Player of the Week: Week 3 April 25th, 2006 at 7:00 am

By Kris Richardson

This past week was similar to week one – a record of 1-5 and not many good things to talk about. Let’s jump right into the discussion of the players this week and cross our fingers that next week goes a lot better.

Honorable Mention

Joe Mauer got 7 hits in 21 at bats and hit his first HR of the season on Sunday against the White Sox. 6 of his hits came in the big White Sox series, but unfortunately he didn’t get much help from his teammates
Johan Santana had his best start of the season, going 7 innings and giving up only a 2-run homer to Jim Thome. Sadly, the Twins offense couldn’t get him enough runs and the shaky bullpen quickly put the game out of reach in the 8th.
Rondell White’s season batting average is still an ugly .149, but he’s starting to come out of his funk. He picked up 6 hits last week, tying Batista and Castillo for the 2nd most. Look for him to make a difference in some of the games this week.
Luis Castillo was great, in the Series against the Angels. He got 6 in 11 at bats and also walked 3 times. Simply put, he was an on-base machine. However, he got hurt in Thursday’s game and missed the entire White Sox series which put a huge damper on the Twins’s offense there.

Player of the Week: Michael Cuddyer

Cuddyer Ok, Cuddyer did only have 9 at bats the entire week, and he did only get two hits, but one of his hits made quite a difference. Cuddyer hit Wednesday’s 9th inning walk-off homer in a pinch hit appearance. When a guy is responsible for his team’s only win of the week, I give him player of the week honors.