So who's the worst regular major leaguer right now?
There are a number of possibilities. Let's discuss the criteria.
1. You have to start every day (or nearly every day).
2. You have to be a big drain on your team's financial resources.
3. You have to be a big drain on your team's outs, and not doing enough with the hits you do get. This is the Jimmy Rollins rule.
4. You can't be nursing an injury. I don't really pay enough attention to know who's working his way through a sore shoulder and who's just bad, but it's not in the spirit of this question to get on an injured guy's case. He's just got to be bad for no good reason.
Let's start with that. As point of comparison, our man Juan -- who is pretty clearly NOT the worst regular major leaguer at the moment -- has made 129 outs (leading the majors!) with an OPS of 639. Who else is out there?
Clearly, Jason Kendall has been terrible. 107 A's outs for an OPS for 424! Wow. I don't know how much he makes, but no matter what it is, an OPS of 424 has got to mean there's a better choice somewhere in the system. On the other hand, he's a catcher and batting 9th. There aren't a lot of expectations for him. He's done nothing with the opportunities given to him, but when Juan Pierre has made 20% more outs for not a whole lot more production, I wonder if there are better choices for the title. Same thing with David Eckstein and his poor production, but only 93 outs...
Scanning the list... Mike Cameron: $7 million, center field, a whopping 124 Padre outs -- and an OPS of 558! How about a shout-out to Bobby Abreu? Whopping salary, huge expectations in the Yankee outfield, 126 Yankee outs -- and an OPS of 603.
I think it's gotta be one of those two guys at the moment. What say you?
4 comments:
I vote Abreu. That dude is stinking up the place. At least Cameron and Pierre are center fielders.
Richie Sexton? He is hitting some homeruns, but he is terrible defensively and only hits homeruns.
Paul Konerko is having a terrible year as well. He is OPSing around .600 so far at first base.
Good call on Konerko and Sexson. Neither has been any good and both play key offensive positions.
On the other hand, both have 20-30 fewer AB at this point than Abreu and 50 fewer than Pierre. That's a lot fewer opportunities to drag their teams down into the abyss. Simply put, while they've been terrible, I wonder if they've had enough opportunities to be terrible in order for us to consider them the Worst Regular Major Leaguer at this point.
On the third hand, maybe you're right. What good is a first baseman with a 600 OPS? No good at all.
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