For those that missed the guidelines I am using for this series of posts, you can find them here.
Team #15: Minnesota Twins
General Managers(since 1994)
Andy MacPhail (1994): 53-60
Terry Ryan (1995-2007): 1023-1062
Bill Smith (2008-Current): 175-151
Team Performance
Playoffs | Division Finish | ||||||
WC | League | Playoff App | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
All information is drawn from Baseball Reference.
Position | Name | Acquired | Years with Org. |
Stats with Organization |
Left? |
C | Joe Mauer | 2001 – 1st Rd (1) | 9 | 2009 AL MVP, 3 All Star Appearances, 3 Silver Sluggers 766 gm, .325/.406/.478, 75 HR, 431 RBI, 35 SB |
Currently with Org. |
1B | Justin Morneau | 1999 – 3rd Rd | 11 | 2006 AL MVP, 3 All Star Appearances, 2 Silver Sluggers 940 gm, .285/.358/.510, 178 HR, 672 RBI, 525 R |
Currently with Org. |
2B | Michael Cuddyer | 1997 – 1st Rd (9) | 13 | 915 gm, .269/.342/.453, 114 HR, 462 RBI, 36 SB, 484 R | Currently with Org. |
3B | Matt Tolbert | 2004 – 16th Rd | 6 | 133 gm, .247/.308/.337, 3 HR, 33 RBI, 13 SB, 50 R | Currently with Org. |
SS | Trevor Plouffe | 2004 – 1st Rd (20) | 6 | 7 gm, .130/.125/.274, 3 RBI, R | Currently with Org. |
LF | Denard Span | 2002 – 1st Rd (20) | 8 | 313 gm, .297/.379/.408, 17 HR, 144 RBI, 56 SB, 214 R | Currently with Org. |
CF | Torii Hunter | 1993 – 1st Rd (20) | 14 | 2 All Star Appearances, 7 Gold Gloves 1234 gm, .271/.324/.469, 192 HR, 711 RBI, 126 SB, 672 R |
Free Agency – 10/29/07 |
RF | Jason Kubel | 2000 – 12th Rd | 10 | 579 gm, .276/.341/.470, 81 HR, 321 RBI, 252 R | Currently with Org. |
DH | A.J. Pierzynski | 1994 – 3rd Rd | 9 | 1 All Star Appearance 430 gm, .301/.341/.447 26 HR, 193 RBI, 184 R |
Traded to SF – 11/14/03 |
SP | Scott Baker | 2003 – 2nd Rd | 7 | 49-40, 4.36 ERA, 582 K, 168 BB, 749 IP, 1.274 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
SP | Nick Blackburn | 2001 – 29th Rd | 9 | 28-29, 4.46 ERA, 228 K, 104 BB, 490.1 IP, 1.424 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
SP | Kevin Slowey | 2005 – 2nd Rd | 5 | 33-20, 4.47 ERA, 304 K, 67 BB, 400.1 IP, 1.304 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
SP | Matt Garza | 2005 – 1st Rd (25) | 2 | 8-13, 4.47 ERA, 105 K, 55 BB, 133 IP, 1.602 WHIP | Traded to MIN – 11/28/07 |
SP | Brian Duensing | 2005 – 3rd Rd | 5 | 7-3, 3.17 ERA, 72 K, 39 BB, 116.1 IP, 1.246 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
RP | Alex Burnett | 2005 – 12th Rd | 5 | 1-1, 3.15 ERA, 26 K, 14 BB, 1.369 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
RP | Jesse Crain | 2002 – 2nd Rd | 8 | 33-20, 3.57 ERA, 228 K, 126 BB, 345.2 IP | Currently with Org. |
RP | J.C. Romero | 1997 – 21st Rd | 8 | 25-20, 4.35 ERA, 336 K, 209 BB, 407.2 IP, 1.482 WHIP | Traded to LAA – 12/9/05 |
RP | Jose Mijares | Int’l FA – 2002 | 8 | 2-3, 2.18 ERA, 70 K, 27 BB, 86.2 IP, 1.108 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
RP | Grant Balfour | Int’l FA – 1997 | 8 | 5-1, 4.63 ERA, 74 K, 38 BB, 68 IP, 1.456 WHIP | Free Agency – 12/21/05 |
CL | LaTroy Hawkins | 1991 – 7th Rd | 12 | 44-57, 44 SV, 5.05 ERA, 532 K, 290 BB, 818 IP, 1.523 WHIP | Free Agency – 10/27/03 |
BN | Wilson Ramos | Int’l FA – 2004 | 6 | 7 gm, .293/.321/.407, 1 RBI, 2 R | Currently with Org. |
BN | Saul Rivera | 1998 – 9th Rd | 3 | No Major League Appearances with Org. | Selected by NYM – 11/20/01 |
BN | Peter Moylan | Int’l FA – 1996 | 2 | No Major League Appearances with Org. | Released – 4/1/98 |
BN | Mike Lincoln | 1996 – 13th Rd | 4 | 3-13, 7.70 ERA, 42 K, 39 BB, 97 IP, 1.825 WHIP | Released – 12/20/00 |
BN | Evan Meek | 2002 – 11th Rd | 3 | No Major League Appearances with Org. | Released – 6/22/05 |
June Amateur Draft
The thing that seems to stand out to me about the Twins and their draft is that they consistently seem to get useful Major Leaguers out of the draft, and don’t seem to miss too often on their high level picks. Clearly the cream of the crop has been Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter, and Justin Morneau, who are all multiple award winners. Looking at their first round picks over the last 15 years, a majority of them have played in the Majors, and quite a few of them have made it to the Majors with the Twins as well.
International Free Agency
The Twins don’t visit the international markets a lot, mostly because it costs money to get the top prospects from foreign countries. That said, they still have done reasonably well, with Wilson Ramos being one of the top prospects in their system right now, and a solid reliever in Jose Mijares. The most recent signing of note for the Twins is Dominican SS Miguel Angel Sano, who was scouted by many teams and nearly signed a couple of times. I’d like to see more players come out of the international markets before I think it’s been a complete success, but the Twins have done alright here to this point.
Overall Grade
B-. The Twins have done very well to not only scout and develop a lot of high quality players, but have also managed to keep a lot of them and used their farm system to replenish themselves when they need to as well. The only reason that they aren’t really higher up in my rankings is because the bench is so unusually weak for a team with the amount of success that the Twins have had. Also, I think that their inability to translate these groups of players into a championship is a bit of a knock on them, but overall their performance has still been good.