1983 Minnesota Twins

Here is the third team that ended 1983 with a 70-92 record. Even though they had similar records, they were all going in different directions. The Angels had won the division in '79 and '82, and were trending downward, although they would make another playoff appearance in '86. The Indians hadn't done anything in years and it would be another decade before they were serious contenders. Meanwhile, the Twins had a rough few years to start out the '80s, but the core of the teams that would win a World Series title in 1987 and 1991 started to appear in 1982, so there rookie cards start appearing in the 1983 sets.

Best Player: Kent Hrbek

Best Pitcher: Ken Schrom...best pitcher going 15-8 with a sub 4.00 ERA, but he had no card in any of the 1983 sets. This is where a regional Twins set may come in handy if one was ever created.

All-Stars: Gary Ward

Hall-of-Famers: none

Rookie Card of the Year: Gary Gaetti, long time 3rd baseman played through the 2000 season with the Twins, Angels, Royals, Cardinals, Cubs, and Red Sox. He finished his career with 2280 hits and 360 home runs.

Other rookie cards: Paul Boris (listed under retired players), Randy Bush, Jim Eisenreich, Lenny Faedo, Terry Felton (listed under retired players), Jeff Little (listed under retired players), Jesus Vega (listed under retired players), Frank Viola, Len Whitehouse

First Twin card: Bobby Mitchell, John Pacella (listed under Baltimore Orioles)

Most interesting non-Topps card: no Twin appeared on a card only in sets other than Topps or Topps Traded

Other notes: Sal Butera appeared on a Topps card as a Twin, but played only with the Tigers in 1983, his card can be found in the Detroit Tigers checklist. John Pacella appeared on a Topps card as a Twin, but pitched in the minor league system of the Baltimore Orioles in 1983, his card can be found in the Baltimore Orioles checklist.

Starters

__	TO	294	C	Dave Engle	MIN
__	TO	690	1B	Kent Hrbek	MIN
__	TO	93	2B	John Castino	MIN
__	TO	458	SS	Ron Washington	MIN
__	TO	431	3B	Gary Gaetti	MIN
__	TO	517	LF	Gary Ward	MIN
__			CF	Darrell Brown
__	TO	232	RF	Tom Brunansky	MIN
__	TT	17	DH	Randy Bush	MIN
__	TO	121	UT	Mickey Hatcher	MIN

Starting Pitchers

__			SP	Ken Schrom
__	TO	731	SP	Albert Williams	MIN
__	TO	586	SP	Frank Viola	MIN
__	TO	327	SP	Bobby Castillo	MIN
__	TO	751	SP	Brad Havens	MIN

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	380	CL	Ron Davis	MIN
__			RP	Rick Lysander
__			RP	Pete Filson
__	TT	126	RP	Len Whitehouse	MIN
__			RP	Mike Walters
__	TO	33	RP	Jack O'Connor	MIN

Other Players

__	TO	529	C	Tim Laudner	MIN
__	TO	671	SS	Lenny Faedo	MIN
__	TO	647	CF	Bobby Mitchell	MIN
__			C	Ray Smith
__			CF	Rusty Kuntz
__			SS	Houston Jimenez
__			1B	Scott Ullger
__			2B	Tim Teufel
__			SS	Greg Gagne
__	TO	197	CF	Jim Eisenreich	MIN
__			UT	Tack Wilson
__			SP	Bryan Oelkers
__			SP	Jay Pettibone
__			RP	Jim Lewis

Manager

__

TO

11

MG

Billy Gardner

MIN

1982 Minnesota Twins

Even though this was the worst team in the major leagues, the team was loaded with rookies that would lead them to the 1987 World Series title. Among the players who were seeing their first significant playing time were future all-stars Kent Hrbek, Tom Brunansky, Frank Viola, Tim Laudner, and Gary Gaetti. So brighter days were ahead for the Twins.

Also of note for the Twins in 1982, was that this was the first year playing in the Metrodome.

MVP
This was a tough call as Gary Ward and Kent Hrbek were ranked one and two in all major categories.

Let's see the team leaders:
BA - Hrbek (.301)
HR - Ward (28)
RBI - Hrbek (92, 1 more than Ward)
Runs Scored - Ward (85)
Stolen Bases - Ward (13)
Hits - Ward (165)
OBP - Brunansky (although Hrbek was 2nd, Ward 4th)
Slugging - Ward (.517)

Ward led in more categories, so I will give him the award for this team.

Cy Young
This was the worst team in the American League pitching wise. Only two pitchers had an ERA below 4.00 and only one of those would've qualified for the ERA title anyway, and that was Bobby Castillo. He also had a 13-11 record for this team that lost 102 games. Even though he was a solid pitcher in 1982, he was out of baseball after the 1985 season. 1982 was by far his best season in the majors. Castillo was also supposedly the pitcher that taught Fernando Valenzuela how to throw the screwball.

Rookie Card of the Year
This goes to the Twins only representative in the all-star game for 1982, Kent Hrbek. He went on to have a pretty solid career, playing for the Twins for his entire career, lasting through 1994. He was 2nd in MVP voting in 1984. But believe it or not, 1982 marked his only all-star game appearance.

Most Interesting Non-Topps Card
Before Joe Mauer, there was another all-star catcher with Minnesota roots playing at catcher, and that would be Tim Laudner. He also played his entire career through 1989 with the Twins. His solo rookie card is in this Donruss set.

Other Card Notes
Bobby Mitchell came over to the Twins in the same deal that brought over Bobby Castillo. His only card in any of the 1982 sets, he is shown as a member of the Dodgers in the Fleer set. Since he only played with the Twins in '82, I am putting his card on this team in the checklist.

In 1982, Larry Milbourne played in 14 games with the Yankees, was traded to the Twins in a May deal that sent Butch Wynegar to the Yankees, then he played in 29 games with the Twins. In early July he was traded to the Tribe and played in 82 games with them. Milbourne has a card in the regular Topps set showing him as a member of the Yankees, and a card in the traded set with bad airbrushing typical of the era showing him as an Indian.

What is interesting with Milbourne's traded card is that it marks the latest transaction made in 1982 that shows up in the traded set. The Twins-Indians trade was made on July 3, and no other trades after that show up in the traded set, which shows that the traded set came out sometime past July 3.

The card showing Milbourne as an Indian is listed under the Indians checklist, and his regular Topps card will be listed with this Twins team since he had more playing time as a Twin that as a Yankee in 1982.

Starters

__	DO	549	C	Tim Laudner	MIN
__	TT	44	1B	Kent Hrbek	MIN
__	TO	644	2B	John Castino	MIN
__			3B	Gary Gaetti
__			SS	Lenny Faedo
__	TO	612	LF	Gary Ward	MIN
__	FL	14	CF	Bobby Mitchell	LAD
__	TT	13	RF	Tom Brunansky	MIN
__	TT	51	DH	Randy Johnson	MIN
__	TT	124	MI	Ron Washington	MIN
__	TO	467	UT	Mickey Hatcher	MIN

Starting Pitchers

__	TT	17	SP	Bobby Castillo	MIN
__	TO	92	SP	Brad Havens	MIN
__	TO	69	SP	Albert Williams	MIN
__	TO	353	SP	Jack O'Connor	MIN
__			SP	Frank Viola

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	25	CL	Ron Davis	MIN
__			RP	Paul Boris
__			RP	Terry Felton
__	TO	309	RP	Pete Redfern	MIN
__			RP	John Pacella

Other Players

__			UT	Jesus Vega
__	TO	738	UT	Dave Engle	MIN
__	TO	676	C	Sal Butera	MIN
__			DH	Randy Bush
__			CF	Jim Eisenreich
__	TO	669	2B	Larry Milbourne	NYY
__	TO	222	C	Butch Wynegar	MIN
__	TO	379	2B	Rob Wilfong	MIN
__			UT	Greg Wells
__			C	Ray Smith
__	TO	767	SS	Roy Smalley	MIN
__	TO	193	SP	Darrell Jackson	MIN
__	TO	153	SP	Roger Erickson	MIN
__			RP	Jeff Little
__	TO	560	RP	Doug Corbett	MIN
__			RP	Fernando Arroyo
__			SP	Pete Filson
__	TO	409	RP	Don Cooper	MIN

Manager/Coaches

__	DO	591	MG	Billy Gardner	MIN
__	DO	566	CO	Johnny Podres	MIN

1981 Minnesota Twins

1986 and 1987 World Series Champs
It's interesting that the eventual 1986 and 1987 World Series champs are back to back in overall standings in 1981. As I pointed out, two of the starters on the '86 Mets came up in 1980, so they had rookie cards in the 1981 sets. The first of the key players on that '87 Twins team came up in 1981, Kent Hrbek and Gary Gaetti. Unfortunately since they came up later in 1981, they don't have a card in any set. So the Twins were about a year behind the Mets in building a winner, and maybe that can be shown in when they won their World Series 6 years later.

Maybe this could be an interesting side project for this blog, how long does it take to make a World Series champ. I suspect it is less now than it was in the 1980s, since free agency has more of an impact now.

Here is my stab at figuring this out for 1980s World Series champs:
1980 Phillies - first starter/starting pitcher was on team in 1970 (SS Larry Bowa, LF Greg Luzinski, note that Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt and Bob Boone came up in 1972)..this was an older team to win a World Series, so it took 10 years to build this team

1981 Dodgers - Steve Garvey and Bill Russell both came up in 1969, the key players on this team were all around 32 years old in 1981, took 12 years to build

1982 Cardinals - Keith Hernandez and Bob Forsch both came up in 1974, this team was built on some good trades, was also younger than the previous two teams, as most key players were in their mid-20s, which may be why this wasn't the last World Series they would appear in in this decade, took 8 years to build

1983 Orioles - I am not counting Jim Palmer who came up in 1965, since he wasn't one of the top 5 starters on this team...the first player who played a significance on this team to come up was Al Bumbry who came up in 1972, so I will say this took 11 years to build

1984 Tigers - Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Lance Parrish, and Jack Morris all came up in 1977. What a rookie crop that was, you can argue all of these players among the best of all time at their position, took 7 years to build.

1985 Royals - In 1973, George Brett came through the farm system and Hal McRae came over in a trade. This team was a good mix of young and older players. It took 12 years to finally get this team together.

1986 Mets - As I stated, 1980 seemed to be the start to putting this team together, although Jesse Orosco played on the 1979 Mets team. So this team took 7 years to get together.

1987 Twins - Hrbek and Gaetti came up in 1981, so this team took 6 years to put together, the quickest so far. I am not counting Bert Blyleven or Roy Smalley, who started with the Twins much earlier, but went away, before coming back to be key players on the 1987 team.

1988 Dodgers - I am not counting Pedro Guerrero, since he was on this team, but traded away by the end of the season. The first key players on this team to come up were Fernando Valenzuela and Mike Scioscia, both key players on the 1981 World Series champs. They both came up in 1980, taking this team 8 years to put together.

1989 A's - Tony Phillips came up with the 1982 A's, so this team took 7 years to put together.

By comparison
1996 Yankees - I was just going to compare to the 2009 Yankees, but realized that Derek Jeter may have been the longevity leader on Yankee championship teams as far back as 1996, but he wasn't. In 1990, Jim Leyritz, a utility player on the '96 team, came up with the Yankees. So it took 6 years to put this team together.

2009 Yankees - In 1995, Derek Jeter (why did I think he was up earlier than this?), Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera all came up to play their first games with the Yankees, so it took 14 years to put the most recent World Champions together.

Starters

__	TO	243	C	Sal Butera	MIN
__	TO	527	1B	Danny Goodwin	MIN
__	TO	453	2B	Rob Wilfong	MIN
__	TO	304	3B	John Castino	MIN
__	TO	115	SS	Roy Smalley	MIN
__	DO	594	LF	Gary Ward	MIN
__	TT	768	CF	Mickey Hatcher	MIN
__			RF	Dave Engle
__	TO	18	DH	Glenn Adams	MIN
__	TO	137	RF	Hosken Powell	MIN
__	TO	509	MI	Pete Mackanin	MIN
__	TO	631	1B	Ron Jackson	MIN
__	TO	61	C	Butch Wynegar	MIN

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	714	SP	Pete Redfern	MIN
__	TO	569	SP	Albert Williams	MIN
__	TO	408	SP	Fernando Arroyo	MIN
__	TO	476	SP	Jerry Koosman	MIN
__			SP	Brad Havens
__	TO	434	SP	Roger Erickson	MIN

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	162	CL	Doug Corbett	MIN
__			RP	Don Cooper
__	TO	603	RP	John Verhoeven	MIN
__	TO	89	RP	Darrell Jackson	MIN
__			RP	Jack O'Connor

Other Players

__	TO	278	LF	Rick Sofield	MIN
__			SS	Ron Washington
__			UT	Kent Hrbek
__	FL	500	SS	Chuck Baker	SDP
__	TO	448	UT	Tim Corcoran	DET
__			UT	Tim Laudner
__			SS	Lenny Faedo
__			C	Ray Smith
__			UT	Gary Gaetti
__			CF	Greg Johnston
__			UT	Mark Funderburk
__			RP	Bob Veselic
__			RP	John Hobbs
__			RP	Terry Felton

Manager/Coaches

__	DO	527	MG	Johnny Goryl	MIN
__			MG	Billy Gardner