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1997 Minnesota Twins season

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1997 Minnesota Twins
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionCentral
BallparkHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
CityMinneapolis
Record68-94 (.420)
Divisional place4th
OwnersCarl Pohlad
General managersTerry Ryan
ManagersTom Kelly
TelevisionWCCO-TV
Midwest Sports Channel
(Bert Blyleven, Dick Bremer, Ryan Lefebvre)
Radio830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, John Gordon)
← 1996 Seasons 1998 →

The 1997 Minnesota Twins will not be remembered as the strongest team the Twins ever fielded. Manager Tom Kelly's team consisted of a few solid players, but mainly past-their-prime veterans and never-to-be-established prospects. One of the few bright spots was pitcher Brad Radke's breakout season, in which he won 20 games, at one point had 12 consecutive victories, tying a record Scott Erickson set in 1991. The team finished with a 68–94 record, good enough for fourth place in what proved to be the league's weakest division that season. The Cleveland Indians, who won the division that year, made it all the way to the World Series, but lost in seven games to the Florida Marlins.

Offseason

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Offense

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In 1996, catcher Terry Steinbach had a 35-home run, 100-RBI season with the Oakland Athletics in a contract year. Unfortunately for the Twins, he followed it up with a 12-home run, 54-RBI season with his hometown team. Scott Stahoviak played in half the games at first base but batted only .229. Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, the team's lone all-star, had a great year with the Twins, batting .291 and stealing a career-high 62 bases; he won his second Silver Slugger Award. The contrast between his season and his team's season led him to demand a trade, a demand the team obliged by sending him to the New York Yankees the following February. Ron Coomer had a competent year at third, with 13 home runs. He declined to "ride the pines" to protect a .301 batting average, and finished 1 for his last 8 to end at .298. Pat Meares hit .276, an above-average season for him. The primary outfielders – Marty Cordova, Rich Becker, and Matt Lawton – had mediocre seasons. This was disappointing, because Cordova and Becker were coming off of the best years in their careers. Designated hitter Paul Molitor had a good year, batting .305 with 89 RBI, but it did not match his stellar 1996 numbers. Veterans like Roberto Kelly and Greg Colbrunn performed reasonably well off the bench.

Team Leaders
Statistic Player Quantity
HR Marty Cordova 15
RBI Paul Molitor 89
BA Paul Molitor .305
Runs Chuck Knoblauch 117

Pitching

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Brad Radke had a breakout year, going 20–10 with an ERA of 3.87. His string of twelve consecutive wins in twelve consecutive starts had only been matched twice since 1950. Bob Tewksbury and Rich Robertson spent most of the year in the starting rotation, but both had losing records. In the final two spots, LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Aldred, and Frank Rodriguez respectively had 20, 15, and 15 starts. Of these three, Rodriguez was the only one with an ERA under 5. Rick Aguilera had a good year as the team's closer, earning 26 saves in not very many opportunities. Eddie Guardado, Mike Trombley, Greg Swindell, and Todd Ritchie had competent seasons in the bullpen. At the end of the season, Dan Serafini played well in six games, giving some hope for the future.

Team Leaders
Statistic Player Quantity
ERA Brad Radke 3.87
Wins Brad Radke 20
Saves Rick Aguilera 26
Strikeouts Brad Radke 174

Defense

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Steinbach played well at catcher, backed up by Greg Myers. Stahoviak played in 81 games at first, with Colbrunn in 64. Knoblauch won a Gold Glove at second base in a season that gave no indication of his future throwing problems. Coomer (third base) and Meares (shortstop) were average at their positions. The three outfielders played well in the field.

Regular season

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Season standings

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AL Central
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cleveland Indians 86 75 .534 44‍–‍37 42‍–‍38
Chicago White Sox 80 81 .497 6 45‍–‍36 35‍–‍45
Milwaukee Brewers 78 83 .484 8 47‍–‍33 31‍–‍50
Minnesota Twins 68 94 .420 18½ 35‍–‍46 33‍–‍48
Kansas City Royals 67 94 .416 19 33‍–‍47 34‍–‍47

Record vs. opponents

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


Roster

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1997 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Notable transactions

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Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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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 Terry Steinbach 122 447 111 .248 12 54
1B Scott Stahoviak 91 275 63 .229 10 33
2B Chuck Knoblauch 156 611 178 .291 9 58
SS Pat Meares 134 439 121 .276 10 60
3B Ron Coomer 140 523 156 .298 13 85
LF Marty Cordova 103 378 93 .246 15 51
CF Rich Becker 132 443 117 .264 10 45
RF Matt Lawton 142 460 114 .248 14 60
DH Paul Molitor 135 538 164 .305 10 89

Other batters

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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
Denny Hocking 115 253 65 .257 2 25
Roberto Kelly 75 247 71 .287 5 37
Greg Colbrunn 70 217 61 .281 5 26
Brent Brede 61 190 52 .274 3 21
Greg Myers 62 165 44 .267 5 28
Todd Walker 52 156 37 .237 3 16
Darrin Jackson 49 130 33 .254 3 21
Damian Miller 25 66 18 .273 2 13
David Ortiz 15 49 16 .327 1 6
Chris Latham 15 22 4 .182 0 1
Javier Valentín 4 7 2 .286 0 0
Torii Hunter 1 0 0 ---- 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Brad Radke 35 239.2 20 10 3.87 174
Bob Tewksbury 26 168.2 8 13 4.22 92
Rich Robertson 31 147.0 8 12 5.69 69
LaTroy Hawkins 20 103.1 6 12 5.84 58
Scott Aldred 17 77.1 2 10 7.68 33
Dave Stevens 6 23.0 1 3 9.00 16
Shane Bowers 5 19.0 0 3 8.05 7

Other pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Frank Rodriguez 43 142.1 3 6 4.62 65
Travis Miller 13 48.1 1 5 7.63 26
Dan Serafini 6 26.1 2 1 3.42 15
Kevin Jarvis 6 13.0 0 0 12.46 9

Relief pitchers

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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 61 5 4 26 3.82 68
Eddie Guardado 69 0 4 1 3.91 54
Mike Trombley 67 2 3 1 4.37 74
Greg Swindell 65 7 4 1 3.58 75
Todd Ritchie 42 2 3 0 4.58 44
Dan Naulty 29 1 1 1 5.87 23
Gregg Olson 11 0 0 0 18.36 6

Miscellaneous

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  • The highest paid Twin in 1997 was Knoblauch at $6,150,000, followed by Molitor at $3,500,000.
  • In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking MLB's color-line, the Twins wore uniforms of the 1909 St. Paul Colored Gophers at home against Cleveland on July 13, 1997.

Other post-season awards

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All-Star Game: The lone representative of the Twins in the All-Star Game was second baseman Chuck Knoblauch. Knoblauch also won the Gold Glove Award and Silver Slugger Award.

Paul Molitor won the Lou Gehrig Award, given annually to a Major League Baseball (MLB) player who best exhibits the character and integrity of Lou Gehrig, both on the field and off.

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Salt Lake Buzz Pacific Coast League Phil Roof
AA New Britain Rock Cats Eastern League Al Newman
A Fort Myers Miracle Florida State League John Russell
A Fort Wayne Wizards Midwest League Mike Boulanger
Rookie Elizabethton Twins Appalachian League Jose Marzan
Rookie GCL Twins Gulf Coast League Steve Liddle

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References

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  1. ^ Greg Swindell Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  2. ^ "Michael Cuddyer Stats".
  3. ^ "Otis Nixon Stats".
  4. ^ "Alex Ochoa Stats".
  5. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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