{"id":582875,"date":"2026-02-20T13:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T13:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/582875\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T13:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T13:23:13","slug":"twins-flashback-1996-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/582875\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Flashback: 1996 (Pt. 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The loss of franchise cornerstone Kirby Puckett was an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twinkietown.com\/minnesota_twins_history\/50584\/mlb-minnesota-twins-1996-kirby-puckett-eye-injury-retirement-dennis-martinez-hit-by-pitch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">enormous setback<\/a> to start the 1996 Minnesota Twins season. But the show must go on, as they say, and whether narrated through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twinkietown.com\/2023\/11\/10\/23944569\/mlb-minnesota-twins-dick-bremer-bert-blyleven-fox-sports-bally-north-msc-midwest-sports-channel-tv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dick<\/a>-n-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.twinkietown.com\/2020\/9\/6\/21424016\/coming-full-circle-bert-blyleven-end-of-a-broadcast-era-mlb-minesota-twins-play-by-play-color-fsn-tv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bert<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/n6dYhNyAjYM?si=i5obfWpVp6hl1OjC\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MSC<\/a> or Herb-n-John over the air, the \u201896 Twins were off and running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The three guys Puckett was supposed to pair perfectly with all performed admirably\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Alas, six others batsmen had to come to the plate each game, accounting for the below-average 97 team OPS+.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The \u201cRick Aguilera as a starter\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twinkietown.com\/2011\/3\/29\/2079128\/rotations-of-the-minnesota-twins-1996-2011\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">disaster<\/a> and sub-90 ERA+ campaigns from the likes of Greg Hansell, Eddie Guardado, Jose Parra, &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twinkietown.com\/2020\/2\/2\/21118104\/mlb-minnesota-twins-super-bowl-liv-connection-mahomes-kansas-city-chiefs-san-francisco-49ers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pat Mahomes Sr<\/a> gave this team a reputation of being pitching-poor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But the likes of Brad Radke (114 ERA+), Frankie Rodriguez (101 ERA+), Rich Robertson (100 ERA+), and Scott Aldred (100 ERA+) all held their own in the rotation while Mike Trombley (170 ERA+) &amp; Dan Naulty (110 ERA+) were solid firemen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Other \u201896 highlights included\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Without the legendary Kirby panache to draw paying customers, attendance sagged to 17,745\/game\u201411th of 14 in the American League. Well, until Kirby Puckett Tribute Night, which predictably packed the house\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">All told, the \u201896 Twins played exactly like a team without their leader, finishing a listless 78-84. They avoided the AL Central cellar, but were still a whopping 21.5 GB crown-wearing Cleveland. The team was below-average in the first half (41-45) and below-average in the second half (37-39). They were below-average at home (39-43) and below-average on the road (39-41). Remarkable consistency for such a middling squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The loss of franchise cornerstone Kirby Puckett was an enormous setback to start the 1996 Minnesota Twins season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,822,60,3190,4,148,40788],"class_list":{"0":"post-582875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-twins","11":"tag-minnesotatwins","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-twins","14":"tag-twins-history-and-nostalgia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116103180806110961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}