Rule 5s & Circle Changes: Johan Santana Joins Twins Hall

The well-ballanced, Tom Seaver-styled "drop and drive" delivery-

whom Santana should have tied for career Cy Young Awards

were if not for some ridiculous voter preferences for Bartolo 

Colon and Mariano Rivera in 2005 Santana was plainly superior (see link)

Photo Credit: Steve Ellis

Johan Santana joined the elite list of all-time Twins Hall of Famers tonight, earning the exclusive blazer and a free, all expenses paid discount for a Murray's Silver Butterknife steak meal. It was a great night of Twins luminaries coming back to mesmerize Target Field, and a great acceptance speech by Santana. I completely remember my one and only Twins spring training visit in his 2000 rookie season. There wasn't much else to grab you with that team. The only other really notable development with the Twins roster heading into that year was the acquisition of Butch Huskey. Moving on...

We had gathered to watch him with the other spring squad members file into the main, Hammond complex on a sidewalk (located behind his catcher in the above frame) leading in from a side workout field. I remember turning to my brother-in-law, Mark, and gushing "There's the new rule five guy!," mindful of the mushrooming hype about him in the local, Minneapolis press dating back to the previous winter.

Baby Johan dispatches Jose Canseco, 

It would have been cool had he spent his entire career with the Twins. I was actually kind of done with him when he pushed for a trade to one of the New York clubs in late 2007. But, now in hindsight, New York...I get it. I'm only sorry they rode him into the ground with all the extra innings, higher pitch counts. 

As it was, he was a brilliant meteor, with his career years and Cy Young Awards bunched together, like the Ks on the scoreboard displays around the American League. He was the best for about four, five years running. Like Koufax. Or, Koufax-lite, at a minimum.

Comparisons aside, he'll likely never make the Hall Of Fame, but in his era, he certainly was in the discussion when the best pitchers in baseball were debated. A factoid: his career didn't take off until minor league pitching coach Bobby Cuellar taught him the circle change - echoing an earlier  circumstance in Twins history. 

In the 1983 season, then-Twins pitching coach Johnny Podres taught a struggling Frank Viola the same pitch to complement his arsenal. The result? Two Twins Cy Young Award winners, and two with the same back story. The difference being that while Viola had been a second round Twins draft pick, Santana had been acquired by the Marlins on Dec. 13, 1999 as a Rule Five pick from the Astros, and then sending him packing the same day in a trade with the Twins for Jared Camp. Camp, of course, never pitched in the Majors.

Here is some backup for me regarding Santana being robbed in 2005 Cy Young Award voting:

Stark: Picking Santana

Nov 8, 2005 Jayson StarkESPN Senior Writer Close Senior writer for ESPN.com 21 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer Author of three baseball books One of these millennia, the Los Angeles-Anaheim-California Angels were bound to have somebody win a Cy Young Award. Wouldn't you think?

"So Long, Everybody!" - Herb Carneal

Ghosts of Twins Team Photos Past: The 1981 Spring TrainingTeam Picture!

Ah-ha, so the Twins Twinkler is not AWOL. Can't believe...this is my 1st December post! The rigors of snow removal, and participating in Christmas Choirs (which - SUPER BUMMER! -  never included the Win! Twins! theme song in performance) have sadly reduced my time for nurturing our little museum of Twins past.


OK, now pay attention to the prose, not the ho's!


Hopefully, this amounts to a nice exercise in beginning scanner use 101. This photo has to be counted as interesting, and telling at the same time.  Where's Hrbek? Where's Gaetti? Discoursing in the men's room on the relative merits of Jaclyn Smith versus Morgan Fairchild? Negative, as they didn't even have invites to spring training. Frank Viola wouldn't be drafted by the Twins until June 8 in the 2nd round (the 11th pick of the '81 amateur draft), Kirby Puckett wouldn't be drafted until January of '82 (in the 1st round, 3rd pick of the amateur draft), while Randy Bush was still in AA at the Twins minor league Orlando affiliate.

Back off, she-vixen.

The team leaders were Gary Ward, John Castino, Roy Smalley, Butch Wynegar, Ron Washington and 1969 World Series hero, Jerry Koosman (BTW: thank you Jerry, for lending your lovely daughter to our Patron Service Staff at Canterbury Downs, circa 1987. Good genes really stand out!).

Growlin' Gary Ward: in a sea of smiling faces, he retains his penitentiary face!
Among the reasons he was my favoite Twin. He was the Twins answer to
Don Baylor as a clubhouse enforcer long before Baylor became a Twin in '87.



"Forget ladies, I bring the Bombs, si?"
Bombo Rivera, 1979 Topps Card

You had guys on the way out ( the enigmatic Landreaux, who would surface later that fall with the eventual World Champ Dodgers), Glenn Adams, Bombo Rivera - all guys who had played for a few '70s edition Twins, plus coaches who had played or been on the Twins playing roster in the 1960's (pitching coach Podres, Manager Johnny Goryl, his successor, Billy "Shotgun" Gardner).  Recall too that Johnny Pods guru'd Sweet Music in his use of the circle change up. Those damn Brooklyn boys always stick together!


So, all in all, a '60's coaching staff, with a roster of mostly '70's guys buttressing (buttressing? Isn't that illegal in several states?) a core group of young '80's guys who would come up after the rosters expanded (Tim Laudner and Smalley are the only players who would make it to 1987, not counting coach Rick Stelmaszek). Stelmaszek, just beginning his time that spring with the Twins and now a four-decade guy, is the longest tenured member of the organization - if you completely ignore the existence of Jim Rantz. 


'Sall for now.  Hope you enjoyed the trip.
May Your Taters Fly Far!
TT