Antonio Alfonseca: Has a tiny, extra pinky finger at the end of each hand. I've only seen them a couple of times, but they look like they're always curled up.
Moises Alou: Moises has what I call a "statue stance". There's no movement. He just waits for the pitch and usually kills it. He doesn't look as stiff as Belle, but his knees are bent inward, which looks a tad odd. He also confessed once that he pees on his hands in the shower to keep them rough(!).
Jeff Bagwell: Ugly stance. Crouches down with his legs spread really far apart. He swings the bat around in a circle once or twice until he's ready to swing.
Tony Batista: Tony stands, one foot in the batting box, facing the pitcher as if about to speak to him. He also sort of wobbles his bat a bit. When the pitcher begins his wind-up, Tony swings his front foot into the box and bats with a pretty open stance.
Albert Belle: Looked mean as hell. He stood there, arms back, the perfect picture of a great batting stance. He was as still as a statue.
Barry Bonds: Nothing too odd. He wears a huge piece of armor on his right elbow. He rarely steps out of the box, taking less time between pitches than most players.
Jeremy Burnitz: Makes more one-handed swings than anyone in the game.
Bret Boone: Bret flips the bat to himself any time he swings and misses or lets a good pitch go by. When he disagrees with a call he holds the bat up with his left hand and knocks it with his right palm.
Jason Capuano: Best pickoff move in the game. As of game 83 for the Crew in 2005, he has 9 pickoff attempts and one of the most bogus balk calls I've ever seen.
Sean Casey: Casey is known as being the most talkative guy in the Majors. He'll start talking to the opposing first baseman even as he's still making his turn on a single.
Luis Castillo: Once, when Castillo had a long hitting streak and people kept asking him about Joe DiMaggio, he confessed that he didn't know who Joe DiMaggio was.
Brady Clark: Brady sits in a big crouch and stands close to the plate. Kind of looks like Alfonso Soriano's stance (or Bernie William's). Hits a lot of pop ups. Chokes up.
Craig Counsell: Ugliest batting stance ever. Stands straight up with the bat raised over his head. His torso is kind of twisted behind him, and he looks over his right shoulder for the pitch. Has a weak arm at short but throws well enough. Looks a lot better than Eckstein in his throws. Like a few others, Counsell doesn't wear batting gloves.
David Eckstein: Prowls the on-deck circle loosening up like a hungry lion. Only non-pitcher I can think of (though Pierre might, too) that chokes up every time up. When he makes a throw from short, he really has to get his whole body into the throw.
Rafael Furcal: My favorite shortstop to watch. His arm is unbelievable. Best in the game. He makes it look so damned easy.
Nomar Garciaparra: Has a very famous routine that any Boston fan knows by heart. He steps out of the box after each pitch, adjusts both batting gloves, steps in, and as he takes little warmup swings he rocks back and forth, lifting front foot, then back foot twice and kicks his toes in the dirt. I sometimes find myself doing it in softball.
Marcus Giles: A short guy (5'8"), he has a severe corkscrew to his swing, where his whole body spins with his bat. This enables him to get good power on the ball despite his small frame. He looks kind of like a cartoon character with his dark eyebrows and big lump of dip in his cheek.
Ken Griffey, Jr.: Stands straight up but wiggles. His hips and his bat both do a mini-hula dance up there as he waits for the pitch.
Marquis Grissom: His bat has a taped up knob and he holds the bat almost against his back as he waits for the pitch.
Vladimir Guerrero: Vlad is one of very few players that don't wear batting gloves.
Jeffrey Hammonds: Looks like a handsome Arsenio Hall - pencil-thin mustache, narrow eyes.
Geoff Jenkins: Always has a big wad of tobacco in his cheek. Has a very high leg kick. Can't hit and rarely lays off low, inside breaking stuff.
Derek Jeter: Poor defender who has a halo effect around him. Stands straight up at the plate and holds the bat very high. Almost never drives an inside pitch to left field, always tries to inside-out it. Another thing Jeter does is something a lot of softball players do. When he has decided not to swing at an outside pitch, he leans way over to watch it hit the catcher's mitt, almost as if he's Uri Gellering it to go outside.
Randy Johnson: Despite losing his mullet, the Big Unit is probably the ugliest guy in the majors: 6'10" of pure, stick-figure ugly-ness.
Jeff Kent: Jeff stands very far from the plate, which is quite odd in today's plate-hogging era. When he swings for a pitch, he always strides both towards the pitcher AND the plate. Sometimes, though, he gets caught a bit flat-footed and swings and misses a fastball on the outside corner.
Carlos Lee: Non-stop talker in the dugout. As he waits his turn to bat, you see him just yakking away to Ned Yost, who offers two words every three minutes. When he gets to the plate, though, he's quiet as a mouse and really focused. As soon as he gets on base, though, he's talking to Davey Nelson like crazy.
Mark McGwire: Mark stood very still but when he swung the bat you could almost feel the breeze through the television. Unbelievable bat speed. Threw the bat aside as he watched each home run leave his ashen thunderstick.
Doug Mientkewicz: Doug doesn't use batting gloves (like Vlad and Counsell and Posada), and is well-known for blowing bubbles on the diamond with his gum. In fact, the Twins had a bobblehead day in his honor with the figure blowing a gum bubble.
Mike Mussina: When there's a runner on first and he wants to look at him, Mike bends way over forward and keeps his eye on the guy, then either throws to first or pitches. It's really odd, and sometimes he takes forever to straighten up.
John Olerud: Olerud is the only guy I know of who wears a batting helmet on the field.
David Ortíz: Big guy who always spits into his right batting glove and rubs his hands together before gripping his bat. One of the most friendly guys in baseball. Saw him one time, while Johnny Damon was giving an interview, come up behind Johnny and give him a big, happy bear hug.
Lyle Overbay: Keeps a journal of every plate appearance he's ever had. Also, between pitches, he frequently takes off his helmet and wipes his head with the insides of his arms (right, then left) as he holds the helmet in both hands, bat between his legs. Has an open stance he closes slightly with the pitch.
Scott Podsednik: Not really an odd player, he always has a wad of tobacco in his mouth that faces the pitcher and he stands pretty still. I just wanted to mention that in his breakout season (2003), Uecker and Powell, the radio commentators, were trying to come up with a nickname for him. They thought of "Pea Pod" (Uecker) and "Podzilla" (Powell by way of an emailer) before they learned that the "d" was silent. Uecker, as always, was great, deciding to call Scott "Pea Pod" the rest of the game. "What the heck, I'll say it." Soon enough, calls such as "Can of corn to Pea Pod" were emanating from the radio. Eventually (by 2004, anyway), it was decided to call him "Scotty Po."
Jorgé Posada: Posada doens't use batting gloves.
Albert Pujols: Albert has played good defense at every position he's played = 3rd base, outfield, and first. Yet the "experts" kept saying his defense was a liability. Let my record claim this was incorrect. I also should mention that as he is in his 4th straight unbelievable season, no one believes he is still only 24.
Manny Ramírez: One of my all time favorite players. Usually wears dreadlocks and has a big wad of tobacco in his mouth. Has this long powerful swing that looks nonchalant as hell. He's also a generally indifferent outfielder to whom odd things happen. Sometimes he'll try really hard and succeed, and others he'll make a big show of trying and mess up. Most of the time, though, he looks like he's just kind of killing time out there. One of my favorite things about him is that angered Red Sox management in 2003, and they tried to waive him and then suspended him for hanging out at a bar during a game. He was criticized by the Boston press but never responded. One Boston writer said, "Manny probably doesn't even know they're talking about him." He didn't. Never said a word, then came back in 2004 to win the World Series MVP.
Édgar Rentería: Pumps his bat in a lesser Gary Sheffield manner.
Alex Rodríguez: Perfection personified of a right-handed batter. This fact may be forgotten in time, but he admitted in June of 2005 that he had begun seeing a therapist with his wife. If only other athletes would do this, we'd have a lot more happy players.
Kirk Rueter: Has one of the lowest strikeout rates of any long-standing pitcher since Burdette and looks like the character from Toy Story - hence his nickname "Woody".
Ben Sheets: Ben does something as he looks in to get his pitch I've never seen a pitcher do - he bends his back backwards as if to loosen it up before every pitch. (Note: he did this because he had a bad back in 2004. In 2005 he doesn't do it so much.) Loves to take the pitch and zing it in there.
Gary Sheffield: Holds the bat and tilts it forward and backward. It's the most visually distracting batting habit in the game. Also has a corkscrew effect to his swing, as his whole body gets into the motion of swinging.
Alfonso Soriano: Has a stance very similar to Bernie Williams', but with a much fuller swing.
Sammy Sosa: Looks very similar to Albert Belle at the plate (another "statue stance"), only Sammy hunches down a little more. After he was beaned in early 2003, he stood a little further from the plate. When Sammy hits a ball he thinks is gone, he does a heel-clicking hop (without the heel-click). If it goes out, he goes to the dugout, looks at the camera and does his routine of touching his heart and blowing kisses with two fingers.
Ichiro Suzuki: First of all, Ichiro swings off his front foot a lot. Second, he has this routine he does in which he holds the bat straight towards the pitcher and touches his shoulder with his left hand before assuming his stance.
Jim Thome: Holds bat towards pitcher (not as high as Suzuki does) and waits however long he must for the pitcher to get into his stance before bringing his bat into position. Also, when he swings (hard!) and misses a pitch, he brings the bat back behind him almost as quickly as he swung the bat forward. It's like he's saying "I didn't swing. No I didn't."
Rickie Weeks: An exact copy of the Gary Sheffield stance.
Bob Wickman: One-time Brewer closer is missing the tip of his middle finger, which helps make his breaking stuff a little harder to hit but his fastball a bit slower.
Bernie Williams: Bernie has a pretty good crouch to his stance, sort of like Bagwell but not with the wide leg spread and not so pronounced. He looks kind of funny when he runs at full speed. Not sure why.