{"id":583062,"date":"2026-02-20T15:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/583062\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T15:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:31:22","slug":"twins-flashback-1996-pt-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/583062\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Flashback: 1996 (Pt. 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The loss of franchise cornerstone Kirby Puckett was an enormous setback<\/a> to start the 1996 Minnesota Twins season. But the show must go on, as they say, and whether narrated through Dick<\/a>-n-Bert<\/a> on MSC<\/a> or Herb-n-John over the air, the \u201896 Twins were off and running.<\/p>\n

\"\"Offense (97 team OPS+)<\/p>\n

The three guys Puckett was supposed to pair perfectly with all performed admirably\u2026<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Chuck Knoblauch: 197 H, 140 R, 35 2B, 14 3B, 45 SB, .341 BA, 143 OPS+<\/p>\n

Paul Molitor: 225 H, 99 R, 41 2B, 8 3B, 113 RBI, 18 SB, .341 BA, 116 OPS+<\/p>\n

Marty Cordova: 176 H, 97 R, 46 2B, 111 RBI, .309 BA, 112 OPS+<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alas, six others batsmen had to come to the plate each game, accounting for the below-average 97 team OPS+.<\/p>\n

Pitching (97 team ERA+)<\/p>\n

The \u201cRick Aguilera as a starter\u201d disaster<\/a> and sub-90 ERA+ campaigns from the likes of Greg Hansell, Eddie Guardado, Jose Parra, & Pat Mahomes Sr<\/a> gave this team a reputation of being pitching-poor.<\/p>\n

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+) & Dan Naulty (110 ERA+) were solid firemen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Other \u201896 highlights included\u2026<\/p>\n

Molitor\u2019s 3,000th hit\u2014a triple, no less!<\/p>\n

Beating the Detroit Tigers 24-11<\/a><\/p>\n

Sending Knobby to the All-Star game in Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Drafting Jacque Jones & Chad Allen<\/p>\n

Chip Hale\u2019s remarkable 19 pinch hits!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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

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.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,24554,135,2555,53,33822,822,60,3190,4,144,619,148],"class_list":["post-583062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-baseball","tag-chuck-knoblauch","tag-cleveland","tag-david-ortiz","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-kirby-puckett","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia","tag-seattle","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116103682535046772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583062","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=583062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}