April 17

Alexander Cartwright (1820)
Cap Anson (1852)
Tom Needham (1879)
Jake Daubert (1884)
Buzz Arlitt (1912)
Solly Hemus (1923)
Tsutomu Wakamatsu (1947)
Denny Walling (1954)
Craig Worthington (1965)
Marquis Grissom (1967)
Gary Bennett (1972)
Ryan Raburn (1981)
Deolis Guerra (1989)

Alexander Cartwright was instrumental in developing the rules for the game of baseball.

Buzz Arlitt was a star in the low minors from 1934-1941, and probably would have been for several more years had World War II not intervened.  He had a career average of .319 with a slugging average of .480, but never played above Class C.

Tsutomu Wakamatsu was a star in Japan from 1971-1989, making the all-star team eleven times.  His career average of .319 is second to Leron Lee on the all-time list of players with at least four thousand at-bats.

Right-hander Deolis Alexander Guerra did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system for several years.  He was born in San Felix, Bolivar, Venezuela and signed with the Mets as a free agent in 2005 at the age of sixteen.  He had a good year in low A in 2006 but a poor year in high A in 2007.  Following that season, he was traded to the Twins along with Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, and Kevin Mulvey for Johan Santana.  He spent several years in the Twins system not doing much.  He never posted an ERA under four in any season and was generally over five.  The Twins promoted him to AA in 2009 and that's pretty much where he stayed through 2012.  He was a starter through 2010, then moved to the bullpen.  He missed most of 2013 due to an injury, finally got a full season in AAA in 2014, and then became a free agent, signing with Pittsburgh.  Amazingly, he had a tremendous year in the bullpen for AAA Indianapolis, going 2-1, 4 saves, 1.23 ERA, 0.79 WHIP in 36,2 innings (25 appearances).  The Pirates decided he'd finally found something and promoted him to the majors in late June.  He started out well, throwing seven shutout innings over four appearances, but got progressively worse and was sent down after a July 30 debacle in which he gave up six runs in an inning and a third.  That outing makes his big league numbers--2-0, 6.48, 1.71 WHIP in 16.2 innings (10 appearances)--look a lot worse than they would otherwise.  He was chosen by the Angels in the rule 5 draft but is currently on the disabled list.  He's twenty-seven today and there's not a lot to recommend him, but if he comes back healthy and pitches well in AAA he might get another shot with someone.