The Rule V Retrospective: A Look at the Twins (Other) Draft Picks

In a little over a week, Major League Baseball will conduct their 49th Rule 5 Draft dating back to 1959.  Though the likelihood of the Twins partaking in the draft seems improbable, presently the Twins are carrying only 38 players on the 40-man roster leaving the team qualified to participate in the draft (Eduardo Morlan's name has been thrown out a lot lately).  When the personnel requires it, the Twins are known to exercise their select of a player that their scouting staff deemed useful.  Obviously the story of Johan Santana comes to mind when associating the Rule 5 and the Twins, as does outfielder Shane Mack.  Those players are certainly exceptions rather than rules but it shows that a budgeted team needs to check all available avenues for talent.  For example, on the current roster Brian Buscher, Armando Gabino, and Jason Pridie were acquired through past Rule 5 drafts (or as the case with Pridie, drafted and returned to his previous club before being reacquired the following year). 

 

Outside of the well-documented cases of Santana and Mack, the Twins have discovered a source of cost-efficient talent, as was the case with closer Doug Corbett and catcher Mark Salas.  But the team found other ways to implement their draft picks.  Utility man George Banks was packaged and traded for a pitcher that helped the team reach the World Series for the first time.  Likewise Corbett would be flipped for a young right fielder that would power the franchise to their first World Series title.  As good as their farm system as been at developing players, other teams have not plucked many useful components away from the Twins, only Joe Foy was selected and went on to supply his new team with good output. 

 

1961	Drafted	Lost
	George Banks (NYY)	None
	Johnny Goryl (LAD)
	Georges Maranda (SFG)

After completing their first season in Bloomington 70-90, a mere 38 games behind the New York Yankees, the Minnesota Twins took the opportunity to plunder their system by grabbing utility man George Banks from under their nose.  The selection of Banks was followed by infielder Johnny Goryl from the Dodgers and pitcher Georges Maranda from the Giants. 

 

Goryl had seen limited action with the Chicago Cubs from 1957 to 1959 as a third baseman.  In 1960, the Cubs packaged Goryl, Ron Perranoski, Lee Handley and $25,000 to the Dodgers in exchange for Don Zimmer.  Zimmer would have two mediocre seasons for the Cubs before being cherry picked by the New York Mets in the expansion draft prior to the 1962 season.  The Dodgers obtained one of the better relief pitchers in the game in Perranoski.  Before the era of the one-inning closers, Perranoski would save 101 games for the Dodgers before being traded to the Twins in 1967 along with Johnny Roseboro and Bob Miller for Mudcat Grant and Zolio Versalles.  Goryl would not see one inning of playing time with the Dodgers. The Twins plucked him from the Dodgers in 1961's Rule V draft.  With the Twins for three seasons, Goryl would hit .221/.291/.393 in 290 at-bats before being run out of baseball at the age of 30.  The organization, however, took a shine to Goryl and had a coaching spot for him.  After coaching in 1968 and 1969, Bill Rigney would be appointed manager in 1970 and disintegrated outgoing manager Billy Martin's coaching staff.  In 1979 manager Gene Mauch would bring Goryl back and in 1980 following a 54-71 start Mauch was fired and Goryl would be anointed manager and finish the season 23-13.  In the ensuing season, Goryl would start 11-25 and find himself replaced by Billy Gardner on May 21st, 1981.  Today, Goryl is a player development advisor for the Cleveland Indians, a team that he coached for from 1982 to 1988 and again from 1997 to 1998. 

 

Georges Henri Maranda, from Levis, Quebec, would be drafted by the Boston Braves in 1951 but would not see an inning in the Majors until the ripe age of 28 in 1960.  After 50.2 innings of work with the San Francisco Giants, Maranda displayed little control.  A 30-to-28 BB-to-K ratio showed no evidence that Maranda was anything but a has-been (or a never-was).  In 1962, the Twins gave the 30-year-old righty 72 innings where he possessed a 92 ERA+ and a weak 35-to-36 BB-to-K ratio.  At the conclusion of the season, the Twins would ship him along with Jackie Cullom to Cleveland for Ruben Gomez.

 

Of the three it would be Banks that would contribute the most.  Working mostly as a pinch hitter in 1962, Banks would tally a .252/.372/.408 batting line in 103 at-bats with four home runs.  The following year would not be nearly as fruitful as Banks' statistics - along with his playing time - plummeted.  In June 1964, the Twins would concoct one of the franchises' best trades on record.  Banks would be bundled with pitcher Lee Stange to the Cleveland Indians for Jim 'Mudcat' Grant.  Though it will go down as a pox on the Indian organization, it should be noted that at first blush the deal actually looked to favor the Erie Warriors.  In 1963 Stange had completed his 26-year-old season in which he compiled a 12-4 record with an ERA+ of 140 and a solid 100/63 K/BB ratio.  What's more is that Stange had lit up the California League, leading in every major category a pitcher could.  The 27-year-old Grant, meanwhile, had finished the year an All-Star pitcher with an ERA+ of 98 but a 13-14 record, thanks to a lousy Indians team.  Grant had set a personal high in strikeouts (157) but had also issued his share of walks (87) and home runs (30).  When he started of the 1964 season with the Indians with a 5.95 ERA, the team was glad to part with him.  Little did they know that the Twins would be able harness his control.  In 1965, Grant allowed just 61 walks in 270 innings and ended with another All-Star appearance and a 21-7 record.  Admittedly Grant faded quickly after his 1965 campaign and in 1967 he would be a part of the aforementioned Perranoski/Roseboro/Miller trade with the Dodgers. 

1962	Drafted	Lost
	None	Joe Foy (BOS)

The Twins signed Joe Foy as an amateur free agent before the 1962 season and would remain in the organization until that following November when the Boston Red Sox nabbed Foy with their Rule V minor league pick. 

 

In 1965 Foy was the Minor League Player of the Year while playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the International League.  At age 23 in 1966, Foy emerged as the Red Sox's starting third baseman and put up very good power numbers (15 home runs, .413 slugging %) but also displayed zen-like patience (91 walks).  The Twins relied on the defensively inept Harmon Killebrew to cover the hot corner as Don Mincher manned first base.  Foy's freshman year bat would supply one less batting win than the Killer's (1.6 to 2.6) but slightly more than one additional win over Mincher's.   His sophomore season, according to Baseball-Reference's Similarity Scores, resembles that of Royals third base phenom Alex Gordon.  That year, Foy hit 16 home runs and hit .251/.325/.426.  In his third season, Foy would begin to show his basepath prowess jumping from 14 total stolen base attempts in 1967 to 34 in 1968.  Still, the Red Sox may have sensed decline and left him exposed to the expansion draft where the Kansas City Royals scooped him up out of Fenway.  The Royals later used him as a bargaining chip to obtain Amos Otis from the Mets, who would become a mainstay on some very good Kansas City ballclubs.  In 1970 Foy would once again be selected in the Rule V draft - this time by the Washington Senators.  While working under Ted Williams' tutelage, Foy would hone his batting eye (27/14 BB/K) but at the young age of 28 his power was zapped and his career would soon be over. 

 

 

1979	Drafted	Lost
	Doug Corbett (CIN)	None
	Guy Sularz (SFG)

 

The Twins finished the 1979 season smack-dab in the middle of the AL West at 82-80.  That season, the offense scored 4.71 runs per game led by shortstop Roy Smalley would provided 5.6 batting wins.  The pitching staff relied on the aging Jerry Koosman (20-13), Dave Goltz (14-13) and Geoff Zahn (13-7)

The Twins took Guy Sularz, a utility infielder, from the Giants organization most likely because being from Minneapolis (but attended North Hollywood High School), Sularz was probably already familiar with the town.  By the end of spring training the Twins returned him to the West Coast team from whence he came. 

 

Corbett, on the other hand, was intriguing.  He had a heavy sinker and at 27 years old, Major League ready.  The Twins grabbed him from the Reds and tossed him into the bullpen.  Making 73 appearances in his belated rookie season, Corbett averaged 1.8 innings per outing.  Though the season was a disappointment for a team that had regressed from an 82-80 season in 1979 to 77-84, Corbett contributed 23 saves, 4.8 pitching wins and posted an ERA+ of 220.  His 23 saves was a rookie record that stood until Baltimore's Gregg Olson topped that in 1989 as a 22-year-old rookie with 27 saves. His introductory performance garnderd Corbett enough votes for third place in the AL Rookie of the Year award (Super Joe Carboneau for the Indians would go home with the hardware).  In 1981, Corbett would come back down to earth.  That year, the Twins took a turn for the worse.  The offense supplied the second-fewest runs per game (3.44) leading only the anemic Toronto Blue Jays.  The 28-year-old closer was used far less, deployed only 54 times in 1981.  Still, Corbett was elected to the AL All-Star team but did not play.  By 1982, the franchise had crash-landed in their new home - and so did Corbett.  In just ten games from April 7th to May 8th, opponents smashed him all over the field, hitting .300/.370/.467 in that time.  Looking to employ the young, inexpensive talent, the Twins sent Corbett along with Rob Wilfong (28) to the California Angels for Tom Brunansky, Mike Walters and $100,000.  There, Corbett's fortitude would be questioned when he would be known for yelling "Look out!" after releasing high-and-tight fastballs.  For the cost of the Rule V draft, the Twins were able to secure two-plus seasons of a reliever who provided 6.2 pitching wins to the team and exchange him for another inexpensive player that would contribute another 2.6 batting wins the rest of the 1982 season in Brunansky. 

 

1981	Drafted	Lost
	Paul Boris (NYY)	None

In 1978 the New York Yankees signed Boris out of Rutgers University as an amateur free agent.  The Twins took a shine to the right-handed pitcher and acquired him via the Rule V draft after the 1981 season.  The pitching staff for the Twins had a rough go in the strike-shortened season.  Lacking any offensive support, no starter - with the exception of Pete Redfern (9-8) - possessed a winning record.  In the bullpen only Doug Corbett had provided any sort of noteworthy relief, ending up the Twins All-Star representative that season.  After a spring training audition, the Twins returned him to the Yankees on April 2nd, 1982.  Eight days later the Twins would trade Roy Smalley to the Yankees for Ron Davis (who would replace the traded Corbett as the team's closer), minor league shortstop Greg Gagne aaaannnnnnd....Paul Boris.  The trade appeared to be the last straw for fans who largely ignored the new stadium downtown as the Twins were deadlast in the American League for attendance.  Former players and fans accused Calvin Griffith of conducting a 'clearance sale', jettisoning the large contracts of Smalley and Wynager to the Yankees for inexpensive player.  Former Twin Dan Ford, then with the Orioles, told the Associated Press that, "They come up with minor league guys and as soon as they do well, they trade them off.  They notice people making money and they let them go like (Rod) Carew, (Larry) Hisle, Smalley, (Lyman) Bostock and myself.  All they know is the value of a dollar.  They'll take a guy with a $40,000 salary over a guy with a $100,000 salary."   Griffith responded by saying, "The names aren't producing.  We'll get some kids in here and give them an opportunity to play."

 

It would be the recently acquired Davis that would be the most vocal opponent of the trades, suggesting openly that it should be the owner that should be traded.  Griffith shot back by calling Davis a "New York counterfeit" and adding "I hope he is not getting nervous now that Corbett is gone."

 

Desperate for warm bodies during the 1982 season, Boris was given the opportunity to prove that he was one.  After starting the season in AAA Toledo, Boris made 23 appearances coming out of a terrible bullpen and would only pitch in just one game that the Twins claimed victory (and he was credited with the win).  Boris's historical importance is basically his involvement in the acquisition of Gagne who would anchor shortstop for the two World Series teams and Ron Davis, the closer that probably cost the team a post-season appearance in 1984.  
 

1984	Drafted	Lost
	Mark Salas (STL)	None

Lacking confidence in catcher Tim Laudner and Dave Engle's in ability to hit, the Twins took Mark Salas from the Cardinals organization.  In 120 games with the Twins in his rookie season, Salas hit .300/.332/.458 while contributing 1.5 batting wins.  His performance earned him Rookie of the Year considerations (8th place).  The follow season, Salas's numbers dropped significantly and in 1987 he was traded to the Yankees for Joe Niekro at the trade deadline in efforts to bolster a depleted pitching staff.  Niekro, of course, wouldn't do any good for the Championship team, yet he would supply one of the most memorable moments in Twins lore as he attempted to thwart an umpire's on-field cavity search.