The 25 worst seasons for a batter/defender

Brian Giles batting about 2 weeks before the end of his playing career / Icon SMI

Yesterday we saw that Brian Giles had one of the very worst seasons as a defender of all time. That 2009 season of his, though, is not quite the worst overall for a batter who also played defense.

Rk Player PA Rbat Rfield WAR/pos Year Age Tm G BA OPS Pos
1 George Wright 393 -37 -5 -4.0 1985 26 TEX 109 .190 .483 *98/D
2 Brian Giles 253 -15 -26 -3.9 2009 38 SDP 61 .191 .548 *9
3 Vic Harris 235 -14 -16 -2.4 1974 24 CHC 62 .195 .549 *4
4 Quinton McCracken 226 -19 -8 -2.3 2003 32 ARI 115 .227 .547 987/D
5 Bob Uecker 221 -17 -16 -2.5 1967 32 TOT 80 .150 .461 *2
6 Frank O’Rourke 216 -32 -5 -2.9 1912 18 BSN 61 .122 .325 *6/5
7 Tuck Stainback 211 -16 -8 -2.2 1941 29 DET 94 .245 .585 79/8
8 Doug Strange 201 -24 -1 -2.3 1998 34 PIT 90 .173 .433 5/43
9 Dud Lee 201 -25 -8 -2.2 1921 21 SLB 73 .167 .446 64/5
10 John Black 201 -23 -3 -2.2 1911 21 SLB 54 .151 .374 *3
11 Mike Shannon 193 -13 -14 -2.1 1970 30 STL 55 .213 .562 *5
12 Bob Lillis 178 -11 -12 -2.0 1966 36 HOU 68 .232 .528 *46/5
13 Luis Pujols 169 -17 -9 -1.9 1978 22 HOU 56 .131 .413 *2/3
14 Darnell Coles 165 -14 -8 -1.9 1984 22 SEA 48 .161 .455 *5/D7
15 Dave Rosello 161 -13 -13 -2.2 1974 24 CHC 62 .203 .502 *46
16 Paul Blair 160 -18 0 -1.7 1979 35 TOT 77 .152 .443 *87/9
17 Tommy Brown 160 -17 -10 -1.9 1944 16 BRO 46 .164 .400 *6
18 Billy Smith 159 -8 -12 -1.7 1975 21 CAL 59 .203 .515 *6/3D5
19 Ron Hansen 159 -10 -8 -1.6 1971 33 NYY 61 .207 .514 *5/46
20 Pat Rockett 157 -18 -14 -2.7 1978 23 ATL 55 .141 .366 *6
21 Marv Rickert 154 -17 -1 -1.6 1947 26 CHC 71 .146 .420 7/938
22 Jackie Gutierrez 152 -17 -7 -1.8 1986 26 BAL 61 .186 .414 *4/5D
23 Andy Anderson 152 -20 -6 -1.9 1949 26 SLB 71 .125 .376 *6/45
24 Luis Lopez 151 -15 -12 -2.1 1996 25 SDP 63 .180 .478 *64/5
25 Tony Martinez 151 -17 -5 -1.8 1963 23 CLE 43 .156 .368 *6
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/1/2012.

These players, ranked by plate appearances, all had negative WAR at least -0.01 * PA In other words, they all generated about one win below replacement level per 100 plate appearances.

I included their runs from batting and from fielding so we could get a sense of where the negative contributions were. The only non-negative number on the list is Paul Blair’s fielding runs at zero.

Some random observations:

  • #9 Dud Lee–well with a name like that, duh–of course he’s on the list
  • #20-21 Rockett and Rickert
  • #23-24 consecutive alliterations
  • #13 Pujols is on the list. (OK, not that Pujols.)
  • I’d never heard of #17 Tommy Brown. He was done in the majors at age 25, but that was already his ninth season!
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Hartvig
Hartvig
12 years ago

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… Read more »

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
12 years ago

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… Read more »

Frank Clingenpeel
Frank Clingenpeel
12 years ago
Reply to  Dr. Doom

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

Ed
Ed
12 years ago

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?

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
12 years ago
Reply to  Ed

@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.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
12 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago
Reply to  Ed

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

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
12 years ago

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

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
12 years ago

And also the youngest to steal home.

Doug
Doug
12 years ago

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… Read more »

Doug
Doug
12 years ago
Reply to  Doug

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

Steven
Steven
12 years ago

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.

Hartvig
Hartvig
12 years ago
Reply to  Steven

Perfect. Uecker. Comment.

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

Kahuna Tuna
Kahuna Tuna
12 years ago
Reply to  Hartvig

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.

Steven
Steven
12 years ago

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.

Frank Clingenpeel
Frank Clingenpeel
12 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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

BryanM
BryanM
12 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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.

Paul E
Paul E
12 years ago

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

Chris A.
Chris A.
12 years ago

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

Ed
Ed
12 years ago

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.

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago
Reply to  Ed

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

Ed
Ed
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

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

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago

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.

Kahuna Tuna
Kahuna Tuna
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

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.

DaveR
DaveR
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

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.

Frank Clingenpeel
Frank Clingenpeel
12 years ago

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?

Paul E
Paul E
12 years ago

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?

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago
Reply to  Paul E

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.

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago

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.

Ed
Ed
12 years ago

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… Read more »

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago
Reply to  Ed

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.

Kahuna Tuna
Kahuna Tuna
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

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.

Ed
Ed
12 years ago
Reply to  Kahuna Tuna

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.

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago

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… Read more »

Luis Gomez
Luis Gomez
12 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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.

Darien
12 years ago

Excellent “random observations” on this one.

Dr. Remulak
Dr. Remulak
12 years ago

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

Steven Page
Steven Page
12 years ago

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).