Ode to the bad player

[Edd Roush]

Originally Posted by jojo

He was a plus defender though. Useful.

I'll see our Castro and raise you Johnnie LeMaster.

Wow LeMaster had a -5.4 career fWAR. That is pretty bad. I wonder who had the lowest career fWAR. I tried doing a search on fangraphs, but could only get the top career fWAR, and not the bottom.

[*BaseClogger*]

Anybody else remember those four starts Joe Mays made for us in 2006? He had the worst stuff of any starting pitcher I can remember with the Reds and that's saying something...

[LegallyMinded]

Originally Posted by Edd Roush

Wow LeMaster had a -5.4 career fWAR. That is pretty bad. I wonder who had the lowest career fWAR. I tried doing a search on fangraphs, but could only get the top career fWAR, and not the bottom.

Looks like Bill Bergen, who played for our very own Cincinnati Reds for three years before signing on with the "Superbas." Given his performance, perhaps the name "Superbad" would have been more appropriate.

[MikeThierry]

haha love the names here. I didn't think this thread would take off like this. Keep the names coming!


One name I would like to throw in there is Tony LaRussa. Sure, he's arguably the best, if not the most Machiavellian managers of all time. That said he was a horrible, horrible major league player. He had a lifetime .199 BA and a lifetime OPS+ of 53. The advanced stats shows he's a minus fielder and was a career -.3 WAR.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by MikeThierry

haha love the names here. I didn't think this thread would take off like this. Keep the names coming!


One name I would like to throw in there is Tony LaRussa. Sure, he's arguably the best, if not the most Machiavellian managers of all time. That said he was a horrible, horrible major league player. He had a lifetime .199 BA and a lifetime OPS+ of 53. The advanced stats shows he's a minus fielder and was a career -.3 WAR.

Got in the game at 18 though, so there must have been something there, albeit brief

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by LegallyMinded

Looks like Bill Bergen, who played for our very own Cincinnati Reds for three years before signing on with the "Superbas." Given his performance, perhaps the name "Superbad" would have been more appropriate.

Deadball catchers were horrible batsmen, pretty much across the board, I'd like to have seen how Bergen played the field as that must have weighted some of his value if not all of it.

[George Anderson]

Originally Posted by westofyou

Got in the game at 18 though, so there must have been something there, albeit brief

Probally his pleasant personality.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by George Anderson

Probally his pleasant personality.

Or hair

[blumj]

I'll add Cesar Crespo to the list, okay, only -1.3 fWAR, but he managed that in only 132 MLB games with less than 300 PAs/1000 innings over 3 seasons. Just your classic no-hit no glove utility player with stone hands and poor baserunning instincts.

[OldXOhio]

Rick White: he was so effective that between the years 2000 - 2007, he pitched for 12 teams. I often turned the TV off when he'd enter the game as a Red.

[RichRed]

Ray Oyler, SS for the legendary Seattle Pilots, with his career .508 OPS and OPS+ of 48. (Maybe he could really pick it though?)

[M2]

All outstandingly bad players should be inducted into something called the Hall of Castro. He was ineffectual at the plate and his only good defensive position was 2B. Darrell Chaney was a pretty terrible player. Bill Selby had little to no business on a major league roster.

I'm reluctant to throw in players like Duane Walker and Luis Quinones because they both turned out to be one-hit wonders, managing to have a season each where they were fairly effective coming off the bench. I know it's just a case of blind squirrels finding a nut, but it's still something worthwhile in a short duration career.

Wade Rowdon, much as I wanted him to succeed, was a rolling disaster. Though he never played for the Reds - Buddy Biancalana, woof.

And Todd Benzinger really is just about the worst 1B/OF who ever managed 1,000+ PAs. It's a testament to how good that 1990 Reds were that they won with him chewing up 408 PAs.

[M2]

Originally Posted by RichRed

Ray Oyler, SS for the legendary Seattle Pilots, with his career .508 OPS and OPS+ of 48. (Maybe he could really pick it though?)

His reputation, and it seems well deserved through the lens of history, is that he was an excellent defender.

Plus, after he left baseball, he changed his name to Snake and headed up the Car Acrobatic Team.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by RichRed

Ray Oyler, SS for the legendary Seattle Pilots, with his career .508 OPS and OPS+ of 48. (Maybe he could really pick it though?)

Oyler was the Tigers SS in 68, so putrid with the stick they slotted Mickey Stanley there from CF in the World Series.

How putrid was hitting in 1968?

Here's over 1200 AB's for the chapmpions

AVERAGE                         AVG      OBA      SLG      OPS     RC/G      AB     
1    Ray Oyler                  .135     .213     .186     .399     1.05      215   
2    Dick Tracewski             .156     .239     .236     .475     1.87      212   
3    Jim Price                  .174     .253     .273     .526     1.88      132   
4    Don Wert                   .200     .258     .299     .556     2.31      536   
5    Tommy Matchick             .203     .248     .286     .534     2.14      227

[Edd Roush]

Originally Posted by LegallyMinded

Looks like Bill Bergen, who played for our very own Cincinnati Reds for three years before signing on with the "Superbas." Given his performance, perhaps the name "Superbad" would have been more appropriate.

Thanks for the work. 3228 PAs of a .192 wOBA. That looks like just batting fWAR, though. The link below has the worst fWAR of the pitchers. Alan Mills sure looks pretty terrible to have pitched in 474 games.

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.asp...rs=0&sort=19,a