All-Time Teams #17: Minnesota Twins

This is part of an ongoing series where I'm naming an all-time team for each of the current 30 MLB franchises, and using this as a vehicle to discuss their greatest eligible player who is not in the Hall of Fame.

Landon Evanson, who writes for Bugs and Cranks offered invaluable input to the process of selecting this team. In fact, he probably saved me from making a couple head-scratching mistakes due to not placing enough emphasis on the players who led the Twins to their most recent glory.

Franchise History
Minnesota Twins (1961- )
Washington Senators (1901-1960)

An asterisk (*) denotes a Hall of Famer.

Starters
C - Joe Mauer (2004- )
1B - Kent Hrbek (1981-1994)
2B - Rod Carew* (1967-1978)
SS - Joe Cronin* (1928-1934)
3B - Harmon Killebrew* (1954-1974)
LF - Goose Goslin* (1921-1930, 1933, 1938)
CF - Kirby Puckett* (1984-1995)
RF - Tony Oliva (1962-1976)

Moving Killebrew to third base to accommodate Hrbek in the starting lineup seems like a logical move, as the other options at third are nowhere near as good as Hrbek.

There are three Hall of Fame outfielders on this team, but the lesser of the three gets moved to the bench (see below) in favor of Oliva, a guy whose name comes up more than occasionally in discussions about deserving players outside the Hall. That still makes five Cooperstown inductees among this team's starters, and one more (Mauer) who, if his health holds up, could well be on his way.

Rotation
Walter Johnson* (1907-1927)
Bert Blyleven* (1970-1976, 1985-1988)
Johan Santana (2000-2007)
Frank Viola (1982-1989)
Brad Radke (1995-2006)

I'll admit I was initially going to leave Viola out of the rotation, but Landon and a couple other folks on Twitter convinced me otherwise. Looking back, I'm not really sure what I was thinking, but this is why I frequently seek input from others.

Closer
Joe Nathan (2004-2009, 2011)

Reserves
C - Earl Battey (1960-1967)
1B - Joe Judge (1915-1932)
2B - Chuck Knoblauch (1991-1997)
2B/SS - Buddy Myer (1925-1927, 1929-1941)
3B - Gary Gaetti (1981-1990)
OF - Sam Rice* (1915-1933)
OF - Clyde Milan (1907-1922)

I was going to take Eddie Yost over Gaetti, but the latter is another guy Landon lobbied for. In hindsight, I don't think Yost would have been a terrible decision, but Gaetti's place in Twins history earns him just enough extra credit to push him past the walking man.

Bullpen
Firpo Marberry (1923-1932, 1936)
Rick Aguilera (1989-1999)
Camilo Pascual (1954-1966)
Jim Kaat (1959-1973)

Relegating Kaat to the bullpen in favor of Radke might be a controversial choice, but I swear it has less to do with this idiocy than with the fact those same sabermetrics show, rather logically, that Radke's 4.22 ERA in an era when the league average was 4.64 was better than Kaat's 3.34 in a 3.58 league average era.

Manager

Tom Kelly (1986-2001)

No way I was going to opt for anyone besides the skipper who led the team to two of their three World Series wins, although a case could be made for Ron Gardenhire or maybe Bucky Harris, the latter basically because he's the franchise's all-time wins leader.


Greatest Eligible non-Hall of Famer

Kaat and Oliva appeared on the 2012 Hall of Fame Golden Era Committee ballot. Both received significant support, but fell short of the votes needed for induction, with Kaat garnering 10 of 16 votes and Oliva pulling in 8.

Kaat vs. Oliva is an interesting comparison, with Kaat's case based more on longevity, while Oliva enjoyed the better peak. Kaat has the edge in Hall Rating, 85 to 82, but that's probably too close to consider worth hanging my hat on.

I probably tend to favor longevity over peak performance, but in the case of just-below-the borderline candidates, which both of these guys are in my opinion, I sometimes have a different perspective.

While Kaat would likely be a Hall of Famer if he combined a little more peak dominance with his longevity and reached 300 wins, the fact remains he only enjoyed two seasons with an ERA+ of 130 or greater, and three more in the 125-130 range. The rest of his career he was basically an above average pitcher, albeit one who chewed up a lot of innings in the process. His accomplishments are certainly worthy of recognition, but not to the extent that Oliva's are.

Tony Oliva was a Hall of Fame player for eight years. Unfortunately, eight years of greatness does not make him a Hall of Famer, but it does offer a glimpse of what might have been.



From his age 25 to 32 seasons (1964-1971), Oliva was worth 40 WAR, and he was consistent at producing that five WAR per season, with 3.4 being the worst year in that stretch. He also hit .313/.360/.507 during that period, for an OPS+ of 140. In fact, his career OPS+ of 131 would be potentially Hall-worthy if extended over more than 6880 plate appearances.

After 1971, his career was as good as over, though. A knee injury limited his 1972 to just 10 games, and he was unable to return to form after that, putting together 3+ replacement-level seasons as a DH before calling it quits.

Next Up: New York Mets

21st Century Schizoid Ale (2013)

This past weekend, AfroDan set out to brew the fourth batch of 21st Century Schizoid Ale since we conceived of it almost five years ago. As the first three batches were all within the first two years, it had been just a few months short of three years since we last brewed our signature beer.

It just so happened, I had one bomber left from that last batch, so it made for the perfect accompaniment to the start of the process. (We moved on to a couple less remarkable, if i do say so myself, after that.) I feel it's a style that might benefit from a little aging and, while I can't necessarily say it's improved with age, it's certainly held up.

Drinking that last one definitely reinforced my previously held belief it's the best beer we've produced so far, so our expectations were fairly high. In keeping with tradition, and with the fact we're sometimes at the mercy of what ingredients are available at our local home brew store, we had to make a few adjustments to our recipe.

1 lb. crystal malt - 60 L (steeped 20 mins.)
1 lb. crystal malt - 20 L (steeped 20 mins.)
9.9 lbs. light malt extract (boiled 75 mins.) - 4 L
3.3 lbs. amber malt extract (boiled 75 mins.) - 10 L
3 oz. Sorachi Ace hops - 15.1% alpha (boiled 75 mins.)
2 oz. Cascade hops - 8.3% alpha (boiled 30 mins.)
2 oz. Cascade hops - 8.3% alpha (boiled 15 mins.)
0.5 tsp. Irish moss (boiled 15 mins.)
2 vials super high gravity ale yeast (WLP009)

We decided to try and make it a little hoppier, as an extreme hop profile is one quality that has been lacking in our previous high-octane results. We also wanted to maintain an alcohol content equal to our last batch's 10.9%, and maybe even increase it a little by using a double dose of super high gravity yeast rather than by adding more fermentable ingredients. As it turns out, due to a couple things which didn't go quite as planned, we may have achieved the first goal, but not necessarily the latter.

I'm not going to get into all the nitty gritty details, but our initial gravity reading was a little lower than last time (1.091 versus 1.092), meaning the yeast are going to have to really feed their asses off for this one to reach 11% ABV. It's not out of the question, though, but since it took a low final gravity to almost get there last time, we're going to need the double dose of yeast to really pay off.

It should be ready to drink by mid-to-late April, so stay tuned.

Replacement Level AL East Preview

For the second year in a row, emigo Bryan O'Connor asked me to contribute to an AL East preview at his Replacement Level Baseball Blog. The format basically consisted of one writer with loyalties to each team answering three two-part questions (so, six actually) about their favorite team.

Honestly, I haven't paid as much attention to the off-season as I usually do, focusing more of my time these last few months on parenting, music-related projects (traditional and new) and obsessing about the Hall of Fame. But, I could have easily followed the Yankees' 2012-2013 off-season happenings out of the corner of my eye and not missed a thing.

So, despite being more interested in history than the current game, I certainly feel qualified to write a brief Yankees preview for the upcoming season. That's what follows in this post, but please also click over to Replacement Level to read the entire piece.


What is the Yankees' ceiling? What has to go right for them to win the AL East?

As always, the Yankees ceiling is a World Series victory, although it seems less likely this year than in years past. Frankly, because of the age of the roster and the loss of a few not insignificant players (Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, Rafael Soriano) who weren't replaced, it's hard to imagine the 2013 Yankees not being a little worse than last year's squad.

That said, a little worse could mean they win 90-92 games and wind up on top of a very competitive division in which the strength of all five teams prevent any one from rising above. Or, it could result in a wild card berth. [Is it just me, or does the phrase "wild card berth" sound more football than baseball?] As we all know, especially fans of the San Francisco Giants, once a team reaches the playoffs, anything can happen.

Pretty much every player on the Yankees is a question mark, either due to age, sub-par performance last year, attempting to come back from injury, or some combination of those factors. The only sure things—to the extent sure things actually exist in today's game—who will fill important roles on the team are CC Sabathia, Robinson Cano and the catching tandem of Chris Stewart/Francisco Cervelli. The latter duo, of course, is only a sure thing relative to very low expectations.

But, realistically speaking, the two most important factors for the Yankees to come out on top of the division are:

1. The ability of an aging pitching staff to reasonably approximate last year's performance, in order to make up for what certainly will be diminished production on the offensive side of the ledger.
2. A resurgent season from either Mark Teixeira or Curtis Granderson, the latter of whom's comeback from a rough second half of 2012 is complicated by the fact he'll miss at least the first month of the season with a broken arm.

What’s the floor for the Yankees this season? What has to go wrong for them to miss the playoffs?

It's inarguable the Yankees are a worse team on paper than last year's model, so I could easily see them finishing third or fourth in an improved AL East this year. I suppose they could even finish last, but I'm guessing the Orioles will return to their rightful place or the Red Sox won't rebound much from last year's disaster.

The Yankees will rely more on pitching than they have since the dynasty years, and two of the pitchers they're counting on the most (Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte) will be a combined 79 years old by mid-season. A third (Mariano Rivera) is 43 and attempting to rebound from what would have been a career-ending injury to almost any other 42-year old. Add to that the fact they'll pin their hopes on a couple younger pitchers (Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova) who've been far from models of consistency and you can see why some folks are ready to write the team's obituary a little prematurely.


How do you see the division playing out? Is there one team you’re particularly afraid of?

Let's not try to kid ourselves that any team other than the Blue Jays has even a remote chance to win the AL East this year. They're easily as much of a lock to win the division as the Red Sox were in 2011.

If you don't get my point here, what I'm basically trying to say is I have no idea. Prognosticating is kind of a futile endeavor, in my opinion. But hey, Bryan asked me and it's kind of fun to look back later and see how bad your predictions were, so what the heck.

Seriously, though, I think any of the five teams could win the AL East. But, I'll call the Blue Jays the favorite, although I'm less confident of that pick than I was of the Red Sox two years ago.

Long Lost Brouthers

I've written about this story a couple times here in the past few years, but its origins actually go back about 25 years.

My second summer job during my high school and college years was always umpiring local baseball games. During one of those summers, I was working a Little League All-Star game in a neighboring town to mine, at a field I didn't even know existed.

It just so happens the field was called Brouthers Field, which didn't mean anything to me until I arrived and discovered a monument to 19th-century slugger and Hall of Famer Dan Brouthers (pronounced Brew-thers). Now, I'm quite sure I was only vaguely aware of Brouthers at the time, and I certainly had no idea he was born and raised in the county where I grew up.

But, I was pretty sure my good friend Joe knew of him. This is the same Joe who currently chairs SABR's Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends Project. But, Joe wasn't even aware of SABR's existence back then, I don't think. He was just a college kid like me, but one with an unusual interest in, and incredible knowledge of, baseball history.

Joe and I were just becoming really good friends around that time, so I was just becoming acquainted with his encyclopedic knowledge. [Years later, he would point out errors in individual players' counting stats, as displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame.] We were friends through mutual friends for years, but it was during breaks from college that we discovered our shared obsession with baseball. As our friends would drink $1 Heinekens at happy hour at a place called Bertie's in Poughkeepsie, we would annoy said friends by challenging each other with obscure trivia questions...while drinking $1 Heinekens*, of course. I'd say Joe had about a 55-45 advantage in those days, but I held my own.

*A quarter century or so later, I suppose $3.50 would be about the equivalent price, but I still think paying $1 for a bottle of Heineken is not a good deal.

It was also during these years that our tradition of heading to Cooperstown for Hall of Fame Induction Weekend was born. There was a lot of cheap beer involved in that story as well, but I'm not going to get into it right now.

Anyway, after sharing my discovery of the Brouthers monument with Joe, I learned he didn't know of it either. So, of course, we headed together to Brouthers Field.

Brouthers Field [c. 1987]

Even if Dan Brouthers was hardly Babe Ruth (although by 19th century standards, you'd have to give that distinction to either him or Roger Connor), it was still pretty amazing that a monument to a Hall of Fame player existed less than 10 miles from where we grew up, and we might not have known about it if not for one random umpiring assignment.

Fast forward to the summer of 2009. KJ and I had been dating less than a year at that point, and on a weekend visit to my hometown, we decided I should take her to see the monument. But first, we swung by the cemetery where Brouthers is buried to view his gravestone.

I know what you're thinking. How romantic. Either that or it's amazing this woman actually agreed to marry me. But, she was just as interested in this little adventure to pay tribute to one of two no-doubt Hall of Famers—Eddie Collins is the other—who grew up close to where I did.

We found Brouthers' final resting place at St. Mary's Cemetery in Wappingers Falls, but the monument and the field were gone. Its whereabouts became a mystery that wasn't fully solved until this past weekend.

Brouthers Field [June 2009]

We later learned, thanks to Hudson Valley magazine, the statue had been restored and relocated, but the follow-up to that article was rather vague as to its exact location. During a previous visit, my dad, KJ, Little Chuck (he wasn't much help) and I went looking for it, unsuccessfully.

The aforementioned article referred to it being located on Main Street in the Village of Wappingers Falls, "just a stone's throw" from the cemetery where Brouthers is buried, but that's all. The photo in the magazine showed it near a tannish cinder block building with a central air conditioning unit nearby. Obviously a business, not a residence. Which, of course, makes sense, although if I was asked to allow a statue of a Hall of Famer to be located on my property, I'd say yes in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, though, most of the buildings near the cemetery are houses, and none came close to fitting that description.

This past weekend, we expanded our search, and discovered the statue located in a pretty obvious place: in front of a bike shop about a half mile from the cemetery. Seriously, though, it was in a fairly obvious part of town that we hadn't looked for no other reason than we were fixated on locations closer to St. Mary's.

Let's just say even Tim Keefe couldn't throw a stone that far.

Dan Brouthers monument [Feb. 2013]

Frequent Spins (2013.1)

Last year, it took me almost three months to post my first installment of Frequent Spins, about twice as long as usual. This year, perhaps, it's back to normalcy. Well, we'll see.

Eels - Wonderful, Glorious
I was a little underwhelmed by my first listen to E and company's follow-up to my #1 album of 2010. But, it only took a second listen to realize that, although it's no End Times, it's definitely a worthwhile effort. E's outlook has obviously improved in the three years since and, while there are still some introspective moments, it seems he's moved on from acoustic lament to the point where he's ready to rock out a little.

Foxygen - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
My taste certainly isn't as eclectic as your average Pitchfork writer, but I can still occasionally get some good recommendations there. I may have pieced this impression together from their review, but this one reminds me of a cross between The Velvet Underground and The Kinks, with a little Mick Jagger swagger sprinkled in. "San Francisco" is one of two songs this year that I can't get out of my head...in a good way.

Holopaw - Academy Songs, Vol. 1
Quite possibly the first show that Abe, my brewing partner, and I attended together was Holopaw and the Fruit Bats at Cambridge's TT the Bear's, back in 2003. One of the things I remember most from that show was we hung out most of the night with a girl we met next door at the Middle East. She was from Seattle, passing through town on vacation, and trying to decide between going to TT's or to see the Decemberists at the Middle East upstairs. She came along with us, but in hindsight we should have followed her lead. That's not meant as an insult to Holopaw—whose latest just might be their best, although the reviews are mixed—but rather as an admission that I wasn't a fan of the Decemberists yet and it would have been great to see them play a really small venue before their popularity skyrocketed.

The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law
If you've been reading my Frequent Spins posts for any length of time, you probably realize I'm endorsing most of the albums I'm writing about. But, there are exceptions. It would be a little unfair of me to throw this one into that category, but let's just call it a mixed bag. It initially reeled me in with some really catchy songs, namely "This Ladder is Ours" and a few others, but most of the rest of it just grates on me. A friend compared them to Smashing Pumpkins, a band that is probably the definition of "mixed bag."

Night Beds - Country Sleep
Abe, like Pitchfork, has much more eclectic taste than I do. He's a multi-instrumentalist in a math rock (although he likes to call it physics rock) band, after all. He frequently recommends albums to me that have me scratching my head as to what he was thinking. Night Beds was not one of these. One reviewer refers to this outfit as Bon Kil Foxes. Enough said.

Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
The term "pop" can take on different meanings in the context of music discussions, ranging from describing a band as Beatlesque (generally a compliment) to calling something akin to top 40 radio (usually an insult). To differentiate, I usually add some sort of adjective when talking about the former (power pop, indie pop) or just use the term pop/rock. In fact, I sometimes just say "poppy," with the understanding I rarely discuss music that would be described as top 40 (is this term even used anymore?) in any meaningful way, so it's probably understood I'm talking about pop/rock. The identical twin sisters duo's latest is infectiously poppy, and I mean that in the top 40 way. But, I also mean it as a major compliment. "Closer" is the other song I have habitually stuck in my head these days.

Yo La Tengo - Fade
I'm not as familiar with YLT's entire catalog as you might think, but this one seems to capture the best of their more accessible side. In that sense, Fade is kind of like Luna was to Galaxie 500.