That 1996 Season I was in LA so I followed from afar, but went to Anaheim to see them 3 times. The Twins wound up 78-84 and were still in the Wild Card hunt around Labor Day.
Yeah with Knoblach and Cordova (and even guys like Becker and Stahoviak), that would have been a pretty good lineup if Puckett was still there.
As I mentioned I was in LA, so not following them day-to-day. Looking at Baseball Reference it was eye opening how dreadful the pitching was.
www.baseball-reference.com
17 guys that threw 20+ innings and only 3 had an ERA under 5.00. This was in the middle of the steroid era but still.As I mentioned I was in LA, so not following them day-to-day. Looking at Baseball Reference it was eye opening how dreadful the pitching was.
Radke was decent, no other starters were below a 5.00 ERA. Bullpen, not much better outside of Mike Trombley & Dan Naulty.
1996 Minnesota Twins Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com
Minnesota Twins latest stats and more including batting stats, pitching stats, team fielding totals and more on Baseball-Reference.com
Uff da.
He could be the ace on the Quinton McCracken All-Stars (he played for Rockies, D-Backs, and Rays, in addition to 24 games for the local team in ‘01)
Funny you bring up the ‘96 Twins-I used Frankie Rodriguez (BoSox .2%) and Scott Klingenbeck (Orioles, .008%) today. For my money, Klingenbeck was the worst pitcher I ever saw on the mound for the Twins so he’s forever etched in my memory. I finished off the category with Tony O at 7%. It seems a bit astounding that only 5 Twins have hit the 200 hit mark in the 60+ years the franchise has been in MN. (Knoblauch had 197 in ‘96 and Bostock 199 in ‘77)As I mentioned I was in LA, so not following them day-to-day. Looking at Baseball Reference it was eye opening how dreadful the pitching was.
Radke was decent, no other starters were below a 5.00 ERA. Bullpen, not much better outside of Mike Trombley & Dan Naulty.
1996 Minnesota Twins Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com
Minnesota Twins latest stats and more including batting stats, pitching stats, team fielding totals and more on Baseball-Reference.com
Uff da.
I would have guessed Quinton McCracken was a Charlestown Chief.
Scott Aldred (0.1%) already paying dividends, in the Phillies/Rockies cube today.
Hey, I put Aldred to use just as you did Ope!
Gaetti's Silver Slugger is pretty amazing in my opinion, because it wasn't during his Twins tenure and it was after he was released by the Angels due to lack of productivity.
My Tampa/Texas square had a Twins tie to it as well
I could only think of Jose Canseco for Rays/Rangers.
That's a good one. Mine was a highly regarded Twins pitching prospect who was traded for a then top hitting prospect in a deal that didn't age very well for our team.
Nice. Didn't realize Garza had a short stint with the Rangers.
For whatever reason looking back at his career the team I always forget about is the Brewers, even though his tenure there was much longer. Funny how our memory can work (or too often in my case, not work).
We had 3 of the same names, Ortiz, Borgmann & Crain though I used Junior in the Foreign Born catcher. I went with Darrell Porter in the Rangers/Catcher category. Surprised he was only 0.6%.
Donald Igwebuike, nice! I had forgotten about him and having my memory jogged for Iggy was very pleasant.
I went back this morning to do yesterday's football Grid. For Vikings I went:
Twins in the category spurred me onto a sub 10% grid score today (with a hefty memory bank of ‘80s baseball cards overall):
Thanks, nice pull on Bulling. I couldn't quite keep it under 10% today. Carlos Gomez (6%) in Brewers/Cubs wasn't as rare as I thought it would be, and Doc Gooden (4%) in the <3.00/ ERA had me in double digits by themselves.Twins in the category spurred me onto a sub 10% grid score today (with a hefty memory bank of ‘80s baseball cards overall):
Mariners: Terry Bulling, obscure backup catcher (.1%)
Brewers: UW-Lacrosse alum Caleb Boushley (.09%)
Under 3.00 ERA: Vic Albury (.04%)
Both Bulling and Albury featured grand mustaches from the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, hence their lodging in my memory bank.
Nice utilization of Ken Brett once again
October was pretty rough for me--I was knocked out of perfection on October 5--a Saturday no less!--when I made the mistake of thinking Tony O. had 2000 hits +.300 average. Oliva finished his career with 1917 hits, alas.