Deadspin's 100 worst MLB players in history

[jersey cubs fan]

http://deadspin.com/5820716/the-100-worst-baseball-players-of-all-time-a-celebration-part-1

[bcl412]

How have I never known that Danny Ainge played baseball?

[biittner77]

#44 Tony Suck

[jersey cubs fan]

Under the "have you considered another line of work" category

 

5. Ozzie Guillen, 1985-2000 (White Sox/Braves/Rays/Orioles)

Ozzie Guillen, like many managers, was a bad baseball player. His on base percentage in 15 seasons was .286. His slugging percentage was .238. But he won a Gold Glove, you say. And a Rookie of the Year award! He was a three-time All Star! And he stole a lot of bases! Actually, Guillen was caught on almost 40 percent of his attempts. And after his last All Star appearance at age 27 (for a season in which he had a .284 on-base percentage) he hung around for nine more years, doing nothing in particular with his glove and less with with his bat.

[NewUserName]

how did Steve Balboni make this list and Rob Deer miss it?

[Banedon]

*sigh* Being reminded of Jose Lima makes me a little sad. RIP Lima Time.

[Tryptamine]

Under the "have you considered another line of work" category

 

5. Ozzie Guillen, 1985-2000 (White Sox/Braves/Rays/Orioles)

Ozzie Guillen, like many managers, was a bad baseball player. His on base percentage in 15 seasons was .286. His slugging percentage was .238. But he won a Gold Glove, you say. And a Rookie of the Year award! He was a three-time All Star! And he stole a lot of bases! Actually, Guillen was caught on almost 40 percent of his attempts. And after his last All Star appearance at age 27 (for a season in which he had a .284 on-base percentage) he hung around for nine more years, doing nothing in particular with his glove and less with with his bat.

 

I had completely forgotten just how bad Guillen was. For some reason I thought he was a decent player.

[NewUserName]

Under the "have you considered another line of work" category

 

5. Ozzie Guillen, 1985-2000 (White Sox/Braves/Rays/Orioles)

Ozzie Guillen, like many managers, was a bad baseball player. His on base percentage in 15 seasons was .286. His slugging percentage was .238. But he won a Gold Glove, you say. And a Rookie of the Year award! He was a three-time All Star! And he stole a lot of bases! Actually, Guillen was caught on almost 40 percent of his attempts. And after his last All Star appearance at age 27 (for a season in which he had a .284 on-base percentage) he hung around for nine more years, doing nothing in particular with his glove and less with with his bat.

 

I had completely forgotten just how bad Guillen was. For some reason I thought he was a decent player.

 

grit doesnt age well

 

edit: I should post this in another thread, but Ozzie never got along with Big Frank because Frank didn't hustle. Amazingly a large portion of Sox fans sided with Ozzie on this and thought he was an important player of some of their good mid 90s teams

Edited July 13, 2011 by NewUserName

[Derwood]

Aren't most major league managers failed baseball players? There are exceptions, but I find it hilarious that NO ONE outside of baseball could ever get a managerial job, yet a ton of teams have abject failures as managers (because THEY PLAYED THE GAME)

[Elwood]

Any chance of Neifi making the list?

[MSG T]

48. John Gochnaur, 1901-1903 (Cleveland Naps/Cleveland Bronchos/Brooklyn Superbas)

A few years ago, John Gochnaur was rescued from the annals of the Baseball Encyclopedia by an writer named Mike Attiyeh. His original article on Gochnauer's bad play appeared at BaseballGuru.com. It's no longer up, but Attiye's findings echo on the internet to this day. Gochnaur has a legitimate claim on worst player ever: he batted .187 in his three-year career between 1901 and 1903. He never hit a single home run. And in his final season, he committed 98 errors in 134 games.

 

A guy with no hands could play SS in a gravel pit and not commit 98 errors in 134 games.

[MSG T]

Any chance of Neifi making the list?

 

 

Even that list has standards.

[Benchwarmer]

I have a signed Dick Stuart baseball. He hit 66 HR in one year in the minors and signed everything with his name and a big '66'. Granted he was not a great player and a terrible fielder, but he hit some long HR at Forbes Field. The 1960's Pirates team was a fun team and had talent.

[jersey cubs fan]

But by worst 100 baseball players I don't just mean the objective worst, the statistical worst, the most physically discomforting to watch. I mean the players whose failure was enduring, endearing, perplexing,and spectacular. It's easy to identify bad players—sabermetrics has made a truly effective science of it—and it's easy to name cup-of-coffee guys who never had the ability, physical or mental, to stick in the major leagues. But a list like that might mean leaving out guys like Jose Lima, Ray Oyler, or the Rev. Aloysius Stanislaus Travers. In other words, while Rafael Belliard does appear below, nobody wants to read about 100 versions of him.

[Sammy Sofa]

Under the "have you considered another line of work" category

 

5. Ozzie Guillen, 1985-2000 (White Sox/Braves/Rays/Orioles)

Ozzie Guillen, like many managers, was a bad baseball player. His on base percentage in 15 seasons was .286. His slugging percentage was .238. But he won a Gold Glove, you say. And a Rookie of the Year award! He was a three-time All Star! And he stole a lot of bases! Actually, Guillen was caught on almost 40 percent of his attempts. And after his last All Star appearance at age 27 (for a season in which he had a .284 on-base percentage) he hung around for nine more years, doing nothing in particular with his glove and less with with his bat.

 

I had completely forgotten just how bad Guillen was. For some reason I thought he was a decent player.

 

grit doesnt age well

 

edit: I should post this in another thread, but Ozzie never got along with Big Frank because Frank didn't hustle. Amazingly a large portion of Sox fans sided with Ozzie on this and thought he was an important player of some of their good mid 90s teams

 

Yup. He's still got that reputation, too.

[jersey cubs fan]

http://deadspin.com/5820622/the-100-worst-baseball-players-of-all-time-a-celebration-part-2

 

bad people category:

60. Ambiorix Burgos, 2005-2007 (Royals/Mets)

Ambiorix Burgos was a bad closer. In 2006, the second of his three seasons, he pitched 73.1 innings for the Royals, allowing 16 home runs, and posting a 5.52 ERA. (Say what you will about the necessity and meaning of the closer position, but 18 saves in 30 attempts is just not good). Off the field, Burgos was one of baseball's most frightening human beings. He was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend by biting, scratching and slapping her; he has been charged with a hit and run on two women on the Dominican Republic, one of whom later died; and also in the Dominican Republic he has been charged with kidnapping and attempted murder for allegedly poisoning his ex-wife.

 

Quietly very bad:

72. Willie Bloomquist, 2002-2011 (Mariners/Royals/Diamondbacks/Reds)

Willie Bloomquist has played every position but pitcher and catcher. He's appeared in major league games every season since 2002. Bloomquist is a compendium of bad clichés. He is the utility player who can allegedly help your team with his defensive versatility despite not fielding exceptionally well anywhere. He's the scrappy hustling little guy—working his butt off to help the team with his intangibles, but actually hurting the team with his inability to hit. Bloomquist's career OPS is .653. He doesn't steal bases. His career WAR, over all those seasons, is 0.8. Willie Bloomquist is the definition of replaceable.

[jersey cubs fan]

He's here! He's here!

 

77. Neifi Perez, 1996-2007 (Rockies/Cubs/Giants/Royals/Tigers)

Neifi Perez is the prototypical bad player of the modern era. He was bad at the old stats (a .267 hitter with little power and subpar defensive skills) and bad at the new ones (.672 career OPS, caught stealing an impressive 44 percent of the time). The experts agree: Dave Cameron deemed Perez's 2002 season (-3.5 WAR) the worst in baseball history; King Kaufman, who also wrote an adoring paean to Perez's awfulness, named a statistic for measuring the negative value of a reserve player to his team the Neifi Index.

[Banedon]

Where's Sunnydoo?

 

55. Alex Sanchez, 2001-2005 (Brewers/Tigers/Rays/Giants)

Alex Sanchez was the first major leaguer to be suspended for performance-enhancing drug use. His positive test in April 2005 would have been a major coup for Commissioner Bud Selig had Sanchez hit more than four home runs in the 1,000-plus at-bats of his career to that point.

[UMFan83]

Under the "have you considered another line of work" category

 

5. Ozzie Guillen, 1985-2000 (White Sox/Braves/Rays/Orioles)

Ozzie Guillen, like many managers, was a bad baseball player. His on base percentage in 15 seasons was .286. His slugging percentage was .238. But he won a Gold Glove, you say. And a Rookie of the Year award! He was a three-time All Star! And he stole a lot of bases! Actually, Guillen was caught on almost 40 percent of his attempts. And after his last All Star appearance at age 27 (for a season in which he had a .284 on-base percentage) he hung around for nine more years, doing nothing in particular with his glove and less with with his bat.

 

I had completely forgotten just how bad Guillen was. For some reason I thought he was a decent player.

 

The funny thing is, he was so bad that I actually believed that .286 career SLG number. It's actually .386....still bad but not epically bad.

[MSG T]

Under the "have you considered another line of work" category

 

5. Ozzie Guillen, 1985-2000 (White Sox/Braves/Rays/Orioles)

Ozzie Guillen, like many managers, was a bad baseball player. His on base percentage in 15 seasons was .286. His slugging percentage was .238. But he won a Gold Glove, you say. And a Rookie of the Year award! He was a three-time All Star! And he stole a lot of bases! Actually, Guillen was caught on almost 40 percent of his attempts. And after his last All Star appearance at age 27 (for a season in which he had a .284 on-base percentage) he hung around for nine more years, doing nothing in particular with his glove and less with with his bat.

 

I had completely forgotten just how bad Guillen was. For some reason I thought he was a decent player.

 

The funny thing is, he was so bad that I actually believed that .286 career SLG number. It's actually .386....still bad but not epically bad.

 

According to B-R, it's actually .338, with a career OPS of .626.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

The article said it was his OBP that was 286, which is what it was for his career with the White Sox.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Im actually somewhat shocked that one time mega prospect/it boy Joe Charboneau was nowhere to be found on that list.

[NewUserName]

I think most of the players on that list were good at bunting

[NeifiIsMyHomeBoy]

What? No Ryan Theriot? I don't believe this.

[Tryptamine]

To be honest I thought Koyie Hill would make it. If we were talking single season I would have nominated Aaron Miles as well.