Who was the last Twin to steal 50 bases? It's not Ben Revere... yet. Photo by Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Who was the last Twin to steal 50 bases in a season? Chuck Knoblauch stole 62 in 1997. Hopefully, Ben Revere will knock Knoblauch’s name off this list very soon.

Who was the last Twin to win a Gold Glove at shortstop? Zoilo Versalles is the only Twin to win a Gold Glove at shortstop, and he did it twice, with the last coming in 1965. This is the longest Gold Glove drought at any position for the Twins.

Who was the last Twin to hit 40 home runs in a season? As I’ve pointed out before, it was Harmon Killebrew in 1970. The late Mr. Killebrew was also the last to hit 35 home runs that year.

Who was the last Twin to hit 50 home runs in a season? This has never happened. Killebrew holds the team record with 49 in 1964 and again in 1969.

Who was the last Twin to win 20 games? You probably remember this one. It was Johan Santana with a  20-6 record in 2004.

Who was the last Twin to win 25 games? For this milestone, you have to go a lot further back. Jim Kaat is the only player to win 25 in a season in a Twins uniform, and he did it in 1966. For his accomplishments, Kaat’s jersey was retired by the Twins. Just kidding. The Twins actually gave the number to 14 other players in the past four decades, and Kaat’s jersey is still sadly unretired.

Who was the last Twin to win 30 games? No Twin has ever done this, but before the franchise moved to Minnesota, Senator legend Walter Johnson won 36 games in 1913. The year before he had racked up 33 wins.

Who was the last Twin to lose 20 games? Pedro Ramos earned this dubious honor back in the team’s first year of play: 1961. It was his fourth consecutive season leading the AL in losses. Since then, there have been some close calls, most notably Scott Erickson‘s 19 loss campaign in 1993 and Allan Anderson’s 18 losses in 1990. But it takes a special kind of pitcher to lose 20: good enough to stay in the rotation, but bad (or unlucky) enough to keep losing.

Who was the last Twin to strike out 300 batters in a season? This is just another excuse to mention Johnson’s name. The Big Train struck out 303 batters in 1912.

Who was the last Twins pitcher to hit a home run? It was Kaat in 1972, the year before the DH rule came into effect. He had a pair of homers that year, and he hit for a very respectable .289/.304/.489 line. In case you’re wondering, that last home run was a solo shot off Cleveland pitcher Vince Colbert on June 11.

Who was the last player to hit his 500th homer against the Twins? Jim Thome hit number 600 as a Twin, of course, and Killebrew hit number 500 as a Twin in 1971, but the only person to hit his 500th against the Twins was Frank Thomas on June 28, 2007.

Who was the last Twins manager to post a winning record? Ron Gardenhire has a .550 winning percentage, but if you don’t count the incumbent, you have to go back quite a bit. Bill Rigney managed the team from 1970 through 1972, and he finished with a .531 mark. In between Rigney and Gardenhire, the Twins had six managers who finished with losing records.

Who was the last Twin to hit over .350? You probably remember that it was Joe Mauer in 2009, when he hit .365. Before Mauer, Kirby Puckett hit .356 in 1988, and Rod Carew topped .350 four times, including a .388 average in 1977.

The best recent example would be Jim Thome‘s 600th home run. Unfortunately, none of the Twins will chase any illustrious numbers like that this year, but there are a few potential milestones worth mentioning.

Joe Mauer needs 16 more home runs to reach 100 for his career. He hasn’t hit for much power over the last few seasons, so that mark may be out of reach or it might be right about where he’ll end up. Unless he misses a significant amount of time, though, he’ll definitely surpass the 500 walk mark – he needs 35 more. If he walks 13 times after that, he’ll pass Chuck Knoblauch for 6th on the all-time Twins leaderboard. And if he plays in 82 games, he’ll reach 1,000 overall.

Justin Morneau is just 15 home runs away from 200. (more…)

If you recognize that name, congratulations. You know your Twins! If not, you’re either too young to have watched the team in the ‘70s, or else you’re a bandwagon Twins fan (hahaha, just kidding about the last part – after a 99 loss season there are no bandwagon Twins fans left). Twins expert or not, though, all baseball fans should take some time to appreciate the Goltz saga, because he’s a perfect example of a blockbuster free agent gone bad.

In baseball, one team’s treasure is often another team’s trash, and Dave Goltz is a perfect example of this mixed up cliché. Fansided’s Dodger site, Lasorda’s Lair, has named Goltz the 8th biggest “L.A. Dodger Bum” of all time. I recommend that you check it out, because it’s worth a chuckle. Before I read that post I did not know that the Pelican Rapids native Goltz cost the Dodgers a playoff berth in 1980 when he lost Game 163 for them. I’ll consider that partial payback for the travesty of 1965. (more…)