42 thoughts on “The 25 worst seasons for a batter/defender”

1. Hartvig February 2, 2012 at 9:50 am

   Of course Bob Uecker is on the list.

   Pat Rockett was completely new to me. Not a name you’re likely to forget.

   Tuck Stainback was a bit of a surprise. I had heard of him but was only vaguely familiar- journeyman, outfielder, once played for Detroit- but looking closer just how do you fashion a 13-year major league career with 2 plus offensive seasons (0.2 oWAR in ’34 and 0.5 in ’38) and 1 plus defensive season (0.1 in 1940)? I suppose the war might account for a few of those years but otherwise he seems like the luckiest AAAA caliber player I can think of.

   And then there’s George Wright back for some more abuse from us. Hard to believe he got MVP votes just 2 seasons prior.

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2. Dr. Doom February 2, 2012 at 10:13 am

   Speaking of that George Wright season, I’m really used to seeing it in a pair with Jerry Royster’s 1977. Not seeing Royster’s infamous -32 RBat and -25 RField season was a pretty big shock to me, though I guess he did have 491 PAs. Really, what’s more shocking is that Royster parlayed that “success” into 11 more years in the majors as basically a replacement-level player (4.5 WAR the rest of the way); perhaps more shocking is that he later became a HITTING COACH, which led to one of the longest (if not THE longest) interim-managing stints of all-time (147 miserable games for the Brew Crew in 2002). However, he was extremely generous with his time for kids, and very friendly to fans in his couple years of employment with the Brewers. Not much of a player, coach, or manager, though, I’m sorry to say.

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   1. Frank Clingenpeel February 2, 2012 at 1:31 pm

      I keep forgetting about that George Wright; in fact, I have been trying to forget his “contributions” for three and a half decades now.

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3. Ed February 2, 2012 at 10:13 am

   I mentioned this yesterday in the “Hawpe comments” but Giles player page shows his 2009 season as -4.1 WAR. Any idea why the play index shows it as -3.9?

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   1. Richard Chester February 2, 2012 at 10:21 am

      @3
      Ed: The best thing to do is to go to baseball-reference and report it via feedback to Neil or Sean. I found a similar error a couple of weeks ago. Neil said they would look into it but he has not gotten back to me yet.

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   2. Andy Post authorFebruary 2, 2012 at 10:48 am

      There are a lot of such discrepancies between WAR listed on player pages and what comes up in the PI. I don’t know why but I suspect its an additive-rounding thing.

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      1. Richard Chester February 2, 2012 at 10:51 am

         The error that I found has nothing to do with additive-rounding.

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   3. John Autin February 2, 2012 at 1:58 pm

      Ed, I think that particular error is specific to 2009, though I don’t know why.

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4. Richard Chester February 2, 2012 at 10:23 am

   Tommy Brown is the youngest player to hit a home run.

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   1. Richard Chester February 2, 2012 at 1:53 pm

      And also the youngest to steal home.

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   2. Doug February 2, 2012 at 2:31 pm

      Tommy Brown started with the Dodgers as a 16 year-old in 1944. He was one of 8 teenagers on the Dodgers that year, including such recognizable names as Ralph Branca, Cal McLish and Gene Mauch. Brown was the youngest of this bunch and played the most, getting 160 PAs in 46 games.

      Those Dodgers also had 6 other players aged 20 or 21 including Howie Schutlz, their starting first-baseman. They got four teenagers into their game with the Phillies on June 18th, and had a starting infield against the Reds on Sep 28 with a combined age less than 85 years, including Schultz at 1B, Brown at SS and 17 year-old Eddie Miksis at 3B (28 year-old Eddie Stanky at 2B was the “old-timer” of that group). I guess if you’re going on a youth kick, you might as well go all the way.

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      1. Doug February 2, 2012 at 3:28 pm

         The Dodgers actually used that same, ultra-young, starting infield 11 times coming down the stretch in 1944.

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5. Steven February 2, 2012 at 10:31 am

   I saw Bob Uecker’s final home run. July 23, 1967 at Busch Stadium. Over the wagon gate in left field. One of the thirty or forty greatest moments that afternoon in Major League Baseball.

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   1. Hartvig February 2, 2012 at 10:51 am

      Perfect. Uecker. Comment.

      We do need to get the “liked” button back.

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      1. Kahuna Tuna February 2, 2012 at 11:51 am

         I’ll second that, and not only for the occasional quip. Some of the comments here are very insightful and reflect very good, very thoughtful statistical work. I’d like to be able to express appreciation even if I don’t have anything else to add via a separate post.

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         1. Andy Post authorFebruary 2, 2012 at 12:36 pm

            Ask and ye shall receive. I have installed a ‘like’ button although it doesn’t include a total cumulative count on ‘likes’ for each author–couldn’t find a plugin for that.

            Still, though, I expect everybody to ‘like’ this comment right now! Try finding another blog where the admin listens to feedback so quickly.

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6. Steven February 2, 2012 at 10:37 am

   Mike Shannon’s season in 1970 was abbreviated due to a kidney ailment that nearly cost him his life. He missed a lot of games in the first half of the season, tried to play, but just didn’t have it anymore and retired at the end of the year.

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7. Andy Post authorFebruary 2, 2012 at 10:48 am

   I am loving the formatting on this new blog.

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   1. Frank Clingenpeel February 2, 2012 at 1:28 pm

      You can add my vote to your approval. MUCH easier to navigate!

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   2. BryanM February 2, 2012 at 3:28 pm

      Me, too! As I understand it, WAR includes base running contributions as well — are any atrocious base runners in the list/ I gotta believe that Uecker’s r bat + r field seriously understate his suckitude; he ran like a man trying to catch a bus to his own funeral.

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8. Paul E February 2, 2012 at 11:03 am

   How about Paul Blair? Horrible hitting at the tail end of his career but still a decent defender. I believe Blair was another one of those guys who got hit in the noggin’ and just never recovered psychologically and always had a timid “bucket-foot” approach at the plate

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9. Chris A. February 2, 2012 at 12:11 pm

   I have always loved the name Quenton McCracken. Too bad he was a forgettable ballplayer.

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10. Ed February 2, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    Just noticed that Tommy Brown was only 16 when he had his season of “suckitude”. So I guess he deserves a mulligan. Not sure what his story is – can’t seem to find a Wikipedia page on him – but he was obviously a wartime signing.

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    1. John Autin February 2, 2012 at 1:19 pm

       Ed, did you read Tommy Brown’s “Bullpen” page?
       http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Tommy%20Brown

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       1. Ed February 2, 2012 at 1:54 pm

          Thanks! Surprised that Wikipedia doesn’t have a page on him though I may have overlooked it.

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11. John Autin February 2, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    That Luis Pujols ’78 season is seared into my brain in the form of his Strat-O-Matic card — the worst I can recall for a semi-regular player.

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    1. Kahuna Tuna February 2, 2012 at 1:30 pm

       Two of the twenty worst OPS+ seasons for position players with 150 or more plate appearances have occurred in the past four years: Brandon Wood, Angels, 2010, OPS+ of 6; Tony Peña, Royals, 2008, OPS+ of 7.

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    2. DaveR February 3, 2012 at 12:47 am

       My buddy and I were discussing the players one day back then, and I mentioned he wouldn’t make the Hall because of his name.

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12. Frank Clingenpeel February 2, 2012 at 1:27 pm

    Is it just my PMS {that’s “pre-mature senility} kicking into play here, or is there some significance in the fact that there is not a single representative from a first year expansion team on this list?

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    1. Paul E February 2, 2012 at 1:33 pm

       FCP:
       The advantage of an expansion team lies in the fact no one expects them to contend…in the event your drafted player stinks, you replace him after 200 PA or 60 games with another soon-to-be part-time player who never accumulates enough time, either, to be truly atrocious?

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       1. John Autin February 2, 2012 at 1:35 pm

          Paul E — I was in the process of writing up the same concept, when I double-checked the list above and noticed that most of them don’t have more than 200 PAs, either. So I don’t think that’s the explanation.

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    2. John Autin February 2, 2012 at 1:51 pm

       Frank, it may just be a coincidence based on the threshold Andy set of minus-0.01 WAR per PA. Here are some expansion players who came close to that standard:
       — 1969, Ron Clark, Seattle Pilots, -1.8 WAR in 188 PA.
       — 1977, Dave McKay, Toronto, -2.1 WAR in 298 PAs.
       — 1977, Pedro Garcia, Toronto, -1.1 WAR in 141 PAs.
       — 1998, Brent Brede, Arizona, -1.8 WAR in 238 PAs.

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13. Ed February 2, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    I would say it’s two things. Expansion seasons represent a very small percentage of the total number of baseball seasons. So the chances that an expansion team having one of the 25 worst players is quite small. Second, there are plenty of expansion teams that haven’t had the worst record for their particular season. So while the ’62 Mets were horrible, that’s not true of all expansion teams.

    Speaking of the ’62 Mets, I’m not sure why Gus Bell isn’t on the list above. He had a -1.6 WAR in only 115 plate appearances. Both Marv Rickert and Ron Hansen are on the list with the same WAR and more PAs.

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    1. John Autin February 2, 2012 at 2:01 pm

       Ed, those Gus Bell numbers are just for his time with the Mets. He was also with the Braves in ’62 and hit well, so his total for the year was -1.0 WAR in 343 PAs.

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       1. Kahuna Tuna February 2, 2012 at 2:12 pm

          I’ve e-mailed B-Ref several times asking them to put some kind of indicator on the team-season pages when a player has played for another big-league team during that season. I’m sure it’s a lot of work, but I’ve never heard back from them that they’re considering doing it. IMO it’s a major weakness of the site.

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          1. Ed February 2, 2012 at 2:44 pm

             Yeah, I agree. I’m pretty good at noticing those things on the player page, but it’s impossible to see on the team page.

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14. John Autin February 2, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    It occurs to me that the rate of -1 WAR per 100 PAs is so bad as to be virtually unsustainable for a full season. Either by regression to the mean (Bill Bergen never had such a season, and the worst WAR by a batting-title qualifier was -3.8), or by loss of opportunity (a team would pull the plug before year’s end), it’s very hard to end up with a full season anywhere near that negative rate.

    Jerry Royster (1977) and George Wright (on the list) are tied for the worst season bWAR at -4.0. Royster had 491 PAs, so -0.81 WAR per 100 PAs.

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    1. Andy Post authorFebruary 2, 2012 at 2:21 pm

       JA that’s a good point. It occurred to me while writing the post that this is sort of a list of good decisions by teams and/or players–in other words to stop something when it’s really poor. I don’t recall if it was the Padres or Giles who pulled the plug in his final season, but it was clearly the right thing to do. Even though Giles would likely have regressed toward the mean for the rest of the year (following your point), his numbers were going to be bad.

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       1. Luis Gomez February 2, 2012 at 2:50 pm

          He was injured most of the time, so most Padres fans were glad he wasn’t in the lineup. Raised a lot of questions (mostly from angry fans) when the year before the Padres management exercised their option and kept him another year.

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15. Darien February 2, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    Excellent “random observations” on this one.

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16. Dr. Remulak February 3, 2012 at 7:17 am

    Great defender Paul Blair must have lost a couple steps by age 35 to put up a 0 in dWAR.

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17. Steven Page February 3, 2012 at 4:57 pm

    I saw most of Pat Rockett’s season in Atlanta. He came up as a “can’t miss”, but just seemed overwhelmed at the plate and in the field. He eventually was replaced by journeyman Darrell Chaney, to the great relief of the Atlanta faithful (all 1200 of us at the time).

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