12 Days of Twinsmas: #9 Frank Viola

[Sherry Cerny]

Frank "Sweet Music" Viola was an integral part of the Twins 1987 World Series. He was a true master at the art of pitching.  Viola was a strong, confident pitcher and a true fan favorite, making him number nine for Twinsmas!

There have been plenty of great players in the history of the Minnesota Twins. From Killebrew to Buxton and many in-between, it is tough to narrow it down to the top twelve players in the history of the Twins. For Twinsmas, one of the players who will live in infamy is Twins player number nine, Frank Viola (and his mustache).  

Average Joe
Not every baseball player comes bursting onto the scene like some other players I have covered recently. Frank Viola is one of those players. He didn't have a distinguished history, family legacy, and he wasn’t a baseball prodigy. But, Frank Viola was good. Frank Viola was first drafted out of high school, by the Royals in 1978. However, he didn't sign and went to St. Johns. In 1981.

Frank attended and played for  St. John's University, a Division 1 college located in Queens, New York. If you were a New Yorker and a baseball player, there was one school to attend if you wanted to play baseball and St. John’s was it. The team had been to the College World Series five times since 1949, and Viola, along with a closely-bonded team, worked hard to see the World Series again in 1980. St. John’s has not been back to the World Series since.  

In his final season (junior year) with the Red Storm, the young southpaw caught the Twins' attention. During that season, he pitched a gem against future Mets teammate Ron Darling. Both pitchers threw 11 scoreless innings before Darling made a mistake in the 12th inning to give St. John’s the win. Viola made a significant impact in 1980 and 1981 with the Red Storm with a 10-1 record, and a 0.87 earned run average over 83 innings. His record is still second-all time at St. Johns. Viola was the Twins 2nd round pick in 1981.

Sweet Music
Viola progressed quickly through the minors, only staying in Triple-A for eight starts and then was moved to the majors. The future Cy Young winner did not start out great for the Twins, garnering a 5.21 ERA in 1982 and 5.46 ERA in 1983. Both the team and Viola struggled those two seasons, but by 1984, Viola’s pitching and the team did a 180-degree turn. He found himself an anchor in the Twins pitching rotation from 1984 until his trade late in the 1989 season.  

Frank Viola had a nickname that followed him everywhere after the Twins. Of course, since his last name was a musical instrument (his favorite instrument), it made sense. He was called “Sweet Music”.  More appropriately, though, Viola's true nickname came from a sportswriter who described the fans at the Metrodome erupting into "sweet music" whenever Frank Viola pitched. Later, a fan hung a banner out in the right upper-field deck that read “Frankie Sweet Music Viola”. The banner became a source of "good luck" to those who subscribed to superstition in the sports world.  

One and Done
Frank Viola only saw one postseason run in all his years in MLB. Viola's postseason was in 1987, the first year the Twins took home the pennant. Viola appeared in three of the seven World Series games. He held the Cardinals to one earned run in his first start (Game 1), and the Twins offense put up ten runs on the board. He took the loss in Game 4 but returned after the Cardinals forced Game 7. Viola allowed two runs in the second inning but that was it. Although by a small margin that game, the Twins beat the Cardinals. 

Viola was named MVP of the 1987 World Series. He never played a postseason game again. In 1988, he was named American League Cy Young Award winner in his final full season with the Twins. That season, he went 24-7 and had a 2.64 ERA. The following season, he was  traded to the New York Mets for four pitchers (Rick Aguilera, Kevin Tapani, Dave West and Tim Drummond) and a pitcher to be named later (Jack Savage) Aguilera and Tapani were key to the team’s 1991 World Series title. 

Conclusion
Frank Viola stayed around the leagues for another six seasons after his trade. He continued to shine with ERA's under 4.00 until 1994 when he underwent Tommy John surgery while with the Boston Red Sox. He left baseball behind as a player in 1996 and has been a minor league pitching coach the past couple of decades. He is currently the pitching coach for the High Point Rockers, a team in the Atlantic Professional Baseball League located in North Carolina. Viola now leads a staff that in 2019 posted a 3.72 ERA, placing third in strikeouts (1043) and second in walks (409). Four pitchers from Viola's staff were named Atlantic League All-Stars in 2019. He continues to impact the pitching world and shows he is truly a master of his art. And, he still has his mustache. 

Thank you for reading, and Go, Twins!

Read Previous "12 Days of TwinsMas" articles here: 
#12 - Torii Hunter
#11 - Chuck Knoblauch
#10 - Jim Kaat
#9 - Frank Viola 
#8 - Coming Soon! 

 

View full article

[jmlease1]

Workhorse is a great description of Frankie Viola. 10 straight seasons of at least 200 IPs, he was basically guaranteed to make 35 starts every season. Once he figured out that changeup, he really came into his own. I was bummed when he left, but that was a fine trade for the Twins in bringing back Aguilera (one of the best relievers in Twins history) and Tapani (who was another workhorse who had his best year at the right time to help the team win a title).

Viola had Tommy John back closer to the dark ages of the procedure; now, with his bulldog attitude and modern methods I bet he would have been able to make that comeback and have a longer & better run in his late 30's. Fun pitcher, interesting guy. Always happy when he comes back to MN and ducks in for a Twins broadcast.

[IndianaTwin]

I'm enjoying reading the lists, but...

• No. 10 Kaat: 15 yrs., 190-159, 3.34 ERA, 133 CG, 23 SHO, 3014.5 IP, 1851 K, 1.231 WHIP, 110 ERA+, 12 Gold Gloves, HOF (largely based on his success as a Twin). 
• No. 9 Viola: 8 yrs., 112-93, 3.86 ERA, 54 CG, 10 SHO, 1772.2 IP, 1214 K, 1.295 WHIP, 111 ERA+, 0 Gold Gloves. 2 HOF votes before falling off.
  • Viola does have a Cy Young, but in Kaat's best year by ERA+ (1966) there was only one Cy across the majors and voters only listed one person. Some guy named Koufax was the unanimous choice. Kaat was, however, No. 5 in the MVP voting that year. Viola was 10th in the MVP the year he got the Cy. 

I think you've got those two in the wrong order.

(And if I'm guessing correctly on the remaining eight, I'm thinking I'm going to suggest you missed another pitcher better than Viola, but I'll hold off on that comment. ?)

[nclahammer]

Enjoying the list, bringing back some great memories.  Thank you.

[Karbo]

16 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

I'm enjoying reading the lists, but...

• No. 10 Kaat: 15 yrs., 190-159, 3.34 ERA, 133 CG, 23 SHO, 3014.5 IP, 1851 K, 1.231 WHIP, 110 ERA+, 12 Gold Gloves, HOF (largely based on his success as a Twin). 
• No. 9 Viola: 8 yrs., 112-93, 3.86 ERA, 54 CG, 10 SHO, 1772.2 IP, 1214 K, 1.295 WHIP, 111 ERA+, 0 Gold Gloves. 2 HOF votes before falling off.
  • Viola does have a Cy Young, but in Kaat's best year by ERA+ (1966) there was only one Cy across the majors and voters only listed one person. Some guy named Koufax was the unanimous choice. Kaat was, however, No. 5 in the MVP voting that year. Viola was 10th in the MVP the year he got the Cy. 

I think you've got those two in the wrong order.

(And if I'm guessing correctly on the remaining eight, I'm thinking I'm going to suggest you missed another pitcher better than Viola, but I'll hold off on that comment. ?)

I believe the authors age may factor a bit in the rankings, though I won't argue with any that have been picked so far, I'm thinking at the end of the series there will be many who have their own order of rankings.

[bean5302]

21 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

I'm enjoying reading the lists, but...

• No. 10 Kaat: 15 yrs., 190-159, 3.34 ERA, 133 CG, 23 SHO, 3014.5 IP, 1851 K, 1.231 WHIP, 110 ERA+, 12 Gold Gloves, HOF (largely based on his success as a Twin). 
• No. 9 Viola: 8 yrs., 112-93, 3.86 ERA, 54 CG, 10 SHO, 1772.2 IP, 1214 K, 1.295 WHIP, 111 ERA+, 0 Gold Gloves. 2 HOF votes before falling off.
  • Viola does have a Cy Young, but in Kaat's best year by ERA+ (1966) there was only one Cy across the majors and voters only listed one person. Some guy named Koufax was the unanimous choice. Kaat was, however, No. 5 in the MVP voting that year. Viola was 10th in the MVP the year he got the Cy. 

I think you've got those two in the wrong order.

(And if I'm guessing correctly on the remaining eight, I'm thinking I'm going to suggest you missed another pitcher better than Viola, but I'll hold off on that comment. ?)

Viola had a much better peak than Kaat, plus the Cy Young plus the World Series Championship with the Twins. You mention Kaat's 131 ERA+ in 1966, but Viola did that or better 3 times with the Twins in his 8 years. 1984 = 131, 1987 = 159, 1988 = 154. Viola's peak 5 years with the Twins produced 24.6 bWAR vs. Jim Kaat's best 5 years at 15.5 bWAR and his entire 15 year career with the Twins at 31.1 bWAR. Quite frankly, Frank Viola was just a much, much better pitcher than Jim Kaat. Kaat made it to the HoF, but I wouldn't have supported it. He belongs in the Hall of Good, one step above the Hall of Pretty Decent like Jack Morris.

[IndianaTwin]

3 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Viola had a much better peak than Kaat, plus the Cy Young plus the World Series Championship with the Twins. You mention Kaat's 131 ERA+ in 1966, but Viola did that or better 3 times with the Twins in his 8 years. 1984 = 131, 1987 = 159, 1988 = 154. Viola's peak 5 years with the Twins produced 24.6 bWAR vs. Jim Kaat's best 5 years at 15.5 bWAR and his entire 15 year career with the Twins at 31.1 bWAR. Quite frankly, Frank Viola was just a much, much better pitcher than Jim Kaat. Kaat made it to the HoF, but I wouldn't have supported it. He belongs in the Hall of Good, one step above the Hall of Pretty Decent like Jack Morris.

Clearly it's a peak vs. longevity question on Viola vs. Kaat, but even "peak" is subject to interpretation. Viola's peak is driven by three years. His fourth-best season by ERA+ was 110 and he only had five seasons where he was even above league-average. Kaat had six years above 110 and another six when he was above league average. 

Said another way, Viola only had three years when he was better than what Michael Pineda has been over his Twins' career. I don't say that to disparage Viola -- he made a great contribution to the franchise. But to talk about "all-time great" for a 60-year franchise, I think you need more than two great and one really good season. If a peak that short is sufficient, one could argue for Shane Mack over Viola. And certainly Bob Allison.

PS: I suspect we could have the same type of "peak vs. longevity" conversation when I see Brad Radke and Jim Perry omitted. But hey, it's all in good fun and reminiscing. ? 

[IndianaTwin]

4 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Viola had a much better peak than Kaat, plus the Cy Young ...

Hey, not trying to beat a dead horse, Bean, but I just caught this. As I noted in my first post, in 1966 there was only one Cy Young across both leagues and voters just listed one person on their ballots. Koufax got all 20 votes.

We'll never know, obviously, but I'm guessing that if they were using the later pattern of separate awards and a 5-3-1 ballot, Kaat likely would have won the AL award easily. Using the stats they paid attention to at the time...

• He won 25 games. McLain won 20, Wilson 18 and no one else had more than 16.
• He was sixth in ERA, but the leader only went 12-10, followed by guys with 13, 13, 11 and 14 wins.
• He was second in strikeouts, just 20 behind the leader, who went 9-8.
• He pitched 40 more innings than anyone else in the league.
• He had 19 complete games and no one else had more than 14.
• He beat the aforementioned McLain and Wilson in ERA, strikeouts, innings and complete games.

While that didn't get him any Cy Young votes over Koufax, he did finish fifth in the MVP voting, the only pitcher in the top 10. 

It's hard to tell with 1962, where NL pitchers (led by Drysdale) got all 20 votes. There wasn't a dominant AL pitcher, but Kaat was third in WAR (meaningless then) and top six in wins, ERA, innings, strikeouts, innings, complete games and shutouts (tied for first), but he probably would have gotten some support.