Baseball Notes

With another regular season come and gone, you will hear a lot of debate amongst the experts over the next couple of months as to who should win the particular offseason awards. But, let’s face it, besides AL Cy Young and NL MVP, the names are already engraved on the trophies for these prizes.

So I thought it appropriate to recognize those that never get their due, those that won’t even come close to being mentioned, those who don’t even deserve to be mentioned. And what I came up with was the 2007 Worsts Team. This team defines the absolute worst there is in offensive baseball. The most god-awful at each position on the diamond, save the pitcher. But there is one caveat; for some unknown reason, their respective teams stuck with them.

To qualify for this list, you had to qualify for MLB’s offensive categories, which means 3.1 PA per team game, or 503 PA on the season. That means that no matter how bad the player was (and we will see some bad ones), their team sent them to the plate more than 500 times over the course of the season.

The stats I will be using are Value Over Replacement Player and Runs Created for the season (remember, if you need a definition of each, check out the Stats Glossary tab). I looked at the list of the worst qualified performers in each and took the composite score of the two rankings for each player on this list, ranked by position. With only one exception, you will see the eight players with the worst overall rankings in VORP and RC for 2007. One for each position.

First, the boring stuff. Here are the top ten for both VORP and RC in 2007:

VORP
Alex Rodriguez - 95.1
Hanley Ramirez - 90.2
David Ortiz - 86.6
Magglio Ordonez - 85.7
David Wright - 81.3
Chipper Jones - 76.6
Matt Holliday - 74.2
Albert Pujols - 73.8
Jorge Posada - 73.8
Miguel Cabrera - 71.4

RC
Alex Rodriguez - 164
David Ortiz - 156
Magglio Ordonez - 149
Matt Holliday - 148
David Wright - 146
Prince Fielder - 143
Hanley Ramirez - 142
Albert Pujols - 133
Carlos Pena - 132
Jimmy Rollins - 132

These end up being petty consistent lists, with seven of the top ten being the same in both lists (and all of the top ten in VORP are in the top 20 of RC). But that’s not why you are here.

So without further ado, the worst of 2007:

Catcher

A.J. Pierzynski
9.8 VORP, 53 RC

Only nine catchers qualified with at least 503 PAs, and five of those only beat 503 by 15 or less PA, but Pierzynski was the worst of the lot. With an OPS that barely reached .700, Pierzynski was one of several White Sox that succumbed to their inevitable decline after great years in 2006. His average dropped by more than 30 points from the previous year and he ended up being only 10 runs better than the catchers Chicago had on the bench.

First Baseman

Kevin Millar
12.1 VORP, 73 RC

A major league first baseman with 16 HR and 62 RBI over 558 PA might be OK if he was playing for the 2007 Yankees or Red Sox, and they didn’t need his bat. But that is not what the 2007 Orioles were. Baltimore ranked 10th in the AL in OPS, and could have used a first baseman with some legitimate power. His 75 walks are commendable, however.

Second Baseman

Jose Lopez
-10.9 VORP, 48 RC

Yes, that is a negative VORP you see there, meaning any old scrub playing second would have been 11 runs better than Lopez given the same PAs over the season. 538 PAs for this kind of production is unexcusable, as his VORP and RC numbers were both in the bottom five for all of MLB. The fact that Seattle was once so close to a playoff spot makes this even more of a head-scratcher. Why would they leave Lopez in the lineup for so long?

Shortstop

Tony Pena, Jr.
-7.8 VORP, 47 RC

Another player with bottom five numbers in both VORP and RC for all of MLB - and that is over 533 PAs. Actually Pena and Omar Vizquel both had the same composite ranking score of 4.5 on the lists, but since Vizquel is once again tops on everyone’s list of the best defensive shortstops, the award goes to Pena.

Third Baseman

Nick Punto
-26.9 VORP, 41 RC

Here we are, the worst of the worst for 2007. Punto, in 533 PA, was the worst in both of these categories while batting .211 and posting an OPS below .600. This means the Twins must have had absolutely NO ONE on the bench whom they thought could replace Punto, because his numbers are by far the worst amongst MLB regulars in 2oo7. Forget talking about extra runs here, the Twins could have had almost three extra wins if Punto had never been in the lineup and some other replacement-level player was. A horrible year.

Left Fielder

Jason Bay
4.2 VORP, 78 RC

The rotisserie darling of so many for two years, Bay struggled mightily this year, batting only .248 in 2007 with an OBP of .328 and SLG of only .419. His power numbers of 25 doubles and 21 HR dropped significantly compared to the past two years. And forget the 21 SB from two years ago. He had but four this year. And he stayed in the Pirates lineup all year, totaling 613 PA over the season.

Center Fielder

Andruw Jones
5.2 VORP, 74 RC

Here is the one exception to my rule of the composite rankings, because Bill Hall actually was worse than Jones according to those rankings, but Hall totaled 503 PA (for his 6.6 VORP and 60 RC) while Jones did it over 659 PA, the most for any player on this list. So much for players having that extra little something in contract years. Jones has not had numbers this poor since his 20-year-old rookie season of 1997. His strikeout rate increased this year as well; he finished with the third highest total of his career. See my other thoughts on Jones here.

Right Fielder

Brian Giles
10.8 VORP, 72 RC

Another former All Star makes the list in 2007. I wonder if moving Giles to the leadoff spot midway through the year had anything to do with his decline in numbers this year - I guess we will have to see what the Padres do in ‘08. Missing a significant amount of time due to injury surely hurt Giles here, and could move Delmon Young up to this spot, but Giles did post the lowest OBP and SLG numbers of his career when he was in the lineup. Even Giles’ BB rate, something he has been famous for, dropped to a career-low 11.6% this year.

So there you have it: My Worst of the Worst team for 2007. Not surprisingly, only one of these players is on a (potential) playoff team - Giles. Teams with a hole as big as these players in their lineups generally will have a tough time making up for the missed production elsewhere, particularly in the NL, where these batters are always asked to bat higher than ninth.

Any disagreements? Let me know in the comments.