Go-Go Gomez Hits Two Homers On Memorial Day

GOMEZ AT AS TWIN

When I first introduced my wife Emma to baseball and the Minnesota Twins, she decided her favorite player was Carlos "Go-Go" Gomez. The first game we went to was against the Red Sox and we sat in the centerfield bleachers. Gomez was still learning the game, made a lot of mistakes but he was lightning fast. Although she eventually grew fond of Joe Nathan when Gomez was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, I think she still roots for him, although she often forgets where he now plays.

No longer platooning with Nyjer Morgan, the former Twin/ current Brewer is hitting .331 with 10 homers and 25 RBIs. Gomez leads the Brewers in dingers (one more now than all-star Ryan Braun) and in slugging percentage. Also, he's scored 28 runs, has 13 doubles and three triples in 48 games/175 at-bats. His walk to strikeout ratio isn't very good at nine walks and 42 K's but his on-base percentage is .376. Nice to see someone had some patience for him. BTW Nyjer Morgan is now playing in Japan.

GOMEZ AS A BREWER

Let's see, who did Billy Smith traded Gomez for again? Oh yeah, J.J. Hardy - who was traded to Baltimore soon after we got him along with Brendan Harris and a half million dollars for Jim "Hong Kong Phooey" Hoey and Brett Jacobson. Hoey (the "heir-apparent" to Joe Nathan) didn't pan out and was claimed off waivers by Toronto but is currently (and ironically) in the Brewers' farm system. Jacobson was released by the Twins after posting a 7.50 ERA in Double-A and signed by the Rockies where he's sucked even worst.

Revere Sent to Philly for Worley and Minor Leaguer

Twins traded Ben Revere to the Philadelphia Phillies for righthander Vance Worley and minor league pitcher Trevor May.

There seems to be some chat online about the surgery Worley had after the season to have some bone spurs removed. It doesn't sound like that's as much of a concern as Worley's appetite for cheesesteaks and what the Twins are going to do with centerfield now that they've traded away both Revere and Denard Span. Talk is that an unproven Aaron Hicks will moved up to the Majors but Darin Mastroianni is more than capable of playing center and can be a game-changer.

Rule 5 Draft

The Twins also made a couple of moves during the Rule 5 Draft selecting right-hander Ryan Pressly from the Red Sox organization and third baseman Mark Sobolewski (25) from the Blue Jays organization. They lost right-handed pitcher Tom Boleska to the Orioles.

Pressly,  a 6-foot-3, 175-pounder who turns 24 on Dec. 15, posted a 2.93 ERA in 27 2/3 innings at Double-A Portland after being converted to a reliever last season. It came after he had a 6.28 ERA at Class A Advanced Salem in 20 games, including 12 starts.

Sobolewski is regarded as an above-average defender at third and hit .249 with 21 homers, 20 doubles and 59 RBIs in 117 games between Double-A New Hampshire and Triple-A Las Vegas.

Pressly must remain on the Twins' 25-man roster for the entire season, or else be offered back to Boston (Sobolewski was taken in the Minor League phase). Another option -- if they don't want to keep him on the active roster all year -- would be to offer him back and acquire him in a trade like the Twins did in 2010 with left-hander Scott Diamond.

All-Time Slugging Percentage

Which of the following players has produced a better career slugging percentage while in a Minnesota Twins/Washington Senators uniform?

1. Bob Allison (1958-1970)
2. Torii Hunter (1997- 2007)
3. Shane Mack (1990-1994)
4. Tony Oliva (1962-1976)
5. Kirby Puckett (1984-1995)

Click for Answer:

Camilo Pascual Inducted Into Twins' Hall Of Fame

The "Little Potato" was inducted into the Minnesota Twins' Hall Of Fame Saturday, July 14 prior to the teams' game with the Oakland Athletics at Target Field.

Camilo Pascual played 18 seasons in the Major Leagues, including 13 with the Twins and first Washington Senators franchise (1954-1966). He was a five-time all-star and lead the A.L. in strikeouts three times. During the Twins' first four years in Bloomington, Pascual compiled a 71-48 with 65 complete games and 846 strikeouts (211.5 per season), winning 20 and 21 games in 1962 and 1963 respectively.

He is the 24th member of the Hall Of Fame.

Pascual made his debut April 15, 1954 for Calvin Griffith's
Washington Senators, mopping up the last three innings of a 6-1 loss to Boston. As a 20-year-old, he put in an encouraging rookie season but plagued by wildness and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of less than one. He was able to harness his pitching by 1959 when he made his first all-star team and finished the season at 17-10, with a 2.64 ERA and 185 strikeouts in 238 2/3 innings.


His years in Minnesota were his best, and currently ranks second on the franchise's All-Time list in shutouts (31), third in strikeouts (1,885), fourth in innings pitched (2,465.0) and fifth in wins (145) and starts (331).

Arm problems slowed Pascual down and Griffith traded him and Bernie Allen to the Bob Short's Washington franchise for reliever Ron Kline after the 1966 season. He resurged to win 25 games over the next years for a very bad Senator's team then was sold to Cincinnati midway through the 1969 season. Pascual retired after pitching for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cleveland Indians in 1970 and 1971 respectively.

Pascual is the younger brother of former major league pitcher Carlos Pascual, whose nickname of "Potato" earned Pascual the nickname of "Little Potato."

After his playing career ended, Pascual retired to Miami where he had lived since 1960. From 1978 to 1980, Pascual was the Minnesota Twins pitching coach for manager Gene Mauch. Since 1989, he has worked as international scout for the Oakland Athletics, New York Mets, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom he currently scouts Venezuela. Among the major leaguers Pascual has signed are Jose Canseco, Alex Cora, Omar Daal, Miguel Cairo, and Franklin Gutierrez.

Texas Thunder

A bright flash of lightning and a defeaning clap of thunder sent players and umpires scurring for the dugouts during the Twins' game in Texas Sunday night.


The incident happened in the top of the fourth with Ryan Doumit at the plate with Roy Oswalt ready to deliver a 2-2 pitch.

Twins leftfielder Josh Willingham, who was at first base at the time after drawing a lead-off walk, immediately went to all fours before sprinting to the visitor's dugout with coach Jerry White right behind.


The umpires delayed the game and grounds crew put a tarp on the infield as a 46-minute rain delay began. When play resumed, Rangers rallied to tie the game and eventually won it with a walk-off single by Ian Kinsler in the 13th.

Run Scored Per Plate Appearance

CHART COMPARING TWINS RUNS PER PLATE APPEARANCES
		YTD				PAST 30 DAYS
TWINS		PA	RUNS	RUNS/PA	PA	RUNS	RUNS/PA
Trevor Plouffe	3B	242	38	.1570	114	24	.2105
Josh Willingham	LF	332	45	.1355	113	13	.1150
Joe Mauer	C-DH	316	42	.1329	90	11	.1222
Darin Mastroianni	OF	72	9	.1250	39	7	.1795
Ben Revere	OF	211	25	.1185	121	12	.0992
Denard Span	CF	339	39	.1150	108	14	.1296
Jamey Carroll	2B-SS	303	32	.1056	91	12	.1319
Brian Dozier	SS	211	21	.0995	95	11	.1158
Justin Morneau	1B-DH	265	26	.0981	100	6	.0600
Ryan Doumit	C-DH	255	23	.0902	88	7	.0795
Danny Valenica	3B	103	9	.0874			DNP
Alexi Casilla	INF	184	16	.0870	37	1	.0270
Chris Parmelee	1B	115	9	.0783	23	4	.1739
Clete Thomas	OF	29	2	.0690			DNP
Drew Butera	C	63	4	.0635	22	1	.0455
Erik Komatsu	OF	37	2	.0541			DNP
Luke Hughes	INF	11	0	n/a			DNP
Sean Burroughs	INF	18	0	n/a			DNP
DNP = Did Not Play
COMPARING TOP 11 MLB RUNS LEADERS
		YTD				PAST 30 DAYS
RUNS LEADERS		PA	RUNS	RUNS/PA	PA	RUNS	RUNS/PA
Ian Kinsler	TEX	382	62	.1623	119	17	.1429
David Ortiz	BST	343	60	.1749	108	22	.2037
Carlos Gonzalez	COLO	335	59	.1761	103	14	.1359
Juan Bautista	TOR	365	57	.1562	125	23	.1840
00Michael Bourn	ATL	378	57	.1508	124	18	1452
Alejandro De Aza	CWS	353	56	.1586	113	16	.1416
Curtis Ganderson	NYY	367	56	.1526	123	17	.1382
Matt Holliday	STL	355	56	.1577	107	19	.1776
Hunter Pence	PHIL	367	56	.1526	122	16	.1311
Robinson Cano	NYY	347	55	.1585	112	18	.1607
Shin-Sho Choo	CLV	341	55	.1613	127	25	.1986
David Wright	NYM	343	55	.1603	117	18	.1538

Happy 4th Of July, Twins' Fans

JOE MAUER

It's the 4th of July, the Twins are 35-45, eight games behind Chicago and in last place in the Central Division. They do have a five-game winning streak going and have taken two of four so far from Detroit, but only Seattle, which has played three more games, has a worst A.L. record.
I decided to take a look at the Twins statistics for the past 30 days. Here are some observations:

Joe Mauer is the hottest Twin, batting a steady .419 with a .457 On-Base Percentage. He's hit two dingers over the past 30 days and both have come in the last week. Mauer's scored 11 times and driven in 13 runs. He's struck out 19 times and has six walks.

Ben Revere has hit .358 with a .385 OBP during the period and doing well on base paths with 11 of his 16 steals coming over the past month. He's scored 14 times but has 109 at-bats, the most of any Twins' player over the period.

Darin Mastroianni is hitting .303 (.378 OBP) in 33 at-bats and has walked four times with eight strike outs. He's scored over 16 percentage of the times he's been to the plate.

Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham have been grabbing the headlines with their home run and RBI production, Justin Morneau has slowed in his production over his last 24 games. He's hit one homer, one triple and four doubles and only Brian Dozier and Alexi Casilla have a worst slugging percentage (.337) among the position players.

Jamey Carroll has lifted his average to a (still less than respectable) .243 with the sixth best average among the Twins over the past 30 days. He's crossed the plate 14 times in his 90+ plate appearance and has 10 walks.

Denard Span is hitting .213 (.295 OBP) over his last 94 at-bats but has walked 11 times and has scored 14 runs.

Free-swinging Brian Dozier has scored 11 times but has struck out 17 times while only taking four walks in 98 plate appearance.