Lou Bierbauer (1865)
Wilbur Good (1885)
Jack Fournier (1889)
Whitey Witt (1895)
Al Evans (1916)
Dick Gernert (1928)
Grant Jackson (1942)
Pete Filson (1958)
Jerry Layne (1958)
Todd Worrell (1959)
Ed Vosberg (1961)
Charlie Kerfeld (1963)
Matt Vasgersian (1967)
Mike DeJean (1970)
Ryan Zimmerman (1984)
Eddie Rosario (1991)
Jerry Layne has been a major league umpire since 1989.
Matt Vasgersian has been a major league baseball broadcaster since 1997.
Heinie Wagner (1880)
Lefty Stewart (1900)
Jim Rooker (1942)
Woody Woodward (1942)
Dennis Lamp (1952)
Jim Morrison (1952)
Tony Fossas (1957)
Jim Winn (1959)
Pete Harnisch (1966)
Jeff Cirillo (1969)
Brent Abernathy (1977)
Mike Gosling (1980)
Matt Kemp (1984)
Joba Chamberlain (1985)
Trevor May (1989)
Left-hander Tony Fossas was drafted by the Twins in the ninth round in 1978, but did not sign.
Due to personal time constraints, this is essentially a reprint from last year. I added Robbie Grossman's name, but did not have time to write a biography for him. Maybe next year. Sorry about that, Robbie.
Heinie Mueller (1899)
Hillbilly Bildilli (1912)
Gary Ross (1947)
Robin Yount (1955)
Orel Hershiser (1958)
Tim Raines (1959)
Mickey Tettleton (1960)
Mel Hall (1960)
Chris Pittaro (1961)
Mark Parent (1961)
Paul Shuey (1970)
Desi Relaford (1973)
Bobby Korecky (1979)
Brandon Moss (1983)
Robbie Grossman (1989)
Date: Thursday, April 9.
Batting stars: Kent Hrbek was 1-for-2 with two walks and a home run. Tom Brunansky was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a double and a stolen base.
Pitching star: Juan Berenguer struck out four in three shutout innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Mike Davis was 3-for-4 with a home run, a double, a walk, and two stolen bases. Carney Lansford was 2-for-4 with a walk and a run. Chris Codiroli pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks with one strikeout.
The game: The Twins scored two in the second, but the Athletics tied it with two in the third. Davis hit a two-run double in the sixth to put Oakland up 4-2 and it stayed 4-2 until the ninth. With one out, Gaetti doubled, Brunansky singled him home, and Roy Smalley doubled to put men on second and third. After an intentional walk to Mark Salas, Dan Gladden pinch-hit for Tom Nieto and delivered a two-run single down the left-field line to win the game.
Of note: Starter Mark Portugal pitched 5.2 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and five walks with five strikeouts. Greg Gagne was 2-for-3. Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4.
Record: The Twins were 3-0 and moved into sole possession of first place, leading California and Chicago by a game.
Notes: Mike Davis has been mostly forgotten, but he was a pretty fair player for a few years. He got partial seasons with Oakland from 1980-82 but finally came up to stay in 1983, when he batted .275. He had a poor year in 1984 but followed it with his best season in 1985, when he hit .287 with 24 homers, 34 doubles, and 24 stolen bases. He stayed a productive player for Oakland through 1987, when he became a free agent. He signed with the Dodgers and his career promptly collapsed. I don't know if he was hurt or something, but he batted only .196. He stayed in the majors through 1989, played a couple of seasons in the minors, and then was done. From 1985-87, though, he batted .274 with 65 homers, 94 doubles, and 70 stolen bases.
The Twins finally got to 50 wins! It only took 5 months!
I dont have much to say, its been a slog. But, I still like watching Joe Mauer swat baseballs, I like seeing Brian Dozier hit bombs, I like seeing Max Kepler dive for balls he has no business diving for. Why? Because its baseball and there is only one month left.
Enjoy the game.
Tonight's game features the Twins best starter* of 2016 - Ervin Santana (6-10, 3.54 ERA, 118 ERA+, 1.201 WHIP) who, in pitching for a bad team, is 4-3 in his past 7 starts (49 IP, 13 ER's, 11BB:40K, 2.39 ERA, with an average of 4 runs of support) including a 2-0 loss to Atlanta on July 26, and a 2-1 loss to Kansas City on Aug 21.
The Twins offense will see Jose Quintana, quietly(?) having the best year of his career (11-9, 2.77 ERA, 147 ERA+, 1.103 WHIP). Quintana, also pitching for a (pretty) bad team, is also 4-3 in his past 7 starts (48.2 IP's, 10 ER's, 8BB:38K, 1.85 ERA, also with an average of 4 runs of support).
Based on the remarkable similarity of their results over their past 7 starts, tonight could be a very fun game if you like pitching.
The Twins are 2-2 against Quintana this season, losing their first two meetings, but beating him on June 28th & July 29th (though he recorded 8 & 9 SO's in those games respectively).
RECAP
-The Twins are 49-84 (6 wins behind their Pythagorean projected 55-79) and are on pace for 102 losses.
-60-102 would tie their worst W-L% since moving to Minnesota - their 1982 record.**
-A loss tonight ties the Twins longest losing streak of 14 games, set between May 19 - June 2, 1982. (The Senators lost 18 consecutive games at least four times: 1903, '04, '48 & '59.)
-Thankfully, they've got a ways to go to catch the '88 Orioles at 21 games lost in a row, or the modern-era-leading 1961 Phillies with a 23 game losing streak.
On a more positive note, highlighted by dw early this morning, Dozier has accumulated 5.4 WAR*** this year, and at 2.5 WAR so far, Joe Mauer is only .6 WAR behind Kirby Puckett on the Twins career WAR list at 50.3, good for 6th all time.
*No other Twins starter has an ERA below 5, though reliever Ryan Pressly is 6-6 with a 3.65 ERA in 62 games
**There are 9 Senators teams with worse W-L%'s
***A career best. Maybe it goes without saying that 32 HR's and 81 RBI's (so far) are also career bests
The Twins have been stuck on 49 wins for about a week. To get to 50 they will have to beat up on old friend Francisco Liriano. Pat Dean will try to soak up some innings for the Twins. Brian Dozier is probably good for a HR or 3 this series.
Enjoy the game!
We're ahead 2-0. Can we hold the lead?
I watched about 5 innings of baseball this week. The Twins scored a bunch of runs in those 5 innings. Maybe I should have made an effort to watch yesterdays games. Oh well.
Something I found interesting: this is Kyle Gibson's 89th career start for the Twins. He is 29th on the all time list. Kevin Slowey is next at 90 starts.
Rain, rain go away
Come again another day:
Little Jose wants to play
Twins score 5 runs off 2015 Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel, including a leadoff homerun by Brian Dozier, and win it going away!
le sigh...
"You get off to a good start against a good pitcher and you've got your best guy out there and you've just got to wipe it off the slate," Twins manager Paul Molitor said, with a hint of weariness in his voice. "Unfortunate. Good for them."
Apparently, last night's tilt was just for funsies, not an official game, and will be replayed tonight featuring bullpen residents Tommy Milone and Chris Devenski on the mound.
The day game features every immature person's favorite giggle-inducing, unfortunately-named veteran Doug Fister (10-7, 3.47 ERA) facing 22-year-old rookie Jose Berrios (2-2, 8.31 ERA), who is hoping to notch his 3rd big league win (and second against the Astros). Berrios's best Game Score thus far is a rather timid 57 (his first major league win vs Houston), while his opponent has accrued 8 games with GSc's of ≥60, with a record of 7-1 in those contests this year.
Bring 'em home, boyos!
