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To start this off, I'll nominate Willie Norwood. In 1978 Willie was the Twins starting centerfielder. My memories have it that the ball was just as likely to bounce off his head as it was for him to catch it. While batting a meager .255 in 428 appearances, the speedy outfielder amassed 14 errors and a .944 fielding% that season. He should go down in the anal's* of Twins history.

* Anal's or annals, both apply.

Ron Davis. He drove me to drink.

Joey (nine toes) Marcoux wrote:Ron Davis. He drove me to drink.

Shouldn't that be a reason to thank the guy? It is for me.

Great topic, I have to think on this for a bit. Bad players that had a cup of coffee come to mind quite easily, however, ones that saw extended action should only be nominated.

Hocking?

Terry Felton. He's the only Twin player to make it into the book Baseball's Hall Of Shame. His 1982 pitching performance was "legendary".

http://www.baseball-reference.com/f/feltote01.shtml

Lee

Certainly tough to beat Felton's 0-13 record in '82,....not to mention zero lifetime wins.

How about #1 draft choices Pete Redfern and Eddie Bane and more recently Willie Banks,....and David West,....and Paul Thormodsgard (thermosbottle),....and local boy Gary Serum, who they signed at one of the "Twins Camps". That late 70's pitcher staff was lean,....Geoff Zahn and Dave Goltz as the stoppers.

Speaking of LEAN, remember Tommy (the Blade) Hall, 6 feet tall, 155 lbs.

All in all, have to agree with Lee, Felton takes the cake, who will go 0-13, ever again? If I remember, he really didn't pitch all that bad,....just couldn't get a win,.....and no other starters use or call up,....so they just kept starting him.

Speaking of Willie Norwood, I found this quote from a California paper:

"We hear about Bostock too, but not as much as we should. He deserves to be more of a footnote on a morbid list of 'Ballplayers Who Died During a Season'. He deserves better because he might have been among the best."

Willie Norwood took Bostocks place when Lymon got a big raise from Gene Autry.

He would have won 2 batting crowns had he not played during the same era and on the same team as Rod Carew. The trio of Carew, Bostock, and Larry Hisle helped the Twins to lead the AL in offense in 1976 and 1977 averaging 5.39 runs a game, in OBP, and BA while also posting a league low in K's in '77. Minnesota finshed the year 84-77, 17.5 games out of first. In 1976 they led the AL in the same categories and were 85-76, 4.5 games out of first. As much as we blame Calvin Griffith and his cheap ways, the Twins put some darn good teams and darn good players on tthe field back in the '70's.

C-Glenn Borgmann
1B-David McCarty
2B Steve Lombardozzi
SS Luis Gomez
3B Nick Punto
OF Willie Norwood
OF Lew Ford
OF The Micheal Ryan, Buck Buchannon, Bobby Kielty, Micheal Restovich combo.
P How can you name just a couple?

Glenn Borgmann. I had forgotten about him. Maybe repressed is a better word.
Career average of .229 with 1294 at bats. 16 total home runs in 9 seasons.

Simply dreadful.

Also in the catchers race should be Phil Roof.

In 15 seasons Phil stroked a solid .215 average. He had a little more pop than Glenn, often reaching the warning track. I remember his fan club out in the right field bleachers at the Met.

I googled fromer Mn Twins and found a couple of local candidates both pitchers.
Fred Bruckbauer Games-1,ERA ---- IP-0.0 H-3, R-3,ER-3, HR-0, HBP-0 BB-1,S0-0

Paul Giel Games W-1 L-0,ERA 9.78, GAMES 12, IP-19.1, H-24,R-27,ER-21, HR-6, HBP-0, BB-17, SO-14
Freb B. was the only MLB appearence, Paul G. was in the majors for 6 years the last in 1961. The site also has all links to all MLB teams, the Twins site includes the Washington Senators pre Twins.

On another note, Does anyone remember the name of the catcher, I believe in the 70's or early 80's that had trouble throwing the ball back to the pitcher? If I remember correctly he would bounce it back or would completely miss the pitcher.

Bret Boone, he was terrible as a twin.

greybeard58 wrote: On another note, Does anyone remember the name of the catcher, I believe in the 70's or early 80's that had trouble throwing the ball back to the pitcher? If I remember correctly he would bounce it back or would completely miss the pitcher.

I think it was Brian Harper.

Neutron 14 wrote:

greybeard58 wrote: On another note, Does anyone remember the name of the catcher, I believe in the 70's or early 80's that had trouble throwing the ball back to the pitcher? If I remember correctly he would bounce it back or would completely miss the pitcher.

I think it was Brian Harper.

I thought it was Dave Engle, wasn't it? I remember he didn't last long as a catcher.

Govs93 wrote: I thought it was Dave Engle, wasn't it? I remember he didn't last long as a catcher.

Engle first came to my mind too, but I remember the catcher played because of he was a decent hitter. I don't remember Engle being a good hitter.

Neutron 14 wrote:

Govs93 wrote: I thought it was Dave Engle, wasn't it? I remember he didn't last long as a catcher.

Engle first came to my mind too, but I remember the catcher played because of he was a decent hitter. I don't remember Engle being a good hitter.

You may be right, I remember Harper had a lousy arm and teams ran on him like crazy - I don't remember throwing back to the pitcher being a problem, then again, I don't remember that as a problem for any catcher (if I did, I would have answered the damn question already!).

I don't remember much about Engle either, other than they tried to convert him to a catcher and it didn't work well. I assumed his lousy defense made him the likely answer.

For some reason Mickey Hatcher comes to mind, though it may very well have been Dave Engle. I think Harper add trouble too, but it was after he left the Twins and was in Milwaukee.

goldy313 wrote:For some reason Mickey Hatcher comes to mind, though it may very well have been Dave Engle. I think Harper add trouble too, but it was after he left the Twins and was in Milwaukee.

Mickey was an outfielder and would occasionally play 1st when Hrbek got hurt. I don't recall him ever being a catcher.

Govs93 wrote: I thought it was Dave Engle, wasn't it? I remember he didn't last long as a catcher.

Found it!

Courtesy of USA Today, the topic was baseball head cases.

DAVE ENGLE: A .305 hitter as a 26-year-old for the Twins in 1983 and an AL All-Star the following season, Engle came up as an outfielder but was converted to a catcher.
His troubles appear to have begun during batting practice one day when one of his throws glanced off the top of the protective screen and broke his pitcher's nose. Engle began lobbing his throws with a pronounced arc.
Engle was embarrassed by a runner (Alfredo Griffin) stealing a base on one of his tosses back to the mound. He remained in the majors from 1985-89 but caught just 38 more games.

Hell yeah! I finally got something right! Alert my wife!

Govs93 wrote:Hell yeah! I finally got something right! Alert my wife!

I know what you mean Govs. Sometimes, without a rational reason, I'm right too. And like you I hitch up my skirt and tell her about it!

Houston Jimenez-average fielder, horrible hitter

Brian Harper (with the moustache) was the catcher in the late 80's early 90's. However, do any of you remember Tim Laudner? I remember him batting something like .190 during the '87 season - and the Buck 90 Club in the bleachers? Believe something like one out of every three of his hits was a home run. Too bad he wasn't a .300+ hitter.

hockeytribe wrote:Brian Harper (with the moustache) was the catcher in the late 80's early 90's. However, do any of you remember Tim Laudner? I remember him batting something like .190 during the '87 season - and the Buck 90 Club in the bleachers? Believe something like one out of every three of his hits was a home run. Too bad he wasn't a .300+ hitter.

Taking it back full circle to the theme of the board, I believe Laudner has a kid in the Wayzata hockey program. I was at a game at the PIC last season and both he and Terry Steinbach were in the crowd together. That was pretty cool to see.

Good story Govs, just shows you that MN HS hockey, Twins Baseball, and the board is a good three-some.

'87 Tim Laudner: 16 HR's in 288 AB's.
'07 Michael Cuddyer: 8 HR's in 276 AB's.
'07 Torii Hunter: 17 HR's in 286 AB's.
'07 Jason Kubel: 5 HR's in 210 AB's.
'07 Bartlett, Castillo, & Punto: 5 HR's in 768 AB's.

I'll Take Laudner's .191 average any day when you consider his instant offense capabilities. Oh, by the way, he did it in an era where 35 bombs was like 55 today.

If I remember correctly, Laudner had a very good post season at the plate for the Twins on their '87 run to the title.

I also remember that Brian Harper had said he couldn't wait to get the chance to jump into the pitchers arms after the final out of a game 7 in the World Series. TK pulled him out for the 10th inning of that '91 game.

Harper made that statement later, hard to tell if there was animosity or not. After all, it was the 10th inning.

Other old catchers I remember were Phil Roof and George Mitterwald.

Wow, I am getting old.