SABR 52: Listen to highlights from Minnesota Twins Pitchers Panel with Bert Blyleven, Jim Kaat, LaTroy Hawkins, Glen Perkins
On Thursday, August 8, 2024, Hall of Famers Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat, along with former stars Glen Perkins and LaTroy Hawkins, participated in the SABR 52 Minnesota Twins Pitchers Panel at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. The panel was moderated by Twins broadcaster Kris Atteberry.
Blyleven became the first Dutch-born player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. Armed with one of the greatest curveballs in baseball history, he won 287 games and ranks fifth all-time with 3,701 career strikeouts. He was part of two World Series championship teams with the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1987 Minnesota Twins, and he spent 22 seasons in the Twins broadcast booth from 1996 to 2020. He has also served as a pitching coach for the Netherlands baseball team in the World Baseball Classic since 2009.
Kaat was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022 following a decorated 25-year major-league career spent mostly with the Minnesota Twins. He won 283 games, 16 Gold Glove Awards, and a World Series championship with the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals. He has worked as an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster on MLB Network since 2009 and has also called games for the Twins, New York Yankees, and ESPN since the early 1980s. He is the author of Good As Gold: My Eight Decades in Baseball.
Perkins is a radio and television analyst for the Minnesota Twins. He spent his entire 12-year major-league career as a pitcher with the Twins after he was selected in the first round of the 2004 amateur draft out of the University of Minnesota. He was a three-time All-Star and earned the save for the American League in the 2014 All-Star Game at Target Field. He ranks in the Twins’ top five all-time in saves and games finished.
Hawkins is a Special Assistant to Baseball Operations and television analyst with the Minnesota Twins. He played for 21 seasons in the major leagues with 11 different teams, including the Twins from 1995 to 2003. He ranks 10th all-time in major-league history with 1,042 appearances and is one of a handful of relievers to record a save against all 30 MLB teams.
- AUDIO: Listen to highlights from the SABR 52 Minnesota Twins Pitcher Panel (58:36; MP3)
Here are some highlights:
ON LEARNING FROM VETERAN PITCHERS
- Perkins: “I guess things pass down. I got my first slider grip from Joe Nathan. My pitching coach Rick Anderson was like, ‘Hey, your curveball stinks. You need to start throwing a slider.’ So it was crowdsourcing (with other pitchers), ‘How do you throw yours? How do you throw yours?’ and then try those out in the bullpen. It wasn’t the way it is now, where a guy comes in and they say, ‘We want you to throw a slider, let’s get on the mound and get the cameras going.’ And (they) look at the spin, the spin axis, the break, all of those things, and let’s develop the best pitch for you.”
- Kaat: “We looked to the guys that pitched before us. Whitey Ford, who I later became a good friend with, had this fastball that (whooshed) like a sinker. So I wanted to ask him how he held that ball. One day, on a hot day, I walked over to the fence — he could have told me to take a hike — but I wanted to ask him how he threw it. Whitey held his a little at an angle and with a soft thumb, which I always preached when I coached. So I went back (to the bullpen) with (catcher) Paul Ratliff, and threw a fastball, and it (whooshed) just like that. That was 1962, and I threw my fastball like that for the next 21 years.”
ON USING ANALYTICS AS A PITCHER
- Hawkins: “I’m a big fan of analytics because it explained to me what made myself good. I couldn’t throw a four-seam fastball, I couldn’t spin it to save my life. I threw all two-seam fastballs. But I had the ability to straighten it out or throw it inside to a lefty and make it come back. Now, with the cameras and all the information, we can help guys do that. I didn’t know how I did it. … I got out in 2015, right on the cusp of when it was starting to change. When those guys started changing their swings, and I was a sinkerball pitcher, that’s when I knew it was time for me to get out of the game.”
ON WATCHING A FUTURE HALL OF FAMER DEVELOP
- Kaat: “When Bert came up, I saw him throw his first pitch in 1970, he gave up a leadoff home run to Lee May, he went seven innings and they never touched him (afterward). He looked like he had been in the big leagues for five years. And if you look at what Bert did his whole career, he was so durable. We all had windups, it’s so important to get your momentum, and Bert was ideal for that.”
ON THE STAR HITTER YOU DIDN’T MIND FACING
- Kaat: “Reggie Jackson. When he first came up, I threw a fastball in and it hit the knob of the bat. Then I threw a hook and his knee buckled. So every game, I knew I had to do that.”
- Perkins: “Miguel Cabrera. I faced him more than anyone else in my career and struck him out more than anyone in my career. He got me for a home run at the Metrodome when I was a starter, which was a whole different career for me. So I don’t count that home run.”
- Blyleven: “Hitter that I liked? I never liked a damn hitter.”
- Hawkins: “Matt Holliday. He maybe had one double against me, and he hit that past the first baseman. I never threw him a breaking ball, all fastballs. I enjoyed facing Matt.”
For more coverage of SABR 52, visit SABR.org/convention.
Originally published: August 14, 2024. Last Updated: August 14, 2024.