Comments on: Top 40 Minnesota Twins: #16 Corey Koskie

By: Doofus

Doofus — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 17:53:45 +0000

I just scrolled back and noticed #17,18,19 and 20 all time great Twins writeups are missing. Where are they? I enjoy reading these. Can you put up links on the sidebar?

By: frightwig

frightwig — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:28:42 +0000

*Note: when discussing fWAR above, I’m comparing Koskie only to other regular position players.

From 1998-2004, Brad Radke was worth the most fWAR, although Koskie was worth more than all other Twins pitchers, and Koskie led all Twins hitters and pitchers in cumulative value from 2001-2004.

By: frightwig

frightwig — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:20:22 +0000

The other knock on Koskie was that he was too patient, or “not aggressive enough,” at the plate. He was a Billy Beane dream in an organization that wanted an “RBI man” to be up there hacking.

From 1998-2004, Koskie was really the team MVP with 23.3 fWAR (8 WAR more than the next best, Hunter). If you want to narrow it down to when the Twins became good again, from 2001-4, he had the most fWAR in that span, too. He had the most single-season value on the team in 1999, 2000, 2001, virtually the same value as Jacque Jones to lead the team in 2002, and then led the team again in 2003. In 2004, when Koskie’s 2.4 fWAR was 3rd on the team, trailing Lew Ford and Hunter, it was the first time Torii Hunter was ever worth more fWAR than Corey Koskie. And yet Torii Hunter was “The Face of the Franchise,” while some commenters here still question whether Koskie really belongs in the All-Time Top 20.

He was a great but underrated player, all right. I hope he doesn’t have to wait too much longer to be inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame. He deserves the honor.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:54:20 +0000

That got me thinking, what would the all-time Twins lineup be (and Killebrew played more 3B for the Twins than Koskie, so he can definitely man third)?

C is definitely Mauer (with Battey holding the slight edge over Harper as the backup). 1B is Hrbek and 2B is Carew. It’s too bad Knoblauch can’t play SS, so he has to sit on the bench, and there’s a 3-way battle at SS between Smalley, Gagne and Versalles. The OF would be Oliva, Puckett and Allison right to left, with Torii as a 4th OFer (or start him and let Oliva rest his knees at DH). Gaetti, Brunansky and Morneau could fight for bench spots, although Cesar Tovar could be helpful because of he could back up everyone.

The rotation would clearly be Blyleven, Kaat, Santana, Jim Perry and Viola. Camilo Pascual is tough because half of his career was with the Senators. He might have to join Radke and Dave Goltz in long relief. Nathan could close with Aggy and Al Worthington setting him up.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:41:12 +0000

Gaetti ranks ahead of Koskie as the franchise’s best Twins-era 3B because:
1. His Twins career was nearly 70% longer: 9 full seasons and he was more durable.
2. His ceiling was much higher: From 1986-88 he averaged 31 HR and 102 RBI (back when we cared about those) with a .516 SLG, three Gold Gloves, and MVP votes all three years.
3. Most importantly, he was incredible in the 1987 postseason: 12 games of .277/.340/.574 with 7 XBH and even 2/2 in SB.

Of course, if we were fielding a hypothetical team, we’d put Killebrew at 3B and put Hrbek at 1B.

FWIW I have Koskie at #29 in my Twins rankings, right between Kevin Tapani and Tom Brunansky. Gaetti is #19.

By: PMac

PMac — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:02:46 +0000

I like Koskie but no way is top twenty Twin of all time. Either that or the Twins history is great on top but not much depth.

By: Leon L

Leon L — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:35:40 +0000

Pretty telling of the Twins season that you’ve started the top 40 list again with a dozen games to go….sigh

By: Dave T

Dave T — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:08:53 +0000

I wish the Twins had brought him back from Toronto. Tony Batista? Ugh.

By: mark

mark — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:06:51 +0000

Koskie was a fine 3rd baseman and he was a gamer. I’m not sure I would rate him #16 but he is deserving of the Top 40.

By: Dustin

Dustin — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:21:14 +0000

Koskie’s appearance on the KFAN morning show a while back is my lasting memory of him. He spent several minutes doing a commercial for his fitness centers before being hung up on. Planet Fitness I believe.