I think Anderson is one of the big reasons for the Twins success in the Gardy era. I think Dick Such, much beloved of Tom Kelly, may have ruined more pitchers than torn rotator cuffs. It always seemed like we would bring up good young starting pitchers who would start out really well and they would add a half run to their ERA every year and be pretty much worthless by their third or fourth year. The thing I noticed right away with Anderson is that a lot of our pitchers started posting lower ERAs with each passing year. That’s when I decided that the franchise just might be turning around for good.

.350 is a high BABIP, and .500 is a high slugging %, so there is really no excuse for walking hitters.