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Did these 10 players struggle the most during their Twins career?


jlarson

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ChatGPT 4 is all the rage these days. If you do not know what ChatGPT, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and released in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 foundational GPT large language models (LLMs) and has been fine-tuned (an approach to transfer learning) for conversational applications using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.

It can be a lot of fun to ask it questions about the Minnesota Twins. What do we think about this list of 10 players who "struggled" during their Minnesota Twins tenure. Are these the worst Twins players in history? 

Tsuyoshi Nishioka feels right at home on this list, what about Ron Coomer?

  1. Tsuyoshi Nishioka: Nishioka, a Japanese infielder, had a disappointing stint with the Twins from 2011 to 2012, batting just .215 with limited defensive contributions.

  2. Drew Butera: While a reliable catcher defensively, Butera struggled offensively during his time with the Twins (2010-2013), hitting .182 with limited power.

  3. Vance Worley: Worley, a starting pitcher, struggled to find success with the Twins from 2013 to 2014, posting a 7.21 ERA in 10 starts.

  4. Juan Castro: In 2005, Castro played shortstop for the Twins and struggled offensively, hitting .221 with limited power.

  5. Terry Felton: Felton, a relief pitcher, struggled during his time with the Twins from 1979 to 1983, posting a career ERA of 5.43.

  6. David McCarty: McCarty, an infielder/outfielder, struggled offensively during his time with the Twins (1995-1997), batting .229 with limited power.

  7. Brian Buscher: Buscher played third base for the Twins from 2006 to 2009, posting a career batting average of .266 but struggled with limited power.

  8. Ron Coomer: Coomer, an infielder, struggled offensively during his time with the Twins (1995-2000), hitting .274 with limited power.

  9. Tim Teufel: Teufel played second base for the Twins from 1983 to 1995 but struggled offensively, batting .249 with limited power.

  10. Gene Glynn: Glynn, an infielder, struggled during his time with the Twins from 1979 to 1985, hitting .209 with limited power.

Just to note it does look like ChatGPT is looking at some entire careers for this list. Tim Teufel was pretty good with the Twins.

 

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Well, I'll give ChatGPT a "B" on this assignment.  Nishioka at #1 on the list seems an obvious call.  David McCarty was perhaps the most disappointing Twins prospect in my memory.  So much was expected, and it just didn't work out at all.  Felton and Worely are deserving of spots, although I could also name a dozen other equally deserving pitchers (Ron Davis being the obvious omission).  Drew Butera... as a hitter, for sure, but I don't believe anyone expected him to hit much.

Teufel is a strange choice, as he was a fairly productive hitter for the mid 80's (and they got his playing dates wrong.  He left in 1985).  OPS+ of over 100.  My recollection is that the Twins were not enamored with his defense.

Ron Coomer... I remember him as being one of the better players of those late 90's Twins teams... which probably says a lot about how bad those teams were.  1.4 career WAR in over 3000 career at bats?  Perhaps a better definition would be mediocre, rather than struggling.  

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I can't really argue that these players most definitely "struggled".  There are plenty of others over the years - especially in the pitching department.  I think it would be really interesting to find out which players' reputation with fans outshone their actual production on the field.  I can think of a few, like Willians Astudillio, Nicky Punto, and Denny Hocking, but I'm sure there are more. Nothing against those guys, they were who we had at that moment in time, but there was definitely some time on the struggle bus for each of them.

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Of the guys who played over the last 30ish years, I think I'd only include Nishioka and Worley on the list, and I could be talked into McCarty.

I'd replace the other 4-5 with Sidney Ponson, Livan Hernandez, Byung Ho-Park, and while he was before my Twins watching days, the legendary Ron Davis.

It's hard for a player to be so bad that he literally becomes a Twins legend passed down thru the generations, whose song is as well known as those of Killebrew, Carew, Pucket, and Blylevin. Long live Ron Davis!

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