Tag Archives: 2002 rewind

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-four

MINNESOTA 4, PHILADELPHIA 1 IN PHILADELPHIA (11 INNINGS)

Date:  Saturday, June 22.

Batting stars:  Luis Rivas was 2-for-4 with a double.  Matthew LeCroy had a pinch-hit double.  Dustan Mohr drove in two with a pinch-hit single.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks and striking out five.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a perfect inning.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Terry Adams pitched seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and three walks and striking out three.  Mike Lieberthal hit a home run, his fifth.

The game:  There was no score until the third, when Reed walked, a force out followed, a Cristian Guzman single-plus-error put men on second and third, and a Doug Mientkiewicz ground out put the Twins on the board.  Reed kept the Phillies offense silent through seven innings, giving up just two hits and only once allowing a man past first base.  He threw just 91 pitches, but was removed after seven for J. C. Romero.  It's hard to second-guess the move, as Romero had an ERA of under one, but it didn't work, as Lieberthal led off the eighth with a home run to tie it 1-1.  The Twins wasted a leadoff double by Rivas in the tenth.  In the eleventh the first two Twins batters went out.  A. J. Pierzynski and Bobby Kielty then singled, LeCroy delivered a pinch-hit RBI double, Rivas was intentionally walked, and Mohr brought home two insurance runs with a single.  In the bottom of the eleventh, Travis Lee led off with a single and Jimmy Rollins was hit by a pitch with two out, bringing the tying run to the plate.  Guardado retired Marlon Anderson on a fly ball to end the game.

WP:  Hawkins (2-0).  LP:  Dan Plesac (2-3).  S:  Guardado (21).

Notes:  Brian Buchanan started in right field, with Kielty coming in for defense in the eighth.  Buchanan was 1-for-3...Denny Hocking started at third in place of Corey Koskie.  He went 0-for-4 and was replaced by pinch-hitter LeCroy in the eleventh...Jacque Jones was 0-for-5 with a walk and was batting .306...Pierzynski was 1-for-5 to make his average .325...Hawkins' ERA was now 1.77...Guardado was at 2.27...Romero, despite giving up the home run, had an ERA of 0.82...The Twins had just four hits through the first ten innings...This was one of two seasons in which Terry Adams was used as a starter.  He was a starter early in his minor league career, but was moved to the bullpen in 1994, when he was still in Class A with the Cubs.  He had a terrific 1995 in AA, made seven appearances in AAA, and came up to the majors in August, making 18 appearances in relief for the Cubs.  He didn't do very well, but he was in the majors to stay.  He had a fine year in 1996, going 3-6, 2.94, 1.32 WHIP in 69 games (101 innings).  The rest of his career, though, he was pretty mediocre.  He was traded to the Dodgers after the 1999 season and went 6-9, 3.52, although with a WHIP of 1.41.  He moved into the Dodgers' starting rotation in the second half of 2001 and did okay, although nothing special.  He was a free agent and signed with Philadelphia, who kept him in the rotation for the first half of 2002, then moved him back to the bullpen.  He made some really good starts, but he also made some really bad ones.  He had an excellent year in 2003 in relief for the Phils, going 1-4, 2.65, 1.34 WHIP.  That was as good as it would get for him.  He signed with Toronto as a free agent for 2004, was traded to Boston in July, signed back with Philadelphia as a free agent in 2005, and was released after sixteen games.  He gave it one more try with Pittsburgh in 2006, but was unimpressive in AAA.  For his career, he was 51-62, 4.17, 1.46 WHIP with 42 saves.  As a starter, he was 14-15, 4.52, 1.45 WHIP in  41 starts.  He spent eleven years in the big leagues, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.  At last report, he was helping coach high school baseball in his home town of Semmes, Alabama.

Record:  The Twins were 41-33, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-three

PHILADELPHIA 3, MINNESOTA 0 IN PHILADELPHIA

Date:  Friday, June 21.

Batting star:  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Kyle Lohse pitched six innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks and striking out five.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Brandon Duckworth struck out nine in four shutout innings, giving up four hits and a walk.  Jeremy Giambi was 2-for-3 with a double.

The game:  Tomas Perez singled home a run in the second to put the Phillies up 1-0.  Philadelphia added two runs in the seventh, getting a run-scoring single by Travis Lee and a sacrifice fly.  The Twins had only one hit through five innings.  They only twice got a man as far as second base.  The first time came in the second, when Torii Hunter singled and stole second.  A walk put men on first and second, but Denny Hocking grounded out to end the threat.  The other time came in the seventh, when the Twins got two-out singles by Dustan Mohr and Pierzynski.  Bobby Kielty then pinch-hit and struck out to end the inning.  The last seven Twins were retired, five by strikeout.  There was also a stretch in the second through sixth innings in which twelve consecutive Twins were retired.

WP:  Duckworth (4-4).  LP:  Lohse (6-5).  S:  Jose Mesa (19).

Notes:  The Twins were now 6-7 in interleague play and had lost three in a row...With no DH, David Ortiz played first base, replacing Doug Mientkiewicz.  He was 0-for-4...Hocking was at second in place of Luis Rivas.  He went 0-for-2...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 to make his average .311...Hunter was 1-for-4 and was batting an even .300...Mohr was 1-for-3, making his average .309...Pierzynski raised his average to .328...Travis Miller pitched a third of an inning and did not give up a run, keeping his ERA at zero through three appearances (two innings)...Mike Jackson retired both batters he faced to make his ERA 2.05...Guardado lowered his ERA to 2.34...2002 was Brandon Duckworth's only full season in the majors.  This was his best game of the season, at least by game scores.  Despite that, it was not a good year for him, as he went 8-9, 5.41.  He had come up to the majors in 2001, making 11 starts and going 3-2, 3.52, 1.25 WHIP.  He had pitched very well in AAA that season and very well in AA in 2000, so the Phillies likely thought they really had something.  They didn't.  He struggled again in 2003 and was traded to Houston after the season as part of a deal for Billy Wagner.  He struggled through two seasons with the Astros, splitting both of them between the majors and AAA, became a free agent, and signed with Pittsburgh.  They sent him to AAA, where he pitched very well.  By now, though, he was thirty years old and should have been expected to do well in AAA.  He was sold to Kansas City in June and was promoted to the majors, but remained the same pitcher he had been.  The Royals tried him in a relief role in 2007 and he perhaps did a little better, but not enough to matter.  He made seven more starts with Kansas City in 2008 and then his big league career was at an end.  He kept pitching, and in fact had some pretty good years in AAA from 2010-2012 with Philadelphia and Boston, but never got a call-up.  He pitched in Japan in 2012 and 2013, then hung up the spikes for good.  At last report, he was a scout for the Yankees.  For his major league career he was 23-34, 5.28, 1.53 WHIP in 511 innings (134 games, 84 starts).

Record:  The Twins were 40-33, in first place by four games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-two

METS 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Thursday, June 20.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his sixth.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Eric Milton struck out six in four shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  J. C. Romero pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Steve Trachsel pitched 8.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks and striking out seven.  Edgardo Alfonso was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer and a walk.  Mike Piazza was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fourteenth.

The game:  There was no score through five, and neither team even got a man to third base in that time.  With two out and none on in the sixth, Piazza hit a home run to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.  With two out in the eighth, Alfonso hit a two-run homer to make it 3-0.  With one out in the ninth, the Twins got consecutive singles from David Ortiz, Jacque Jones, and Guzman to load the bases.  Doug Mientkiewicz popped up, but Corey Koskie delivered a two-run double down the right-field line. I have no idea if there was any chance for the speedy Guzman to score from first.  If there was, though, the Twins should've taken it, because Torii Hunter struck out to end the game.

WP:  Trachsel (5-6).  LP:  Tony Fiore (5-2).  S:  Benitez (17).

Notes:  There is no apparent reason for Milton to have left the game after four innings.  One assumes that he might have had a minor injury.  He did not miss a start...Jones was 1-for-4 to make his average .316...Hunter was 1-for-4 and was batting .301...Bobby Kielty was 0-for-3 to make his average .325...A. J. Pierzynski was also 0-for-3, dropping his average to .327...Romero's ERA fell to 0.65...Steve Trachsel had an extremely long career.  He was rarely really good, but he was rarely really bad, either.  He was consistently average for a long period of time.  That's not a criticism--an average pitcher can be a very valuable man.  Teams have lost pennants because they couldn't find an average starting pitcher to fill out their rotation.  From 1995-2007 he made between 28 and 34 starts every season.  Three times he had an ERA under 4.00, twice he had an ERA above 5.00, and most of the rest of the time he was in the mid-fours.  His ERA+ was between 80 and 120 every year but one.  For his career, he was 143-159, 4.39, ERA+ of 99, FIP of 4.88.  He made only one all-star team, in 1996, and never got a Cy Young vote.  He simply was a guy who you could put down in the starting rotation every year and know you were going to get thirty starts and that they would be of legitimate major league quality.  Every manager in both leagues would love to have a pitcher like that.

Record:  The Twins were 40-32, in first place, four games ahead of Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-one

METS 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Wednesday, June 19.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double.  Brian Buchanan was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Tony Fiore pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.  J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Al Leiter struck out eight in 7.1 innings, giving up one run on five hits and striking out four.  Mike Piazza was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks.  Jeromy Burnitz was 2-for-3.

The game:  There was no score until the fifth, when two singles and a walk loaded the bases for the Twins with one out.  Pitcher Matt Kinney popped up to short center field, but Luis Rivas was hit by a pitch to bring in a run.  Guzman then grounded into a double play.  The Twins would regret getting only one, because the Mets came back with two in the bottom of the fifth.  Piazza singled home the first run and a ground out brought in the second.  It stayed 2-1 until the eighth, when Tony Tarasco hit a two-run homer.  Pinch-hitter  A. J. Pierzynski singled home a run in the ninth to make it 4-2.  The Twins had the tying run on base with two out, but pinch-hitter Matthew LeCroy struck out to end the game.

WP:  Leiter (7-6).  LP:  Kinney (2-6).  S:  Armando Benitez (16).

Notes:  Buchanan was in right field, with Dustan Mohr in left and Jacque Jones getting the day off.  Rivas batted leadoff and was 1-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch...Tom Prince started behind the plate in place of Pierzynski.  He was 0-for-2 with a walk...Kinney pitched 4.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks while striking out three.  You can make an argument that the Twins should've pinch-hit for him in the fifth, when he came up with the bases loaded and none out.  If Ron Gardenhire had known they were only going to get one run out of it, and that he was going to pull Kinney in the fifth, he likely would have.  Obviously, though, you don't know that as play is going on.  Kinney had shutout the Mets on just two hits through four innings, so it was not unreasonable to leave him in the game...Torii Hunter was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .302...Mohr was 0-for-4 to make his average .310...Romero had his ERA fall to 0.66...Jeromy Burnitz is another pretty fair ballplayer that time seems to have forgotten.  He got started late, but this isn't a case of a team holding a player down too long--Burnitz didn't have a good year at AAA until 1995, when he was 26.  By this time he had moved on from the Mets, who drafted him in the first round in 1990 and had given him some big league playing time in 1993 and 1994, to Cleveland.  During the 1996 season the Indians traded him to Milwaukee, and that's where he really had success.  He was a regular outfielder for the Brewers from 1997-2001 and batted .258/.362/.508 with 165 home runs, and average of 33 per season.  He was traded to the Mets for 2002 and really didn't do a lot for them, batting just .215/.311/.365 with 19 homers.  He had a fine first half for the Mets in 2003, but they traded him to the Dodgers and he struggled in the second half.  A free agent, he signed  with Colorado for 2004 and had an excellent year, batting .283 and slugging 37 home runs.  He went to the Cubs in 2005 and fell to .258 with 24 homers.  He signed with Pittsburgh for 2006, but had a down year and retired.  He wasn't a Hall of Famer or anything, but he played for parts of 14 seasons and batted .253/.345/.481 with 315 home runs, and that's not too shabby.

Record:  The Twins were 40-31, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy

MINNESOTA 6, NEW YORK METS 1 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Tuesday, June 18.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 3-for-5 with a double.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, his fourth.  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, his fifth.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out seven in six innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in two shutout innings.  Travis Miller pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Roger Cedeno was 2-for-4.  Bobby Jones and Mark Corey each pitched a scoreless inning.

The game:  With two out and none on in the second, the Twins got consecutive doubles from Mohr, Pierzynski, and Luis Rivas to take a 2-0 lead.  Mohr led off the fourth with a home run to make it 3-0.  Torii Hunter led off the sixth with a home run to increase the lead to 4-0.  The Mets got on the board in the bottom of the sixth on an Edgardo Alfonso RBI single.  The Twins added two runs in the ninth.

WP:  Santana (2-1).  LP:  Jeff D'Amico (4-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 to raise his average to .314...Hunter was 1-for-4 with a home run (his sixteenth) and was batting .305...Mohr raised his average to .317...Santana was 0-for-2 at the plate...Mets' starter D'Amico pitched six innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and no walks and striking out four...This was Travis Miller's first appearance for the Twins this season.  He had been with the Twins off and on every season since 1996.  He had only two full seasons with them, 2000 and 2001.  He had been a starter through 1997, then moved to the bullpen in 1998.  His major league ERAs were good from 1998-2000, but he never had a season with a WHIP of less than 1.43.  He would make only five appearances for the Twins in 2002 and was released on June 26, signing a few days later with the Cubs.  The Cubs released him a month later and he signed with Cleveland.  He was with Cincinnati and Milwaukee in 2003 but never played in the majors with anyone but the Twins.  His big league numbers are 7-18, 5.05, 1.66 WHIP in 267.1 innings.  He appeared in 203 games, 14 of them starts.

Record:  The Twins were 40-30, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-nine

MINNESOTA 7, MILWAUKEE 6 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Sunday, June 16.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-5.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Tony Fiore pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out two.  J. C. Romero struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Eddie Guardado struck out two in a scoreless inning.

Opposition stars:  Richie Sexson was 3-for-4.  Tyler Houston was 3-for-4.  Geoff Jenkins was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his tenth.

The game:  The Twins jumped on Milwaukee starter Ruben Quevedo with four runs in the first inning, three of them scoring on a David Ortiz double.  The Brewers came back with three in the second, as Jenkins hit a two-run homer and Robert Machado had a RBI double.  In the fourth, Mohr and Denny Hocking led off with back-to-back homers to put the Twins ahead 6-3.  Milwaukee had another three-run inning in the fifth, getting a double and four singles to tie it 6-6.  With one out in the seventh, Koskie hit a home run to put the Twins back on top 7-6.  The Brewers got only one hit after that, a single by Tyler Houston in the eighth.

WP:  Fiore (5-1).  LP:  Nelson Figueroa (1-5).  S:  Guardado (20).

Notes:  Matthew LeCroy started at catcher for the first time all season and one of only three times in 2002.  He went 1-for-3 with a walk and no stolen bases were attempted...Jacque Jones was 0-for-5, dropping his average to .313...Hunter raised his average to .306...LeCroy was now batting .338...Mohr raised his average to .313...Kyle Lohse went 1-for-2.  Twins pitchers were now 4-for-9...Lohse was not as successful on the mound, pitching 4.1 innings and allowing six runs on nine hits and no walks and striking out three...Romero's ERA fell to 0.68...Quevedo pitched five innings, allowing six runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out two...Quevedo was in the big leagues for parts of four seasons and never really had any lasting success.  He started his pro career at age seventeen with Atlanta, had two very good seasons of rookie ball, had a good season in Class A in 1998, and was jumped to AAA in 1999 at age twenty.  He didn't do very well, as could perhaps have been expected, but was still thought of highly enough to be included with another minor league player in a trade to the Cubs for Terry Mulholland and Jose Hernandez.  He split the 2000 season between AAA and the majors, doing decently but not outstandingly in AAA but not getting much accomplished in the big leagues.  Still only twenty-two, he started 2001 in AAA and pitched very well, but was traded to Milwaukee at the July trade deadline.  The Brewers put him into their starting rotation and left him there through 2002.  Over that time, he made 35 starts and went 10-16, 5.43.  He apparently had injury problems after that, as he made only fourteen appearances in 2003, nine of them in the majors.  He signed with Baltimore for 2004 but made just one appearance for AA Bowie.  One source says that he pitched in Venezuela for several years after that, but b-r.com lists just one winter ball season in 2008-09.  He did, however, play for the Venezuelan National Team in the South American Championships in 2005.  I often complain about guys who succeeded in the minors and were never given a chance, but here we have the opposite--a guy who was rushed to the majors before he was ready and was never really given the chance to develop.  We'll never know what would've happened if he'd been handled differently, but the way they did it clearly didn't work.  Sadly, Ruben Quevedo died of a heart attack on June 7, 2016 at the young age of thirty-seven.

Record:  The Twins were 39-30, in first place by five games over Chicago and Cleveland.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-eight

MINNESOTA 5, MILWAUKEE 2 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Saturday, June 15.

Batting stars:  Torii Hunter was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5 with two doubles.  Eric Milton was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Milton struck out eight in eight innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Richie Sexson was 2-for-4 with a home run, his seventeenth.  Geoff Jenkins was 1-for-4 with a triple.  Jayson Durocher struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks.

The game:  There was no score until the fourth, when the Twins broke through with four runs.  Hunter drove in the first run with a doubleand another run scored on a ground out.  With two out and a man on third, Luis Rivas was intentionally walked to get to Milton.   Milton ruined the strategy with an RBI single and Jacque Jones followed with another RBI single.  Bobby Kielty brought home a run in the fifth with a single.  The Brewers got on the board in the seventh when Sexson homered and added a run in the eighth on a Mark Loretta double.  They brought the tying run up to the plate with one out in the ninth, getting singles from Ronnie Belliard and Sexson, but ex-Twin Alex Ochoa popped up and Jenkins grounded back to the pitcher to end the game.

WP:  Milton (8-5).  LP:  Jamey Wright (1-4).  S:  Guardado (19).

Notes:  Jones raised his average to .319...Hunter raised his average to .304...Kielty was 1-for-3 with a walk and was batting .330...A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .325...Twins pitchers were now 3-for-7 in interleague play...The Twins were now 4-4 in interleague play...You may have noticed that I like highlighting players that most people either have never heard of or have completely forgotten about.  Today it's Jayson Durocher.  He was drafted by the Expos out of high school in 1993.  He was a starter in the low minors through 1997 and didn't do badly, but the Expos were very slow to promote him, leaving him in Class A for four years.  They moved him to the bullpen in 1998 and he did poorly, but maybe he just needed time to adjust, because he did much better in 1999 and reached AAA, doing very well there in seventeen games.  It didn't impress Montreal much, though, as they allowed him to become a free agent.  He was in the minors with San Diego in 2000 and with Texas in 2001, not pitching well at all in the Pacific Coast League.  Milwaukee signed him for 2002 and, back in the International League, he again pitched well.  After pitching well in twenty appearances, the Brewers promoted him in mid-June and, after ten-plus years in the minors, Jayson Durocher was in the big leagues.  He made the most of it, going 1-1, 1.88, 1.00 WHIP with 44 strikeouts in 48 innings.  Unfortunately, that was as good as it would get for him.  He battled injuries in 2003, pitching only six games for the Brewers.  He sat out two years, tried to come back in 2006 in AAA with Texas, but could pitch in only four games before his career ended.  He has been a scout with Tampa Bay, but I could not tell if he still is or not.  It's not a great playing career, but he had one really good season, which is one more than a lot of people ever have.

Record:  Minnesota was 38-30, in first place by five games over Chicago and Cleveland.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-six

ATLANTA 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, June 12.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-4 with a triple.  Denny Hocking was 0-for-1 with two walks.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out eight in 4.2 innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and three walks.  J. C. Romero retired all four men he faced.  Mike Jackson and Eddie Guardado each pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Damian Moss struck out eight in seven shutout innings, giving up two hits and two walks.  Rafael Furcal was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a stolen base, his fifteenth.  Gary Sheffield was 2-for-3 with a home run (his tenth) and a walk.

The game:  Furcal led off the game with a double and scored on Sheffield's single to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.  It stayed 1-0 until the fifth, when Furcal again doubled and scored on a pair of wild pitches.  Sheffield hit a home run in the seventh to make it 3-0. Meanwhile, the Twins had only three hits through eight innings and only once advanced a man as far as second base.  In the ninth, however, Guzman doubled and scored on a Mientkiewicz triple.  Mientkiewicz came home on a ground out to cut the lead to 3-2, but there were now two out and no one on base.  Torii Hunter grounded out to end the game.

WP:  Moss (3-2).  LP:  Santana (1-1).  S:  John Smoltz (19).

Notes:  Jacque Jones was given the day off, with Dustan Mohr in left.  Luis Rivas was moved up to the leadoff spot, going 0-for-3...Matthew LeCroy was again the DH in place of David Ortiz, going 1-for-3...Hocking was at third base, replacing Corey Koskie...LeCroy's average was now .338...Hunter went 0-for-4 and was batting .300...Kielty was 0-for-2 to make his average .333...Mohr was 0-for-3 and was batting .310...A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-3 and was batting .332...Santana threw 107 pitches in his 4.2 innings...Romero's ERA went down to 0.70...Jackson's ERA was 0.95...To be honest, I don't remember anything about Damian Moss.  He had a good year in 2002, though, going 12-6, 3.42, 1.28 WHIP, and finishing fifth in Rookie of the Year voting.  He had a FIP of 4.77, however, which would've been a warning sign if anyone had known what FIP was in 2002.  He's a native of Australia and signed with the Braves as a free agent.  He did well in the low minors, didn't do much in AAA, then missed all of 1998, presumably due to injury.  He struggled when he came back in 1999, did better in 2000, and had a fine season in AAA in 2001, although he made only sixteen starts.  He made five appearances for the Braves that season and was with them all of 2002, his first full season in the majors.  He tended to walk too many batters, walking 4.5 per nine innings that season (he had a seven-inning no hitter against St. Louis, but was pulled because he had given up seven walks), which was another warning sign.  The Braves may have picked up on some of these warning signs, because after the season they traded him to San Francisco for Russ Ortiz.  He struggled with the Giants in 2003 and was sent to Baltimore at the July trade deadline in a deal that involved Sir Sidney Ponson.  He became a free agent after the season, signed with Tampa Bay, and spent most of the year in the minors, making only five appearances with the big club.  Those would be his last five appearances in the majors.  He kept trying, however, and teams kept giving him chances, hoping he could repeat that 2002 season.  The Devil Rays released him in August of 20034and he signed with Cincinnati.  He was in the minors with Seattle in 2005, was back in the minors with Atlanta briefly in 2006, was in independent ball for most of 2006 and all of 2007, was back in the minors with Atlanta in 2008, and was in AAA with Colorado for 2009 and 2010.  He never really accomplished much in any of those places, but I guess you have to give him credit for persistence.  It appears that he has become an agent, working for Integrity Sports Agency in Dublin, Georgia.

Record:  The Twins were 37-29, in first place by four games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-five

ATLANTA 11, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, June 11.

Batting stars:  Bobby Kielty was 1-for-2 with a walk.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-3 with a double.  Those were the only two Twins hits.

Pitching stars:  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Matt Kinney pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Tom Glavine pitched seven shutout innings, giving up two hits and one walk and striking out two.  Rafael Furcal was 3-for-5 with a walk.  Vinny Castilla was 2-for-4 with a home run, his ninth.

The game:  The Braves scored once in the third on a Chipper Jones sacrifice fly and once in the fourth on a home run by Keith Lockhart.  They blew the game open in the fifth, scoring seven times.  Andruw Jones hit a two-run homer and Castilla and Matt Franco also homered.  Javy Lopez added a two-run homer in the sixth.  The biggest Twins threat came in the second, when LeCroy led off with a double and Kielty followed with a walk.  A fly out and a double play ended the threat.

WP:  Glavine (11-2).  LP:  Kyle Lohse (6-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy played first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz...Kielty played center field in place of Torii Hunter...Brian Buchanan was the DH in place of David Ortiz...Tom Prince caught in place of A. J. Pierzynski...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 to make his average .313...LeCroy's average was now .338.  He couldn't be expected to keep that up, and he sure didn't.  Over the last three months of the season he batted .163...Kielty's average was now .339...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-3 and was batting .315...Luis Rivas was 0-for-3 and was batting .306...Hawkins now had an ERA of 1.37...Tom Glavine was nearly as consistent as Greg Maddux.  He had double-digit wins in every season from 1989-2002, had nine in 2003, and then was back in double digits from 2004-2007.  He won twenty or more games five times and fourteen or more games thirteen times.  His ERA was under four (often well under) every season from 1991-1998, and after posting a 4.12 mark in 1999 he was back under four from 2000-2002.  He made twenty-nine or more starts in every year from 1998-2007 except for the strike year of 1994, when he made twenty-five.  He pitched 180 or more innings a season over that same span, with the strike year of 1994 again being the lone exception (165.1).  He won the Cy Young Award twice and was in the top three four other times.  It has to be a wonderful feeling for a manager to know he has two top-notch starters in his rotation who never get hurt and almost always give you six or seven innings.

Record:  The Twins were 37-28, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-Four

MINNESOTA 6, ATLANTA 5 IN MINNESOTA (15 INNINGS)

Date:  Monday, June 10.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-6.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-5.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Mike Jackson pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.  J. C. Romero pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Tony Fiore struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and three walks.

Opposition stars:  Vinny Castilla was 4-for-6.  Chipper Jones was 3-for-5 with a two-run homer (his seventh), a double, and two walks.  Kevin Gryboski struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up only a walk.

The game:  The Twins jumped on Atlanta starter Greg Maddux early, scoring five first-innings runs.  They opened the inning with five consecutive singles.  Then came a sacrifice fly, a stolen base-plus-error, then another single.  Maddux then settled down, giving up just three singles and a walk over the next six innings.  Atlanta came back with three in the fifth on a double, three singles, and a ground out.  They tied it in the sixth on Jones' two-run homer.  There was then no more scoring, and really not a lot of big threats, until the fifteenth.  The first two Twins were retired.  Tom Prince. who came into the game in the thirteenth inning after Brian Buchanan pinch-ran for Pierzynski, singled to left.  Cristian Guzman then hit a long double to deep right and Prince was able to score from first with the winning run.

WP:  Fiore (4-1).  LP:  Kerry Ligtenberg (0-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was 1-for-6, dropping his average to .318...LeCroy, who had been out for nearly a month, raised his average to .338...Torii Hunter was 1-for-6 and was batting .304...Dustan Mohr was 1-for-6 and was batting .321...Pierzynski raised his average to .332...Luis Rivas was 0-for-4 and was batting .333...The Twins had fourteen hits, thirteen of them singles.  Their only extra-base hit was Guzman's double to end the game...Eric Milton pitched seven innings, giving up five runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two...Jackson dropped his ERA to 0.99...Romero's ERA fell to 0.73...Maddux was thirty-six in 2002, but he showed no signs of losing anything.  He went 16-6, 2.62, 1.20 WHIP.  You obviously don't need me to tell you the Greg Maddux was a great pitcher, but what strikes me when I look at his record is how long he was a great pitcher, and how incredibly consistent he was.  He had fifteen or more wins every year from 1993-2004 and double digit wins for three years after that.  His ERA was under 3.60 (often well under) from 1993-2002.  He pitched over 190 innings every year from 1993-2008.  His WHIP was less than 1.35 (often well under) in every year of that span.  He only once walked more than three batters per nine innings over that span, and that was when he walked 3.1 in 1994.  He won four Cy Young awards and finished in the top five five other times.  He got the benefit of a wide strike zone sometimes, and that was frustrating, but he was still an incredible pitcher for a very long time.

Record:  The Twins were 37-27, in first place, six games ahead of Chicago.