BLS Roundtable: Which baseball player broke your heart?

(AP Images) Love is in the air. We’re actually talking about Valentine’s Day, but we wouldn’t blame you for thinking we meant baseball.

Camps are set to open soon, and we here at The Stew can’t help getting a little nostalgic. Considering the holiday, it’s tough for us not to think about our old baseball flames.

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Anyone who has followed the game for a few years knows exactly what we’re talking about. There are certain players who you wind up loving irrationally, even though they constantly break your heart. Sometimes, it’s a former top prospect who never reaches their full potential. Other times, it’s a player you saw have a great game, but couldn’t live up to your memory.

Despite that, you never gave up on them. You always thought they would fill your heart with joy. You might admit now that your heart made the wrong choice years ago, but you certainly don’t regret it.

At one point, we’ve all had one of those players. Now that the pain is gone, our group of writers here at The Stew are ready to share their former baseball man-crushes.

TRAVIS SNIDER, TORONTO BLUE JAYS OUTFIELDER
The promise of speed and power at the plate. Unbelievable athleticism in the outfield. A flair for the dramatic, a great personality, and an insatiable appetite. How could you not fall in love with Travis Snider? As a fellow native of the Pacific Northwest, I was predisposed to having a soft spot for him.

OK, so his baseball career hasn’t panned out quite as planned after being drafted in the first round by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2006 and becoming a highly-regarded consensus top-10 prospect by 2009. Up-and-down from the Blue Jays for 4 1/2 seasons, the following 3 1/2 seasons split between the Pirates and Orioles haven’t played out much differently in terms of production.

Just last week, Snider signed a minor-league deal with the World Series champion Kansas City Royals that includes an invite to spring training. Still just 28, there’s still hope Snider can put it all together and turn into a star … Right? Anybody? Maybe it’s just me. (Israel Fehr)

RICKIE WEEKS, MILWAUKEE BREWERS SECOND BASEMAN
I love Rickie Weeks and I won’t apologize for it! My crush started during Weeks’ rookie year with the Brewers. It was the summer just before I was about to start my freshman year of college at Marquette University in Wisconsin. A few of my friends decided to drive up and see a Brewers game, since Miller Park was a relatively short drive from Chicago.

I knew Weeks was regarded as a top prospect, and one of players who, along with Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy, would eventually lead the Brewers back to relevance. During that game, Weeks didn’t disappoint. He smashed two home runs, making me an instant fan.

I appreciated his talent, sure, but I think his performance in that game took on a bigger meaning for me. Weeks was a young player who would grow and lead to Brewers to success in a few years. I thought that would make a nice parallel to my college experience. He and I would grow at a similar rate over the next four years.

[Homer History: Rob Schneider witnessed Bob Brenly’s redemption]

Even now, I can’t say I’m disappointed with Weeks’ numbers. Injuries held him back, and a low batting average made him an easy target, but he got on base a ton and had pop. We’ll always have 2010, when he stayed healthy and popped 29 home runs. Maybe he never fully lived up to expectations, but he experienced success at the highest level. That’s good enough for me. (Chris Cwik)

IAN STEWART, COLORADO ROCKIES THIRD BASEMAN
Ian Stewart broke my heart over and over again.

You know that overwhelming feeling of anticipation and excitement when your favorite team has a can’t miss prospect on the fast track? I had that feeling and then some leading up to the arrival of Ian Stewart.

A slick-fielding third baseman with enormous power, Stewart was supposed to be the Rockies future alongside Troy Tulowitzki. Then he missed, missed again, and continued missing right on out of the Rockies plans. And all the while I cried, and wept, and continued wondering what should have been.

Stewart looked the part of monster, standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 220 pounds. He was unbelievably agile for a man that size, much like Tulowitzki or a Cam Newton in the NFL world. And he put on the best batting practice show I’ve seen just short of Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn. I wanted so badly for Stewart to turn those physical gifts into a productive MLB career. Even on the day the Rockies finally traded him to the Cubs, I felt like something meaningful was ending. Like he was just the flip of a switch away from stardom and we’d miss out. .

Instead, he kept missing, playing in only 79 more major league games.

Such a heartbreaker you were, Ian Stewart. (Mark Townsend)

COREY PATTERSON, CHICAGO CUBS OUTFIELDER
I’m over it now, so I can finally admit I once had a major man crush on Corey Patterson. For about five years in the late 1990s and early 2000s I was convinced the Chicago Cubs’ first-round draft pick in the 1998 draft (third overall) was going to be the second coming of Billy Williams and help the Cubs finally end their World Series drought.

I know I wasn’t alone.

Patterson wasn’t a total bust. He played all or part of 12 seasons in the major leagues, but he certainly never developed into the type of player you would expect to get with the third overall pick and the kind of player the Cubs franchise desperately needed him to be. After all, this was a guy who was rated among the top 16 prospects in all of baseball by Baseball America for three straight years, including two top-five rankings in 2000 and 2001. That is the baseball equivalent of a super model. Big expectations are going to come with that just like the five-star college football or basketball recruit.

[Elsewhere: Tim Flannery is not happy with Padres fans]

Patterson never came close to meeting those expectations and fell well short of leading the lovable losers to a world series. According to baseball-reference.com, he never even played in the postseason, never hit .300 in a season and had 500 or more at-bats in a season just twice.

He put together five serviceable seasons for the Cubs and Baltimore from 2002 to 2006, but for Cubs fans it was kind of like finding out your Lamborghini was really a Ford Taurus. (Kyle Ringo)

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