Hey, don't forget about us
10/18/2001
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Baseball's regular season is long gone and the LCS in both leagues are underway, which means it's time for everyone who's ever watched an inning of play or sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" to make their guesses for the end-of-season awards. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Ichiro, Randy Johnson, Jason Giambi, Curt Schilling and Albert Pujols all turned in marvelous seasons and deserve any accolades they receive, but what about the guys at the other end of the spectrum? I'm tired of the Ichiro/Giambi/Bret Boone debate, and the Clemens/Mark Mulder discussions. I know Sammy Sosa had a great season and, even though I don't agree with them, I know there are plenty of people who think Clemens is an MVP candidate too. Fine. But enough is enough. It's time to answer a bigger question, a question we could debate for days or even weeks, a question nobody really seems to be asking but me:
Who were the biggest stiffs of the 2001 baseball season?
Why should Ichiro and Bonds have all the national attention anyway? If these guys get all this publicity for how well they played, shouldn't guys also see their names in headlines for how miserably they played? Sure they should. These are the guys we call bums all season long, guys who in some cases ruin any chance of a postseason run, yet when game 162 is played we all just kind of forget about these guys and instead focus our attention on the Yankees and the Mariners and the Braves and the Diamondbacks.
Well, I'm not letting them get off that easy. Not this year.
So this week, I'll first take a look, in no particular order, at the candidates for the distinguished
Hole in Your Bat award, given to players who demonstrate an absolute inability to do anything at the plate. Hoping to narrow the field a bit, I only considered players who registered at least 240 at-bats.
American League
Carl Everett, OF, Boston Red Sox
409 AB, .257, 14 HR, 58 RBI, 104 K, 27 BB, 9 steals, .323 OB%
For a guy who hit .312 with 59 homers, 216 RBI and 38 steals combined in 1999 and 2000, Everett was horrendous this season. Of course, his sparkling personality and invaluable clubhouse presence overshadowed Everett's poor performance... . Despite his undeniable talent, this guy will be out of the league in two or three years, tops. Just a couple years too late for Jimy Williams, though.
Brady Anderson, OF, Baltimore Orioles
430 AB, .202, 8 HR, 45 RBI, 87 hits, 12 2B, .311 OB%, .300 slug%
Who did Sideburns pay off in 1996 when he hit those 50 homers? Since then Anderson's hit 87 dingers. In five years. He was equally unimpressive through the first and second halves of this season, hitting .205 with six homers before the All Star break and .199 with two homers after the break. And that .300 slugging percentage? Such gargantuan power hitters as Tony Womack, Livan Hernandez, Tom Goodwin and Jim Brower all owned higher percentages. Yikes.
Tim Salmon, OF, Anaheim Angels
475 AB, .227, 17 HR, 49 RBI, 121 K, 108 hits, .383 slug%
Before this season, Salmon had never slugged below .490 in a single season and, excluding injury-filled 1994 and 1999 campaigns, his career lows for homers and RBI were 26 and 88, both set in 1998. Worst of all, Salmon hit .171 in 129 at bats with runners in scoring position and .141 with RISP and two outs.
Darrin Erstad, OF, Anaheim Angels
631 AB, .258, 9 HR, 63 RBI, 113 K, 163 hits, .331 OB%, .360 slug%
As bad as Salmon was, though, he had some company in the Anaheim outfield. Considering Erstad became the first leadoff hitter in history to drive in 100 runs in 2000, his numbers this year were pitiful. After mashing 240 hits and 25 homers with a .541 slugging percentage last season, his 2001 performance was simply pathetic.
Wil Cordero, OF/1B, Cleveland Indians
268 AB, .250, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 50 K, 67 hits, .343 slug%
As an Indians fan, I speak from experience when I say this guy is a bona-fide stiff. The numbers alone are terrible, but a closer look at Cordero's season reveals a level of incompetence rarely reached by a regular on a contending team. He hit .269 with nobody on base, .228 with runners on, .164 with runners in scoring position, .119 with RISP and two outs, and he was 0-8 with the bases loaded. You want worthless? I give you Wilfredo Cordero... the hopefully soon-to-be-unemployed Wilfredo Cordero.
Big Mac has had some poor seasons before, but this is Rob Deer territory here. The .187 average is easily the lowest of his career, and before this season he hadn't slugged under .628 since 1994, a season in which McGwire only played in 47 games. And with a strikeout total (118) that more than doubled his walk total (56), McGwire was more of a liability than a threat in Tony LaRussa's lineup, as evidenced by his performance in the NLDS vs. Arizona: 1-11, 6 K, 0 BB, 5 LOB. It's just about time to hang
'em up, Big Red.
Pokey Reese, 2B/SS, Cincinnati Reds
428 AB, .224, 9 HR, 40 RBI, 96 hits, 82 K, 34 BB, 25 steals, .284 OB%
Remember 1999, when Pokey hit .285 with 10 homers, 37 doubles and 38 stolen bases? Well, like Robert Downey Jr.'s sobriety, those numbers are a distant memory now. How does a guy with this kind of speed only get on base 28% of the time? That's depressing. Plenty of National League starting pitchers can register at least a .300 on-base percentage. And what's all this hoopla surrounding Reese's defensive ability anyway? He had 15 errors this season, good for a .975 fielding percentage.
Woo-hoo. And to think, the Reds could have sent Reese to Seattle instead of Mike Cameron in the Ken Griffey Jr. deal. Great decision making there.
Eric Karros, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers
438 AB, .235, 15 HR, 63 RBI, 101 K, 103 hits, .388 slug%
On the surface, it may not look like Karros had such a bad season, but for a guy who's hit at least 30 homers and driven in 100 RBI in five of the past six years leading into 2001, the above numbers just aren't up to par.
Karros, who owns a .462 career slugging percentage, didn't hit for any power, which is remarkable considering he had three spectacular hitters -- Gary Sheffield, Shawn Green and Paul LoDuca -- ahead of him in the Dodgers lineup. With first base prospect
Chin-Feng Chen patiently waiting in Double-A, Karros may find himself elsewhere shortly.
Todd Hundley, C, Chicago Cubs
246 AB, .187, 12 HR, 31 RBI, 89 K, 46 hits, 25 BB, .268 OB%, .374 slug%
Okay, if you have three times as many strikeouts as walks, you're worthless, and if your strikeout totals nearly double your hit total... ? That's just
freakin' ugly. U-G-L-Y. I mean, it'd be one thing if Hundley at least hit for some power this year, but most middle infielders can slug 37%. After giving him a four-year, $23.5 million deal, the Cubs hoped Hundley would be a reliable RBI guy behind Sammy Sosa. Well, hitting .175 with runners in scoring position and .125 with the bases loaded ain't gonna cut it.
Peter Bergeron, OF, Montreal Expos
375 AB, .211, 3 HR, 16 RBI, 87 K, 28 BB, 10 steals, .275 OB%, .280 slug%
Future leadoff hitters, take note: Bergeron is not the guy you want to model yourself after. If Pokey Reese is reaching base more often than you are, then you're not doing your job. Period. How did Bergeron even get 289 at-bats in the leadoff spot, anyway? That's terrible managing. No wonder the Expos only scored 670 runs this season, the third-lowest total in all of baseball.
That's quite a list, huh? I'm not really sure I can pick just one guy from each league for the
HYB award. I mean, all 10 of these guys were completely incompetent this season, based either on their past performances or the expectations that surrounded their 2001 seasons. It's not exactly an easy choice.
But if you twist my arm... .
Carl Everett was supposed to team with Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra to form one of the more potent offenses in baseball. Instead, he lost more than 40 points off his batting average and completely forgot how to hit for power, all while nearly single-handedly tearing apart the Boston clubhouse. Cordero and Brady are close, but Everett comes out on top in the American League.
The NL is a closer race, though. Based on pure numbers, I may lean toward Mark "More Homers than Singles" McGwire, but his poor season didn't stop the Cardinals from making a playoff appearance. Todd Hundley's meltdown may have cost the Cubs a postseason berth, though, and with that in mind I give the nod to Hundley and his make-believe power numbers.
Be sure to check back next week for a look at the worst pitching performances from 2001.
In the Bullz-Eye
The Philadelphia 76ers. With guards Allen Iverson and Aaron McKie already recovering from offseason surgery, the Sixers suffered a huge blow when point guard Eric Snow fractured his left thumb in an exhibition game against the San Antonio Spurs. Doctors aren't quite sure how long Snow will be out, but early estimations have him on the sidelines for anywhere from six weeks to three months. Until he returns, Philly may turn to free agent point guard Rod Strickland to fill the void.