History of the Twins Part 2 - Change of Hands

I'm somewhat recovered from reliving the pain that was the 2000 Tempe Spiders offense. Now we trudge on to the pitching staff, keeping it blissfully short but still searching for a point.

Pitching

As noted in the prior post, the Spiders allowed the ninth fewest runs in the league. That is the good news. It translates into a team ERA of 5.17 which on the face of it doesn’t sound good but in context is about average since the league ERA for 2000 was 5.27.

Starters – The Spiders relied on six starters during the 2000 season. Randy Wolf was easily the best starter compiling a 7-7 record in his 20 starts along with a 4.06 ERA. Kirk Rueter was a league average starter in his 31 starts going 10-13 with a 5.12 ERA. How he does that while having a 71 walk to 81 strikeout ratio, allowing 239 hits in 197 innings pitched and giving up 37 dingers is beyond me. A young Roy Halladay started 13 games and posted a respectable 6-5 record and an ERA of 5.03. The unrespectable area for Halladay was the 47 walks and only 39 strikeouts in 77 innings. Pat Hentgen, Masato Yoshii and Matt Clement rounded out rotation combining for a 20-51 record and an ERA pushing six.

Bullpen – The bullpen was pushed hard with two relievers throwing over 100 innings. Shigetoshi Hasegawa hurled 118.3 innings in relief and Antonia Alfonseca notched 110.7 innings, polydactyly not withstanding. Matt Mantei managed to stay ambulatory long enough to lead the Spiders with 14 saves but wasn’t all that effected with a 5.53 ERA and 29 walks in 40 innings. John Rocker appeared in only 32 games but was effective striking out 43 in 31 innings and garnering 12 saves. The MVP of the bullpen had to be Steve Kline. Kline pitched 55 very strong innings posting a 2.77 ERA.

2000 Season Wrapup

A 59-103 doesn’t have to be considered a failure for an expansion team if there is some hope for the future. Young players with the potential to improve and build on that initial season can help buoy hope during those long seasons. Unfortunately for the Spider faithful pictured here:



there were few buoys on the roster. Gabe Kapler was only 23 years old and held promise. Javier Valentin was also only 23 and looked to have a bright future. None of the other regulars were particularly young or effective. Pitching shined a little brighter, with a pair of 22 year olds in Randy Wolf and Roy Halladay and 24 year old Matt Clement looking to grow into effective pitchers. Out of the pen, Matt Mantei, John Rocker, Steve Kline and Vladimar Nunez were all under 27 years of age and the future looked bright. Of course, brightness is a relative term...

As we will see as the Twins history unfolds, the future quickly clouded for most of those players and for the Tempe Spiders. The team was orphaned following the 2000 season and in mid-January of 2001 a new owner took the helm of the club.