Guilty Pleasure Player

[bird]

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.

 

Once again, untrue and unfair.

[bird]

From the past, Sandy Valdespino and George Mitterwald. From the present, Swarzak.

[ericchri]

Scott Leius. I don't know why, but I was always happier when he was in the lineup, even though the platoon with Pagliarulo worked almost perfectly. Probably because as the righty he was in the lineup less often.

[Brad Swanson]

+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?

 

That is a fun read, but man that dweeb has too much time on his hands...

[E. Andrew]

Brian Harper, Scott Baker, Matt Tolbert, Jason Bartlett, and Pat Neshek, though some obviously outgrew the 'guilty' part.

[Thirty-three]

I'm actually wearing a Nick Blackburn jersey today. Can't explain it. I was also a fan of L-Rod. And Mark Davidson because, who was that guy??

[Otto von Ballpark]

Rich Robertson, your 1996 AL leader in shutouts. Man, I loved that guy.

[UCLA_YANKEE_COLA]

I was, for reasons I can't recall, a huge Roy Smith guy. I remember thinking a rotation of Roy Smith, Allan Anderson and this new guy, Rick Aguilera, would be pretty solid.

 

More recently I was a huge Carlos Gomez fan even though he's exactly the type of player that drives me nuts.

[James]

Back when I was a younger child, I liked Randy Bush. I don't know why. I probably hardly understood the game then.

 

More recently it was Neshek.

[Bojangles]

Bobby Kielty

[ashbury]

This thread is itself a guilty pleasure so I'm back for second helpings.

 

I completely forgot Darin Mastroianni. I enjoyed learning about him when I picked him in TD's Adopt-A-Prospect, and even though I think I know his ceiling (and I think *he* thinks he knows his ceiling), I'm still hoping for a few fluke homers and an .800 OPS to go along with his main skillset.

 

I thought about Brian Harper, as others have mentioned here, but arbitrarily drew the "too good to be guilty" line below his name but above Al Newman's. As long as I'm enjoying catchers, I'll lump Buck Ninety Laudner in with him, as they both made utterly ballsy postseason plays that put them in some wing of a Twins HOF.

 

Mike Smithson for some reason was a guy I rooted an extra amount for on the mound, and Scott Erickson may or may not be above that arbitrary "too good" line but likewise was someone I hoped could put it all together in a really big way.

[ashbury]

That is a fun read, but man that dweeb has too much time on his hands...

 

My only quibble with this dweeb is he somehow failed to include either of the strings "Hrbek" or "Booger" in his article about Pedro.

[Danchat]

Lew Ford and Matthew LeCroy. Last year, it was Parmelee for me. I'm now on the Wilkin Ramirez bandwagon, and I'm a fan of Casey Fien and Jared Burton.

[one_eyed_jack]

Great topic. I often round myself rooting for Cuddyer and Punto a little harder because of the silly amount of venom directed at them by fans.

 

I enjoyed watching Gomez play, even though he did some jaw-droppingly stupid things on the field.

 

At one point, I would have included Carlos Silva my list.

[Ben B]

Pat Meares. My formative years were spent following the mid 90s Twins, and Meares kind of represented to me how futile those teams were.

 

More recently...Carl Pavano. Loved the mustache and his gritty workhorse style. Too bad his arm fell off.

[Longdistancetwins]

Did anyone else have a soft spot for Jim Holt? He seemed to have a way of coming through in the small sample of games I could follow on the East Coast.

[notoriousgod71]

Junior Ortiz, Dan Naulty, Erik Schullstrom, Matt Lawton, A.J. Pierzynski, Mike Redmond.

 

I guess this year it's Wilkin Ramirez, as he is the only player on the team that I don't absolutely hate.

[YourHouseIsMyHouse]

For the current team: Darin Mastroianni, Casey Fien, Wilkin Ramirez, Eduardo EE Escobar, and Pedro Hernandez. Though I'm not really sure about their perceptions. The guys we got in the Liriano trade are two of my favorites for some reason. I sort of like Pressley too.

[jimbo92107]

I liked Pat Neshek, R.A. Dickey, now Anthony Slama. Guys that get batters out without an overwhelming fastball. I also like finesse pitchers like Diamond, DeVries...and the quirky ones, like Deduno. Baseball should be appreciated as a form of art as well as a sport. Players that really understand the game, like Nick Punto, are as fun for me to watch as any superstar.