1990 Minnesota Twins season

The 1990 Minnesota Twins, three years after their World Series title in 1987, fell to the bottom of the American League West once again. However, the season was not completely bad, as there were some bright spots that included pitchers Rick Aguilera and Scott Erickson. Aguilera converted from starter to closer and recorded 32 saves, while Erickson was promoted to the Twins in June from AA and went 8-4 with a 3.27 ERA. During Fan Appreciation Day on October 3, Outfielder Dan Gladden made a prediction saying that even though we finished in last place this season, we're going to improve next season and if we did, they could potentially bring another World Series championship to Minnesota. That prediction proved accurate the next year.

1990 Minnesota Twins
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionWest
BallparkHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
CityMinneapolis
Record74–88 (.457)
Divisional place7th
OwnersCarl Pohlad
General managersAndy MacPhail
ManagersTom Kelly
TelevisionWCCO-TV
KITN
Midwest Sports Channel
(Jim Kaat, Ted Robinson, Dick Bremer)
Radio830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, John Gordon)
← 1989 Seasons 1991 →

Offseason edit

Regular season edit

  • The lone representative of the Twins in the All-Star Game was center fielder Kirby Puckett.
  • The highest paid Twin in 1990 was Puckett at $2,816,667; followed by Kent Hrbek at $2,100,000.

Offense edit

Team Leaders
Statistic Player Quantity
HR Kent Hrbek 22
RBI Gary Gaetti 85
BA Kirby Puckett .298
Runs Kirby Puckett 82

Pitching edit

Team Leaders
Statistic Player Quantity
ERA Allan Anderson 4.53
Wins Kevin Tapani 12
Saves Rick Aguilera 32
Strikeouts Mark Guthrie, Kevin Tapani 101

Defense edit

The highlight of the season came on July 17, in Boston, when the Twins turned two triple plays. In the 4th inning, with the bases loaded and Scott Erickson pitching, former Twin Tom Brunansky hit a sharp grounder to Gary Gaetti at third base, who stepped on the bag for the force out, fired to Al Newman at second, whose relay to Kent Hrbek was in time to get Brunansky at first. In the 8th inning, with John Candelaria pitching and runners on first and second, Jody Reed hit a one-hopper at Gaetti who again started a 5-4-3 triple play. This was the first time in MLB history that two triple plays were recorded in a game, a feat that has not been duplicated since.[3]

The following night, still in Boston, both teams combined for an MLB-record-tying ten double plays. Boston tied an American League record by grounding into six DPs in the game, only escaping the twin killings in the sixth and seventh innings.

Both games were won by Boston.

Season standings edit

AL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Oakland Athletics 103 59 0.636 51–30 52–29
Chicago White Sox 94 68 0.580 9 49–31 45–37
Texas Rangers 83 79 0.512 20 47–35 36–44
California Angels 80 82 0.494 23 42–39 38–43
Seattle Mariners 77 85 0.475 26 38–43 39–42
Kansas City Royals 75 86 0.466 27½ 45–36 30–50
Minnesota Twins 74 88 0.457 29 41–40 33–48

Record vs. opponents edit


Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore 4–9 7–5 6–6 6–7 6–7 8–3 7–6 6–6 6–7 4–8 3–9 8–4 5–8
Boston 9–4 7–5 6–6 9–4 8–5 4–8 5–8 4–8 9–4 4–8 8–4 5–7 10–3
California 5–7 5–7 5–8 7–5 5–7 7–6 7–5 9–4 6–6 4–9 5–8 8–5 7–5
Chicago 6–6 6–6 8–5 5–7 5–7 9–4 10–2 7–6 10–2 8–5 8–5 7–6 5–7
Cleveland 7–6 4–9 5–7 7–5 5–8 6–6 9–4 7–5 5–8 4–8 7–5 7–5 4–9
Detroit 7–6 5–8 7–5 7–5 8–5 5–7 3–10 6–6 7–6 6–6 7–5 6–6 5–8
Kansas City 3–8 8–4 6–7 4–9 6–6 7–5 4–8 8–5 8–4 4–9 7–6 5–8 5–7
Milwaukee 6–7 8–5 5–7 2–10 4–9 10–3 8–4 4–8 6–7 5–7 4–8 5–7 7–6
Minnesota 6–6 8–4 4–9 6–7 5–7 6–6 5–8 8–4 6–6 6–7 6–7 5–8 3–9
New York 7–6 4–9 6–6 2–10 8–5 6–7 4–8 7–6 6–6 0–12 9–3 3–9 5–8
Oakland 8–4 8–4 9–4 5–8 8–4 6–6 9–4 7–5 7–6 12–0 9–4 8–5 7–5
Seattle 9–3 4–8 8–5 5–8 5–7 5–7 6–7 8–4 7–6 3–9 4–9 7–6 6–6
Texas 4–8 7–5 5–8 6–7 5–7 6–6 8–5 7–5 8–5 9–3 5–8 6–7 7–5
Toronto 8–5 3–10 5–7 7–5 9–4 8–5 7–5 6–7 9–3 8–5 5–7 6–6 5–7


Roster edit

1990 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Notable Transactions edit

Player stats edit

Batting edit

Starters by position edit

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Brian Harper 134 479 141 .294 6 54
1B Kent Hrbek 143 492 141 .287 22 79
2B Al Newman 144 388 94 .242 0 30
3B Gary Gaetti 154 577 132 .229 16 85
SS Greg Gagne 138 388 91 .235 7 38
LF Dan Gladden 136 534 147 .275 5 40
CF Kirby Puckett 146 551 164 .298 12 80
RF Shane Mack 125 313 102 .326 8 44
DH Gene Larkin 119 401 108 .269 5 42

Other batters edit

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Fred Manrique 69 228 54 .237 5 29
Nelson Liriano 53 185 47 .254 0 13
Randy Bush 73 181 44 .243 6 18
John Moses 115 172 38 .221 1 14
Junior Ortiz 71 170 57 .335 0 18
Carmelo Castillo 64 137 30 .219 0 12
Paul Sorrento 41 121 25 .207 5 13
Pedro Muñoz 22 85 23 .271 0 5
Jim Dwyer 37 63 12 .190 1 5
Scott Leius 14 25 6 .240 1 4
Lenny Webster 2 6 2 .333 0 0
Chip Hale 1 2 0 .000 0 2
Doug Baker 3 1 0 .000 0 0

Starting pitchers edit

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Allan Anderson 31 188.2 7 18 4.53 82
Kevin Tapani 28 159.1 12 8 4.07 101
David West 29 146.1 7 9 5.10 92
Mark Guthrie 24 144.2 7 9 3.79 101
Scott Erickson 19 113.0 8 4 2.87 53
Paul Abbott 7 34.2 0 5 5.97 25

Other pitchers edit

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Roy Smith 32 153.1 5 10 4.81 87
Tim Drummond 35 91.0 3 5 4.35 49
Larry Casian 5 22.1 2 1 3.22 11
Relief pitchers edit

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Rick Aguilera 56 5 3 32 2.76 61
Terry Leach 55 2 5 2 3.20 46
Juan Berenguer 51 8 5 0 3.41 77
Gary Wayne 38 1 1 1 4.19 28
John Candelaria 34 7 3 4 3.39 44
Jack Savage 17 0 2 1 8.31 12
Rich Garcés 5 0 0 2 1.59 1
Rich Yett 4 0 0 0 2.08 2
John Moses 2 0 0 0 13.50 0

Farm system edit

Level Team League Manager
AAA Portland Beavers Pacific Coast League Phil Roof
AA Orlando Sun Rays Southern League Ron Gardenhire
A Visalia Oaks California League Scott Ullger
A Kenosha Twins Midwest League Steve Liddle
Rookie Elizabethton Twins Appalachian League Ray Smith
Rookie GCL Twins Gulf Coast League Joel Lepel

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Elizabethton[7]

Notes and explanations edit

  1. ^ "Kent Hrbek Stats - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com.
  2. ^ "Carmelo Castillo Stats - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com.
  3. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Tuesday, July 17, 1990 at Fenway Park". baseball-almanac.com.
  4. ^ "Midre Cummings Stats - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com.
  5. ^ "Jayhawk Owens Stats - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com.
  6. ^ "Randy Bush Stats - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com.
  7. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

External links edit