1986 Minnesota Twins season

1986 Minnesota Twins
71-91, sixth in the AL Western Division
Major League affiliations
American League (since 1901)
Western Division (since 1969)
Location
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (since 1982)
Minneapolis, Minnesota (since 1961)
Other information
Owner(s)	Carl Pohlad
Manager(s)	Ray Miller and Tom Kelly
Local television	KMSP-TV (Bob Kurtz, Harmon Killebrew)
Local radio	830 WCCO AM (Herb Carneal, Joe Angel)
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The 1986 Minnesota Twins finished a 71-91, sixth in the AL West. 1,255,453 fans attended Twins games, the second lowest total in the American League.

Offseason 1
Regular season 2
- Offense 2.1
- Pitching 2.2
- Defense 2.3
- Season standings 2.4
- Record vs. opponents 2.5
- Notable transactions 2.6
- Roster 2.7
Player stats 3
- Batting 3.1
  - Starters by position 3.1.1
  - Other batters 3.1.2
- Pitching 3.2
  - Starting pitchers 3.2.1
  - Other pitchers 3.2.2
  - Relief pitchers 3.2.3
Farm system 4
Notes 5
References 6

Offseason

December 20, 1985: Rick Lysander was released by the Twins.^[1]
January 7, 1986: Ken Schrom and Bryan Oelkers were traded by the Twins to the Cleveland Indians for Roy Smith and Ramón Romero.^[2]
January 14, 1986: Jarvis Brown was drafted by the Twins in the 1st round (9th pick) of the 1986 Major League Baseball Draft. Player signed May 23, 1986.^[3]
January 16, 1986: Tim Teufel and Pat Crosby (minors) were traded by the Twins to the New York Mets for Billy Beane, Joe Klink and Bill Latham.^[4]
January 16, 1986: Dave Engel was traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Detroit Tigers for Chris Pittaro and Alejandro Sanchez.^[5]
March 31, 1986: Mike Hart was traded by the Twins to the Baltimore Orioles for Ben Bianchi (minors), Steve Padia (minors), and a player to be named later. The Orioles completed the deal by sending Jeff Hubbard (minors) to the Twins on April 23.^[6]

Regular season

Only one Twins player made the All-Star Game, outfielder Kirby Puckett.

After a disappointing start, manager Ray Miller was replaced by Tom Kelly on September 12.

In a game against the Chicago White Sox held on October 4, Greg Gagne of the Twins hit two inside the park home runs in one game.^[7]

Offense

Kirby Puckett, switched from leadoff to third in the batting order, blasted 31 HR drove in 96 runs and scored 119. Kent Hrbek hit .267 with 29 HR and 91 RBI. Tom Brunansky hit 23 HR and 75 RBI. Gary Gaetti hit .287 with 34 HR and 108 RBI.

Pitching

The Twins had three solid starting pitchers: Frank Viola (16-13), Bert Blyleven (17-14), and Mike Smithson (13-14). Reliever Keith Atherton had 10 saves.

Defense

Third baseman Gary Gaetti and center fielder Kirby Puckett each won their first Gold Glove Award. They were the first Twins to win a gold glove since Jim Kaat in 1973.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

April 8, 1986: Houston Jiménez was released by the Twins.^[8]
May 20, 1986: Keith Atherton was traded by the Oakland Athletics to the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named later and cash. The Minnesota Twins sent Eric Broersma (minors) (May 23, 1986) to the Oakland Athletics to complete the trade.^[9]
June 2, 1986: Derek Parks was drafted by the Twins in the 1st round (10th pick) of the 1986 Major League Baseball Draft.^[10]
June 20, 1986: John Butcher was traded by the Twins to the Cleveland Indians for Neal Heaton.^[11]

Roster

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

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
C	Salas, MarkMark Salas	91	258	60	.233	8	33
1B	Hrbek, KentKent Hrbek	149	550	147	.267	29	91
2B	Lombardozzi, SteveSteve Lombardozzi	156	453	103	.227	8	33
3B	Gaetti, GaryGary Gaetti	157	596	171	.287	34	108
SS	Gagne, GregGreg Gagne	156	472	118	.250	12	54
LF	Bush, RandyRandy Bush	130	357	96	.269	7	45
CF	Puckett, KirbyKirby Puckett	161	680	223	.328	31	96
RF	Brunansky, TomTom Brunansky	157	593	152	.256	23	75
DH	Smalley, RoyRoy Smalley	143	459	113	.246	20	57

^[12]

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
Hatcher, MickeyMickey Hatcher	115	317	88	.278	3	32
Laudner, TimTim Laudner	76	193	46	.244	10	29
Beane, BillyBilly Beane	80	183	39	.213	3	15
Reed, JeffJeff Reed	68	165	39	.236	2	9
Washington, RonRon Washington	48	74	19	.257	4	11
Davidson, MarkMark Davidson	36	68	8	.118	0	2
Espinoza, AlvaroAlvaro Espinoza	37	42	9	.214	0	1
Woods, AlAl Woods	23	28	9	.321	2	8
Pittaro, ChrisChris Pittaro	11	21	2	.095	0	0
Sanchez, AlejandroAlejandro Sanchez	8	16	2	.125	0	1
David, AndreAndre David	5	5	1	.200	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Viola, FrankFrank Viola	37	245.7	16	13	4.51	191
Blyleven, BertBert Blyleven	36	271.7	17	14	4.01	215
Smithson, MikeMike Smithson	34	198	13	14	4.77	114
Heaton, NealNeal Heaton	21	124.3	4	9	3.98	66

^[12]

Other pitchers

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

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Butcher, JohnJohn Butcher	16	70	0	3	6.30	29
Latham, BillBill Latham	7	16	0	1	7.31	8

Relief pitchers

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

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Atherton, KeithKeith Atherton	47	5	8	10	3.75	59
Frazier, GeorgeGeorge Frazier	15	1	1	6	4.39	25
Smith, RoyRoy Smith	5	0	2	0	6.97	8

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Toledo Mud Hens	International League	Charlie Manuel
AA	Orlando Twins	Southern League	George Mitterwald
A	Visalia Oaks	California League	Danny Schmitz
A	Kenosha Twins	Midwest League	Don Leppert
Rookie	Elizabethton Twins	Appalachian League	Fred Waters

^[13]

Notes

-- Module:Hatnote -- -- -- -- This module produces hatnote links and links to related articles. It -- -- implements the and meta-templates and includes -- -- helper functions for other Lua hatnote modules. --

local libraryUtil = require('libraryUtil') local checkType = libraryUtil.checkType local mArguments -- lazily initialise Module:Arguments local yesno -- lazily initialise Module:Yesno

local p = {}

-- Helper functions

local function getArgs(frame) -- Fetches the arguments from the parent frame. Whitespace is trimmed and -- blanks are removed. mArguments = require('Module:Arguments') return mArguments.getArgs(frame, {parentOnly = true}) end

local function removeInitialColon(s) -- Removes the initial colon from a string, if present. return s:match('^:?(.*)') end

function p.findNamespaceId(link, removeColon) -- Finds the namespace id (namespace number) of a link or a pagename. This -- function will not work if the link is enclosed in double brackets. Colons -- are trimmed from the start of the link by default. To skip colon -- trimming, set the removeColon parameter to true. checkType('findNamespaceId', 1, link, 'string') checkType('findNamespaceId', 2, removeColon, 'boolean', true) if removeColon ~= false then link = removeInitialColon(link) end local namespace = link:match('^(.-):') if namespace then local nsTable = mw.site.namespaces[namespace] if nsTable then return nsTable.id end end return 0 end

function p.formatPages(...) -- Formats a list of pages using formatLink and returns it as an array. Nil -- values are not allowed. local pages = {...} local ret = {} for i, page in ipairs(pages) do ret[i] = p._formatLink(page) end return ret end

function p.formatPageTables(...) -- Takes a list of page/display tables and returns it as a list of -- formatted links. Nil values are not allowed. local pages = {...} local links = {} for i, t in ipairs(pages) do checkType('formatPageTables', i, t, 'table') local link = t[1] local display = t[2] links[i] = p._formatLink(link, display) end return links end

function p.makeWikitextError(msg, helpLink, addTrackingCategory) -- Formats an error message to be returned to wikitext. If -- addTrackingCategory is not false after being returned from -- Module:Yesno, and if we are not on a talk page, a tracking category -- is added. checkType('makeWikitextError', 1, msg, 'string') checkType('makeWikitextError', 2, helpLink, 'string', true) yesno = require('Module:Yesno') local title = mw.title.getCurrentTitle() -- Make the help link text. local helpText if helpLink then helpText = ' (help)' else helpText = end -- Make the category text. local category if not title.isTalkPage and yesno(addTrackingCategory) ~= false then category = 'Hatnote templates with errors' category = string.format( '%s:%s', mw.site.namespaces[14].name, category ) else category = end return string.format( '%s', msg, helpText, category ) end

-- Format link -- -- Makes a wikilink from the given link and display values. Links are escaped -- with colons if necessary, and links to sections are detected and displayed -- with " § " as a separator rather than the standard MediaWiki "#". Used in -- the template.

function p.formatLink(frame) local args = getArgs(frame) local link = args[1] local display = args[2] if not link then return p.makeWikitextError( 'no link specified', 'Template:Format hatnote link#Errors', args.category ) end return p._formatLink(link, display) end

function p._formatLink(link, display) -- Find whether we need to use the colon trick or not. We need to use the -- colon trick for categories and files, as otherwise category links -- categorise the page and file links display the file. checkType('_formatLink', 1, link, 'string') checkType('_formatLink', 2, display, 'string', true) link = removeInitialColon(link) local namespace = p.findNamespaceId(link, false) local colon if namespace == 6 or namespace == 14 then colon = ':' else colon = end -- Find whether a faux display value has been added with the | magic -- word. if not display then local prePipe, postPipe = link:match('^(.-)|(.*)$') link = prePipe or link display = postPipe end -- Find the display value. if not display then local page, section = link:match('^(.-)#(.*)$') if page then display = page .. ' § ' .. section end end -- Assemble the link. if display then return string.format('%s', colon, link, display) else return string.format('%s%s', colon, link) end end

-- Hatnote -- -- Produces standard hatnote text. Implements the template.

function p.hatnote(frame) local args = getArgs(frame) local s = args[1] local options = {} if not s then return p.makeWikitextError( 'no text specified', 'Template:Hatnote#Errors', args.category ) end options.extraclasses = args.extraclasses options.selfref = args.selfref return p._hatnote(s, options) end

function p._hatnote(s, options) checkType('_hatnote', 1, s, 'string') checkType('_hatnote', 2, options, 'table', true) local classes = {'hatnote'} local extraclasses = options.extraclasses local selfref = options.selfref if type(extraclasses) == 'string' then classes[#classes + 1] = extraclasses end if selfref then classes[#classes + 1] = 'selfref' end return string.format( '

', table.concat(classes, ' '), s )

end

return p-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Module:Hatnote -- -- -- -- This module produces hatnote links and links to related articles. It -- -- implements the and meta-templates and includes -- -- helper functions for other Lua hatnote modules. --

local libraryUtil = require('libraryUtil') local checkType = libraryUtil.checkType local mArguments -- lazily initialise Module:Arguments local yesno -- lazily initialise Module:Yesno

local p = {}

-- Helper functions

local function removeInitialColon(s) -- Removes the initial colon from a string, if present. return s:match('^:?(.*)') end

-- Hatnote -- -- Produces standard hatnote text. Implements the template.

', table.concat(classes, ' '), s )

end

return p

^ Rick Lysander page on Baseball Reference
^ Roy Smith page at Baseball Reference
^ Jarvis Brown page at Baseball Reference
^ Billy Beane page on Baseball Reference
^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/e/engleda01.shtml
^ Mike Hart page at Baseball Reference
^ Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p.262, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, NY, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0
^ Houston Jiménez page on Baseball Reference
^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/atherke01.shtml
^ Derek Parks page at Baseball Reference
^ John Butcher page on Baseball Reference
^ ^a ^b http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/1986.shtml
^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

References

Player stats from www.baseball-reference.com
Team info from www.baseball-almanac.com

Minnesota Twins

Formerly the Washington Nationals and the Washington Senators
Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Twin Cities)

Franchise

Ballparks

Spring Training: Plant Field
Tinker Field
Hammond Stadium

Culture

Homer Hanky
Little Big League
Major League: Back to the Minors
Continental League
"The Piranhas"
AL Central tie-breaker games
- 2008
- 2009
Damn Yankees

Important figures

Senators Hall of Famers	Herb Carneal Goose Goslin Bucky Harris Walter Johnson Arch McDonald Sam Rice

Wall of Fame members	Rick Aguilera Bob Allison Earl Battey Bert Blyleven George Brophy Rod Carew Bob Casey Gary Gaetti Calvin Griffith Kent Hrbek Jim Kaat Tom Kelly Harmon Killebrew Tony Oliva Carl Pohlad Kirby Puckett Brad Radke Jim Rantz Zoilo Versalles Frank Viola

World Series Championships (3)

Pennants (6)

American League: 1924
1925
1933
1965
1987
1991

Division titles (10)

West: 1969; 1970; 1987; 1991
Central: 2002; 2003; 2004; 2006; 2009; 2010

Seasons (116)

1900s	1900 . 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909

1910s	1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

1920s	1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929

1930s	1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

1940s	1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

1950s	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959

1960s	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

1970s	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979

1980s	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990s	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

2000s	2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2010s	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

1986 Minnesota Twins season