By Aniruddh Nambudiri

“Chris Davis (39593359520)” by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

This is the dumbest article I have ever written. Maybe the dumbest article to appear on the WSUM Sports section. I am expecting our lovely Sports Director to take one look at this article and ask me some serious questions about life in response (Editor’s note: yeah, that’s about accurate… love ya Anni). However, this is something I have thought about a lot recently.

There are a lot of players who have played in the majors. Trevor McDonald debuted on September 29^th 2024 for the Giants and became the 23370^th player to make the show and that number doesn’t even represent the history of the sport in black baseball leagues and in other countries. All this to say, I am fascinated by the players who continue getting opportunities even when they perform way below the average. There is some extra quality that keeps them around and they are never the normal answer.

A player who is not on this list but is a great example of this is Jeff Franceour. Frenchy was not a good hitter outside of his first month in the majors where he managed to hit 6 home runs in his first 15 games. Teams for his entire career held on to the first two months of his major league career for 11 years. He could barely hit, he was not fast, he couldn’t even field. Why did he stay? Frenchy had the best arm in the majors. He was estimated to have saved 53 runs in his career WITH JUST HIS ARM. Think about that: five runs a year did not score because of a right fielder’s arm. Those are the qualities I’m looking for.

So how do we find the worst players in each position? Baseball makes it very easy because of Wins Above Replacement (WAR). The statistic asks the question, what contributions do you make over a random minor leaguer who would come in and take the position you are at? A ‘replacement’ level player, if you will. It is not the only statistic that evaluates players, but it’s the most all-inclusive in my eyes. I will be using the baseball-reference version of the statistic or bWAR for two reasons. One, the tool that I will be using, Stathead, uses BBRef data and two, I believe it’s the superior version.

This will also be split into two different things, worst career and worst season. Mind you, none of these players are awful. They all made the majors and in most cases, these players played for a long time in the league. That is how there are able to accumulate so much WAR on the wrong side. This article is more to celebrate than talk down on. This list is also post-Wildcard era so since 1995.

Here we go!

Catcher

Career – Drew Butera – -4.2 bWAR

Butera was the son of Sal Butera, a catcher himself who statistically was basically the Drew Butera of his own time. Drew was a solid backup catcher for multiple teams after coming through the minors as an elite defensive catcher. The statistics do not really match that but it does say that his arm was certainly worth the hype. After being drafted by the Mets and traded to the Twins for Luis Castillo, Butera managed to make it as Joe Mauer’s backup on the Twins and managed to catch Francisco Liriano’s iconic no-hitter. He then bounced around both LA teams where he caught Josh Beckett’s no hitter for the Dodgers, becoming only the fifth catcher to catch both an AL and NL no hitter before finding himself on the Royals.

Butera found himself in two very important places in 2015. With the Royals tied 6-6 with the Astros in Game 4 of the ALDS, Butera comes up to the plate and works a 10-pitch walk to load the bases. Alex Gordon would come up next and drive the game-winning run. Butera worked a large pitch count to give the Royals a massive win in a series where they were down 2-1 to tie it up. Another thing people often forget is that when Wade Davis struck out Wilmer Flores to end the 2015 World Series, Salvador Perez was not behind the dish. Butera subbed in to catch and is now immortalized with Wade Davis jumping in his arms after one of the weirder ends to a recent World Series.

In 2016 he would have his best year. An .808 OPS in 43 games for a backup catcher whilst playing serviceable defense to enable off days for the team’s star will not show value with WAR but these mean a lot for a team. He would retire after stints on the Rockies and Angels.

Butera, however, also managed to play for Italy in both the 2013 and 2017 World Baseball Classics. Recently, Butera is the only remaining member of the White Sox coaching staff that lost 121 games in 2024 and will return for his role as Catching coach for the team.

Season – Kirt Manwaring – 1997 – -2.5 bWAR

He was above average defensively. That is usually what takes players down but in this case he managed to keep it positive. So what drags the bWAR down on this? This season happened in Coors Field in 1997. He had a slugging percentage of .276.

Manwaring is one of the best defenders of the 90s with multiple great years with the glove, including a gold glove to show for it. He caught for the Giants for 10 years and earned a spot on their wall of fame. However at age 31, like any catcher, father time just seemed to catch up with him and it led to a season where he had a higher On-Base percentage than Slugging in Steroid-era Coors Field.

Manwaring would recover in future seasons slightly for the Rockies but it proved to be his final years in the league and his worst statistics of his great career. Just a case of nothing really working out for a player and father time’s spotless record against catchers.

First Baseman

Career – Mike Jacobs – -2.4 bWAR

Technically, former Angels first baseman Tyler Moore is worse by 0.1 WAR, but I simply have to talk about Mike Jacobs. You know how to find out if someone is a baseball statistic nerd? Ask if they have a favorite page on baseball-reference. This might be up there for one of mine because it is simply so bizarre.

Mike Jacobs was drafted in the 38^th round as a catcher by the Mets (Second appearance in two positions wow) in 1999. After years in the minor leagues, he would come up in 2005 and hit a home run off former Cy Young runner-up Esteban Loaiza in his first major league at bat. He homered four times in his first four games. In 30 games, he had an OPS+ of 180 with .710 Slugging. He took over the Mets first baseman role and was their star prospect. Such a star prospect that he was the center of the deal that brought Carlos Delgado to the Mets.

He would then go on to take over first base for the Marlins and hit 32 home runs as a part of the 2008 Marlins infield, a unit that had all members hit for over 25 home runs each. He would hit his 100^th career home run in 2010 and in the minors, he became the first player to be suspended for using HGH as performance enhancer.

So why is he on this list? For multiple reasons! He slugged at a very high clip and though he struck out a lot, it was not nearly on the tier of someone like Mark Reynolds or Adam Dunn. However, Jacobs walked nearly as much as he homered on a rate basis. As someone who either made contact or did not, this basically upended his on-base percentage.

Then there is the defense. Let’s bring up that 2008. For one, he only had a 108 OPS+ due to the favorable conditions in Florida along with the low on-base percentage. The defense, however, is a completely different thing. Jacobs had the worst defensive year of a first baseman in the Wildcard era with -3.2 dWAR. His team lost 3 more games than they would have JUST BECAUSE OF HIS DEFENSE. People talk a lot about that one Dante Bichette season, but this is an example on the utter extreme that illustrates the point even better. Defense matters even at an ‘easier’ position like first base, and things like that are how you end up with the statistics of Mike Jacobs: the former coach of the Beloit Snappers from right here in Wisconsin.

Season – Chris Davis – 2018 – -3.3 bWAR

All cards on the table, Chris Davis is my favorite first baseman of all time. His swing is just marvelous and the sheer power it had in his prime is something I keep going back to. I hold on to those seasons of him leading the league in home runs despite me not being there to watch them through all the highlights I have on YouTube. I watch Orioles games from the mid-2010s to watch what he was able to do. His story is sad, yes. His career ended abruptly with a bad contract and one of the worst seasons in modern MLB history, yes. He went 0 for 54 across two seasons, yes. This is also the lowest qualified batting average in MLB history with a .168 on the season.

It does not matter to me. For one, he was definitely hit hard with the league’s ban on his ADHD medication. Second, he was not afraid to let people know that it made him really sad that he was not able to do what he was paid to do and that level of vulnerability is rare to see in the majors. He asked for the ball for when he broke his hitless streak. It is such a small action, but I think about that a lot. That’s why he is one of my all-time favorite players.

Second Baseman

Career – Jose Castillo – -2.9 bWAR

Jose Castillo is a player who was on the cusp of breaking out but never found the one adjustment that would have got him there. He got as high as the 4^th highest prospect in the Pirates system and displayed his power potential at second with a major proportion of his extra base hits and home runs being hit to the opposite field in his rookie year. He had a 1.143 OPS in this split and more home runs on the opposite field than the pull. What does bring his value down is his strikeout rate. It was not terrible, he had rates comparable to someone like Chase Utley in the same window. More so, he struggled to compensate for those rates with power or even defense. Castillo grades out as below average defensively and only reached a positive dWAR once in his career.

He had his highlights though. He cut down his strikeout rates and formed a formidable double play duo with Jack Wilson in 2005. In 2006, he won player of the week during a torrid May where he had an OPS above 1.000 and 7 home runs. It almost catapulted him to the All Star game with the game being held in Pittsburgh but he fell just short behind Chase Utley and Craig Biggio.

After a few minor league teams and the trip of most of Asia’s baseball leagues, Castillo would sadly pass away as a result of a highway robbery when he was playing winter league baseball in Venezuela. He was only 37.

Season – Ronnie Belliard – 2002 – -2.2 bWAR

Really surprising one for me. I have Ronnie Belliard as a Brewer in my head mostly. I can place him there but not for 5 years. Then there is this season. 2002.

Belliard’s 2002 has almost been wiped from history. My favorite thing in research for it is just the Wikipedia page for Belliard:

There is reverse pyramid and then there is quoting how much the man played at each position and nothing else.

So here is what I could point out: after 3 years of solid production and 2001 being his best season so far in his young career, Belliard simply forgot how to hit. From a 104 OPS+ to a 45. A player who put up 1.6 dWAR in 2002 was suddenly was in the negatives.

Here is what’s interesting though: Belliard faced the 9^th worst BABIP luck of any player in the league. Sure, he walked way less and homered even lesser than that, but his strikeout rates also went down. This was way more a case of someone not getting ideal batted ball profiles and thus losing out a lot offensively. His line drive rate only went down slightly but his ground ball rate went up and this usually is how you manufacture unlucky batted ball luck. If we had statcast data for the 2002 seasons (which would be about 14 years later), we would fully be able to diagnose that but with what we have, it just seems like the worst 317 plate appearances of poor Ronnie Belliard’s career happened in 2002.

What’s worse is this was his contract year. After solid production he was forced to take a prove-it with the Rockies which also did not go well. Finally, he found himself in Cleveland. He became an all-star in the first year of the contract and would go on to have a really solid career in the big leagues as a player who could constantly switch between second and third.

Third Basemen

Career – Greg Dobbs – -3.5 bWAR

Do not let WAR fool you, Dobbs is one of the best pinch hitters in the wildcard era. He was also a starting third baseman on a world series winning team. He was a great player. He just could not defend and could barely hit outside of these very specific times.

Dobbs also marks the second player to have a home run in his first major league at-bat. He hit his against Bob Wickman in the 9^th inning of a game, in typical 2000s Mariners fashion they lost the game. It did give him a bit of a leash though at Third. However, Adrian Beltre would sign and play his quite underrated time on the Mariners the season after Dobbs debuted which meant he did not get many opportunities. It was these reasons that got him Waived before the 2007 season and picked up by the Phillies.

He would go on to become the Phillies utility man and platoon bat. He had an .846 OPS against righty pitching and played 5 different positions for the team. He rode all of this to the World Series in 2008. The Rays had rookie sensation Ben Zobrist, the Phillies had Greg Dobbs. One significantly better than the other. It was Zobrist.

Dobbs would then struggle getting more time on the Phillies and started on the Marlins where he would produce -2.7 bWAR in 2 and a half seasons on the team. Dobbs finished his career as one of only 18 players in the Wildcard era with 10 or more pinch hit home runs. His defense drags his value down drastically but I can confidently say this is one of the better players on this team.

Season – Pedro Feliz – 2010 – -2.4 bWAR

This is what I did not want the list to be. Pedro Feliz was a great defensive third baseman and this is just his final year in the big leagues where he simply aged out of that tool. It meant that he was not able to provide as much on the offensive side as he wanted to and had no defensive value. Walk Rate and home run rate went down alongside the strikeout rate so maybe he was getting bad luck on his batted balls, but its just the final season of a player who could no longer use the tool that kept him in the bigs. Feliz especially was an incredible defender even at age 31 but simply, father time catches up to everyone.

Also another member of the 2008 Phillies how about that.

Shortstop

Career – Juan Castro – -5.4 bWAR

Folks, let me introduce you to our team captain! The worst player of the modern era and our starting shortstop: Juan “One” Castro.

Here is the thing though: he might have been worth it. Juan Castro went undrafted and was signed by the Dodgers, the team he grew up watching as his idol, like many Mexican baseball players, was Fernando Valenzuela. He basically never started for any teams outside of the utility role until he was 31, nine years into his big league career. He then filled in for rookie shortstop Jason Bartlett when he struggled. Castro got to start big league games at Shortstop to start the second half of his career.

He was known primarily for his defensive ability and versatility. This is actually backed up in his sample sizes. He had 1.6 dWAR in his extended time at short for the Reds at age 31 and though defensive stats from these time periods are not exact, they certainly paint the picture of someone with great range and a good arm. This is also shown in his games at third base, his most important throw being the one that made up the 27^th out of Roy Halladay’s perfect game.

Could he hit? Of course not. That’s why his value is so low. The main reason? He played consistently at skill infield positions for 17 consecutive years. An OPS+ of 55, and he managed to not miss a single season from 1995 to 2011. He managed to match up against Andy Van Slyke and see Kenley Jansen close games for his team. He is a Mexican baseball legend, shown with his induction to the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023 and the proud captain of this unit.

Season – Cristian Guzman – 1999 – -2.5 bWAR

Guzman is an all-time case of a player with immense potential making the right adjustments and becoming really good in the process. Guzman was the main piece in the Chuck Knoblauch trade going to the Twins from the Yankees and into spring training 1999, the Twins knew they wanted him at short. Not because they knew he was a finished product, but because he was not. He couldn’t speak English so they made LaTroy Hawkins live with him and only speak English with him alongside his classes. He was also suspended three games in this season for punching Blue Jays pitcher Paul Spoljaric and giving him a black eye.

Look, the man really got hit with rookie struggles early. What matters is, he fought through it. By July and August he had a respectable average and was driving groundballs way more often. He was struggling with some routine plays but his potential was clear with his ability to make great plays. Then there was the speed, the tool that got him to the Majors in the first place. He struggled, but he got through it. Man how he got through it.

The next year, Cristian led the league in triples with 20. He did it again the next year whilst also playing elite defense and finishing top 15 in the MVP vote. He missed 33 games that year and still did it. He struggled the next year due to bad rehab on his shoulder but then came back and scored the winning run to knock the Moneyball A’s out of the playoffs. He then came back the next year and led the league in triples again. Guzman had the most triples of anyone from 2000 to 2005.

He would then go on and sign with the Nationals in their first year in Washington. He would be their major free agent signing and go on to have his worst year since the disaster of 1999. He was booed, sidelined with shoulder surgery, seen as a failure. Yet, he bounced back again. The main contributor in his eyes were, well, his eyes. He had laser eye surgery and he credits this for what’s about to happen.

He had quite the injury-filled 2007 but even through all of it, he started to show why the Nationals paid him. A 124 OPS+ and equaling his triples total from the last year. His full retribution came in the form of his incredible 2008 where he would have both the first hit and run in Nationals Park. He made the all-star team as the Nationals representative, he hit for the cycle against the Dodgers, he played third in the all star game despite him never playing the position and the bigs and made some great plays. For one year, he was Mr. National.

Guzman’s career would slow down as his pace did but his story from worst shortstop season in modern history to one of baseball’s most fun young stars and one of the best triples hitters of this era is simply incredible to read.

Left Field

Career – Dee Brown – -2.9 bWAR

I genuinely thought this was the NBA player. I walked into this thinking this was the former Celtic and dunk contest dabber Dee Brown. It was not.

Dermal Brown was a standout two-sport player. He, at the time, rushed for second-most yards of any player in New York High School history with 5286 yards. He was committed to Maryland where he was going to play both baseball and football, until he was drafted by the Royals in 1996 at 14^th overall. He was a highly-touted prospect but seemed to just never figure it out.

This may not be his problem entirely, however. He only had one season of extended playtime in the majors and it was all in left field, a position where it is really hard to accumulate WAR. More than anything, it just means that we do not have much about him. He just was not able to figure it out and you know? That is kind of sad. Whenever big prospects can’t figure it out, I always feel a bit sad. I guess Dee is a great representation of just a player who was not given enough time to figure it out and as such, becomes a member of a team like this.

Season – Gerardo Parra – 2016 – -2.4 bWAR

This was very nearly that Dante Bichette season where he hit 30 home runs and played such awful defense that it basically negated all that value. Instead, we have something that is as interesting to me.

Here is what’s funny, third player on the list to hit a home run in their first major league at-bat. It seems like a curse honestly at this point, let us hope that Aaron Judge doesn’t produce a stinker to end his career.

Parra had won two gold gloves, been to the all star game, been traded for high prospects and signed a three year contract for the Rockies. He then proceeded to do this in the first year of the contract. The number that defines this year? 9. He walked 9 times in 102 games. One of 48 players to walk less than 10 times in that many games (One of those names was Michael Lorenzen which was really funny to me). What is also interesting is this isn’t even his worst .ISO. This was not his worst power season even in Colorado and he never really improved. Coors seemingly just did something to this man. He then went on to become the heart and soul of the 2019 Nationals. The Baby Shark as the walk up music and lovable veteran presence turned him into a star in DC.

Center Field

Career – Nick Senzel – -3.0 bWAR

First current player for two reasons. One, he had his worst season this year and doesn’t seem to have the tools that initially made him a top prospect. Two, however, is that I needed a representative from the 2024 White Sox and Senzel’s 10 games on the White Sox is a strong contender for worst tenure any player had on a team this year. 1 extra base hit in 30 at-bats, 1 walk. He also gives us a bit of versatility with his ability to play third at a less than ideal level, perfect for the team.

Senzel is another top prospect who seemingly will not cut it at the big league level, which again is kind of sad. He came out of Tennessee with an exciting player profile. A speedy outfielder with good defense and a plus bat. That is like THE fun player profile. Senzel ran through the minors and debuted the year after he was drafted and then just never recovered it. He has lost his speed, kind of lost the defense and the bat has just never been there. Will it surprise me if he puts it together? Of course not. He is a top prospect and people of those ilk can figure it out with just the right adjustments. They are top prospects for a reason.

He does, however, have maybe the weirdest problem I have seen someone in the big leagues have. I looked up his statcast data because we have it and yeah, says a lot of what I say here. Then I saw his run values depending on pitch location. He has an awful run value when it comes to pitches in the zone. -7 run value against pitches in the heart of the zone. The literal center. Followed by a -14 run value in pitches in the shadow or corners of the zone. Then, for some weird reason, he has a better run value in the chase than Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. He has more value as a hitter on pitches outside the zone and then a positive value on waste pitches, literally called waste because of how far from the zone they are. One of the weirder Statcast things I have seen. I need him in Center and to maybe fill in at third on Greg Dobbs’ off day.

Season – Nate McLouth – 2010 – -2.7 bWAR

I genuinely attribute this to his jersey. McLouth went from a man who was maybe a few feet away from winning All Star Game MVP in 2008 and a major trade deadline piece for a good Braves team to the worst center field season in the Wildcard era. He gave up his signature number 13 for Bily Wagner’s final season and suddenly struggled at a historic rate. It was not even a full season. It is a half season of -2.7 bWAR which is almost impressive.

McLouth is an awesome late 2000s baseball name and this basically marked the decline to end his career from Gold Glove center field to fighting for his major league career in Gwinnett. I really appreciate this though. At 28, he could have taken a demotion like that really rough, yet he put his head down and worked his way back. You know what? Remove the years with Atlanta and the year after, and suddenly you have the arc of a center fielder who was able to play okay defense.

The offense was bad in 2010, but what drove the year to be bad was McLouth’s defensive struggles being accentuated. He went from a plus bat and a great arm to a defensive liability who could not hit. He did have a concussion in the middle of the season and I would not be surprised if that affected him this season a lot as well. 2 years in baseball is a lot of time, great sign of exactly that.

Right Field

Career – Karim Garcia – -3.2 bWAR

Karim Garcia is an all time baseball life. He is very likely a name you know if you have followed baseball in the early 2000s, a time period when baseball was as popular and in the American zeitgeist as any other sport. He started his life as a rookie on the 90s Dodgers, a time when the Dodgers seemed to produce a new rookie sensation each year. In his first two years as a Dodger, he saw both Hideo Nomo and Todd Hollandsworth win Rookie of the Year whilst playing with former winners Eric Karros and Mike Piazza.

He was not protected in the expansion draft and was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks. I would argue that Garcia is one of the most important players in the history of the franchise even though he produced -1.5 bWAR in his time in Arizona. Why is he important then? He was the piece that was traded for Luis Gonzalez.

After his time in Detroit and a trade to Baltimore, he found himself in Cleveland putting up his best stats. A 20 game span of a 174 OPS+ in 2001, after which he was sort of bought and released back and forth between the Yankees and Cleveland. His time in the Bronx in 2003 does lead to how most people know his name. In the 2003 ALCS, Pedro Martinez would hit Karim Garcia and the benches would clear in one of the most epic brawls in the history of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. The rant after would be etched in history with the simple words “Who is Karim Garcia?”

Garcia would also go and fight a groundskeeper with Jeff Nelson, fight a pizza deliveryman as a member of the Mets with Shane Spencer and then have quite a fun end to his career with the Orix Buffaloes after the scandal that threatened the contraction of Japanese baseball. He also went on to represent Mexico in the first 3 World Baseball Classics. If we are talking traditional roles, Garcia is absolutely this team’s media star and darling.

Season – Jose Guillen – 1997 – -3.3 bWAR

Jose Guillen’s story is insane. Genuinely insane. What is as insane is that this is the first and only season on this list with award votes on it, with people giving him down ballot rookie of the year votes.

Guillen grew up poor and didn’t even have a baseball glove till 15. He was signed by the Pirates system and worked his way up the system to get to the majors at age 21. The reason I don’t hate seeing rookie years in this list is reasons like this. You can truly see the adjustments that someone needed to make to get them to where they ended up. Jose Guillen, a man who hit over 200 home runs in the majors, started his life as a contact bat with power potential. That is interesting for me.

The miniscule walk rate also does not help. The adjustments that can be seen, however, are interesting. When emphasizing building up power potential, teams often encourage pulling fly balls and those reflect in pull rates. The actual increase in Guillen’s game came with the increase in his line drive rate leading to the unlocking of his incredible power potential.

He would bounce around as a 4A player until he got to the Reds and found his power stroke. The Reds chose to sell him to the A’s who were interested in his potential on a low salary. He performed relatively fine in Oakland but the A’s still chose to cut him. This is how he would find himself on the Angels. This is where Guillen would become popular, but for not necessarily good reasons.

Guillen would hit well for the Angels but would be suspended to end the year after a meltdown. This was caused by Mike Scioscia putting in a pinch runner for Guillen in a close game. This was quite harsh in the grand scheme of things but this would drive a massive wedge between the two. Guillen would be traded to the Expos to become the team’s first major name in Washington and the tensions would bubble over in a series against the Angels. Guillen would tip manager Frank Robinson on Brendan Donnelly and his use of sticky stuff which would lead to an inspection and Donnelly being thrown out of the game. The two managers would argue and after the game, Guillen would unload into his former manager. He would also be beaned by Pedro Martinez twice, which would mean the second right fielder on this team who Pedro does not like.

Guillen would join the Mariners as a power bat but was also suspended for his naming in the Mitchell Report. The more famous incident with PEDs and Guillen happened when he was on the Giants in 2010, his final team, and his wife was stopped at an airport and caught for trying to smuggle steroids for Guillen. A controversial end to a great story from a bottle making town to the highest of highs.

Designated Hitter (The lowest bWAR Player not mentioned)

Career – Enrique Wilson – -5.3 bWAR

If you want to talk about players who stayed in the league for one specific thing, meet Enrique Wilson. Wilson signed from the Dominican after his father played baseball and trained him and he was known for his defensive versatility across the infield, a skill that has kept many below-average hitters in the league. It is a useful skill but its not the skill that kept Wilson on the Yankees.

Wilson started his career in Cleveland and developed a quick bond with their star outfielder Manny Ramirez and this would come up later on as when Enrique was on the Yankees and Manny moved to Boston, he would take Ramirez out of a game because they simply partied too hard with each other in a hotel room.

If you want to talk about ruining the Red Sox though, this is not even the reason Enrique was kept in the league. I once heard about how the only reason Deion Sanders was on the Braves for the 1992 World Series was because he hit Jays started David Cone better than anyone on the team. It makes sense though, some players just see the ball from pitchers better than others. Enrique Wilson was kept in the league because he saw hall of famer, consensus top 5 pitcher of all time Pedro Martinez better than almost anyone in Pedro’s career.

Wilson has 10 more plate appearances versus Pedro than any other pitcher and he hit .440 off of him. Only 1 other player with as many plate appearances against Pedro has a higher batting average than him, and its two time all star Gregg Jefferies. In my opinion, the main reason the Yankees kept him is because he was the ultimate Red Sox sabotage. Their best hitter was one of his closest friends, their best pitcher might as well be throwing fastballs down the middle to him. Maybe it was the switch hitting, maybe the weird stance, but it worked.

The other famous Wilson story is how he was supposed to be on American Airlines flight 587 going back to the Dominican Republic to celebrate the 2001 World Series win for the Yankees. However, Luis Gonzalez made sure that Wilson would instead drive to Las Vegas to take some time off before going and saving him from one of the largest aviation disasters in American history.

There is something to be said about players who are kept to absolutely mash against one specific team or player, so let us hope Pedro is on the mound against us.

Season – Adam Dunn – 2011 – -2.9 bWAR

Before all the WAR debates begin, this was actually a really down year for Adam Dunn. The 2009 season where he somehow registers -5.2 dWAR is really fun, but it does show what could happen if, say, your hitter-first player does not manage to hit. Dunn came off a season where he hit 38 home runs in 158 games to hitting 11 in 122. I have tried to diagnose what happened in this season but it is quite hard considering just the next year, he hit 41. Here is what I could figure out.

Dunn had his appendix removed in the season after an okay start to then go on the worst stretch of his career to that point. I know it is not really a baseball related injury but sometimes, taking yourself out of the swing of things is simply all it takes to throw a great player off their game. Then there is the fact that this is his first season in the American League. I genuinely think the switch up from playing regular defense to a designated hitter role, a role he was seemingly made for, could have affected him quite a bit.

There is also his BABIP getting lower than it ever had in his career, but it was still higher than his batting average. My main theory? Dunn tried to change up his approach at the plate. He attempted to hit for less fly balls and see more pitches, which is reflected in a higher walk rate. It is also reflected in the highest strikeout rate of his career. Dunn has the highest at bat per strikeout rate of anyone in the wildcard era. He had a higher on base percentage than slugging. This is Adam Dunn we are talking about.

He personally chalked it up to the lack of effort he put in the previous offseason and the extra effort put in, in his eyes, led to a career resurgence that undoubtedly got Dunn to 400 career home runs.

Starting Pitcher

Career – Kevin Jarvis – -4.6 bWAR

So Jarvis technically debuted in the strike-shortened 1994 season that made the wildcard, but he absolutely is the right choice for this team. His all time record for the most seasons of an ERA above 7 is more than enough to justify the pick, even before looking at the WAR total.

Jarvis was definitely a plus pitcher though. His role as an innings eater in the early 2000s was very valuable. Jarvis came up with the Reds and did not do great to start his career. He was waived by two different organizations in 1997 before pitching for the Chunichi Dragons in NPB to rebuild his stock. After only four starts of not great production, he signed a minor league contract with the Reds before being released and winding up on the Athletics. His 90s were not great but going into the 2000 season, he found himself on the Rockies and gained a consistent role as a starter, something he had not had since 1996. Sure, the ERA was 5.95, but this was Coors during the steroid era. He had a 98 ERA+ and posted consistent numbers with high groundball potential. This was enough for him to be snatched by the San Diego Padres.

Sure, he led the league in home runs allowed, but he missed out on leading the team in innings pitched 1.2. He was the number two starter on a team that nearly broke even with their record. He impressed in his role as a consistent starter, so much so that he was named the opening day starter for 2002. He pitched seven innings of 2-run ball but would be handed the loss after the Padres were shut out by the reigning World Series champions, the Arizona Diamondbacks. He would spend another year as a starter in 2003 with the Padres before hopping around a bunch of franchises to end his career. His inning eater potential was on full display and his high groundball rates showed signs of a decent mid level starter.

His legacy lives on in the league today as well with his son Bryce showing great stuff at the major league level for those same Arizona Diamondbacks that his dad dueled with on Opening Day in 2002.

Season – Terry Mulholland – 1995 – -2.8 bWAR

You might look at the 35 year old putting up a historically bad year and think I must be mad to see this, but Mulholland pitched for 11 more years after this season and had some really big highs after it.

Mulholland came up as a highly touted prospect for the Giants before being sent to Philadelphia. He would then go on to no-hit the Giants in 1990 and be a key part of the Phillies rotation that would make it to the 1993 World Series. He even started the game six that would be walked off by Joe Carter. The Yankees then poached him thinking he would be their elite starter to give a final run for their old star Don Mattingly, before Mulholland put up the worst season of his career so far. Mulholland came out of college and was still in arbitration at age 30. A lot of people must have thought his career was over. More people thought that after the next season.

He signs for less than his arbitration in free agency to rejoin the Giants and the wheels just continued to fall off. An ERA near 6 in 149 innings with his already slow strikeout rate becoming even lower. However, Mulholland seemed to be very unlucky in this season. He made multiple adjustments and his rates in walks and home runs are actually lower than his season with Yankees. He was also allowing more groundballs and significantly less fly balls. His FIP is lower than his ERA, but it still is at quite a large number. I am guessing this is to do with the amount of hits he allowed but as I said, usually when you allow more groundballs and less flyballs you should be reaping results. It just seems like Mulholland was not.

The Phillies saw this and took a flyer on Mulholand for 1996 and he would pitch the best he had since 1993. What many people did not know is the Yankees signing marked his status as a hired pitcher for innings and relief appearances. I have always thought of Mulholland as the Edwin Jackson of the Steroid era. A pitcher who had quite a few highs, played for a lot of teams, been in significant moments and ultimately, to be the glue guy to make sure the teams they are on are able to play 162 games.

Mulholland had the worst pitcher season of the Wildcard era at 32. He would start games at 41 and pitch till 43. A great player to have for the team.

Career team bWAR total – -37.4 bWAR

Season team bWAR total – -27 bWAR

Baseball reference estimates a team full of replacement level players to win 52 games in an MLB season so using simple subtraction, the season team would be estimated to have a record of 25-137.

Safe to say we will be having the number one pick the next year.

Pop Culture Coffee Break / Episode 5: Celebrity PR Relationships

Tags