March 29

Cy Young (1867)

Duff Cooley (1873)

Bill Dietrich (1910)

Tommy Holmes (1917)

Ferris Fain (1921)

Denny McLain (1944)

Bill Castro (1952)

Tom Hume (1953)

Domingo Ramos (1958)

Mike Kingery (1961)

Billy Beane (1962)

Laz Diaz (1963)

Eric Gunderson (1966)

Brian Jordan (1967)

Alex Ochoa (1972)

Danny Kolb (1975)

Pat Light (1991)

Laz Diaz has been a major league umpire since 1999.

Danny Kolb was drafted by Minnesota in the seventeenth round in 1993, but did not sign.

Outfielder William Lamar Beane played for the Twins for parts of two seasons, 1986 and 1987.  He was born in Orlando, but went to high school in Rancho Bernardo, California.  He was drafted in the first round by the Mets in 1980.  He did not hit much in his early minor league years, but attracted attention in 1984 when he hit .281 with 20 homers for AA Jackson.  That got him a September call-up, in which he went 1-for-10.  He basically repeated his minor league numbers in 1985 at AAA Tidewater and again got a September call-up, going 2-for-8.  That off-season, he was traded to Minnesota with Joe Klink and Bill Latham for Pat Crosby and Tim Teufel.  He was with the Twins in 1986 and shared left field with Randy Bush, although they don't seem to have been platooned.  He hit only .213 with a .258 OBP and was back in the minors for 1987, getting another September call-up.  In late March of 1988 Beane was traded to Detroit for Balvino Galvez.  As a Twin, he hit .217/.258/.303 in 198 at-bats.  He was with the Tigers for the first month of 1988 but was seldom used, going only 1-for-6 before being sent to the minors.  He had a poor year in AAA and became a free agent after the season, signing with Oakland for 1989.  He was with the Athletics for much of the season, hitting .241 with an OBP of .238.  He moved into the front office for Oakland in 1990, became general manager in 1997, and became executive vice president in 2015.  He won the Executive of the Year award from The Sporting News in 1999 and 2012 and won the same award from Baseball America in 2002 and 2013.

Outfielder Alex Ochoa played for Minnesota in 1998.  He was born and raised in Miami Lakes, Florida and was drafted by Baltimore in the third round in 1991.  He did pretty well in the minors, rising one level per year until he reached AAA in 1995.  In late July of 1995, however, he was traded to the Mets in a trade that involved Bobby Bonilla.  He got a September call-up with the Mets that year.  He was having a tremendous year in AAA in 1996 when he was called up in late June.  He hit .294 the rest of the way for the Mets, although with little power.  1997 was his first full year in the majors, but his average dropped to .244, and after the season he was traded to the Twins for Rich Becker.  He was a part-time player for them that year, playing mostly in right (with Matt Lawton moving to center many of those games).  As a Twin, he hit .257/.288/.353 in 249 at-bats.  After the season, Ochoa was traded to Milwaukee for Darrell Nicholas.  He hit .300 for the Brewers for 1999 but was traded again after the season, going to Cincinnati.  He then hit .300 for the Reds for a year and a half before once again being traded, going to Colorado in a trade that involved Todd Walker.  He finished the season there, was traded back to Milwaukee for the start of 2002, and was traded to Anaheim in late July of 2002.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with the Cardinals for 2003, but was released in mid-February.  He then went to Japan, playing for the Chunichi Dragons for several years before attempting a comeback in 2007 with Boston.  He played poorly in AAA and went back to Japan playing for the Hiroshima Carp through 2008.  He then came back to work for the Red Sox, coaching for Boston in 2009, working in player development in 2010, and serving as the batting coach for Class A Salem in 2011.  He was the first base coach for Boston in 2012, but was not retained in that position for 2013.  At last report, Alex Ochoa was a certified agent for Borascorp in Hialeah, Florida.

Right-hander Patrick James Light made fifteen appearances for the Twins in 2016.  He was born in Colts Neck, New Jersey, went to high school in Lincroft, New Jersey, and was drafted by the Twins in the twenty-eighth round in 2009, but did not sign, attending Monmouth University instead.  He was drafted by Boston in the first round in 2012.  He was a starter through 2014 and really didn't do a whole lot, although he did strike out a lot of batters.  He moved to the bullpen in 2015 and did better, although he allowed too many walks.  He was injured for part of 2016, making only two appearances for Boston before being traded to the Twins on August 1 for Fernando Abad.  He made fifteen appearances for the Twins and really didn't get much accomplished, going 0-1, 9.00, 2.14 WHIP in fourteen innings.  He struck out fourteen, but walked fifteen.  Only fifty-four percent of his pitches were strikes.  The Twins traded him to Pittsburgh on February 9, 2017 for a player to be named or cash.   The Pirates sent him to AAA and put him on waivers in June.  Seattle claimed him and he was in AAA with them the rest of the season.  He did not have a particularly good year in AAA and  continued to walk too many people.  He turns twenty-seven today. As we said last year, we wish him well, but Pat Light is going to have to throw strikes at a higher rate if he's going to have much of a big league career.