1972 Minnesota Twins season

1972 Minnesota Twins
77-77, third in the AL Western Division
Major league affiliations
Location
1972 information
Owner(s) Calvin Griffith
Manager(s) Bill Rigney and Frank Quilici
Local television WTCN-TV
(Halsey Hall, Frank Buetel, Lynn Faris)
Local radio 830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, Ray Christensen)
Previous season     Next season

The 1972 Minnesota Twins finished 77-77, third in the American League West.

Contents

Offseason

Regular season

After a slow start, manager Bill Rigney was replaced by Frank Quilici.

797,901 fans attended Twins games, the seventh highest total in the American League. It was almost half the number of fans that had attended just a few seasons earlier.

Only one Twins made the All-Star Game: second baseman Rod Carew. Carew won his second AL batting title with a .318 average. Bobby Darwin showed potential as a hitter with 22 HR and 80 RBI, but that did not make up for age and injuries taking their toll on other players. Harmon Killebrew hit 26 HR (4th in the league) but drove in only 75 runs. Tony Oliva's bad knees limited him to only 10 games. César Tovar led the team with 86 runs scored. Four pitchers had double digit wins: Bert Blyleven (17-17), Dick Woodson (14-14), Jim Perry (13-16), and Jim Kaat (10-2). Kaat also won his 11th Gold Glove Award.

Season standings

AL West W L GB Pct.
Oakland Athletics 93 62 -- .600
Chicago White Sox 87 67 5.5 .565
Minnesota Twins 77 77 15.5 .500
Kansas City Royals 76 78 16.5 .494
California Angels 75 80 18 .484
Texas Rangers 54 100 38.5 .351

Notable transactions

Roster

1972 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

Coaches

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 Borgmann, GlennGlenn Borgmann 56 175 41 .234 3 14
1B Killebrew, HarmonHarmon Killebrew 139 433 100 .231 26 74
2B Carew, RodRod Carew 142 535 170 .318 0 51
SS Thompson, DannyDanny Thompson 144 573 158 .276 4 48
CF Darwin, BobbyBobby Darwin 145 513 137 .267 22 80
RF Tovar, CésarCésar Tovar 141 548 145 .265 2 31

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
Oliva, TonyTony Oliva 10 28 9 .321 0 1
Adams, MikeMike Adams 3 6 2 .333 0 0
Guth, BuckyBucky Guth 3 3 0 .000 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
Blyleven, BertBert Blyleven 39 287.1 17 17 2.73 228
Woodson, DickDick Woodson 36 251.2 14 14 2.72 150
Perry, JimJim Perry 35 217.2 13 16 3.35 85
Kaat, JimJim Kaat 15 113.1 10 2 2.06 64
Goltz, DaveDave Goltz 15 91 3 3 2.67 38

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
Corbin, RayRay Corbin 31 161.2 8 9 2.62 83

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
Granger, WayneWayne Granger 63 4 6 19 3.01 45
LaRoche, DaveDave LaRoche 62 5 7 10 2.83 79
Gebhard, BobBob Gebhard 13 0 1 1 8.57 13
Luebber, SteveSteve Luebber 2 0 0 0 0.00 1

Farm system

See also: Minor league baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Tacoma Twins Pacific Coast League Harry Warner
AA Charlotte Hornets Southern League Johnny Goryl
A Lynchburg Twins Carolina League Kerby Farrell
A Orlando Twins Florida State League Early Wynn
A Wisconsin Rapids Twins Midwest League Jay Ward
A Charlotte Twins Western Carolinas League Bob Sadowski
Rookie FECL Twins Florida East Coast League Fred Waters

Notes

  1. ^ Bobby Darwin page at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Brant Alyea page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Sal Butera page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Willie Norwood page at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Lyman Bostock page at Baseball Reference

References

AL East
AL West
California · Chicago · Kansas City · Minnesota · Oakland · Texas
NL East
NL West