Rivas, Roberto Espinosa, and Jesus Pirela.
Opposition stars: Alejandro Chavez pitched five shutout innings of relief, giving up no hits and two walks and striking out three. Joey Meneses was 2-for-4 with a double. Jose Guadalupe Chavez was 2-for-4 with a walk.
The game: Almost everything happened in the first inning. In the top of the first, Chavez walked, Michael Wing singled, Meneses had an RBI single, and a fielder's choice made it 2-0 Culiacan. In the bottom of the inning, singles by Ramon Rios and Paredes were followed by an error that loaded the bases with one out. Anthony Giansanti then hit a bases-clearing triple and scored on a wild pitch. Alvarez followed with a home run to make it 5-2 Mazatlan.
And there it stayed, inning after inning. The only other score was when Paredes led off the bottom of the eighth with a home run, bringing us to the final score of 6-2.
WP: Duarte (1-2). LP: Hector Galvan (0-1). S: None.
Notes: Paredes raised his average to .365. Italo Mota was used as a pinch-runner and remains at .348. Carlos Munoz was 0-for-4 and is batting .317.
Avalos has an ERA of zero. Rivas is at 2.08. Espinosa is at 2.37. Pirela is at 1.42.
Mazatlan had just three at-bats with men in scoring position, going 1-for-3. In contrast, Culiacan had eleven at-bats with men in scoring position, going 2-for-11.
Record: Mazatlan is 16-18, in seventh place, six games behind Obregon. They are only one game out of fifth place.
Next game: Mazatlan hosts Jalisco tonight.
December 4, 2020: Gonna Be The One That Saves Me
Is a Minnesota team allowed to be successful in the playoffs?
2003 Rewind: Game Sixty-four
MINNESOTA 15, COLORADO 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Thursday, June 12.
Batting stars: Lew Ford was 4-for-5 with a double and two runs. A. J. Pierzynski was 3-for-4 with two home runs (his seventh and eighth), three runs, and seven RBIs. Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-5 with a home run (his sixth), two runs, and three RBIs. Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5 with a triple. Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with two runs.
Pitching stars: Kenny Rogers pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out three. Tony Fiore pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Juan Uribe was 3-for-5. Todd Helton was 2-for-2 with a double and a walk. Larry Walker was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his sixth.
The game: This one was over early, as the Twins scored seven runs in the first inning. Ford led off with a single and scored on Guzman's triple. Koskie walked and LeCroy had an RBI single. Doug Mientkiewicz walked to load the bases and Mohr had an RBi single. Pierzynski then hit a grand slam, making it 7-0 Twins.
The Rockies scored single runs in the second and third. in the second Greg Vaughn doubled and scored on a Bobby Estalella single. In the third Helton doubled and scored on a couple of productive outs. But that was as close as Colorado would come.
The Twins got one in the sixth when Pierzynski singled, went to second on a balk, and scored on Ford's single. They really put it away in the seventh, getting another seven-run inning. Koskie led off with a single and LeCroy hit a two-run homer. With one out Mientkiewicz and Mohr singled and Pierzynski hit a three-run homer. Luis Rivas and Ford singled and Koskie hit a two-out two-run double, making the score 15-2.
Walker homered in the eighth to round out the scoring at 15-3.
WP: Rogers (5-2). LP: Darren Oliver (3-5). S: None.
Notes: Mohr was in left in place of Jacque Jones. Ford was in center in place of Torii Hunter. Bobby Kielty was in right.
Denny Hocking pinch-hit for Mientkiewicz in the eighth inning and stayed in the game at first base.
Ford raised his average to .429. Hocking was 0-for-1 to drop to .176.
Rogers threw 103 pitches over his eight inning. Tony Fiore came in to pitch the ninth. I strongly suspect that, when he entered the game, John Gordon solemnly stated, "This is not a save situation."
Two Rockies in the game had the same name as other, more famous players, even though they had solid careers in their own right. Bobby Estalella was a reserve catcher for parts of nine seasons, but is not as fondly remembered as the outfielder immortalized by Dave Frishberg in the song "Van Lingle Mungo". Javier Lopez, who gave up seven runs in this game, was in the first year of what turned out to be a fourteen-year career, but when we say Javier Lopez, most of us think of the Atlanta catcher.
After scoring zero runs two games ago, the Twins scored first seven and then fifteen. That's baseball.
Record: The Twins were 37-27, in first place in the American League Central, five games ahead of Kansas City.
Miley Cyrus – Doll Parts
This could have been a lot worse.
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Happy Birthday–December 4
Jesse Burkett (1868)
Shano Collins (1885)
Bob Shawkey (1890)
Harvey Kuenn (1930)
Mike Couchee (1957)
Lee Smith (1957)
Stan Jefferson (1962)
Bernardo Brito (1963)
Jerome Williams (1981)
Matt Fox (1982)
Carlos Gomez (1985)
Jake Cave (1992)
Mike Couchee was drafted by Minnesota in the second round of the January Secondary draft in 1978, but did not sign.
60 YEARS OF TWINS BASEBALL: MINNESOTA TWINS TOP 300 TWINS OF ALL TIME: ONE MAN’S OPINION
The Minnesota Twins have now completed 60 years of baseball. It is year 9 of putting my pet project on the WGOM site, and this year I've partnered with Seth Stohs of Twinsdaily.com to create an e-book to go along with the rankings (see details below).
2020 obviously has been a strange year and dealing with the short season has made it difficult to determine how the top300 list should be affected. Not a lot of plate appearances and innings pitched as normal, but it still was a division championship team that saw a few jumps to the list and 3 newcomers. This year's newcomers are Kenta Maeda, Randy Dobnak, and Caleb Thielbar.
In the top 100, Eddie Rosario moved up into the top50 in what could have been his final season as a Twin. He lands at #47, up 13 spots. Miguel Sano moves up 1 spot to #60 and Jorge Polanco moves up 3 spots to #62. Right on their heels are Max Kepler (up 13 spots) at #64 and Nelson Cruz (up 22 spots) at #69. Also moving up within the top100 is Byron Buxton (up 15 spots) at #78 and Jose Berrios (up 1 spot) at #82.
Zero movement in the 101-150 range as Taylor Rogers (115), Mitch Garver (130), and Jake Odorizzi (134) all stay in the same spot with disappointing seasons.
Luis Arraes jumps up 21 spots to #171 and Jake Cave moves up 2 spots to #194. Michael Pineda moves up 15 spots to #203, while Ehire Adrianza drops one spot to #206. Marwin Gonzalez moves up one spot to #219, while Trevor May and Tyler Duffey move up several spots to #253 nad #256 respectively.
Kenta Maeda is the highest ranked newcomer coming in at #223. At 66 innings pitched, he has the least amount of innings of any pitcher in the top300, but with so many accolades and top10 statistical appearances in the short season he jumped up the list pretty high for only 11 starts. Randy Dobnak (#293) and Caleb Thielbar (#296) just sneak into the top300.
Falling out of the top300 this year are Terry Muholland, Larry Casian, and Martin Perez.
I stole the idea from when Aaron Gleeman started his top40 list over a decade ago, but just decided to expand to a nice big round 300. The below quote is his, and the rest is an excerpt from a book I put together at the 50 year mark. I’ve updated the list and stats through 2020.
“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 60 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 60 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 and Paul Molitor didn’t improve his status due to his managing career.
Feel free to pick it apart and decide in your opinion, who was slighted, and who's overrated.
Also, if you are interested in the e-book that expands on the list in great detail, please visit the below link at Twinsdaily to purchase. Go Twins!
http://twinsdaily.com/topic/44210-top-60-twins-players-in-60-seasons-in-minnesota/
Lara Recap: Game Five
ZULIA 1, LARA 0 AT ZULIA
Batting stars: None. Lara had just four hits, all singles.
Pitching stars: Maximo Castillo pitched three innings, giving up an unearned run on two hits and a walk and striking out one. Leonel Aponte retired all seven men he faced, striking out three. Leonel Campos struck out two in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit. Jesus Sanchez pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Anderson Munoz pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out two. Will Changarotty pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.
The game: The game's lone run scored in the first inning. An error, a bunt, and an Olmo Rosario single made it 1-0 Zulia, and the run held up.
WP: Changarotty (1-0). LP: Castillo (0-1). S: Silvino Bracho (2).
Notes: Jose Tabata was 1-for-4 and is batting .400. Gabriel Moreno was 1-for-3 and is batting .333.
Castillo has an ERA of 2.25. Aponte and Campos each has an ERA of zero. Sanchez' ERA is 2.08.
There were only seven hits in the game, all singles. There were four walks.
Despite that, the game still took nearly three hours, coming in at 2:57.
Record: Lara is 3-2, tied for first with Margarita in the West Division.
Next game: Lara is at Magallanes tonight.
Gigantes Recap: Game Seven
GIGANTES 1, ESCOGIDO 0 AT ESCOGIDO (12 INNINGS)
Batting stars: Ronald Guzman was 3-for-5. Luis Marte was 2-for-4 with a double.
Pitching stars: Chris Ellis struck out seven in six shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks. Six relievers each pitched a perfect inning: Miguel Del Pozo, Reymin Guduan, Wily Peralta, Juan Minaya, Randy Rosario, and Ramon Ramirez.
Opposition stars: Denyi Reyes pitched five shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks and striking out two. Escogido had only two hits in twelve innings.
The game: While I still don't like the "start with a man on second" rule, this game is an argument for it, because no one might have ever scored otherwise. They start that rule in the twelfth in this league. Abiatal Avelino started at second, was bunted to third, and scored on an error for the game's only run.
WP: Rosario (1-0). LP: Adonis Uceta (0-1). S: Ramirez.
Notes: Guzman is batting .333. Steven Souza was 1-for-5 and is batting .333. Jose Siri was 0-for-5 and is batting .320.
All the pitchers the Gigantes used have ERAs of zero other than Guduan and Ramirez.
I don't know how big the rosters are in the Dominican League, but Escogido used 17 position players and 7 pitchers. Not all at once, of course, but still. The Gigantes used 12 position players and 7 pitchers.
Winning pitcher Randy Rosario is an ex-Twin, playing in their minor league system for several years.
Record: The Gigantes are 3-4, in fifth place, two games out of first.
Next game: The Gigantes host Escogido on Friday.
Mazatlan Recap: Game Thirty-one
CULIACAN 5, MAZATLAN 2 IN MAZATLAN
Batting stars: Carlos Munoz was 3-for-4. Anthony Giansanti was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.
Pitching stars: Tomas Solis pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits. Juan Ramon Noriega pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Manny Barreda pitched 6.1 innings, giving up two runs on ten hits and one walk and striking out two. Jose Guadalupe Chavez was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs. Alexis Wilson was 2-for-3 with a walk. Alan Sanchez was 2-for-3. Michael Wing was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his fourth. Ramiro Pena was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his third.
The game: Mazatlan scored in the first when Isaac Paredes doubled and scored on a Munoz single. Culiacan tied it in the second when Eric Meza doubled and scored on an Alan Sanchez single. Mazatlan took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Munoz singled, went to third on a Giansanti double, and scored on a sacrifice fly.
It was all Culiacan from there. In the fifth Chavez doubled and Pena homered to put Culiacan up 3-2. It stayed 3-2 until the ninth, when Chavez singled and Wing homered, bringing it to the total of 5-2.
WP: Barreda (4-2). LP: Carlos Morales (2-1). S: Alberto Baldonado (9).
Notes: Paredes was 1-for-4 and is batting .339. Munoz raised his average to .328. Jose Augusto Figueroa was 1-for-4 and is batting .314.
Morales started and pitched 4.1 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and one walk and striking out four.
Noriega's ERA remains zero. Gabino Avalos retired the only man he faced and also has an ERA of zero.
Mazatlan had eleven hits and two walks, but scored just two runs. They had only two extra-base hits, both doubles.
Record: Mazatlan is 15-18, in eighth place, seven games behind Obregon. They are only one game out of sixth.
Next game: Mazatlan again hosts Culiacan tonight.