1997 Minnesota Twins season

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.

1997 Minnesota Twins
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Carl Pohlad
General manager(s)Terry Ryan
Manager(s)Tom Kelly
Local televisionWCCO-TV
Midwest Sports Channel
(Bert Blyleven, Dick Bremer, Ryan Lefebvre)
Local radio830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, John Gordon)
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Offseason

Offense

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
StatisticPlayerQuantity
HRMarty Cordova15
RBIPaul Molitor89
BAPaul Molitor.305
RunsChuck Knoblauch117

Pitching

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
StatisticPlayerQuantity
ERABrad Radke3.87
WinsBrad Radke20
SavesRick Aguilera26
StrikeoutsBrad Radke174

Defense

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

Season standings
AL Central W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cleveland Indians 8675 0.534 — 44–37 42–38
Chicago White Sox 8081 0.497 6 45–36 35–45
Milwaukee Brewers 7883 0.484 8 47–33 31–50
Minnesota Twins 6894 0.420 18½ 35–46 33–48
Kansas City Royals 6794 0.416 19 33–47 34–47

Record vs. opponents
1997 American League Records

Sources:
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim —4–76–56–57–45–66–57–44–74–711–16–68–46–54–12
Baltimore 7–4—5–75–66–56–67–45–610–18–48–37–410–16–68–7
Boston 5–67–5—3–86–55–73–88–38–34–87–47–43–86–66–9
Chicago 5–66–58–3—5–74–711–14–76–62–98–35–63–85–68–7
Cleveland 4–75–65–67–5—6–58–38–48–45–67–43–85–66–59–6
Detroit 6–56–67–57–45–6—6–54–74–72–107–44–77–46–68–7
Kansas City 5–64–78–31–113–85–6—6–67–53–83–85–66–55–66–9
Milwaukee 4–76–53–87–44–87–46–6—5–74–75–65–67–47–48–7
Minnesota 7–41–103–86–64–87–45–77–5—3–87–45–63–83–87–8
New York 7–44–88–49–26–510–28–37–48–3—6–54–77–47–55–10
Oakland 1–113–84–73–84–74–78–36–54–75–6—5–75–76–57–9
Seattle 6–64–74–76–58–37–46–56–56–57–47–5—8–48–37–9
Texas 4–81–108–38–36–54–75–64–78–34–77–54–8—4–710–6
Toronto 5–66–66–66–55–66–66–54–78–35–75–63–87–4—4–11

Roster
1997 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

Notable transactions

Player stats

Starters by position

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

Other batters

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

Starting pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO

Other pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO

Relief pitchers
Player G W L SV ERA SO

Miscellaneous
  • 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

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
See also: Minor League Baseball
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

[5]

References
  1. Greg Swindell Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cuddymi01.shtml
  3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/n/nixonot01.shtml
  4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/o/ochoaal01.shtml
  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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