All Things 2026 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

[GophersInIowa]

I disagree that there have been "tons of poorly chosen award winners". Sure some in hindsight, should have gone to other players but it's not like those Winners were completely undeserving or gross injustices.

Even in 2005 when Colon won over Santana, it's not like Bartolo was a stiff. He was a 21 Game Winner, the "Ace" on a 1st Place Angels Team. Ws were just starting to lose traction as a major indicator at that time.

Santana had the misfortune of pitching on a very ordinary Twins team that season. Thems the breaks.

Awards are factors. Of several.

Johan never pitched in a World Series. Only Post-season success was out of the pen when the Twins beat the A's in the ALDS. Never even made it as a Met.

I would love it if he was in the HoF, but not being hardly seems out of line.

He got less than 3% of the BBWAA Vote when he was on the ballot. Would 1 more Cy Young convince 72% of the Electors to put him in?

He had a good year. But did finish 8th in ERA in the AL. Of all the basic stats, that might be the most important one with WHIP probably being second. Santana was by far the leader in WHIP in the AL.

Rivera finishing 2nd might have been even worse IMO.

I think a 3rd gets him a lot more votes to begin with. Maybe not an extra 72% right away but if he's at say 30% after the first year, he has a shot.

 

[Ope3]

He had a good year. But did finish 8th in ERA in the AL. Of all the basic stats, that might be the most important one with WHIP probably being second. Santana was by far the leader in WHIP in the AL.

Rivera finishing 2nd might have been even worse IMO.

I think a 3rd gets him a lot more votes to begin with. Maybe not an extra 72% right away but if he's at say 30% after the first year, he has a shot.

Perhaps, but I don't think a 3rd Cy Young moves the needle that much without any WS Rings and just 1 post-season victory.

Santana has a very similar Career to Ron Guidry in terms of WAR, ERA, WHIP and Cy Youngs (2).

Guidry though has a pair of WS Rings, 5 Gold Gloves (to Santana's 1) and 31 more Ws.

Gator never got a sniff at Cooperstown via the BBWAA vote. Maxed out at 8.8%.

 

[GophersInIowa]

For example, Rod Carew stole home 7 times in one season! He and Cesar Tovar once stole home in the same game! Now its extremely rare for someone to steal home,

Was going to comment on this this other day and then forgot. A big reason this dropped off so much is because pitchers throw out of the stretch and hold runners on a lot more often than before, even when there are just runners on 3B.

let alone bunt, sacrfice and hit and run.

Bunting and hit & run have definitely fallen off significantly over the years. Sacrifice flies are down but not be a ton. In 1991 when the Twins last won the WS, there was a sacrifice fly every 129 plate appearances. Now it is at 140. A bit of a drop off but not a lot.

I still think there's a lot of strategy with the game and I don't miss bunting as much as some others do. Some of the changes have brought back stolen bases and I love that. Now close to the rate it once was at.