SB Nation User Blog: Jon Marthaler

The Twins? Really? - South Side Sox

Jon Marthaler — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:35:36 -0000

The Twins? Really? - South Side Sox

Our friends over on Chicago's South Side can't figure out why the Twins won't go away.

Scott Baker strikes out four batters in third inning

Jon Marthaler — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:05:32 -0000

Do not adjust your sets - or your box scores. In the bottom of the third inning in Sunday's game, Scott Baker struck out Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder (who reached first as the ball got away from Mike Redmond), Russell Branyan, and Mike Cameron.

And so, did you know...

Baker is the first Twin to ever strike out four batters in the same inning.
Going back to the Senators days of the franchise, he's the first Senator/Twin to do it since Walter Johnson, on April 15, 1911.
He's the first player to do it in the major leagues since Brad Penny did it for the Dodgers, in the 2nd inning on September 22, 2006.
He's the first American League pitcher to accomplish the feat since Kaz Sasaki, who did it April 4, 2003 in the 9th inning for the Mariners.
And he is the first pitcher to strike out all four consecutively since Houston's Octavio Dotel did it on June 11, 2003.

Knowledge is power!

(All data from The Baseball Almanac.)

The story of Benj Sampson (and Juan Rincon)

Jon Marthaler — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:47:30 -0000

Jesse had a nice essay on Juan Rincon yesterday morning, hailing the seemingly-certain end of the "Juanny" era in Minnesota. Yesterday afternoon, Rincon gave up four more earned runs, his fourth consecutive appearance allowing at least one run.

While it's certainly a tough stretch for Rincon, it's not the worst run-allowing streak by a Twins reliever - not by another ten appearances. That honor goes to former reliever Benj Sampson, who in 1999 went an astonishing fourteen consecutive relief appearances without shutting the other team out, tied for the longest such streak in the major leagues since at least 1956.

After the jump, a look at that streak - and how it ties in with Rincon's latest problems.

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Sampson began 1999 in the starting rotation, but got knocked out of the box early in all three of his April starts, thus amassing a 16.88 ERA as a starter. A demotion to the bullpen soon followed, but for awhile, things went somewhat smoothly; in his first 11 relief appearances following the demotion, Sampson had a 3.75 ERA. He even started June with a pair of very nice scoreless appearances, throwing 2.2 innings in a loss, then picking up his first win of the year in relief against the Astros, allowing only one hit over 3.2 innings.

Even as the fateful streak began, on June 12, things still seemed fine. That day, Sampson replaced starter LaTroy Hawkins only five batters into a game against Milwaukee, going 4.1 innings, allowing three earned runs, and again getting the win after the Twins put up six runs in the fourth.

Eleven days later, he did virtually the same thing in Chicago; five of the first seven White Sox reached, Tom Kelly jerked starter Mike Lincoln the heck out of there, and Sampson came to the rescue, allowing four runs in five innings of work while the offense got busy pounding out 19 hits in a wild 12-10 win. At that point, Sampson was 3-0 as the bullpen's long man, despite allowing runs in four straight appearances.

Unfortunately for Sampson, his duties as mop-up man were about to get to him. When he next pitched, ten games later, the Tigers got him for six runs in 3.2 innings. Four days later, the Indians put two more on the board against him. And so, after winning three games in June, Sampson went down the tubes in July, allowing 14 runs in 13.1 innings over five appearances.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, for Sampson, the 1999 Twins were more or less devoid of starting pitching. (Remember, this was a team that regularly gave the ball to such luminaries as Dan Perkins and Gary Rath, to name two forgettable names.) And so on August 3, he trooped back to the hill to take on Texas.

Corey Koskie booted the first ground ball of the game. It was probably a sign. Sampson responded by giving up singles to the next five Rangers hitters, allowing four runs in the process. He managed to fight his way out of the first, sat down, then gave up two walks and a single to begin the second.

If there had been a boxing referee, he would have stopped the fight at that point. Tom Kelly just took the lefty out, and sent him back to the bullpen.

It was pretty much all over for Sampson after that. He pitched five more times that August, including a game in which he gave up ten hits to the Yankees, including a Chuck Knoblauch grand slam. On August 19, he gave up two hits, two walks, and two runs in one inning to the Orioles, and the Twins had seen enough. They sent him back to the minors and brought up Jason Ryan, who briefly thrilled everyone with a complete-game two-hitter and eight marginally-decent starts before falling into obscurity.

And so here's the tie-in with Rincon. Over that 15-game stretch - 14 relief appearances and one start - Sampson never once failed to give up a run. He gave up 39 earned runs in 38 innings, including eight home runs, in what surely must stand as one of the worst relief-pitching stretches in baseball history. And through it all, batters amassed a .391 batting average against Sampson, and a 1.024 OPS.

In his past nine games, Juan Rincon has allowed runs only seven times - but in that span, opponents have a 1.090 OPS against him, and a .370 batting average.

When there are legitimate comparisons to be made between a player's current stretch, and the longest run-allowing streak in the last 50 years of major-league baseball relief pitching - yeah, it's probably time to think about making a move.

Mike Lamb hits 50 games

Jon Marthaler — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:29:15 -0000

With last night's loss to the Orioles, Mike Lamb has officially hit the 50-game mark - the point at which the Twins cut Tony Batista loose in 2006. Batista had 195 plate appearances that season; Lamb has a very comparable 187 so far this year. And here's the tale of the tape:

	BATISTA	M. LAMB
BA	.236	.247
OBP	.303	.283
SLG	.388	.335
HR	5	1
RBI	21	24
Runs created	24	23
OPS in last 20 games	.685	.707
BA with RISP	.318	.432
BA on balls in play	.276	.266
Line-drive percentage	21.9%	18.2%
RZR at 3B	.602	.587
Out-of-zone plays made	15	14
Fielding errors	3	2
Throwing errors	3	2
Contract	1yr /$1.25m	2yr /$6.6m

Apart from the salary - and the contract length - there's really no difference between the two. Still, the fiscal reality of his contract probably precludes the Twins from cutting their losses and ditching Lamb; I suppose the best-case scenario is for the team to play him only against right-handed pitchers, or keep him around to pinch-hit against righties and back up at the corner positions.

In 2006, I remember the Twins' DFA-ing of Batista as a move that was viewed with celebration, not to mention relief, among Twins fans. And so I remain somewhat confused why no similar movement is afoot regarding Lamb.

Welcome to Twinkie Town, Craig Breslow

Jon Marthaler — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:01:01 -0000

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Joe Christensen:

KANSAS CITY, MO. — The Twins have claimed lefthanded pitcher Craig Breslow off waivers from the Cleveland Indians, and he will join his new team in time for Friday’s game against the Yankees, the Twins announced today.

...To make room on the 40-man roster, the Twins transferred Pat Neshek (strained elbow) to the 60-day disabled list. They need to make another roster move to make room on the 25-man roster, which will likely involve sending a reliever back to Class AAA Rochester.

Breslow's stats (with Cleveland this year):

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2008 - Craig Breslow	0-0	7	0	0	0	0	0	8.3	10	3	3	1	5	7	3.24	1.80

Other notes:

Breslow will turn 28 in August.
Breslow is almost certainly now the smartest member of the Twins, given that he has a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale.
The scouting report says his fastball is in the high 80s, with an above-average curve and an average changeup.
He's not exactly hard on lefties; they have a .746 OPS against him over his career (compared to .705 for righties).
Before pitching in Cleveland, he appeared for San Diego in 2005 and Boston in 2006.
He spent all of last season pitching for Pawtucket in Triple-A, where he was 2-3 with a 4.06 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP, and struck out 73 in 68.2 innings.

It remains to be seen who the demoted / released reliever will be. Korecky? Rincon? Bass?

NOOOOO!!

Jon Marthaler — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:55:55 -0000

From Judd Zulgad at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, on the Access Vikings blog:

First, the good news for Vikings fans. The NFL Network has included a Vikings game in a weekly series that will debut Monday and feature 12 classic games from the years 1975-2004.

Now, the (potentially) bad news. The game that has been picked as a Vikings classic is the team’s Dec. 28, 1975 loss to Dallas in the Divisional playoffs at Met Stadium. Longtime Vikings fans simply know this as the “Hail Mary Game.” Many still haven’t gotten over it.

Way back when, Gonzo agreed with me that this was the second-worst loss in state history - and now, we have the horrible chance to relive it again.

To sum up: NOOOOOO!

Fielding drills await Twins in Minnesota

Jon Marthaler — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:20:37 -0000

Fielding drills await Twins in Minnesota

The Twins pitchers are going to be taking some PFP when they get home - and not a moment too soon.

MLB fumbles to hit fast-forward button

Jon Marthaler — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:55:38 -0000

MLB fumbles to hit fast-forward button

The Twins play the fastest games in the major leagues, averaging 2:44 a game. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports explores the new hurry-up initiatives in MLB, while asking the Twins: why so fast?

They're loving Luis Castillo in Flushing

Jon Marthaler — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:42:34 -0000

They're loving Luis Castillo in Flushing

Remember how mad everyone (by which I mean "Torii Hunter") was about the Twins' trading of Luis Castillo? Take a look at this bit from Faith and Fear in Flushing, presumably enumerating the worst problems in New York:

Willie Randolph's Record Since Last Memorial Day: 77-83
Days Until Contract of Luis Castillo (Key Strikeout, Otherwise an Acceptable Night in a Punchless Way) Expires: 1,222
Days Until Willie Randolph Is Fired: ?
Days Until I Give Up on This Listless, Unwatchable, Eminently Booable Team: -6

They seem pleased.

In case you were wondering...

Jon Marthaler — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:46:18 -0000

Just a few Did You Knows from Monday's game (all research from Baseball-Reference.com)...

Bobby Korecky's 11th-inning single was the first hit by a pitcher in Metrodome history.
It was also the first hit in an American League game by a Twins pitcher in the DH era; the last Twins pitcher to get a hit in an AL game was Bert Blyleven, on October 4, 1972.
Only one other Twins pitcher has ever had a plate appearance at home in the DH era. On August 24, 1986, reliever Ray Fontenot struck out to end the game against Toronto, in a game much like Monday's (the Twins ran out of bench players).
The last Twins pitcher to bat in an American League game was Matt Garza, who hit twice on July 6 in Chicago last year after Mike Redmond was injured in the first inning.
Only two other Twins pitchers have batted and pitched in an American League game in the DH era - and they both did it in the same game. On July 12, 1975, the Twins lost 8-7 to the Yankees in 16 innings, and both Vic Albury and Bill Campbell hit. Albury struck out in the 11th, Campbell in the 14th.
Per Joe Christensen at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Allan Anderson also pinch-hit (but didn't pitch, which is why I missed it in the first version of this post) in a game on June 13, 1989, against Seattle.
Two Twins outfielders had hits in games that they also pitched in; John Moses did it in both 1989 and 1990, and Dan Gladden did it in 1988.
According to his stats at The Baseball Cube , Korecky's last plate appearance - and last hit - came in 2002, at the University of Michigan.
The last time a pitcher had a hit in an American League game was 11 years ago; on August 16, 1997, Yankees reliever John Wetteland whacked an RBI double in the top of the 10th in an 8-5 win over Texas. Wetteland was the winning pitcher that day, making him the last AL pitcher to get a hit and get the win on the same day.
Korecky is the 10th pitcher to get a hit in an American League game in the DH era.

All in all - a big day for Korecky. First major league win, first major league hit - and all in the same day!