Red Lucas (1902)
Charlie Metro (1918)
Tom Sturdivant (1930)
Jackie Brandt (1934)
Pedro Ramos (1935)
Tom Browning (1960)
John Cerutti (1960)
Russ Morman (1962)
Luis Quinones (1962)
Barry Larkin (1964)
Jim Poole (1966)
Jorge Sosa (1978)
Sean Douglass (1979)
Yoslan Herrera (1981)
David Freese (1983)
John Gaub (1985)
Charlie Metro (1918)
Tom Sturdivant (1930)
Jackie Brandt (1934)
Pedro Ramos (1935)
Tom Browning (1960)
John Cerutti (1960)
Russ Morman (1962)
Luis Quinones (1962)
Barry Larkin (1964)
Jim Poole (1966)
Jorge Sosa (1978)
Sean Douglass (1979)
Yoslan Herrera (1981)
David Freese (1983)
John Gaub (1985)
John Gaub was drafted by Minnesota in the
twenty-fifth round in 2003, but did not sign.
Right-hander Pedro
(Guerra) Ramos played for the Twins in 1961 and was the starting pitcher in the
first game the Minnesota Twins ever played. He was born in Pinar del Rio,
Cuba, and signed with Washington as a free agent in 1953. He had a fine
year in 1954, split between Class C and Class B ball, and started 1955 in the
major leagues, pitching mostly out of the Washington bullpen. He split
1956 between starting and relieving, and joined the starting rotation
permanently in 1957. He led the league in losses the last three years the
team was in Washington, but did not pitch that badly. His ERA for those
three years was 3.93 and his WHIP was around 1.30. In two of those years
he led the league in starts and batters faced, in one of them he led the league
in innings, and he made the all-star team in 1959. When he came
to Minnesota, he continued along that same path: Ramos was 11-20,
3.95 with a WHIP of 1.30. Just before the 1962 season, the Twins traded
him to Cleveland for Vic Power and Dick Stigman. He had another
sub-.500 year with a sub-four ERA, going 10-12, 3.71 in 201 innings, the sixth
consecutive season he had thrown more than 200 innings. A fast
runner, he was sometimes used to pinch-run on days he wasn’t pitching. He
pitched well for the Indians again in 1963 but had a bad year in 1964 and was
traded to the Yankees in September. The Yankees put him in the bullpen
and he took over as their closer, saving eight games in 13 appearances to help
the Yankees get to the World Series. He had two more
fine years in the Yankees bullpen as well. He was traded to Philadelphia
during Spring training of 1967, but after pitching eight poor
innings he was surprisingly released. The Phillies turned out to be right,
however. Ramos signed with Pittsburgh in 1968, but pitched poorly in
AAA. He pitched briefly with the Pirates in 1969, but was released again
in early June. Cincinnati picked him up and kept him in their bullpen the
rest of the season, but things did not go well there, either. Ramos
signed with Washington late in spring training of 1970, but could do no better
and was released at the end of April, ending his playing career. He did a
variety of things after that. He scouted in Latin America, opened a cigar
business in Miami, and spent some time in prison on drug and weapons
charges. He was a part-time pitching coach for Miami Dade Community
College in the 1990s. At last report, Pedro Ramos was the owner of a
cigar manufacturing business in Nicaragua.
Infielder Luis Raul (Torruellas) Quinones
played in three games for the Twins in 1992. Born and raised in Ponce,
Puerto Rico, Quinones was signed by San Diego as a free agent in 1980. He
was somewhat up and down in his minor league career, but was mostly pretty
average at bat; his best year prior to making the majors was 1982, when he hit
.288 with 16 homers in a season spent mostly at AA Amarillo. Oakland took
him in the Rule 5 draft after that season and obviously worked something out to
keep him, because he spent most of the season in the minors before getting his
first taste of big league life with 45 plate appearances. Oakland moved
him on to Cleveland after the 1983 campaign. He was in the minors for the
Indians for a little over a year, getting traded to San Francisco in May of
1985. He was in the big leagues with the Giants for most of 1986, getting
called up in early May. He was used almost exclusively as a reserve,
playing in 71 games but making only 22 starts. The Giants released him
after the season. He signed with Oakland, but eight days later was traded
to the Cubs for Ron Cey. He was with the Cubs the second half of 1987,
but was on the move again before the next season, traded to Cincinnati.
He was in AAA most of 1988 but came up to the Reds in May of 1989 and stayed
there through 1991. He never hit; his best year was 1989, when he hit
.244 with 12 home runs. The Reds released him after 1991 and he signed
with Minnesota. Quinones started the 1992 campaign with the Twins but played
in only three games, going 1-for-4 with an RBI, before being sent to AAA.
He did not have a particularly good year at AAA Portland, and was allowed to
become a free agent after the season. He signed with Houston and started
the 1993 season in AAA with the Astros, was released, signed with the Mariners,
and stayed in AAA with the through the 1994 campaign. He was apparently
out of baseball for a few years, although he may have been playing in Mexico or
something, and then played for independent Atlantic City in 1998-1999 before
ending his playing career. Luis Quinones was a manager and coach in the
low minors for quite a while, and was the batting coach of the Batavia Muckdogs
in the Marlins organization in 2016. He does not have that job this year,
however, and no information about where or if he's coaching in 2017 was readily
available.
Right-hander Sean Reed Douglass did not play
for the Twins, but was in spring training with them in 2004. Born and
raised in Lancaster, California, he was drafted by Baltimore in the second
round in 1997. His minor league record is not particularly exceptional
but is fairly solid; he would generally post an ERA in the low-to-mid-threes
and a WHIP in the 1.30-1.40 range. He was up with the Orioles for parts
of three seasons, bouncing back and forth between Baltimore and AAA from
2001-2003. His time in the majors was not successful, and the Orioles put
him on waivers after the 2003 season. Minnesota signed him and took him
to spring training in 2004, but they placed him on waivers near the end of the
exhibition season. Toronto signed him and he started the season in the
majors, but after three scoreless innings he was sent back to AAA. He
came back to the Blue Jays in late July, but was not particularly successful.
A free agent after the season, he moved on to Detroit and got the most playing
time of his career, making sixteen starts for the Tigers. He did not do
much with them, though, and was waived after the season. Cleveland
selected him, but apparently thought better of it and released him less than
two months later. He played for a few years in Japan, but then his
playing career came to an end. For his major league career, Sean Douglass
was 7-13, 6.11, 1.61 WHIP in 207.2 innings. He appeared in 54 games, 31
of them starts. His last season in Japan appears to have been 2008.
He appears to have returned to his home town of Lancaster; at any rate,
there's a Sean Douglass who played in an amateur baseball league there, so it
seems reasonable to think that it's the same one.
Right-hander Yoslan (Betancourt) Herrera did
not pitch for the Twins, but he made six starts for AAA Rochester in
2010. He was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. He was a member of the
Cuban National Youth team from 1999-2000 and pitched for Pinar del Rio in the
Cuban National League. He was left off the Cuban Olympic team in 2004 due
to injury. In 2005, he defected and settled in the Dominican
Republic. Herrera signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent in 2007.
He was in the Pirates’ system for three seasons, spent mostly in AA. He
struggled in his first year but pitched pretty well there in 2008-2009.
The Pirates seemed reluctant to give him a chance at a higher level, however;
despite going 17-10, 3.35 in his last 212 innings of AA, he got only five
appearances at AAA. He did make five major league starts in 2008, going
1-1, 9.82 in 18.1 innings. The Pirates let him go after the 2009 season
and he signed with Minnesota for 2010. His first three starts there were
pretty good, but his last three were awful and he was released with a record of
0-3, 6.08 in 26.2 innings. What he did for the next couple of years is
unclear, but he spent 2013 playing for Lancaster in the Atlantic League.
He did well enough in Lancaster to catch the attention of the Angels, who
signed him for 2014. He began in AAA, but after four solid relief
appearances there he came back to the major leagues after a six-year absence,
appearing in twenty games and posting an ERA of 2.70. He signed with the
Angels again for 2015 but was released before spring training and went to
Japan, where he had a strong season for Yokohama. He does not appear to
have pitched anywhere since then, however, so one assumes his playing career is
over. No information about what Yoslan Herrera has done since the end of
the 2015 season was readily available.
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