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Article: The Last Leaf

Seth Stohs

By Seth Stohs
in Twins Daily Front Page News

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Seth Stohs GOAT

Seth Stohs

Owner
Posted
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The signing of Brian Duensing with the Kansas City Royals closes the book on a story that was started in 1989. In the first round of that year's draft, the Twins selected Texas A&M shortstop Chuck Knoblauch who would go on to spawn the trade that would put Twins GM Terry Ryan on the map and the fruits of that trade would be felt until 2015.

 

After seven seasons of what looked to be the beginning of a HOF career, Chuck Knoblauch and his 37.9 WAR wanted out of Minnesota and to a contender. Well that's how the fans knew it anyway, back before internet media was a thing. While largely unpopular at the time, the Twins received Brian Buchanan (0.3 WAR), Christian Guzman (7.5), Eric Milton (14.7) and Danny Mota (-0.1) in what would be the branches of our Knoblauch trade tree.THE BRIAN BUCHANAN BRANCH

Brian Buchanan had some nice power potential and looked the part of a middle-of- the-order bat. Unfortunately for him, he found himself in a roster crunch as he was competing for the RF/DH spot with Michael Cuddyer, Dustin Mohr, Bobby Keilty, David Ortiz and Matthew Lecroy.

 

Buchanan found himself shipped off to San Diego and in return the Twins received shortstop prospect Jason Bartlett (8.9). Bartlett would go on to play four seasons (initially) with the Twins before getting traded to Tampa Bay with Matt Garza and Eddie Morlan for Delmon Young (1.0), Brendon Harris (-0.6) and Jason Pridie (-0.2).

 

Pridie teased Twins fans with his potential but never put it all together and was soon DFA'd.

 

Brendon Harris found himself a mostly every day super-utility role for the Twins before being traded for Jim Hoey (-0.6) and Brett Jacobson.

 

Jacobson never made it to the majors, Jim Hoey and his disastrous 24.1 innings unfortunately did.

 

Delmon Young played three and a half mercurial seasons with the Twins, seemingly breaking out in 2010 and being a large reason for the team's division title. Alas, it was not to last and the following year he was traded to Detroit for Cole Nelson who never appeared in a MLB game and Lester Oliveros (0.0).

 

Oliveros would tease with his potential, but he never got much of an opportunity to make it at the MLB level and was recently picked up the Royals.

 

THE ERIC MILTON BRANCH

 

That wraps up the Buchanan wing of the Knoblauch trade tree, so let's head back to the top and check in on Eric Milton. Milton pitched six seasons for the Twins, six seasons that saw an All Star appearance, a no-hitter, and a questionable contract extension.

 

Despite that contract extension, the Twins were able to move him to Philadelphia for a package that included Carlos Silva (9.0), Nick Punto (10.3) and Bobby Korecky (0.2).

 

Silva pitched four solid seasons for the Twins before signing a nice free agent contract with Seattle, but most interesting for Silva was his 2005 season when he set a modern day record of 0.4 BB/9. Seriously, that is bizarre. Check out the single-season leader board and the next closest modern day player was Brett Saberhagen with a 0.65 BB/9 which is almost a 40% increase:

 

http://www.baseball-...ne_season.shtml

 

Nick Punto just announced his retirement but played seven super-utility seasons with the Twins before leaving and winning a World Series with St. Louis in 2011.

 

Bobby Korecky, we hardly knew you, except for that time in 2008 when the Twins lost their DH and you had to come to bat in the 11th inning. Of course in that 11th inning you not only got a hit in your only career AB but also the win. That has to be worth more than 0.2 WAR, which surely proves WAR is worthless.

 

THE DANNY MOTA BRANCH

 

Back to the top and we get to Danny Mota, who would do next to nothing for the Twins, appearing in all of 5.1 innings at the MLB level.

 

THE CRISTIAN GUZMAN BRANCH

 

The last branch on the Knoblauch trade tree begins with Cristian Guzman. The speedy shortstop made one All-Star Game and led the league in triples three times. He left as a free agent to Washington, but in doing so, the Twins were rewarded with a compensation draft pick. Not a first-round pick because that was protected. Not a second-round pick because that was already lost, but a third-round pick in the 2005 draft which the Twins used to select Brian Duensing (6. 2WAR).

 

Duensing was an unheralded prospect who made an immediate impact in 2009 and found himself pitching Game 1 of the ALDS against the Yankees. It did not go well. Duensing had another nice season in 2010 as a swing man before settling in as regular out of the pen. His seven years with the Twins matches Punto and Knoblauch himself in terms of number of seasons played for the Twins.

 

SUMMARY

 

In total, 19 players were acquired due to the first-round selection in the 1989 draft and a total of 94.6 WAR was gained.

 

These trees can be found throughout baseball, and surely there are others as fruitful, but this one has interested me for a long time. All of the comical propositions of tossing Duensing into trade proposals the last couple of years were serious by me because I wanted this tree to keep growing. It, however, will not.

 

EPILOGUE

 

The Twins 1989 draft was fantastic. They drafted three players with career WARs over 20 in Knoblauch, Denny Neagle and Scott Erickson. They also drafted Marty Cordova, Mike Trombley and Denny Hocking.

 

Some of these players produced unexpected fruit. The trade of Erickson for Scott Klingenbeck and Kimera Bartee is one of Ryan's best known failures. In 1992, Andy McPhail made a trade of Denny Neagle that would live on for years. In trading a top prospect in Neagle (something unbelievable for the Twins today), the Twins received John Smiley, a very good, but not great pitcher whom the Twins wanted/needed to replace the departed Jack Morris. Smiley pitched one fine year for the Twins before leaving, and in his place the Twins got a compensation pick in 1993 which they used to select Torii Hunter. When Hunter left, the Twins used his comp picks to select busts Carlos Gutierrez and Shooter Hunt.

 

Also, while the Twins didn't get a comp pick for losing Marty Cordova (even though he had an .828 OPS the prior year), they did get one for losing Mike Trombley in 2000. They used that pick to select Aaron Heilman, who had a really nice MLB career, just not with the Twins because he refused to sign with them.

 

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puckstopper1 First Round Pick

puckstopper1

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Thanks for the walk down memory lane, Nick.   The 1989 draft was terrific, especially when you consider all the "branches" from it.   Lots of interesting tracing in that.  I'd be curious if the Viola trade had similar impact, besides several piece of the 1991 championship team.

 

I also wish Duensing well.   He appeared to be a class act and did what the Twins asked of him.

 

 

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Rosterman Ft Myers Mighty Mussels

Rosterman

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The anatomy of a trade. Whew! Always wondered about Brian Buchanan (who. I believe, is coaching in the Royals system). He had his chances, but...

 

I truly thought Oliveros would make the team in 2015. But even after missing out in spring training, he went down and out.

 

Neagle and Erickson, well maybe not Erickson, were interesting losses...one due to contract, the other due to the need for a vet presence.

 

All from a guy named Chuck!

 

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spinowner Ft Myers Mighty Mussels

spinowner

Provisional Member
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This reminds me that there are still two descendants of Civil War vets that are drawing Social Security benefits today (the most recent article I could find to confirm was from May 2013).

I apologize to the mods for a bit of a thread derailment but this is a similarly interesting factoid. As of a year ago two grandsons of John Tyler (POTUS, 1841-1845) were still alive. I did not find anything from the internets to indicate they have passed away since then.

Edited by spinowner
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gil4 GCL Twins

gil4

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I believe that it was JJ Hardy who was traded for Hoey and Jacobson. We could only wish that it had been Brendon Harris.

That was my recollection too.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have advocated for forcing him to legally change his name to Jim f****** Hoey if it was Brendon Harris. 

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the_youngster College Ball

the_youngster

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That was my recollection too.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have advocated for forcing him to legally change his name to Jim f****** Hoey if it was Brendon Harris. 

It was Harris and Hardy for Hoey and Jacobson. I know this well because I had to inform my mother that her two favorite players were gone in one trade...

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nicksaviking All-Star

nicksaviking

Community Moderator
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Without digging too deep, for the Twins I'd guess it's AJ Pierzynski drafted in 1994 who gave us Nathan, Bonser and Liriano. Liriano gave us the departed Pedro Hernandez but also Eduardo Escobar.

 

Another current one is Travis Boyer drafted in 1999 along with Scott Tyler brought the Twins Luis Castillo who was later traded for Dustin Martin and Drew Butera. Butera was traded for Miguel Sulbaran who was traded for Eduardo Nunez.

 

I regret forgetting to include the Hardy contribution with Harris in that Hoey trade. I didn't expect that post to get so long. Man I wasted a lot of time at work this morning.

 

Edit: actually there is a longer one, but it's more like a shrub. The a Twins drafted Eddie Guardado in 1990. The comp picks they received upon his free agency turned out to be Matt Fox and current closer Glen Perkins.

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drjim Cedar Rapids Kernels

drjim

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The trade of Erickson for Scott Klingenbeck and Kimera Bartee is one of Ryan's best known failures.

 

 

Yet, Ryan considers this his best trade ever.

 

I think that was the only time he was forced to trade someone due to an ownership demand of cutting payroll.

 

 

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Otto von Ballpark All-Star

Otto von Ballpark

Community Leader
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nicksaviking wrote it and deserves all the credit. When I promoted the blog to an article, I forgot to change the name, but corrected it right away...

It only changed on the front-page article, not in the forum view.  In the forum view, it still shows "Started by Seth Stohs, Feb 19 2016 04:56 PM" with no mention of nick.

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Squirrel GOAT

Squirrel

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It only changed on the front-page article, not in the forum view.  In the forum view, it still shows "Started by Seth Stohs, Feb 19 2016 04:56 PM" with no mention of nick.

Yeah ... that can't really be changed easily once the article is published. It's easy to change in the front-page article, but once it becomes an article thread, yeah, it stays how it was first published. But not to worry, I think it's been clear that nicksaviking wrote it. And if not, I'll say it again ... this article was written by nicksaviking. :)

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pogofan Prep Ball

pogofan

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Silva pitched four solid seasons for the Twins before signing a nice free agent contract with Seattle, but most interesting for Silva was his 2005 season when he set a modern day record of 0.4 BB/9. Seriously, that is bizarre. Check out the single-season leader board and the next closest modern day player was Brett Saberhagen with a 0.65 BB/9 which is almost a 40% increase:

Actually, 0.65 is a 62.5% increase from 0.4 .  (I assume I don't need to apologize to baseball geeks for being a math nerd.  ;-)  )

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