Minnesota Twins All-Decade Team (2000-2009)
by Jesse on Dec 28, 2009 8:22 PM EST
in News
12 comments
Welcome back!
I hope you all have been enjoying your holidays season, and I'm happy to announce that Twinkie Town is now back to regularly scheduled programming. Tonight I'm getting us back into the swing of things by doing what everyone is probably doing right now--creating all-decade lists.
For the Twins all-decade team we could go one of two ways--either by best single season per position, or by career numbers in this decade per position. I like the single best season idea, although truthfully you'd probably end up with a lot of the same players. At any rate, here we go!
Joe's 2009 was the best season ever by a Minnesota catcher. I mean, really, there really isn't even a close second option is there? A.J. Pierzynski's best season might be fifth or sixth on the depth chart.
Two positions, two Twins still on the roster. Justin's 2006 was essentially his coming out party, where he showed the kind of hitter he could be. Given the first base job officially following the trade of Doug Mientkiewicz, Justin's solid '04 was followed up by a very disappointing '05. So when he finally started recognizing breaking balls and was able to pull balls over the baggie while reducing the gaps in his swing, well, it was awesome so watch. Some people will tell you that Justin didn't deserve his MVP from that season, but I'm not here to debate that. I'm just saying his 2006 was the best by a Twins first baseman this decade.
When the Twins pulled this trade off, just over four years ago, I had this to say. He solidified the Twins up the middle, and he was a big improvement over years of futility in Luis Rivas. Castillo was good at the top of the order and, as far as regular second basemen go, was really the only good one the Twins had over this stretch of ten years. And we only had him for a season and a half.
Koskie had a few good years with the Twins, but for all-around game no season comes close to 2001. His defense was still premium, he provided the middle of the lineup with power and he stole 27 bases. Yes, Koskie stole 27 bases! It's hard to remember his early days because the end of his career saw him hobbled and injury prone, but our hot corner Canadian had a career year at age 28 when he was spry and healthy. From 1999-2003, his best seasons in Minnesota, Koskie hit .287/.381/.460. It's too bad he wasn't around ten years later.
Guzman was just 23 in '01. His best season was pitted against Jason Barlett's 99 games in 2006, but while Bartlett's defense was always better than Guzy's, the rest of the toe-to-toe matchup goes in Guzman's favor. It was a season where it looked like all the promise in our young shortstop was coming together, as his speed helped him steal bags and take extra bases. That on-base percentage wasn't encouraging, but there's value in a speedy infielder who's a good contact hitter, which is exactly what Guzman was.
He was way too aggressive at the plate. At times it seemed he forgot a bit of baseball 101, like hitting cutoff men. But he always had a flair for the dramatic, and for two seasons ('02 and '03) that flair paid off in the form of solid offensive seasons. By 2002 Jones was already 27, but it was his best season as a pro. Word is that he was hanging around the Winter Meetings this season trying to make a comeback. Best of luck to him.
Torii's last season in Minnesota was great, and it seems as though he's been a better hitter as he's gotten older, but like Jones '02 was Hunter's coming out party. His defense was great (in spite of a 0.0 UZR/150), he looked like he was going to be able to hit for average as well as power, and he even stole 23 bases. By any measure for a center fielder, it was a great year.
2009 was great for Cuddles, but his breakout 2006 was still better. He didn't hit as many home runs but there was still plenty of power, he walked more often and he thrived hitting in between Joe and Justin. I do believe that a healthy Cuddyer means we'll get numbers closer to '06 and '09 than anything else, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he does this summer in Target Field. But whichever season-best you prefer for Cuddyer, he deserves this spot.
What's that comin' over the hill? Is it a Kubel? Is it a Kubel? I did look at David Ortiz's best seasons with the Twins, but Patches is our clear winner.
Brad Radke deserves his props for what he means to the organization, but nothing can touch Johan's performance in his first Cy Young award-winning season. The man was simply super-human and down the stretch he couldn't be touched.
Joe's had six great seasons with the Twins. This was his best.
Who makes your team? Shannon Stewart's performance upon his arrival in 2003 is worth an honorable mention in left field, and Jason Bartlett's 2006 was good at shortstop, but who else would you mention? Maybe Francisco Liriano's wicked 2006?
It's good to be back. I'll see you tomorrow.
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Otherwise, of course, it'd be
2004 Johan
2006 Johan
2007 Johan
2005 Johan
2006 Liriano
2006
Am I wrong to think that team was a top 5 All time twins team?
its a bummer Radke broke down and Liriano’s elbow couldn’t last the whole year.
It could have been special.
Certainly not wrong...
Great team. 96 wins is 4th in Minnesota history (behind 65,69,70). Add in 87 & 91 because of the rings and they are no worse than 6th in history in my opinion. Then with the league’s expansion in 69, you could easily argue that they were on par or better than 69 & 70.
Don't forget
That was a team most fans (including myself) had written off by June 1.
my floor is looking pretty dirty... BETTER GET OUT THE BROOM!!!
by natetheskate on Dec 29, 2009 7:35 PM EST up reply actions
Top 2000s contributors
Fun article. It inspired me to put together the top Twins of the decade using Baseball Prospectus’s WARP3. I don’t know if it’s the best overall stat (I’m especially not sold on the relative valuations of starters, relievers, and position players), but it’s pretty good. As someone who sat out baseball for the early part of the decade, I was surprised to see how good Corey Koskie and some of the other early 00s players were. Anyway, here’s a top 50:
Joe Mauer 34.5
Joe Nathan 34.2
Johan Santana 33.2
Corey Koskie 20.3
Brad Radke 19
Torii Hunter 18.9
Justin Morneau 16.6
Michael Cuddyer 10.5
Eddie Guardado 10.2
A.J. Pierzynski 9.7
Jason Bartlett 9.6
Scott Baker 8.1
Juan Rincon 8
LaTroy Hawkins 8
Denard Span 7.6
Jesse Crain 7.5
Jacque Jones 6.8
Matt Guerrier 6.7
Jason Kubel 6.5
Nick Punto 6.3
Carlos Silva 6.2
J.C. Romero 6
Doug Mientkiewicz 5.5
Cristian Guzman 5.4
Eric Milton 5.2
Francisco Liriano 5.1
Joe Mays 4.9
Carlos Gomez 4.7
Dennys Reyes 4.2
Kyle Lohse 4.2
Nick Blackburn 3.9
Pat Neshek 3.9
Kevin Slowey 3.8
Mike Redmond 3.6
Mark Redman 3.4
Lew Ford 3.4
Luis Castillo 3.2
Tom Prince 3.2
Jose Mijares 2.6
Tony Fiore 2.6
Bobby Kielty 2.4
Rick Reed 2.3
Bob Wells 2.1
Jason Tyner 2.1
Hector Carrasco 2
Jon Rauch 2
David Ortiz 1.9
Matt Lawton 1.9
Shannon Stewart 1.9
who would have thought that
Ford, Tyner and Kielty beat out Shannon Stewart. That just goes to show how deceiving statistics can be.
by montanatwinsfan on Dec 29, 2009 2:46 PM EST up reply actions
Stewart
had two good months with the Twins, then they made the mistake of re-signing him and he did nothing for 3 years after that. Ford had a great four month period and then was ok for awhile after that.
But I agree… if you looked at other stats, these rankings may look completely different.
I was going to say, Bartlett was a better shortstop than Guzman
But I was surprised to see that Span had more impact than Jones, considering the relative lengths of their tenures.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Jones
had one very good year—2002—but otherwise was never more than 1.1 win above replacement. He was actually below replacement in 2001. And Span’s just had two very nice seasons. That said, neither of Span’s seasons beat Jones’s 2002, so if you’re going by the best single season contribution, that’s the winner.
what about a list of starters/relievers?
Santana
Radke
Liriano
Baker
Reyes
Crain
Guardado
Romero/Rincon/Guerrier/Hawkins (take your pick)
Nathan
Flukiest pitching Season: Tony Fiore’s 10 win season in 2002? Denny Reyes’ 504 ERA + in 2006? Joe Mays leading the league in ERA+ (145) in 2001?
by DedicatedFollowerOfFashion on Dec 29, 2009 11:31 PM EST reply actions
Can't argue
I don’t disagree on any picks here although I think Cuddy’s ’09 was the equal of his ’06.
Stewart and Bartlett had great partial seasons that helped the team win championships. If you extend those numbers for a full year, they are probably better than Jones (‘02) or Guzman (’01).
Incidentally, I think if you pick a player of the decade for each person based on their overall time with the Twins in the naughts, you would pick the exact same team.
by Alexi Casilla All-Star on Dec 30, 2009 10:19 AM EST reply actions
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