Ode to the bad player

[OldXOhio]

Originally Posted by M2

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.

That '85 Royals team had several Hall of Castro candidates: Biancalana, Onix Concepcion....and despite his slugging numbers in the mid-80s, I never really ever got Steve Balboni.

[M2]

Originally Posted by OldXOhio

That '85 Royals team had several Hall of Castro candidates: Biancalana, Onix Concepcion....and despite his slugging numbers in the mid-80s, I never really ever got Steve Balboni.

Good points. Balboni was awful, a true shut your eyes and swing hard player if ever there was one.

Another guy who wasn't worth the power he brought to the table was Jim Presley. In fact, I suspect we could blow this thread well past 10,000 posts if we concentrated on members of the 70s and 80s Mariners teams.

[cumberlandreds]

Originally Posted by M2

Good points. Balboni was awful, a true shut your eyes and swing hard player if ever there was one.

Another guy who wasn't worth the power he brought to the table was Jim Presley. In fact, I suspect we could blow this thread well past 10,000 posts if we concentrated on members of the 70s and 80s Mariners teams.

All of those expansion teams of the 60's and 70's had numerous horrible players. Choo Choo Coleman of the 62 Mets is one that comes to mind. In fact, almost everyone on that 62 Mets team could make this thread with the exception of Richie Ashburn and a couple of others.

[traderumor]

Originally Posted by westofyou

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

That list of chumps continued to be bad hitters. Oyler was gone after '69. Wert must have been one heck of a glove because they kept him around despite being a chronically bad hitter.

[_Sir_Charles_]

Originally Posted by Always Red

ok, not bad players, but did not fulfill their potential.

Sorry, I misread the OP!

Ah, gotcha. Okay, I agree with that list with THOSE qualifications. I'd add Nick Esasky if we're going with those rules.

[RedsManRick]

While in retrospect he wasn't THAT bad, 8 year old me couldn't for the life of me figure out why Scott Scudder was allowed on a major league mound.

Otherwise, I might go with Neifi Perez (since when did being merely poor at everything and not sucking horribly at anything mean you were a decent player?). Though the worst hitter I've ever seen was Aaron Harang. He looked like a regular Joe was pulled from the stands.

[Rojo]

Originally Posted by OldXOhio

..and despite his slugging numbers in the mid-80s, I never really ever got Steve Balboni.

Bye-bye? Only led the Royals to their only Championship. That's all.

[dabvu2498]

Originally Posted by M2

In fact, I suspect we could blow this thread well past 10,000 posts if we concentrated on members of the 70s and 80s Mariners teams.

Early 90s Mariners had one Jeff Schaefer, who tallied a career .203/.228/.259 in 5 seasons.

[DGullett35]

Originally Posted by Plus Plus

The worst player that I ever remember watching play has to be Reds edition Mike Stanton.

What a batting tee.

He redeemed himself though. He was extremely good out of the pen for the '96-'00 Yankees

[camisadelgolf]

Originally Posted by RedsManRick

While in retrospect he wasn't THAT bad, 8 year old me couldn't for the life of me figure out why Scott Scudder was allowed on a major league mound.

Otherwise, I might go with Neifi Perez (since when did being merely poor at everything and not sucking horribly at anything mean you were a decent player?). Though the worst hitter I've ever seen was Aaron Harang. He looked like a regular Joe was pulled from the stands.

I was in shock the day Harang hit a home run. I still have trouble believing it.

[CySeymour]

Originally Posted by M2

Good points. Balboni was awful, a true shut your eyes and swing hard player if ever there was one.

Another guy who wasn't worth the power he brought to the table was Jim Presley. In fact, I suspect we could blow this thread well past 10,000 posts if we concentrated on members of the 70s and 80s Mariners teams.

Presley was passable for a couple of seasons. According to Fangraphs, he had a 3.3 war and 2.9 WAS his first two seasons. But then the wheels fell off. He was also the reason the Mariners waited so long to bring up their promising young third baseman....Edgar Martinez.

[redsmetz]

Originally Posted by MikeThierry

Fans everywhere often talk about great players however we rarely talk about the players that leave you scratching your head. I would like to know, who is the worst player you have ever seen? I'm not talking about a frustrating player that has loads of talent but isn't living up to it. I'm talking about the players that you wonder why they're up at the major league level to begin with. The kind of player where not only you laugh at how bad they are but you kind of feel sorry for him.

I guess I remain puzzled by many of the answers folks given when you look at what Mike first suggested (bolded here - and I think someone else did as well). Many of the players mentioned, in my opinion, really don't meet this criteria, although a few have.

I first questioned it with regards to Denis Menke and others put forward questions about some others. The blog about the worst players ever was interesting, although I think it fell short in some cases since, it seemed to me, it was looking at one particular statistic (WARP). No question some named there (Doug Flynn and Jesus Alou are two that come to mind from that article) and yet, each had some moments where a case could be made for them having been on a major league roster.

Even a Brandon Larson, I understand how he ended up on a major league roster (and he really didn't collect a full season of games) even though his career fell far short for what had been expected of him - and his minor league numbers hinted at. History is replete with guys that didn't translate at the major league level.

Some named, for the most part, were quickly relegated to bench players with limited playing time. And absolutely, one must wonder how they ever saw the light of day as a player. I often wonder about Ed Armbrister, although it's always interesting to me to see the AAA seasons he put up before joining the Reds during the few years he was there. There are a huge number of players who played some role or another filling out some roster or another - maybe even merely being in the right place at the right time.

Perhaps the keenest observation was the comment that everyone of these players at some point in their life were among the best players from where they came from and each of them played major league baseball when so many others didn't.

It's an interesting question, but I don't think we've scratched the service of actually naming any but a small handful of players that meet the limitation in the original post. Of course, that's just my humble opinion.

[Raisor]

Jimmy Prestley is the reason Edgar won't make the Hall

[WMR]

Gary Majewski...

[CarolinaRedleg]

Originally Posted by WMR

Gary Majewski...

That it took seven pages for Gas Can Gary to make this list is a testament to something...either there have been several crummy players or we Reds fans have wiped him from memory.