October 4

Orator Shafer (1851)
Ray Fisher (1887)
Frank Crosetti (1910)
Red Munger (1918)
Rip Repulski (1928)
Jimy Williams (1943)
Tony LaRussa (1944)
Glenn Adams (1947)
Dave Johnson (1948)
John Wathan (1949)
Lary Sorensen (1955)
Charlie Liebrandt (1956)
Joe Boever (1960)
Billy Hatcher (1960)
Dennis Cook (1962)
Chris James (1962)
Bruce Ruffin (1963)
Mark McLemore (1964)
Steve Olin (1965)
Kyle Lohse (1978)
Tony Gwynn (1982)
Jered Weaver (1982)
Kurt Suzuki (1983)

Outfielder/DH Glenn Charles Adams played for the Twins from 1977-1981. He was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was drafted by the Houston Astros with the fourth pick of the 1968 draft. Adams seemed to just be coming on strong in 1971, hitting .335 in a season split between AA Columbus and AAA Oklahoma City, but he was released by the Astros in January of 1972 and seems to have been out of baseball that year. He signed with the Giants in December. Adams hit very well for AA Amarillo in 1973 and even better for AAA Phoenix in 1974. He was finally called up to the Giants in 1975, and spent the next two seasons as a pinch-hitter/reserve corner outfielder for them. Adams was sold to the Twins in December of 1976, and became a part-time corner outfielder/DH throughout the Gene Mauch era. The Twins generally batted him in the middle of the order and seemed to think of him as a power hitter, despite the fact that he never hit more than 13 homers in a minor league season and his highest number in the majors was eight. He hit for a high average with the Twins, however, twice batting over .300. He declined when Mauch left, batting only .209 in 1981, and became a free agent after the season. Adams signed with Toronto and spent most of 1982 with AAA Syracuse, getting only 66 at-bats with the Blue Jays. That was the end of his playing career. He had a lifetime average in the minors of .311. As a Twin, Glenn Adams hit .281/.325/.399 in 501 games. He set a Twins record for most RBI in a game with eight on June 26, 1977, later tied by Randy Bush. He has been a long-time minor league coach, working for the Twins from 1989-1994. As of 2009, Glenn Adams was the batting coach for the Erie Sea Wolves, but he did not retain that position for 2010. No current information about Glenn Adams was readily available.

“Another” Dave Johnson, right-hander David Charles Johnson, played for the Twins in 1977 and 1978. Born and raised in Abilene, Texas, he was drafted by the Orioles in the fifth round in 1967. The Orioles seemed to have trouble making up their minds whether he should start or relieve, as he did some of both in each of his first five minor league seasons. He spent those five seasons in rookie and A ball, despite the fact that his numbers don’t look all that bad. The Orioles finally decided he was a reliever, and promoted him to AA Asheville in 1972 and to AAA Rochester in 1973. After a solid year and a half in Rochester, Johnson was promoted to Baltimore in July of 1974. Despite pitching well there for a month, he was returned to Rochester in August, coming back to Baltimore in September. He pitched only 8.2 innings for the Orioles in April and early May, being again returned to Rochester and then breaking his wrist in a motorcycle accident. Johnson was back in Rochester for all of 1976 and again pitched very well, but could not get a shot with the big club. The Orioles sold him to Seattle in October of 1976. He started the 1977 with AAA San Jose, but then was purchased by the Twins. He appeared in 30 games for the Twins in 1977, six of them starts. Those were his first starts since 1971. Johnson was fairly mediocre for the Twins that year. He started 1978 with the Twins, but pitched only 12 innings for them before being injured. He finished up his career with four innings in Toledo, and then was released. As a Twin, Dave Johnson appeared in 53 games, seven of them starts. He was 2-7 with an ERA of 5.00 and a WHIP of 1.57 in 84.2 innings. No information about Dave Johnson since that time was readily available.

Right-hander Kyle Matthew Lohse played for the Twins from 2001-2006. He was born in Chico, California, and attended high school in Valley City, California. Lohse was drafted by the Cubs in the 29th round in 1996, and for a 29th round pick, has done very well. He pitched well in the low levels of the minors, but struggled for a few years after that. He was traded to the Twins in May of 1999 along with Jason Ryan for Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs. He continued to struggle, hitting bottom in 2000, when he went 3-18 with a 6.04 ERA for AA New Britain. In 2001, however, he suddenly turned things around. In fourteen starts split between AA and AAA, Lohse went 7-3 with a 2.79 ERA, and by late June he found himself in the Twins’ rotation at the age of 22. He did not do well that year, but stayed in the Twins’ rotation until early 2006. He was never a star, but he was generally an average major league pitcher (with the exception of 2004), which is not something to be taken lightly. Lohse got off to a poor start in 2006, was sent to AAA Rochester, and was traded to the Cincinnati at the end of July for Zach Ward. Lohse continued to be a more-or-less average pitcher for Cincinnati, was traded to Philadelphia at the end of July of 2007, became a free agent at the end of the season, and signed with St. Louis for 2008. He a fine year in 2008, going 15-6 with a 3.78 ERA, but went back to normal in 2009. He was injured much of 2010, but also did not pitch well when he could pitch.  In 2011, however, he had his best season, going 13-8, 3.39, 1.17 WHIP in 188.1 innings.  He then topped it in 2012, going 16-3, 2.86, 1.09 WHIP in 211 innings.  A free agent after the season, it took him a long time to sign, but he finally became a Milwaukee Brewer in late March.  He had a pair of fine years for them, too, going 24-19, 3.45, 1.16 WHIP.  In 2015, however, he was not good at all, going 5-13, 5.85, and finally being taken out of the rotation in early August.  A year ago, we said, "It could be that he just had a bad year or that he was battling an injury, but it could also be that he's about done".  It turned out to be the latter.  He signed with Texas in May, pitched poorly in AAA, and made two bad starts for the Rangers in July.  As a Twin, Lohse was 51-57 with a 4.88 ERA, in 172 appearances, 152 of them starts.  He turns thirty-eight today.  We know teams are always looking for pitching, so it's possible someone will take him to spring training.  It appears, though, that it's time for Kyle Lohse to call it a pretty good career and move on to the next phase of his life.

Catcher Kurt Kiyoshi Suzuki has played for the Twins since 2014.  Born and raised in Wailuku, Hawaii, he attended Cal State-Fullerton and was drafted by Oakland in 2004.  He rose quickly through the minors, posting good batting averages and on-base percentages at every stop, though without a lot of power.  He reached the big leagues with Oakland in June of 2007 and never looked back, other than a rehab stint in 2010.  He shared the catching job with Jason Kendall in 2007 but took over as the regular catcher in 2008.  He hit in the .270s in 2008 and 2009, but dwindled to around .240 the next to seasons.  He was hitting only .218 in 2012 when he was traded to Washington in early August.  He hit well the rest of the season, but went back to hitting .222 in 2013 when he was traded back to Oakland in late August.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Minnesota for 2014.  It was thought that he might have been signed to backup Josmil Pinto, but he was the starting catcher from the start of the season and had the best offensive season of his career, hitting over .300 for much of the season before dropping to .288.  He also hit 34 doubles and made his first all-star team.  There was no reason go think he could repeat those numbers and he didn't, batting only .241 with 17 doubles in 2015, although he did drive in fifty runs.  He remained the Twins' starter for most of 2016 and did somewhat better, batting .258 with 24 doubles.  For most of his career he had a reputation as a very good defensive catcher, although that reputation may have dimmed a little the last couple of years.  He turns thirty-three today and is a free agent.  He's not everything you ever wanted in a catcher, but unless the Twins are willing to go with Mitch Garver they're either going to need to re-sign him or look for someone else somewhere.