Grading the 2019 Twins: Randy Dobnak

This is another installment in our series grading the individual performances of the key members of the 2019 Minnesota Twins. Each player will receive a classic grade on the scale of A through F, based on their hitting, fielding, and whatever else the author wants to consider. I’m too lazy to link to all the other grades we’ve done, so here is sandwiches’ review of Tyler Duffey’s season, which contains links to the rest.

Stats be damned, Randy Dobnak gets an A. He was driving an uber for pocket cash before this season, and started the year pitching in High-A. He finished the year starting an ALDS game at Yankee Stadium. You can’t look at that story and not give the man an A. Add in the fact he has the best facial hair seen ‘round these parts since the legendary Pavestache, and you have a winning formula.

The 24-year old righty made nine appearances for the Twins this season, five of them starts. He finished the season with a 1.59 ERA, so sparkly you should wear welding goggles to look at it. Small sample size, rabble, rabble! I don’t really care, but the other stats all support the simple fact he did really well. He held a 2.90 FIP, 3.77 xFIP, and 291 ERA+. More encouraging, while he didn’t strike out a ton of guys (7.3 K/9) he also didn’t give up dingers (0.3 HR/9) in 2019, the year of the juice ball. He also added a save and two pitcher wins, if you like meaningless counting stats.

In the minors, he put up similar performances at every level, with a 0.40 ERA in 22 High-A innings, a 2.57 ERA in 66 innings after being promoted to Double-A, and a 2.15 ERA in 46 innings at Triple-A Rochester. There’s no easily accessible database for advanced stats in the minors, especially at the low levels, but he was roughly consistent in number of hits, strikeouts, walks, and homers across all four levels as well.

Perhaps most importantly, he guaranteed another year that there was a “Randy” in the MLB

Lets just agree to ignore his nasty looking playoff stats, as four earned runs in two innings led to a 18.00 ERA, but the entire pitching staff pretty much melted down at that point, so I’ll grade that on a curve.

Overall Grade: A