Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.
Jim Tobin (1912)
Phil Gagliano (1941)
Roy White (1943)
Craig Reynolds (1952)
Jim Leyritz (1963)
Dean Palmer (1968)
Jeff D’Amico (1975)
Jason Repko (1980)
David Aardsma (1981)
Michael Bourn (1982)
Cole Hamels (1983)
Tyler Duffey (1990)
Date: Monday, July 1.
Batting stars: A. J. Pierzynski was 3-for-4. Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a double. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5.
Pitching stars: Jose Rodriguez pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits. LaTroy Hawkins pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one. Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: John Mabry was 2-for-3 with a double and a three-run homer, his third. Eric Chavez was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his third. Greg Myers was 2-for-4 with a double.
The game: David Ortiz singled home a run in the first inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. Oakland came back in the second, as Mabry hit a three-run homer to put the Athletics up 3-1. The Twins tied it with productive outs, getting a sacrifice fly from Doug Mientkiewicz in the third and a run-scoring ground out by Corey Koskie in the fourth. Oakland regained the lead in the fifth on David Justice's RBI single. It stayed 4-3 until the seventh, when Mientkiewicz delivered a two-out two-run double to give the Twins a 5-4 advantage. The Athletics got a man to second base in both the eighth and ninth, but that was where he stayed.
WP: J. C. Romero (4-1). LP: Mike Venafro (2-2). S: Guardado (25).
Notes: Torii Hunter was 2-for-5 to make his average .306...Bobby Kielty was 1-for-3 with a walk and was batting .326...Pierzynski raised his average to .330...Twins starter Kyle Lohse pitched 3.2 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and five walks and striking out two...Jose Rodriguez made his first appearance as a Twin. He would make only three more. The two innings he pitched here were half his total as a Twin...Oakland starter Aaron Harang pitched five innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out three...There will not be a player profile today, and there may not be for a few days. I don't really have the time, and none of the Oakland players mentioned today is all that interesting to me anyway. Sorry about that.
Record: The Twins were 47-36, in first place, leading Chicago by 6.5 games.
Date: Sunday, June 30.
Batting stars: Denny Hocking was 3-for-4. Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a double. Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Eric Milton struck out eight in eight innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks.
Opposition stars: Ryan Thompson was 2-for-4 with a double. Robert Machado was 1-for-3 with a triple.
The game: In the third, the Twins loaded the bases with two singles and a walk. LeCroy then delivered a two-run single to put the Twins ahead 2-0. Machado's two-run triple in the fifth tied it 2-2. There was no more scoring until the eighth. The Twins again had the bases loaded, this time with two out. Dustan Mohr walked to bring home the go-ahead run and a balk was called on Luis Vizcaino to bring home an insurance run. The Twins needed it, because in the bottom of the ninth a two-out walk and a double by Thompson made the score 4-3. Alex Ochoa then struck out to end the game.
WP: Milton (9-6). LP: Glendon Rusch (5-6). S: Eddie Guardado (24).
Notes: Jacque Jones was given the day off. Luis Rivas moved into the leadoff spot, going 1-for-4...Brian Buchanan was the DH rather than David Ortiz, going 1-for-4...Tom Prince caught in place of A. J. Pierzynski, going 0-for-3...LeCroy was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz. He raised his average to .337...Hunter raised his average to .305...Bobby Kielty was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .326...Milton's game score was tied for his second highest of the season, behind only his first start of the season...This was the last of Ryan Thompson's nine seasons in the majors. Only one of them was a full season, 1994. He was drafted by Toronto in the thirteenth round in 1987, but was traded to the Mets late in the 1992 season alone with Jeff Kent for David Cone. He made his major league debut as a September call-up for the Mets and became the regular center fielder for them in the second half of 1993. He did okay--not great, not terrible--but enough that he remained the starting center fielder in 1994. He hit eighteen homers and drew a decent number of walks, but batted just .225 and was injured in mid-August, missing the rest of the season. He was a part-time outfielder for the Mets in 1995 and was traded to Cleveland for 1996. He was in AAA most of 1996 and all of 1997, then went to Japan for 1998. He came back to the United States, playing for Houston in 1999, the Yankees in 2000, and Florida in 2001, getting a handful of games in the majors each season. He was hitting well in AAA in 2002 when the Brewers called him up in mid-June. What he did for them seems to have been the pattern for his career--he hit well for a month or so, then tailed off and made a slow slide into mediocrity or worse. He was in AAA in Tampa Bay in 2003 and Houston in 2004, also spending a little time in the Mexican League. Again, he did well at times, but for his career he batted .243/.301/.433 with 52 home runs in 1257 at-bats. He is the father of Trevor Thompson, who played basketball at Ohio State. He became a youth baseball coach in Indianapolis, but in 2013 was arrested for being part of an identity theft scheme. I could not find out what happened to his case.
Record: The Twins were 46-36, in first place, leading Chicago by six games.
Date: Saturday, June 29.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth. Luis Rivas was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk.
Pitching stars: None.
Opposition stars: Matt Stairs was 3-for-4 with two home runs (his third and fourth) and a double, driving in three. Richie Sexson was 3-for-4 with a double and a hit-by-pitch, scoring three times. Alex Sanchez was 4-for-6.
The game: Milwaukee did not have a big inning, but scored two runs four times and one in two other innings. The Twins actually led in the first, getting a home run from Koskie to take a 1-0 lead. The Brewers tied it in the second on Stairs' first homer. It was still 1-1 after three, but Paul Bako hit a two-run homer to make it 3-1 in the fourth. Stairs hit his second homer, a two-run shot, in the fifth to increase the lead to 5-1. The Twins got a run back in the sixth to cut it to 5-2, but any thoughts they had of getting back into the game were quickly squelched when Milwaukee scored two in the seventh and Ryan Thompson hit a two-run homer in the eighth. Sanchez singled in the game's final run in the ninth.
WP: Jose Cabrera (4-5). LP: Matt Kinney (2-7). S: None.
Notes: Torii Hunter was 0-for-4 and was batting .302...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-4, dropping him to an even .300...A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 and fell to .323...This would be Kinney's last appearance for the Twins in 2002. He made it through six innings, giving up five runs on eleven hits and two walks and striking out three. He apparently was pitching injured, as he would make rehab starts in the GCL, Fort Myers, and AA New Britain, but would not come back to the Twins, being traded to Milwaukee after the season...Tony Fiore came in and allowed four runs on four hits and a walk in two innings. He was in the middle of a stretch in which he would give up ten runs in six innings (five games). His ERA went from 2.12 to 3.59 in that stretch. I would imagine some people thought he'd turned back into a pumpkin, but he got it going again and pitched well in the second half of the season...Milwaukee's starter, Cabrera, pitched six innings, giving up two runs on three hits and no walks and striking out one...Alex Sanchez was a pretty good major league player for four years. A native of Cuba, he came to the United States on a raft in 1994 at age eighteen. He was drafted by Tampa Bay in 1996 and reached the majors in 2001. 2002 was his first full season. A mostly-regular outfielder, he batted .289/.343/.358. As you can see from that, he had very little power and never developed any, but he hit for a high average. He had a similar year in 2003 when he was traded to Detroit in May. He then kicked it up a notch in 2004, batting .322/.335/.386. Surprisingly, however, Detroit released him in mid-March of 2005. He signed with Tampa Bay a few days later, but a couple of weeks after that we found out why Detroit released him--on April 3, 2005, he was suspended for ten games for steroid use. He came back and was batting .346 when Tampa Bay waived him on June 23. Nominally it was because of concerns about his defense, but one has to assume that steroid use carried a much higher stigma at the time. Whatever the reason, he was never the same player after that. He was claimed by San Francisco but batted just .256 in 19 games and then missed the rest of the season due to injury. He never played in the majors again. He was in the minors for Cincinnati for 2006, for the White Sox in 2007, played in the Atlantic League in 2008, and was in the Mexican League in 2009-2010. His lifetime numbers are .296/.330/.372 in 1527 at-bats.
Record: The Twins were 45-36, in first place by five games over Chicago.
Date: Friday, June 28.
Batting stars: A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-3 with a home run (his fifth) and a walk, driving in three. Torii Hunter was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two stolen bases, his twelfth and thirteenth. Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his seventh.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana struck out nine in eight innings, giving up one run on four hits and no walks. Tony Fiore pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Alex Ochoa was 1-for-3 with a stolen base, his fifth.
The game: Pierzynski hit a two-run homer in the second to give the Twins a 2-0 lead. Mohr hit a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 4-0. That was more than enough, as Santana limited the Brewers to two hits over the first six innings. Ochoa singled home the lone Milwaukee run in the seventh to cut the margin to 4-1. Pierzynski singled home the game's final run in the ninth.
WP: Santana (3-1). LP: Ben Sheets (4-9). S: None.
Notes: Hunter raised his average to .303...Mohr raised his average to .306...Pierzynski was now batting .327...This was Santana's best game of the season so far. He would have one better, in late July...Sheets pitched 6.2 innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and two walks with one strikeout...Ben Sheets was a solid rotation starter for the Brewers for eight years, making the all-star team in four of them. He came up in 2001 and did well immediately, going 10-4, 3.35 through the end of June and making his first all-star team. He tailed off the rest of the season, though, ending 11-10, 4.76. He was decent, but nothing more, in 2002-2003. In 2004, though, he had his best season, going 12-14, 2.70, 0.98 WHIP with 264 strikeouts in 237 innings. He made his second all-star team and got the only Cy Young votes of his career, finishing eighth as he was obviously hurt by his won-lost record. He started having injury problems after that. He made 34 starts in each season from 2002-2004, but averaged only 21 starts from 2005-2007. He pitched well when he could pitch, though, and in 2008 he came back to make 31 starts and go 13-9, 3.09, 1.15 WHIP. He then became a free agent, but missed all of 2009 due to an elbow injury. He came back with Oakland in 2010 and wasn't terrible in 20 starts, but he was not the pitcher he had been. He missed all of 2011 due to injury but came back again, making nine starts with Atlanta in 2012 and doing fairly well. That was the end of his playing career, though. His won-lost record doesn't look like much--94-96 in 250 starts--but he had a lifetime ERA of 3.78 and a WHIP of 1.22, and that's a pretty good pitcher. According to wikipedia, he is a part-owner of the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL and is a volunteer baseball coach at Louisiana-Monroe.
Record: The Twins were 45-35, in first place, six games ahead of Chicago.
Date: Thursday, June 27.
Batting stars: Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a triple. A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4. Corey Koskie was 1-for-2 with two walks.
Pitching star: Juan Rincon pitched 5.1 innings of relief, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out five.
Opposition stars: Paul Konerko was 4-for-5 with a home run his eighteenth. Ray Durham was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer (his fourth) and a walk. Magglio Ordonez was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
The game: The White Sox got four consecutive singles in the first, but only managed one run. They made up for it in the second, as Durham hit a three-run homer to make it 4-0. Royce Clayton singled home a run in the third to give the White Sox a 5-0 lead. The Twins got on the board in the fourth, as Hunter tripled, David Ortiz doubled, and Pierzynski singled to make it 5-2. Hunter singled home a run in the fifth to cut the margin to 5-3, but Konerko homered leading off the fourth to give Chicago a three-run lead again at 6-3. The Twins got one back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly, but that was as close as they would come. The White Sox got the game's final run in the ninth.
WP: Gary Glover (3-3). LP: Rick Reed (6-4). S: Keith Foulke (9).
Notes: Denny Hocking replaced Luis Rivas at second base. He went 1-for-4...Bobby Kielty was 0-for-2 with two walks to make his average .333...Pierzynski raised his average to .323...It was Rincon's first appearance for the Twins in 2002. He had played in four games for them in 2001. The 5.1 innings were not the longest outing of the season for him. I'd forgotten this, but he made three starts for the Twins in 2002, all in July. They were the only three starts of his major league career, although he made 124 starts in the minors and was primarily a starter through the beginning of 2003...Ray Durham was a very consistent performer throughout his career. He played all but one inning of his career at second base, playing an inning of center field in 2005. He came up to the White Sox in 1995 and was their starting second baseman through July of 2002, when he was traded to Oakland. He was with the Athletics the rest of that season, then went to San Francisco, where he played from 2003 through July of 2008. He was traded to Milwaukee the rest of that season and then ended his playing career. From 1996 through 2006 he had a batting average between .270 and .297. From 1998 through 2004 he had an OPS between .800 and .850. He hit in the teens in home runs every year from 1996 through 2007 except for three--2001 and 2006, when he hit in the twenties, and 2004, when he hit eight. He made the all-star team in 1998 and 2000, but there's nothing that really differentiates those years from any other in his career. His best year was 2006, when at age thirty-four he batted .293/.360/.538 with twenty-six home runs. He also rarely was injured, playing in 150 or more games from 1996 through 2002 and never playing in less than 110. He was another guy who was never really a star, but if you had him on your team you knew second base was taken care of, and that's pretty valuable.
Record: The Twins were 44-35, in first place by six games over Chicago.
Date: Wednesday, June 26.
Batting stars: Bobby Kielty was 2-for-3 with a home run (his fifth), a double, and a walk, driving in four. David Ortiz was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk. Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch.
Pitching star: LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Carlos Lee was 2-for-4 with two home runs, his tenth and eleventh. Mark Johnson was 2-for-3 with two doubles. Frank Thomas was 2-for-5.
The game: Lee homered with two out in the second to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. Kielty answered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the second to make it 2-1 Twins. The Twins opened up a 5-1 lead in the third, as Corey Koskie had an RBI single and Kietly came through with a two-run double. Lee homered again leading off the fifth to make it 5-2, but again the Twins answered in the bottom of the inning, as Torii Hunter scored from first on an Ortiz double. It stayed 6-2 until the seventh, when the White Sox put men on second and third with one out. J. C. Romero came in to give up an RBI ground out and a run-scoring single by Kenny Lofton to make it 6-4. Eddie Guardado came in to pitch the ninth and retired the first two batters but then walked the next three, loading the bases. Thomas lined a single to left to score one and leave the bases loaded. Magglio Ordonez then popped up to shortstop to end the game and allow Twins fans to breathe again.
WP: Kyle Lohse (7-5). LP: Todd Ritchie (4-10). S: Guardado (23).
Notes: Kielty raised his average to .338...A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .319...Lohse didn't pitch badly, but his final line reads 6.1 innings, four runs, six hits, a walk, and three strikeouts...Hawkins' ERA dropped to 1.66...Ritchie allowed six runs in six innings, giving up ten hits and a walk and striking out three...Guardado only walked eighteen batters in 2002. He only had one other game in which he walked more than one, and it was the first game of the season. Prior to this game, he had not issued a walk since May 25, a span of thirteen appearances (14 innings)...Mark Johnson appears to be your typical "good glove man" catcher. At least I assume he was a good glove man, because he couldn't hit. He was drafted by the White Sox in the first round in 2004. He got a September call-up in 1998 and stayed with the White Sox through 2002. He shared the catching position with people like Brook Fordyce, Josh Paul, Charles Johnson, and Sandy Alomar, batting .222/.317/.327 over that span. If you're wondering "Why wouldn't they just make Sandy Alomar the regular catcher", well, they did. But he didn't get to the White Sox until 2001, and he was injured part of the time, so Johnson kept getting to play. He was with Oakland in 2003 and Milwaukee in 2004, spending most of that time in the minor leagues. He was in the minors for all of 2005-2007 in the organizations of the Cubs, Milwaukee, and Arizona. He was with St. Louis in 2008 and managed to get ten more games in the big leagues. He was in the Cubs organization for 2009-2010, then his playing career was over. For his career he hit .218/.314/.318 in 934 at-bats. The Cubs apparently liked him, because they kept him in the organization as a minor league manager as soon as his playing career was over. He has managed the Tennessee Smokies in the Southern League since 2016.
Record: The Twins were 44-34, in first place by seven games over Chicago.
Date: Tuesday, June 25.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth) and a double. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4. Dustan Mohr was 1-for-4 with three RBIs.
Pitching star: Mike Jackson pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Magglio Ordonez was 4-for-5 with a double and a stolen base (his sixth), scoring three times and driving in five. Paul Konerko was 3-for-4 with a home run (his seventeenth), scoring three times and driving in three. Ray Durham was 3-for-5 and scored three times.
The game: The Twins led a couple of times early. They loaded the bases with one out in the first, but only scored one on a fielder's choice to take a 1-0 lead. In the second the White Sox got five singles to score three runs and take a 3-1 lead. The Twins came back in the third. With two out and none on, Matthew LeCroy singled, Corey Koskie was hit by a pitch, Mohr hit a two-run double, and Mientkiewicz had an RBI single to give the Twins a 4-3 lead. It was downhill from there, though. Josh Paul hit a two-run double in a three-run fifth to put the White Sox up 6-4. They scored three more in the sixth to make it 9-4. In the sixth, the Twins put men on second and third with one out, but could only score one on a ground out to cut the lead to 9-5. Ordonez hit a two-run single in the seventh to make it 11-5. Guzman homered leading off the bottom of the seventh to bring the Twins within five at 11-6, but in the ninth Ordonez hit a two-run double followed by Konerko's two-run homer. The Twins again put men on second and third in the bottom of the ninth, but a sacrifice fly scored the only run of the inning.
WP: Mark Buehrle (11-5). LP: Eric Milton (8-6). S: None.
Notes: LeCroy was the DH, going 1-for-4 with a walk. His average was now .337...Tom Prince was behind the plate, going 1-for-4...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 to drop his average to .304...Mohr's average was now .303...Jackson's ERA fell to 1.95...Milton lasted just 4.2 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out one...Buehrle pitched six innings, giving up six runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out one...Sorry, there's no player profile today. I don't really have the time, and I don't see anyone who played in this game in whom I'm particularly interested at the moment. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel differently.
Record: The Twins were 43-34, in first place by six games over Chicago.
Date: Monday, June 24.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 2-for-3 with a double. Luis Rivas was 2-for-3 with a double and a stolen base, his third. Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a double.
Pitching stars: Matt Kinney pitched six innings, giving up four runs (one earned) on six hits and three walks with no strikeouts. LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit. Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Jose Valentin was 2-for-4 with a home run, his tenth. Royce Clayton was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, his second and third. Magglio Ordonez was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his thirteenth.
The game: The Twins made two errors in the third, leading to three unearned runs. Two of them scored on a home run by Ordonez. Three Twins singles in the bottom of the third got one of the runs back, as Doug Mientkiewicz got a run-scoring hit. It stayed 3-1 until the sixth, when Valentin led off the inning with a home run to make it 4-1. Rivas singled in a run in the bottom of the sixth to cut the margin to 4-2. In the seventh, Torii Hunter delivered a two-out two-run homer to tie the game. In the eighth, the first two Twins were retired. Rivas then drew a one-out walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Jones' double to put the Twins ahead. The White Sox went down in order in the ninth.
WP: Hawkins (3-0). LP: Bob Howry (0-1). S: Guardado (22).
Notes: Hunter's home run was his eighteenth...Jones raised his average to .308...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-4, making his average .305...A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 with a walk, dropping his average to .321...Hawkins' ERA fell to 1.70...Guardado's ERA was now 2.21...Royce Clayton was another favorite of mine for reasons I don't remember any more. He was certainly not a great ballplayer, but he played for a very long time. He got a September call-up with San Francisco in 1991 and became the Giants' starting shortstop in 1992. He remained the starter there through 1995. He appears to have been an adequate but not exceptional defender. On offense, he had very little power, drew some but not a large number of walks, and so even when he hit for a decent average he did not make that much of an offensive contribution. He was traded to St. Louis after the 1995 season and was the Cardinals' starting shortstop through the end of July in 1998. He made his only all-star team in 1997, a year in which he really was no better or worse than any other year in his career. He was traded to Texas at the 1998 July trade deadline and had his best year for the Rangers in 1999, batting .288/.346/.445 with fourteen home runs. He matched that home run total in 2000, but his other numbers dropped to .242/.301/.384, numbers which are much closer to his career totals. He was the White Sox from 2001-2002, Milwaukee in 2003, Colorado in 2004, Arizona in 2005, Washington and Cincinnati in 2006, and Toronto and Boston in 2007. He was a starting shortstop all of those years except the last one, and he began the year as a starter then. For his career he batted .258/.312/.367. He played in 2108 major league games over seventeen seasons. He never had an OPS over .800 and most years was below .700. But he almost never got hurt, and while he never had a great year he never had an awful one, either. He was someone whose name you could write down on the lineup card every day and know what you were going to get, enabling you to focus on other areas. While that doesn't qualify him for the Hall of Fame, there is value in it, and there are a lot of managers who would be happy to have a shortstop like that.
Record: The Twins were 43-33, in first place, seven games ahead of Chicago.
Date: Sunday, June 23.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 3-for-4 with a double, a home run (his seventh), and a stolen base (his sixth). Torii Hunter was 1-for-1 with a three-run homer, his seventeenth. Bobby Kielty was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana struck out five in 4.2 innings, giving up one run on two hits and six walks. Tony Fiore pitched three shutout innings, giving up only a walk and striking out two. Travis Miller pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Randy Wolf pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out six. Todd Pratt was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
The game: The Twins left two on in the second and the third, finally breaking through in the fourth on a Koskie home run to take a 1-0 lead. The Phillies tied it in the bottom of the fourth on two walks and a Scott Rolen single. Philadelphia loaded the bases in the fifth on three walks, but Fiore came in to strike out Pat Burrell and end the threat. Dustan Mohr led off the sixth with a home run to put the Twins ahead 2-1. The Twins put the game out of reach in the ninth when Hunter, who had not started but had come in for defense in the bottom of the eighth, hit a three-run homer to make it 5-1.
WP: Fiore (6-2). LP: Wolf (3-6). S: None.
Notes: The Twins won with one of Ron Gardenhire's B lineups. Jacque Jones and Hunter both were out of the lineup, with Mohr in left, Kielty in center, and Brian Buchanan in right. A. J. Pierzynski also sat out, with Matthew LeCroy behind the plate. Cristian Guzman went into the leadoff spot and LeCroy batted fourth...Mohr was 1-for-4 to make his average .311...LeCroy was 1-for-3 and was batting .342...Kielty raised his average to .325...Fiore dropped his ERA to 2.12...This was Miller's fourth appearance of the season. He had thrown three scoreless innings, giving up two hits and two walks and striking out two...Hunter's home run came off a rookie who pitched the last two innings. The rookie's name was Carlos Silva. Twenty-three at the time, he had a really good year out of the bullpen for the Phillies, going 5-0, 1 save, 3.21, 1.31 WHIP. He was not as good in 2003, and after the season he was traded to the Twins along with Nick Punto and a player to be named later (Bobby Korecky) for Eric Milton. The Twins, of course, made him a starter. He was fairly good in 2004 and then had his astonishing 2005 season, in which he simply did not issue walks. Out of the 749 batters he faced, he walked exactly nine. Two of those were intentional walks, so in reality he only walked seven. He walked 0.4 batters per nine innings. He led all of baseball in K/W ratio despite the fact that he only struck out 71 batters in 188.1 innings, simply because he almost never allowed a walk. If there was a Pitch To Contact Hall of Fame, Carlos Silva would be in it just based on this one incredible season. He pitched for two more seasons for the Twins, then became a free agent and went to Seattle. He didn't take his magic with him, as he pitched poorly in 2008 and was injured much of 2009. He was traded to the Cubs before the 2010 season and had a good year for them, going 10-6, 4.22, 1.27 WHIP. After that, though, injuries came back to get him. The Cubs released him in late March of 2011. He signed with the Yankees but made just a handful of minor league appearances before being released. He tried to come back with the Red Sox in 2012, but just couldn't do it. He made one winter ball appearance in 2014 and then was done for good. At last report, he was living in Medina. Minnesota. He was not a star, but he will always be remembered fondly by Twins fans of that era.
Record: The Twins were 42-33, in first place by six games over Chicago.
