Tom Loftus managed Cincinnati, Chicago, and Washington around the turn of the (twentieth) century.
Left-hander Randal Harold Niemann appeared in six games for the Twins in 1987, at the end of his major league career. Born in Scotia, California, he was drafted by the Yankees in the second round of the secondary phase of the 1975 June draft. He appears to have pretty much topped out at AA, although he had a couple of small sample size years where he was decent in the majors. In June of 1977, Niemann was traded to Houston. He had a fine year at AA for the Astros in 1978, going 9-5 with a 2.05 ERA as a part-time starter and part-time reliever. That and a decent start at AAA in 1979 got him promoted to the majors, where he spent most of the year as a seldom-used reliever and occasional spot starter. His numbers were decent that year, and 1980 found him starting the year in a similar role. He struggled in 1980, possibly due in part to a lack of consistent work, and landed back in the minors in July. He may have been injured the next year, as he made only 10 appearances, all of them starts for AAA Tucson. After the season, Niemann was traded to Pittsburgh. He spent most of 1982 in Pittsburgh and most of 1983 at AAA Hawaii, but was not particularly impressive either place. He moved on to the White Sox in 1984 and the Mets in 1985, playing most of both seasons in AAA. 1985 was the seventh consecutive season he had spent at least part of at AAA, and he apparently started to figure out how to get AAA hitters out, as he went 11-6 with a 2.76 ERA that year in 30 appearances, 19 of them starts. He was with the Mets for most of 1986, and pitched well for them in short relief, though he only threw 35.2 innings. A free agent at the end of the season, Niemann signed with the Twins for 1987. He spent a little over two weeks with the Twins in June, pitching 5.1 innings over six appearances. He was 1-0 in that span with an 8.44 ERA. Most of his season was spent at AAA Portland, where he was decent, but nothing to get too excited about. The Twins apparently weren’t too excited, anyway–they let him go at the end of the season. He made nine appearances for AAA Tidewater in the Mets organization in 1988, then called it a career. Randy Niemann then went into coaching, and was the bullpen coach for the New York Mets from 2009-2010. He was the team’s pitching rehab coordinator in 2011, working closely with Johan Santana. He moved on to the Boston organization in 2012, becoming that team’s pitching coach on August 20, but was replaced after the season. Randy Niemann was the pitching coach of AA Springfield in 2013 and 2014 and was the pitching coach Class A Palm Beach since 2015-2017. Both teams are in the Cardinals’ organization. He became the Cardinals’ minor league pitching coordinator in 2018 and became a minor league pitching instructor for the team from 2019-2021. He was not retained after the 2021 season. No information is readily available about what Randy Niemann has done since then–our guess is that he is retired.
Right-handed starter Dylan Matthew Bundy pitched for the Twins in 2022. He was born in Tulsa, went to high school in Owasso, Oklahoma, and was drafted by Baltimore with the fourth pick of the 2011 draft. He pitched well in the low minors, but missed all of 2013 and some of 2014 and 2015 due to injury. He started 2016 in the majors, however, and spent four years as a decent but unspectacular starting pitcher for the Orioles, posting an ERA of 4.67 and a WHIP of 1.33. He was traded to the Angels after the 2019 season and in the abbreviated 2020 season had the best year of his career, going 6-3, 3.29, 1.04 WHIP in eleven starts and finishing ninth in Cy Young voting. In 2021, however, he went 2-9, 6.06, 1.36 WHIP and was allowed to become a free agent. The Twins signed him and he posted numbers very similar to his career numbers: 8-8, 4.89, 1.28 WHIP. He made twenty-nine starts, pitching one hundred forty innings. Many Twins fans seem to have considered him a disappointment, but really, the Twins got about what they should’ve expected out of him. He signed with the Mets for 2023, made six poor starts in AAA, was released in late July, and did not sign with anyone. He turns thirty-one today. This, of course, is where we observe that teams are always looking for pitching, so it’s possible he’ll go to spring training with someone in 2024. However, other than the COVID season he hasn’t had a good year since 2017, so we suspect most teams will decide there are better options available.
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