This seems like a reasonable off-day topic: who is your guilty pleasure player? It can be someone current or from Twins' past. Who is that player you had an odd affinity for or that player that no one seems to like, but you enjoy their work?

 

I'm sure everyone will take this seriously.

 

I really liked Matt Walbeck and Todd Sears. I also like Joe Mauer.

I liked players with lots of energy and lots of smiles and passion, like Carlos Gomez, Lexi Casilla and Ben Revere. Too bad the manager of the millennium did not like them

 

Also liked intelligent players who could form a sentence, like Kevin Slowey, Craig Breslow and R.A. Dickey. Too bad the manager of the millennium did not like them either.

That's a fun topic. I "adopt" players every year, usually underdogs of some shape or form. Among my "losers"--Matt Maloney, Alexi Casilla, and Rich Becker. Better results from 2006 vintage Cuddyer, the rookie AJ Pierzynski, Shane Mack, and Scott Leius.

Does Neshek count? If so, he's my vote.

No one slid into first like my boy Nicky Punto

This sounds dirty and inappropriate.

I always enjoyed Mike Redmond's flares to shallow right field.

 

Luis Rodriguez was someone I thought never quite got a fair shake. Also, as an Aussie I'm parts outraged and delighted that Glenn Williams got to retire after 13 games in 2005 with a career .425 BA

Matt Lecroy. Rich Garces. Gaetti 2.0, in his seemingly ageless post-Twins career. Liriano when he was off, because of how crazy he made Gardy. Slama, the most controversial Twin ever to basically not have been a Twin. Not sure if he qualifies, but Brian Harper.

Luis Rivas. Nobody could handle a blade quite like him

Ben Revere... Now that's He's gone... It's gonna be Sam Deduno.

Glenn Williams! He of the .902 OPS! I liked him.

 

Recently I've been pulling for Joe Benson. Still am.

 

Back in the day it was a guy named Cesar Tovar, he of the .703 career OPS. He was really fun. Managed a 12 year career out of that, too. Amazing.

 

And I liked Al Worthington, though I cannot remember why.

 

And Camilo Pascual! (though he was a starter for the Twins and not really a long-shot player).

And Earl Battey (I have to shut up now).

Damn, so many!

I liked players with lots of energy and lots of smiles and passion, like Carlos Gomez, Lexi Casilla and Ben Revere. Too bad the manager of the millennium did not like them

 

Also liked intelligent players who could form a sentence, like Kevin Slowey, Craig Breslow and R.A. Dickey. Too bad the manager of the millennium did not like them either.

 

I don't see how you can say Gardy did not like Casilla. He handed him a starting job how many times? Very nice guy, he wasn't a starter. I thought he wasn't put in position to succeed.

Matt Tolbert!

 

Next to the word "hustle" in the dictionary is a picture of Matt Tolbert. He played every play like it might be his last. Which, to be fair, it might well have been.

I always enjoyed Mike Redmond's flares to shallow right field.

 

Luis Rodriguez was someone I thought never quite got a fair shake. Also, as an Aussie I'm parts outraged and delighted that Glenn Williams got to retire after 13 games in 2005 with a career .425 BA

 

Oh man, I take Todd Sears back in favor of Luis Rodriguez. I loved that guy.

Great question! My top 3 are Brendan Harris, Tony Batista, and Rondell White. I also always liked the veteran backup catchers, from Greg Myers and Henry Blanco to Mike Redmond and Tom Prince, but not the young backup catchers like Butera. Lastly, Luis Rodriguez and Randy Ruiz.

Favorite players that weren't stars although some have been good.

 

Laudner, Shane Mack, Chad Allen, Nick Punto, Michael Cuddyer, Lew Ford.

Great question! I also always liked the veteran backup catchers, from Greg Myers and Henry Blanco to Mike Redmond and Tom Prince, but not the young backup catchers like Butera.

 

Phil Roof! Finally learned to hit in his last year, too.

Does Neshek count? If so, he's my vote.

 

Neshek was great

I'm an oldtimer. Loved Frank Quilici. Also had a softspot for Tom Hall. My alltime favorite was Cesar Tovar!

Neshek was great

 

I still feel he didn't get the credit he deserved, especially the year after TJ. Velocity be damned.

I also loved Pedro Munoz for some reason.

Neshek went to my alma mater, Butler, so I had to like him.

 

Tom Klawitter (the Klaw!) was fun, but mostly because of his teammates having a rasslin' fixation.

 

I was really rooting for Mark Funderburk to emerge. He didn't. Steve Carlton likewise I had hopes for, but he kind of disappeared after trying out with the Twins; whatever happened to him, did he finally make it somewhere?

 

Juan Berenguer was a little too good to be a guilty pleasure, but El Gasolino wasn't a big enough star to leave out either, and he had some style. Ditto for Al Newman.

 

Rusty Kuntz has a place on the all-time all-dirty name team, so he's on my list too. Guilty guilty guilty.

 

When I am around an Atlanta Braves fan, Kent Hrbek is the guiltiest of pleasures, too. When I'm around a Twins fan, it's a guilty pleasure to claim to like Tom Herr and David West.

Brian Harper. Tovar. Ted Uhlaender.

I also loved Pedro Munoz for some reason.

+1. The 'guilty' part applies for me a bit more than the pleasure. Thing I remember most about him (besides the tease of unrealized power potential, was that at the plate he reminded me of a hitter mirror image of Ricky 'Wild Thing' Vaughn up there.

 

Squinting like he was looking for a lost contact on his hands and knees, and often reacting to pitches as if a deer had sprung in front of his car out of nowhere. That, and his occasionally Magellan-esque routes on fly balls.

 

There's this really cool 'Forgotten Twin' article about Pedro by some internet dweeb, here's the link.

 

Sorry, couldn't resist. Fun read, well done, and keep it up. How can a guy with a decent MLB career fall off the face of the earth so fast at age 28?

Currently it's probably Swarzak. I kept thinking "this is going to be Casilla's year" as well. I was also on Nick's Brian Buscher bandwagon.

I liked players with lots of energy and lots of smiles and passion, like Carlos Gomez, Lexi Casilla and Ben Revere. Too bad the manager of the millennium did not like them

 

Also liked intelligent players who could form a sentence, like Kevin Slowey, Craig Breslow and R.A. Dickey. Too bad the manager of the millennium did not like them either.

 

I can see the second point, but it seems as though Gardy always had too much fascination for guys like Revere, Casilla, Gomez, etc.

I always seem to appreciate utility infielders who just know their role and do the job when called upon, but Luis(!) was my guy. I can't even remember why I started doing the Luis(!) thing.

 

This is a great topic. Lots of fun names to remember. Pat Neshek was the first minor leaguer that I really met and it was great following him all the way up. Lots more since that time, which is great, but I don't want to count those guys on this list because once I find out they're good guys or smart, etc., it's hard not to root for them.

From my Youth... Danny Goodwin and Bombo Rivera.

Lewwwwww

+1. The 'guilty' part applies for me a bit more than the pleasure. Thing I remember most about him (besides the tease of unrealized power potential, was that at the plate he reminded me of a hitter mirror image of Ricky 'Wild Thing' Vaughn up there.

 

 

Squinting like he was looking for a lost contact on his hands and knees, and often reacting to pitches as if a deer had sprung in front of his car out of nowhere. That, and his occasionally Magellan-esque routes on fly balls.

 

There's this really cool 'Forgotten Twin' article about Pedro by some internet dweeb, here's the link.

 

Sorry, couldn't resist. Fun read, well done, and keep it up. How can a guy with a decent MLB career fall off the face of the earth so fast at age 28?

 

Hilarious comment, LaBombo.

 

For me, I'll go Jason Tyner. He was my "ceiling" as a Major leaguer. My floor, of course, was much, much lower. But the only time I've ever seen the Twins live, he almost hit a home run out of Safeco.