2007 Minnesota Twins season

The 2007 Minnesota Twins season was the 47th season for the franchise in Minnesota, and the 107th overall in the American League. It started off with the Twins trying to repeat as champions of the AL Central, instead they finished 79–83 and missed the playoffs.

2007 Minnesota Twins
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record79–83
Divisional place3rd
Other information
Owner(s)Carl Pohlad
General manager(s)Terry Ryan, Bill Smith
Manager(s)Ron Gardenhire
Local televisionFSN North
WFTC (My 29)
(Dick Bremer, Bert Blyleven)
Local radioAM 1500 KSTP
(John Gordon, Dan Gladden, Jack Morris, Kris Atteberry)
StatsESPN.com
BB-reference
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Offseason

Regular season

For the third year in a row, an important Twins personality died just before the beginning of the season. In 2005, long-time stadium announcer Bob Casey fell to heart failure. In 2006, Hall of Fame center fielder Kirby Puckett died from a massive bilateral stroke brought on by hypertension. In 2007, Herb Carneal, the team's radio play-by-play announcer for 45 years, died from heart failure on April 1, the day before Opening Day. The Twins announced that they would dedicate the 2007 season to Carneal's memory.

  • With a first-inning 'E4' on June 6, the Twins' Luis Castillo's major league record for consecutive errorless games by a second baseman ended at 143. Over 647 chances, he never erred. Detroit's Plácido Polanco had a similar streak running concurrently, and it ended a few months later at 186 games, the new record.
  • The Twins' representatives to the All-Star Game were Morneau, Hunter, and Santana. Reliever Pat Neshek was chosen to be one of five players in the final vote for an All-Star player. However, this spot went to Boston Red Sox pitcher Hideki Okajima, despite a campaign by Twins fans and national sports blogs to "Vote For Pat".[1]
  • The collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge occurred prior to the August 1, 2007 home game against the Kansas City Royals at the Metrodome. Public safety officials told the team that canceling the game could hamper rescue and recovery efforts, since a cancellation would send up to 25,000 people back into traffic just blocks from the collapsed bridge (I-35W runs behind the Metrodome).[2] Before the game, a moment of silence was held for the victims of the collapse.[2] The team rescheduled their August 2 game against the Royals to the afternoon of August 31. Traditional groundbreaking ceremonies for the team's forthcoming stadium (also located in downtown Minneapolis) had been scheduled to take place after the game, but were postponed to August 30.[2][3][4]
  • Johan Santana broke the club record for most strikeouts in a game, with 17 against the Texas Rangers on August 19, 2007.
  • On September 7, the Twins and the Chicago White Sox entered the ninth inning tied 4-4 and left the inning tied 10-10. It's the first time in the major leagues that both teams each scored six runs each in the ninth to force extra innings. Chicago won 11-10 after thirteen innings.
  • With the loss to Boston on September 28, the Twins were assured of a losing season, the first after six straight winners (a record). Before those six, they'd suffered through eight consecutive losing years (also a record).[5]
  • Torii Hunter won his seventh straight Gold Glove award, the most for any position player on the Twins, and second in club history only to pitcher Jim Kaat's eleven.

Offense

While the 2006 team was known for the "piranhas"—gritty hitters lacking power but possessing speed and guile—the 2007 team saw the continued the development of power hitters such as 2006 league MVP Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter, and Jason Kubel. After the Twins swept a July 6 doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox by a combined score of 32-14, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén, the man who coined the term "piranhas" in 2006, stated: "They're not piranhas no more. They're a shark attack now."[6] In the second game of that doubleheader, Morneau became the first Twin to hit three home runs in a game since Tony Oliva against the Kansas City Royals on July 3, 1973. The Twins scored the most runs by one team in a doubleheader since the Boston Red Sox totaled 35 in a sweep of the Philadelphia Athletics on July 4, 1939.[7] Nick Punto, as of August 22, 2007 has the lowest batting average among qualified batters in the American League, at .201.

Pitching

The Twins entered the season with a problem in the starting rotation after Twins staple Brad Radke retired and Francisco Liriano had Tommy John surgery. The Twins signed Ramón Ortiz and Sidney Ponson to start. Ponson was released in May and was replaced by Scott Baker, Ramón Ortiz was moved to the bullpen shortly after and replaced in the rotation by Kevin Slowey. However, Slowey was sent to the minors in early July, replaced by Matt Garza. Ramón Ortiz was traded in August to the Colorado Rockies. On August 31, Baker took a perfect game into the ninth inning against the Kansas City Royals, before giving up a leadoff walk to catcher John Buck. His no-hitter also ended when he gave up a 1-out single to Mike Sweeney in the 9th inning. The game was won by the Twins 5-0.

Starter Johan Santana won a Gold Glove Award, the only one of his career.

Season standings
AL Central W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cleveland Indians 9666 0.593 — 51–29 45–37
Detroit Tigers 8874 0.543 8 45–36 43–38
Minnesota Twins 7983 0.488 17 41–40 38–43
Chicago White Sox 7290 0.444 24 38–43 34–47
Kansas City Royals 6993 0.426 27 35–46 34–47

Record vs. opponents
2007 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC LAA MIN NYY OAK SEA TB TEX TOR NL 
Baltimore —6–125–33–41–57–03–70–79–94–42–711–74–68–106–12
Boston 12–6—7–15–23–43–36–44–38–104–44–513–56–49–912–6
Chicago 3–51–7—7–1111–712–65–49–94–64–51–76–12–43–44–14
Cleveland 4–32–511–7—12–611–75–514–40–66–44–38–26–34–29–9
Detroit 5–14–37–116–12—11–73–512–64–44–66–43–45–44–314–4
Kansas City 0–73–36–127–117–11—5–29–91–96–43–64–35–43–410–8
Los Angeles 7–34–64–55–55–32–5—6–36–39–1013–66–210–93–414–4
Minnesota 7–03–49–94–146–129–93–6—2–55–26–33–47–24–611–7
New York 9–910–86–46–04–49–13–65–2—2–45–510–85–110–810–8
Oakland 4–44–45–44–66–44–610–92–54–2—5–144–69–105–410–8
Seattle 7–25–47–13–44–66–36–133–65–514–5—4–311–84–59–9
Tampa Bay 7–115–131–62–84–33–42–64–38–106–43–4—5–49–97–11
Texas 6–44–64–23–64–54–59–102–71–510–98–114–5—5–511–7
Toronto 10–89–94–32–43–44–34–36–48–104–55–49–95–5—10–8

Notable transactions

After their great amount of success in 2006, in which they came from behind to win the AL Central, the Twins wanted to be sure to lock up their 3-4-5 hitters (Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, and Justin Morneau) to multi-year deals. The Twins were able to sign Mauer to a four-year deal worth $33 million, but Morneau and Cuddyer only agreed to sign one-year contracts, worth $4.5 million and $3.575 million respectively.

Game log
2007 Game Log ({{{win}}}–{{{loss}}})
April
May
June
July
August
September

Roster
2007 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

Coaches

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

Other post-season awards

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Rochester Red Wings International League Stan Cliburn
AA New Britain Rock Cats Eastern League Riccardo Ingram
A Fort Myers Miracle Florida State League Kevin Boles
A Beloit Snappers Midwest League Jeff Smith
Rookie Elizabethton Twins Appalachian League Ray Smith
Rookie GCL Twins Gulf Coast League Nelson Prada

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Elizabethton

References
  • Game Logs:
1st Half: Minnesota Twins Game Log on ESPN.com
2nd Half: Minnesota Twins Game Log on ESPN.com
  1. Great The OTHER Japanese Red Sox Pitcher Won: Bad Day For Neshek
  2. "Twins postpone Thursday's game after bridge collapses near Metrodome". ESPN.com. August 1, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  3. "Twins postpone Thursday's game after bridge collapses near Metrodome". KARE11. August 1, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  4. "Twins ballpark groundbreaking rescheduled for Thursday, Aug. 30". MLB Advanced Media. August 9, 2007. Archived from the original on January 15, 2008. Retrieved August 10, 2007.
  5. "Minnesota Twins Team History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  6. "Jim Souhan: Morneau's bat gives offense some big teeth". Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
  7. Yahoo! Sports – Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and more
  8. Rockies acquire RHP Ortiz from Twins – MLB – Yahoo! Sports
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