Article: The All-Time Worst Twins: Butch Huskey

[Cody Christie]

There can be plenty debate about which player is the best in the history of the franchise. Arguments can be made for Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, etc. Puckett brought World Series Championships to the Twins Cities, Killebrew hit mammoth home runs, and Carew might be the best pure-hitter in franchise history. Those debates can be fun and there really isn't a wrong answer because each player is an important part of Twins history.

 

On the other side of the coin, there have been some players that didn't find success in a Twins uniform. It can be just as fun trying to pick out some of these players, as it can be to debate the best players in team history.

 

To kick off the "Worst Twins of All-Time Series," Mr. Butch HuskeyBefore the start of the 2000 season, the Twins were looking to add a player with DH experience. They threw half a million dollars at Huskey and gave him the role. The 28-year old had spent multiple seasons with the Mets before coming to the AL to play with Seattle and Boston. The Twins had a young David Ortiz who would also be fighting for at-bats at DH but the experience factor mattered for Minnesota.

 

Huskey was a career .268/.313/.437 hitter and he averaged 13 home runs a season before joining the Twins. He had a couple of seasons where he hit 20 home runs and the Mariners gave him a contract for over $1 million in 1999. He would last less than a season with Seattle before being dealt to the Red Sox. Huskey was traded for Robert Ramsay, a left-handed relief pitcher who would only pitch parts of two big league seasons.

 

During the 2000 season, Huskey made it into 64 games for the Twins and he hit .223/.306/.353 in 215 at-bats. He had 13 doubles and five home runs while playing 36 games at DH, 15 games in RF, and nine games at first base. His best offensive performance might have been a 3-for-4 game on April 20th when he had a double, a home run, and two runs scored. This was in the middle of a seven game hitting streak for the DH. In his last ten games with the Twins, he didn't get a single hit and he ended his Twins tenure with a -1.1 WAR.

 

As mentioned before, Huskey was brought in to serve as an experienced DH with the club. David Ortiz would actually finish the season as the Twins primary DH. On Opening Day, it was Huskey batting clean-up for the club with Ortiz not in the line-up.

 

2000 Opening Day Line-Up

1. Todd Walker, 2B

2. Christian Guzman, SS

3. Matt Lawton, RF

4. Butch Huskey, DH

5. Corey Koskie, 3B

6. Ron Coomer, 1B

7. Jacque Jones, LF

8. Matt LeCroy, C

9. Torii Hunter, CF

 

In an interesting bit of trivia, Huskey would become one of the last players in franchise history to wear the number 42. Major League Baseball had retired the number to honor Jackie Robinson and his contributions to the game. All of the players that were already wearing the number got grandfathered in and they could continue to have the #42 on their backs. Huskey wore the number as a tribute to Robinson before having to switch away from it with the Rockies.

 

With Ortiz starting to get more playing time at DH and Huskey not exactly performing well, the Twins sent him to the Rockies along with Todd Walker. The Twins got back Todd Sears and cash from Colorado to complete the deal. It was starting to look like the beginning of the end for Mr. Huskey.

 

He finished out the rest of his MLB career with the Rockies during the last few months of the 2000 campaign. Huskey improved his batting numbers to .348/.432/.565 along with 12 extra-base hits in 45 games. In 2001, he spent the entire year at the Triple-A level for the Rockies before deciding to call it a career.

 

One of the more entertaining moments in the career of Butch Huskey happened at the Metrodome.

Pay special attention to the futuristic jerseys that each club is wearing. Sorry for the quality of the video but it was the best that is available.

 

While Huskey's Twins tenure was lacking length, there is no shortage of other players who have struggled for longer (and shorter) times for the Twins. Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion about who else should be covered in this series.

 

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[notoriousgod71]

The Future's game was the same day the Gophers hired Dan Monson. Just a lovely day.

[IndianaTwin]

This could be fun. Is there an AB/IP minimum to qualify?

 

I was always a Paul Thormodsgard fan myself, though it's hard to argue with Dave McKay either.  

 

 

[tobi0040]

Very fun.

 

I think the true winner would not technically be the worst player but the worst player to play a lot and hurt the team the most.

 

Like Danny Santana.

[DJSim22]

Tom Nieto

Brett Merriman

Scott Klingenbeck

Dan Serafini

Benji Sampson

Chris Latham

Cleatus Davidson

Sean Bergman

Adam Johnson

Brett Boone

NISHI

 

[nater79a]

Scott Klingenbeck would be high on my list.

[Dantes929]

Ron Davis, Tommy Herr would be examples of guys who were successful pros but not successful Twins.   I felt sorry for Davis.   I disliked Herr.

Terry Felton started 10 games, pitched in 55 games for the Twins and was 0-16.   Kind of a tough one to beat even though his ERA wasn't even close to worst.

[pierre75275]

Matt Walbeck

David McCarty

Willie Banks

Scott Staoviack (sp)?

[theBOMisthebomb]

Liam Hendriks

Rondell White

Lenny Faedo

[USAFChief]

Tsuyoshi Nishioka.

 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3b5aOelFL4

[pc-Ray]

To me, the worst Twins would have to be veterans or hyped youngsters that were absolute disappointments, rather than obscure up-for-a-while types. Certainly Nishioka and Brett Boone. I would add Phil Nevin. And Cry-Baby Tommy Herr took it to a whole new level.

 

How about a twist on the topic? Best ever Twin with the worst ever single skill.

 

Earl Battey was a great catcher and hitter, but holy cow was that man slow on the bases. Every guy who ever played pro ball was better than I was, in every respect -- except that I was faster than Earl Battey. You were faster than Earl Battey.

Edited December 20, 2016 by pc-Ray

[goulik]

Jason Marquis

Career ERA 4.54 K/9 5.4. K/W 1.54

Twins ERA 8.43 K/9 3.2. K/W 0.86

[Thrylos]

Need a bit of context here.   That was the year 2000.  When Ryan was architecting the last Twins' teams in light of Pohlad's and Selig's upcoming contraction.

 

$500K free agent signing.   In other words less than Jason Priddie, Alex Presley, & Co.

 

Perspective. 

[BobAzar]

Joe Mauer!  

[DocBauer]

Terry Felton

[Ben B]

Sidney Ponson. Absolutely baffling how that guy kept getting work. His last OK season was 2003. From 2004-09 he had a 5.82 ERA in 663 innings. 

[Sarah]

Wow, I have tried to repress some of the names on this list. With apologies to Erickson, we seem to have a problem with guys named Scott because the guy that came to my mind was Scott Aldred. Yeesh. I was pretty young way back when but I remember that Scott Stahoviak was touted as “the next Kent Hrbek.” Well, not quite…

[lukeduke1980]

Scott Stahoviak seems to get a bad rap.  His 1996 line resulted in an .845 OPS(!)  30 doubles, 13 homeruns.  Tell me we wouldn't love that from our First Baseman.

[zenser]

Joe Roa

Jim Hoey

[steve]

While the OP specifies "player" the headline states simply "Worst Twin." Therefore no list is complete without Ray "The Crippler" Miller.

[Drew]

When I was a kid I had a 'Tommy' corner in my room where I had Tom Lawless and Tommy Herr cards stuck to the wall. I'd drawn faces on them with marker and had deemed them my least favorite MLB players after the '87 World Series.

 

Then we traded Tom Brunansky, one of OUR guys, for one of the guys in my Tommy corner? Tommy Herr has been my least favorite baseball player for 28 years running. 

[Monkeypaws]

I'll thank you in advance to lay off my all-time favorite Twins outfield: Hosken Powell, Willie Norwood, and Bombo Rivera.

[Doomtints]

 

Ron Davis, Tommy Herr would be examples of guys who were successful pros but not successful Twins.   I felt sorry for Davis.   I disliked Herr.

Terry Felton started 10 games, pitched in 55 games for the Twins and was 0-16.   Kind of a tough one to beat even though his ERA wasn't even close to worst.

 

Yep.  It's Ron Davis.  No contest.

[Loosey]

 

Sidney Ponson. Absolutely baffling how that guy kept getting work. His last OK season was 2003. From 2004-09 he had a 5.82 ERA in 663 innings. 

He had a 6.93 ERA for the Twins.  And that wasn't even inflated.  His FIP was still 6.03.

[DarkoMills4]

Brian "Buck" Buchanan. I remember him being hyped up and he wasn't very good.

[lukeduke1980]

TK insisted on playing Brent Gates a lot.  I couldn't stand him

[Teflon]

This John Swol article on Twins Trivia provides thumbnails on a few of them.

 

 

[Cory Engelhardt]

According to fangraphs, the worst player in Twins history (I'm not counting Senators) is Denny Hocking. During his years with the Twins, he accumulated -2.6 WAR, and never had more than .5 WAR in any season. Two other years with above 0 WAR (.3 and .1) and otherwise he was pretty much all negative WAR each year he played.

[Boom Boom]

Rondell White... the guy who, after starting out terribly as Twins DH, convinced Gardenhire that if he had a defensive position he'd hit some.

 

So Gardy, of course, put Rondell in left field and Jason Tyner at DH. Because, you know, if you're going to have two bad hitters in your lineup you should also roll out your worst defensive alignment.

 

And after all that nonsense in '06, Terry Ryan brought him back. Rondell blew out a hamstring stepping out of the dugout, and the rest is history.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

 

I'll thank you in advance to lay off my all-time favorite Twins outfield: Hosken Powell, Willie Norwood, and Bombo Rivera.

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