Just For Fun Awards
Team Awards
Best Regular Season Team: Philadelphia Phillies
Most Surprising Team: Arizona Diamondbacks
Biggest Mid-Year Turnaround: (Tie) St. Louis Cardinals/Tampa Bay Rays
Biggest Late Season Collapse: (Tie) Atlanta Braves/Boston Red Sox
Most Disappointing American League Team: Minnesota Twins
Most Disappointing National League Team: Chicago Cubs
Most Over-Achieving American League Team: Tampa Bay Rays
Most Over-Achieving National League Team: St. Louis Cardinals
Most Under-Achieving American League Team: Boston Red Sox
Most Under-Achieving National League Team: Philadelphia Phillies
Most Anonymously Decent Team: Los Angeles Dodgers
Best Non-Playoff Team: Boston Red Sox
Worst American League Team: Minnesota Twins
Worst National League Team: Houston Astros
Luckiest American League Team: Cleveland Indians
Luckiest National League Team: Arizona Diamondbacks
Most Snake-bit American League Team: New York Yankees
Most Snake-bit National League Team: San Diego Padres
Worst Front-Office: Chicago White Sox
Worst American League Managerial Job: Ozzie Guillen (Chicago White Sox)
Worst National League Managerial Job: Edwin Rodriguez (Florida Marlins)
Worst American League Fans: Tampa Bay Rays
Worst National League Fans: Florida Marlins
Best Fans: Philadelphia Phillies
Comments: The Phillies were certainly the best regular season team, winning 102 games, 5 more than anyone else. They were behind only the Yankees with a +184 run differential.
The D-Backs were my most surprising team, as I picked them to be 68-94 and they went 94-68 (+26).
We don’t really even have to get into why the Braves and Red Sox have the biggest collapse and the Cards and Rays have the biggest turnaround.
The Twins were my most disappointing AL team. I picked them to go 90-72 and they went 63-99 (-27).
The Cubbies were my most disappointing NL team. They didn’t have a ton of high expectations but I picked them to go 85-77 and they went 71-91 (-14).
The Rays and Cards were easy picks for overachievers. The Rays lost Rafael Soriano, Joaquin Benoit, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, and Matt Garza. They had a payroll of about $41 million, 2nd smallest in the game. They won 91 games to reach the playoffs.
The Cards had a payroll of around $105 million; a lot compared to the Rays; not much compared to the real big spenders. They lost Adam Wainwright in spring training and had to deal with injuries to Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and David Freese during the year. They ended up winning it all.
The Red Sox were both the AL’s biggest underachievers and the best team in MLB not to make the playoffs. They had a payroll of $161 million and they had spent huge money to bring in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford during the offseason. They were the best team on paper but they didn’t make the playoffs. They won 90 games and had a +138 run differential.
It may seem harsh to call Philly the biggest underachievers of the NL but they had the biggest payroll in the NL at around $172 million. They had one of the greatest 5-man rotations of all time. They acquired the best available player (Hunter Pence) at the trade deadline. They won 102 games, yet they went out in the NLDS to a 90-win STL team.
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, the Dodgers had a lot of ugliness off the field this season but they were okay on the field, finishing 82-79 to finish tied 13th in the ML. They had a +32 run differential and were -2 in luck.
The Twins were easily the worst AL team, going 63-99 with a -185 run differential (worst in the game).
The Astros were the worst team in all of baseball, going 56-106 with a -181 run differential.
I call the Indians the luckiest AL team because they were certainly the flukiest. They got off to a ridiculous start and then were basically below average the rest of the way. They were +5 in luck and 30-26 in 1-run games.
The D-Backs were +6 in luck, 9-4 in extra innings, and 28-16 in 1-run games.
I call the Yanks snake-bit because they were -4 in luck, 4-12 in extra innings, and 21-24 in 1-run games.
The Padres were the most unlucky team in the ML. They were -8 in luck (30th in MLB), 4-12 in extra inning games, and 20-31 in 1-run games.
The White Sox are represented here by their front office and their manager for the wrong reasons. I loved Guillen when he played for the Braves and I think he is a good guy but his act has gotten very, very old. I really didn’t understand why he quit with 2 games to play. He also insisted on playing Alex Rios and Adam Dunn every day, long after it was clear that they were killing the team. Rios played 145 games despite a .265 OBP and a .613 OPS. Dunn played 122 games despite hitting .159 with a .569 OPS.
We’ll hear more about those guys later. Anyway, it was Kenny Williams who brought Dunn and (earlier) Rios to the South Side. He’s also responsible for the Jake Peavy disaster and for trading away Daniel Hudson. And both guys just run off at the mouth too much in the media.
Edwin Rodriguez probably never should have been the Marlins manager in the first place but he didn’t do a very good job holding that team together. Apparently he wasn’t able to wield much respect or authority in the clubhouse. He quit with the team in a swoon and their record at 32-39.
Once again the state of Florida holds it down in the worst fans department. Marlins fans are awful. Rays fans may be worse, as their team has been really good and they still won’t come. TB was 28th in attendance and 29th in average attendance. The Marlins were 29th in attendance and 28th in average attendance.
Phillies fans were once again by far the best fans in the sport this year. They had a total home attendance of 3,680,718. That was tops in the ML by 27,038 over the Yanks. The Phils averaged 45,440 per game (1st in the ML); about 33 more fans per game than the Yanks. They were also far and away #1 in baseball in the percentage of tickets sold at 104.1%. They sell out every game and I guess the standing room only tickets eventually add up to 4.1%. Boston was also over capacity on average but not as much as Philly.
The Jeff Francoeur Award
Major League Baseball Least Valuable Position Player
Winner: Adam Dunn (DH-Chicago White Sox)
Runner-up: Alex Rios (CF-Chicago White Sox)
Third Place: (Tie) Drew Butera (C-Minnesota)/Rene Rivera (C-Minnesota)
Comments: I looked at a number of guys for this award. There are really two different categories within the same award. There are the guys with a small number of PA who did literally nothing; and there are the guys who produced more but in reality did worse than nothing because they got more PA (and because they got more money…a lot more).
It was interesting that this year 4 of the 6 part time guys I looked at were catchers. They used to say that catcher was the fastest road to the big leagues (though I used to suspect that it was just something that little league coaches said to the fat kids to make them feel better about having to get behind the dish). At this point it seems like it’s the only road a guy can take to the big leagues if he flat-out can’t hit.
It may be that there are so few catchers out there that inevitably you wind up with guys that have absolutely no offensive abilities. It may also be that some managers still value the non-batting part of a catcher’s job enough to put up with a guy who isn’t a major league hitter. For whatever reason, the Mendoza’s of today’s game seem to be catchers and not shortstops.
Now for a long, drawn out history of a guy who didn’t even make the cut for this award, all for the sake of turning it into a lesson regarding small sample sizes. We all know that making judgments based off of small sample sizes is dangerous. I find it more difficult to keep small sample size performance in proper perspective in baseball than in other sports. This is because small sample sizes can seem so big.
A starting position player bats 4 or 5 times a game and might play every inning in the field. You see a guy play 20 games over a month and it seems like you have a pretty good idea what type of player he is. But in reality, you’ve seen him play 12.34% of a regular season. You wouldn’t normally think that you knew how good a QB was after you watched him play 2 games, but 2 games is actually 12.50% of a regular NFL season (slightly more than 20 games in baseball).
The thing that’s maybe unique about baseball is that small sample sizes can be especially misleading early in a player’s career. You rarely see a rookie combo guard score 20 points a game and record 2 triple doubles during the first 10 games of his career and then spend the rest of his short career battling for the 10th or 11th spot on the roster. However, something close to the equivalent isn’t all that uncommon in baseball.
A major factor here is that “league adjustments” seem to be a bigger deal in baseball than in other sports. For whatever reason, there are some very talented and very determined baseball players who simply fail to adjust when the league inevitably figures them out. So small sample sizes and baseball’s unique kind of “beginner’s luck” can be a treacherous combination.
JR Towles is a pretty good example of this. I think Towles must have had good plate discipline as a high schooler and JC player because the Oakland A’s drafted him in the 32nd round in 2002 and in the 23rd round in 2003. Towles never signed but the Texan did of course sign when the Astros took him in the 20th round in 2004.
He played in 39 games at rookie ball that season and hit only .243 with a .297 SLG but he had a .370 OBP in 139 PA. The next year he played in 45 games in A-ball and hit .346 with a .986 OPS in 193 PA. He spent another year at A-ball in 2006, playing 81 games and hitting .317 with a .906 OPS in 321 PA.
He started off 2007 at advanced-A and hit only .200 with a .617 OPS in 115 PA over 26 games, but he was promoted to AA anyway in May. He spent most of his season at AA, hitting .324 with a .976 OPS in 257 PA over 61 games. He then hit .279 with a .633 OPS in 50 PA during a 13 game stop in AAA before making his MLB debut with the Astros on September 5th of 2007.
He would play in 14 games for the Astros during the rest of the regular season, going 15 for 40 to hit .375/.432/.575/1.007 with 9 runs, 5 doubles, a homer, and 12 RBI. He made no errors, 1 PB, and gunned down 3 of 6 base stealers.
Looking back, Towles’ September call-up run was fluky as hell. He had 8 RBI in one game against the Cardinals and his BAbip (AVG on balls put in play) was .368. In 44 PA he only struck out once and only walked 3 times.
Despite the warning signs, Towles was handed the starting catching job the next spring. Even then, one thing that should have worried Astros fans about Towles was that he was Houston’s top ranked prospect but was only ranked 58th in baseball by Baseball America.
Towles was awful during the first two months of the 2008 season and eventually he found himself back in AAA. He spent 3 months back in the minors, hitting .304 with an .870 OPS over 192 PA and then went back up to the majors in September. In 54 games with Houston that year Towles went just 20 for 146 to hit .137/.250/.253/.503 with 5 doubles and 4 homers.
After only walking 3 times and striking out once in 44 PA in 2007, Towles walked 16 times and fanned 40 times in 171 PA at the MLB level in 08. He had half as many RBI in 1 game in 2007 as he did in 54 games in 2008 (16). His BAbip in 2008 was just .153.
In 2009 Towles had a short stay with the big league club in late April/early May and then went back to AAA where he hit .276 with an .842 OPS in 178 PA over 56 games. He again went back to the majors during September. In 16 games with Houston that year he went 7 for 48 to hit .188 with a .604 OPS, 2 homers, 3 RBI, 3 BB, and 16 K in 53 PA. He threw out just 1 of 11 base stealers.
Despite those hideous numbers, Towles was given the starting duties again as the 2010 season began, but after only a month he was gone. He went 9 for 47 in 17 games to hit .191 with a .554 OPS, 1 homer, 8 RBI, 2 BB, and 12 K over 51 PA. On the 3rd of May he was demoted all the way to AA. Things only got worse. He went 2 for 14 (.143) in 5 games at AA before tearing ligaments in his thumb and being lost for the season.
I have given this long and superfluous intro about a guy who didn’t even finish in the voting for this mock award because…er…ah…well I’m not really sure why I did it.
Anywho, Towles wasn’t any better with the Stros in 2011, but they still had to play him a bunch because they were gawdawful. Towles went only 27 for 147 to hit .184/.256/.293/.549 with 3 homers, 11 RBI, 3 GDP, 13 BB, and 26 K. He made 6 errors, had 2 PB, allowed 6 WP, and threw out just 8 of 46 base stealers (17.4%). He was 1045th in WAR (approx. -0.3).
But it was JRT’s performance in so-called clutch situations that really stood out for being awful. He was just 4 for 41 (.098) with RISP (368th out of 368 with at least 50 PA with RISP) and 2 for 26 (.077) with 2 out and RISP (360th out of 362 with at least 25 PA with 2 out and RISP).
Moving away from Towles (finally), Jeff Mathis is another catcher who got some consideration for this award. I will admit that Mike Napoli’s performance this year (especially on defense in the postseason) made Mike Scioscia’s choosing Mathis over Napoli seem so outrageously stupid that I was probably unconsciously drawn to Mathis’ name when I came up with candidates.
But it’s not like Mathis hasn’t been widely known to be one of the worst offensive players in the game for years. In 247 AB for the Angels this season, Mathis hit .174/.225/.259/.484 with 3 homers, 15 BB, 75 K, 3 GDP, and 1 SB in 3 attempts. He made 3 errors and allowed 6 PB behind the plate. He was 13 for 69 with RISP (.188 and slightly better than his overall numbers but obviously still awful). Mathis was 1041st in WAR (approx. -0.3).
One part time player I looked at who is not a catcher was Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo was one of the pieces that the Boston Red Sox sent to San Diego in exchange for Adrian Gonzalez. Doesn’t look like the Pahds got any kind of player so far. In 128 at bats for the Padres this year, the first baseman hit .141/.281/.242/.523 with 1 homer and 2 GDP. He made a pair of errors in the field. Of the 452 ML players with at least 100 PA this season, Rizzo was dead last in batting average. He was 1126th in WAR (approx. -0.7).
Then there was Tyler Colvin, the young outfielder who had been a bright spot for the Cubs in 2010, slugging .500 in 394 PA with 18 doubles, 5 triples, 20 homers, 56 RBI, and 6 SB in 7 attempts. I had him in a deep NL fantasy league that year and it always annoyed me that Lou Piniella wouldn’t play him every day. Now I have an idea why he was skeptical.
This season Colvin went 31 for 206 to hit .150/.204/.306/.509 with 8 doubles, 3 triples, 6 homers, 20 RBI, 14 BB, and 58 K. He was 1131st in WAR (approx. -0.8).
Among the everyday players I looked at was Vernon Wells. In this case, the contract situation had a lot to do with him being a candidate. During the last offseason--for reasons that few people understand (now or then)--the Angels traded Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera to the Blue Jays for Wells and $5 mill in cash.
The $5 million only meant that the Angles would have to pay the 32-year old $84 million over the next 4 years rather than $89 million. Wells wouldn’t even be playing in center for the Angels but rather left field. Give the Jays 5 for pulling that thing off. Now take 4 of those 5 back, because the Jays then sent Napoli to the Rangers for Frank Francisco.
Wells had 25 dingers in 505 AB for the Angels this year but he had only 9 SB in 13 tries (69.2%), 20 BB, 86 K and hit .218/.248/.412/.660. He hit into 8 GDP, committed 3 errors, had a -0.5 DWAR, and was 1051st in WAR (approx. -0.3).
There was one other regular that I looked at and that was Chone Figgins. After a number of productive seasons with the Angels, Figgins signed a 4-year $35 million contract with the Mariners prior to the 2010 season. Last year (his first with Seattle), Figgins played in 161 games, racking up 702 PA, but his numbers fell off significantly, as he hit just .259/.340/.306/.646 with a homer, 2 triples, 74 BB, 114 K, and 42 SB in 57 attempts. He hit into 19 GDP. Plus, after becoming exclusively a third baseman with the Anaheim, the Mariners played him every game at second base and he was a disaster, finishing with a -0.8 DWAR.
If Mariners fans thought Figgins sucked in 2010 they hadn’t seen anything yet. This year Figgins played in just 81 games, but that may actually have been a blessing, as he hit just .188/.241/.243/.484 in 288 AB with a homer, 21 BB, 42 K, 6 GDP, and 11 SB in 17 attempts (64.7%). He committed 11 errors playing at 2nd and 3rd.
Figgins went 8 for 61 with RISP (.131; 365th out of 368 with at least 50 PA with RISP) and 1 for 30 with RISP and 2 out (.033; 362nd out of 362 with at least 25 PA with RISP and 2 out). He was 1089th in WAR (approx. -0.5).
Finally I decided upon the 4 guys honored for their awfulness (2 regulars and 2 part-time players).
In 2011, Joe Mauer had an extremely disappointing season, but certainly nothing that could get him anywhere near a list for least valuable player. However, while his name isn’t among the 4 guys listed, he is well represented. The Twins had plenty of things go wrong this year: Justin Morneau’s season was destroyed again; the production of just about every other key regular either fell off or was lost and wasn’t replaced; Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano had poor seasons; and the bullpen went from a strength to a disaster. But by far the biggest reason that the Twins finished 5th in the AL Central and won just .389 of their games—after finishing 3rd or better and winning at least .488 of their games in each of the previous 10 seasons—was Joe Mauer.
Joe Mauer played in only 82 games, only 52 of them at catcher, and when he was in the game he played well below his normal standard. The Twins went from having one of the top hitters in baseball in their lineup every day to having a mediocre hitter in the lineup every other day. When he wasn’t in the lineup, the Twins had to replace him with players who were worse (much worse) than what you could expect from a minor leaguer called up as a replacement player.
Making things even more costly, the Twins were having to replace one of the top hitters in the game who happened to play something like two thirds of their games at a position where there are no top hitters, very few good hitters, and mostly average or below average hitters.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be that surprised that the Twins had no answer to Mauer’s absence, as they probably haven’t thought about the catcher position much over the last 7 or 8 years. I believe the Twins felt that if they had Mauer they could build the team around him and even if they just had a bunch of average players otherwise they would be a decent 85-90 win team; occasionally slightly worse or slightly better.
But they lost Mauer for half the year and got a drastically less productive version of him during the other half. Even if everything else had gone right they would have struggled to be much better than .500. When everything else went wrong as well, it turned into a 99-loss season.
Consider that the guys tied in third place for my LVP of baseball this season combined to start at catcher in the Twins lineup in 110 games this season rather than Mauer.
Rene Rivera was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2001 draft by Seattle and he played sparingly for the Mariners in 3 straight seasons from 2004-2006, appearing in a total of 53 games, and actually posting a .929 OPS in 50 PA in 2005. But from 2007-2010 he went 4 full seasons without playing a single game in the majors. During that time he played in the minors for Seattle, the Dodgers, the Mets, and the Yankees but never got the call.
The Twins signed him as a free agent prior to the 2011 season and he played his first game with the ML club on May 7th. The 27-year old catcher played in 45 games for Minnesota this season, going 15 for 104 at the plate to hit .144/.211/.202/.412 with 3 doubles, a homer, 5 RBI, 8 BB, 32 K, and 2 GDP.
Of 452 ML players with at least 100 PA in 2011, Rivera was 451st in AVG; 449th in OBP; and 452nd in SLG, OPS, RC (2.5) and RC27 (0.74). He was 1117th out of 1173 in OWAR (approx. -0.5) and 1005th in WAR (approx. -0.2).
He was at least decent behind the plate, making 3 errors, allowing 1 PB and 7 WP, but also throwing out 10 of 25 base stealers (40.0%). But his solid play behind the plate couldn’t make up for his hideous performance at the plate.
With RISP, Rivera was 4 for 25 (.160; better than his overall average but still awful) with 4 RBI, 2 BB, 6 K, and 2 GDP. He was 1 for 11 (.091) with 1 RBI, 1 BB, and 4 K with RISP and 2 out.
Drew Butera was also a catcher for the Twins this season, and while he wasn’t an everyday player, he was much more of a regular than Rivera. Also 27, Butera had been acquired by the Twins from the Mets in a trade for Luis Castillo back in 2007, and had made his MLB debut in 2010, playing in 49 games with the Twins, and hitting .197 with a .533 OPS, 2 homers, 13 RBI, 4 BB, and 25 K in 155 PA. As spectacularly bad as those numbers were, Butera would be even worse in 2011, and this time he would play in 93 games.
Butera went 39 for 234 to hit .167/.210/.239/.449 with 9 doubles, a triple, 2 homers, 23 RBI, 11 BB, 42 K, and 7 GDP. Among the 452 ML players with at least 100 PA, Butera was 446th in AVG; 450th in OBP; 444th in SLG; 449th in OPS; 440th in RC (7.3); and 451st in RC27 (0.94).
He had 5 errors and 7 PB in the field, allowing 21 WP and throwing out 22 of 70 base stealers (31.4%). He was actually solid defensively, but again, it didn’t come close to making up for his total ineptitude as an offensive player.
He was 1170th out of 1173 in OWAR (approx. -1.4) and 1158th in WAR (approx. -1.2). With RISP and 2 out, Butera was just 4 for 31 (.129) with 4 RBI, 3 BB, and 5 K.
The top 2 guys represented here played much more regularly. They were also paid much more handsomely.
Following the non-waiver deadline in 2009, the Toronto Blue Jays placed underachieving outfielder Alex Rios on waivers. Most players are placed on waivers during the season and you never hear about it because teams are just trying to gauge interest. White Sox GM Kenny Williams—for whatever reason—claimed Rios. The Blue Jays didn’t pull him back. Thus, the White Sox found themselves responsible for what was left of Rios’ $6.4 million salary in 2009…and the $59.7 million due to him from 2010 through 2014.
In 41 games with the White Sox the rest of that season, Rios hit .199/.229/.301/.530 with 3 homers, 9 RBI, 6 BB, and 29 K (154 PA). In 2010 (his first full year with the Chi Sox), Rios appeared in 147 games, playing solid defense in center field, and hitting .284/.337/.457/.791 with 21 homers, 88 RBI, and 34 SB in 48 tries (70.8%). He may not have been worth $10.5 million that year but he had an okay season.
This year, the now 30-year old Rios made $12.5 million but he was a complete disaster. He played in 145 games, hitting .227/.265/.348/.613 with 22 doubles, 2 triples, 13 homers, 44 RBI, 11 SB in 17 attempts (64.7%), 27 BB, 68 K, and 20 GDP (570 PA). Of the 165 ML players with at least 475 PA, Rios was 156th in AVG; 149th in SLG; and 163rd in OBP, OPS, RC (43.4), and RC27 (2.63).
And this year he was a poor defensive player, finishing 1091st out of 1173 in DWAR (approx. -0.5). Rios was 1160th in OWAR (Approx. -1.0) and 1166th in WAR (approx. -1.5).
Rios went 21 for 123 with RISP to hit .171 (206th out of 209 with at least 100 PA with RISP) with 9 BB and 17 K. He went 4 for 53 with RISP and 2 out to hit .075 (186th out of 186 with at least 50 PA with RISP and 2 out) with 2 BB and 8 K.
It may seem hard to believe but Rios wasn’t the least valuable player in the majors this season. Incredibly, he wasn’t even the least valuable player on his own team.
Kenny Williams already had a roster full of risky contracts lined up going into last offseason. Then he decided to take on one more, signing slugger Adam Dunn to a 4-year deal that would pay him $56 million, starting with $12 million in 2011.
There were parts of the move that seemed okay. Dunn was only 31 and he relied on skills that tend to remain with players late into their careers much more often than skills related to speed and athleticism. Also, the deal was only for 4 years, so if he did start to fade at age 33 it wouldn’t cripple the team for another 4 years.
However, they would be paying a lot of money to what you might call a “two-trick pony.” Dunn does two things well: walk and slug. There is nothing else. He would be playing almost exclusively as a DH (something he’d never done before), meaning he wouldn’t be giving you anything at all as a defender. And because if you did put him in the field he would be less than a zero, he would basically keep the White Sox from using the DH spot to keep guys fresh or in the lineup despite injuries.
They would also be paying a ton of money to a guy who has never exactly seemed “driven” the way that most professional athletes are. In fact, Dunn’s passion for and care about the game of baseball had been questioned at times. Now you were paying that guy $56 million and telling him that all he would be doing is coming to bat 5 times a game.
Would he be in as good of shape if he knew he most likely wouldn’t have to play the field? Would he be as patient as he needed to be in order to succeed now that he would basically be sitting on the bench for 98% of the game?
There were some who liked the deal and some who didn’t. Even those who didn’t like the move could never have imagined just how awful Dunn’s 1st season on the South Side would be.
In 122 games for the White Sox in 2011, Dunn hit .159/.292/.277/.569 with 16 doubles, 11 homers, 42 RBI, 0 SB in 1 attempt, 75 BB, 177 K, and 10 GDP (496 PA). Of the 165 players in the ML with at least 475 PA, Dunn was 151st in OBP; 164th in RC (34.0), RC27 (2.54); and 165th in AVG, SLG, and OPS. It was hard to fathom. Dunn was 1173rd out of 1173 in OWAR (approx. -2.3) and 1173rd in WAR (approx. -2.7).
He ended up playing 81 games at DH, 35 games at 1B, and 2 games in RF. When he was in the field he was not good. He was 1065th in DWAR (approx. -0.4).
Dunn was worse still in clutch situations. With RISP he went 15 for 106 to hit .142 (209th out of 209 with at least 100 PA with RISP) with 26 BB and 52 K. With RISP and 2 out he went 4 for 39 to hit .103 (184th out of 184 with at least 50 PA with RISP and 2 out) with 12 BB and 22 K.
Perhaps most stunning of all, against left handed pitchers, Adam Dunn went 6 for 94 to hit .064 with a double, no homers, 3 RBI, 20 BB, 39 K, and 2 GDP.
Dunn was without question the Least Valuable Player in baseball this season.
The Hideki Arabu Award
Major League Baseball Least Valuable Pitcher
Winner: Brian Matusz (SP-Baltimore)
Runner-up: John Lackey (SP-Boston)
Third Place: Scott Proctor (RP-Atlanta/New York Yankees)
Comments: In contrast to the Least Valuable Player award, this one actually came together fairly quickly. I ended up with 1 reliever, 1 starter who only made a handful of starts, and 1 starter who was in the rotation for the entire season.
Scott Proctor would have won the award for Least Valuable Reliever and if he had for some reason been allowed to make 80 appearances or something he would have won this award. Proctor had his best year with the Yankees back in 2006 when he led the league in appearances with 83. He made 83 appearances again the next season between the Yankees and Dodgers. He then bombed out in 2008 with LAD and had his season cut short due to injury. He underwent Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2009.
The Braves signed Proctor to a minor league deal but it took longer than expected for him to come back from the injury. He pitched in only 6 games for the Atlanta club in 2010, allowing 4 runs in 5.2 innings.
After his struggles with injuries and performance in 2010, I was skeptical that Proctor would be able to make it back. The Braves seemed to give up on him as well as they released him at the end of spring training this year. However, he resigned with them a few days later and started the year in the minors.
He got off to a good start at AAA and by May 17th he was up in Atlanta. He got off to a good start with the big league club too, posting a 1.69 ERA and a .171 AVGA over 10.2 innings in his first 13 appearances through June 14th.
There were some warning signs: control issues, few strikeouts, really good luck in BAbip. But as a Braves fan I will admit that Proctor’s problems snuck up on me. All of the sudden he just started getting hammered and he literally was never able to stop it. He got rocked basically the rest of the season.
Over his last 18 games with the Braves, Proctor allowed 5 homers and posted a 9.16 ERA, a 2.04 WHIP, and a .329 AVGA in 18.2 innings. After 31 total appearances for the Braves, Proctor had a 6.44 ERA and a 1.705 WHIP. The team released him on August 10th. This wasn’t a total shock, as he was only owed $185,440.
It looked to many people like his career might be over at 34. Interestingly enough, the Yankees scooped Proctor up just a few days later. This was good to see, as in a way the Yankees kind of owed him this shot considering that they burned him out over a season and a half in 2006-2007 and then dealt him to LAD when they figured he was about to fall apart.
Unfortunately, Proctor allowed runs in 6 of 8 games with NYY. He finished 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA and a 2.818 WHIP in 11 innings over 8 games with the Yanks.
With Atlanta and the Yanks this season, Proctor combined to make 39 appearances, going 2-6 with 4 holds and 2 BS. He pitched 40.1 innings, allowing 34 runs (32 earned) on 50 hits and 31 BB with 29 K. He posted a 7.14 ERA, a 2.01 WHIP, a 0.94 K/BB, a 6.47 K/9, an 11.2 H/9, a 6.9 BB/9, and a 2.5 HR/9. He allowed 11 homers, 2 SB in 2 attempts (100%), threw 4 WP, and 1 HBP.
Proctor did strand 15 of 22 inherited runners (68.2%) but opposing batters hit .313/.423/.594/1.016 off of him. He was 655th out of 662 ML pitchers with a -1.5 WAR. Among the 160 ML relievers with at least 40 IP in relief, Proctor was 160th in ERA, WHIP, OBPA, SLGA, OPSA, and K/BB. He was 125th in K/9 and 157th in AVGA.
John Lackey’s best season came in 2007 when he finished 3rd in the AL Cy Young voting. He had back to back okay years after that, missing a handful of starts each year due to injuries. A free agent after 2009, the Red Sox decided they had to sign the best starter they could, and that just happened to be Lackey. The deal was for $82.5 million over 5 years from 2010-2014.
The deal was criticized by some but I actually thought it might be okay for Boston because they have all the money in the world and I thought he would give them decent innings, which was all that team needed because of their great offense. I knew about his awful record at Fenway, but I thought that was more about the Red Sox than the park.
Lackey wasn’t very good in 2010 but he ended up having essentially the kind of year I expected, making 33 starts and going 14-11 with a 4.40 ERA. Then suddenly this season, the 32-year old went up about 3 levels on the suck scale.
Lackey made 28 starts, going 12-12 (.500) and posting a 6.41 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP over 160 innings. He allowed 119 runs (114 earned; most in ML) on 203 hits and 56 BB with 108 K over 160 IP. He threw 11 wild pitches and gave up 20 homers and 33 SB in 36 attempts (91.7%). He threw 9 QS in 28 attempts (32.1%). Opposing batters hit .308/.375/.477/.852 off of Lackey. He hit 19 batters (most in ML) and committed 3 errors.
Lackey had an average Gamescore of just 41, which was tied 141st (last) among the pitchers with enough starts to qualify. Lackey had a 6.08 K/9, a 1.93 K/BB, an 11.4 H/9, a 3.2 BB/9, and a 1.1 HR/9. Lackey pitched 5.7 IP/GS and led all of baseball with 8 Cheap Wins. The Red Sox were 14-14 with him on the mound (.500). Lackey finished 647th out of 662 with a -1.2 WAR.
Lackey made $15.95 million this season, but among the 98 ML pitchers with at least 160 IP, Lackey was 9th in ERA, WHIP, AVGA, and OBPA. He was 95th in SLGA; 97th in OPSA; 71st in K/9 and 82nd in K/BB.
Plus he’s a total douche. More on that later. Now to the winner.
Left hander Brian Matusz was taken with the 4th pick in the 2008 draft by the Baltimore Orioles. He made his debut in August of 2009 at the age of 22, making 8 starts and going 5-2 with a 4.63 ERA. He made 32 starts in the bigs in 2010, going 10-12 for the lowly Orioles with a 4.30 ERA. He ended up 5th in the AL ROY voting.
At 24, Matusz would make $1.35 million this year and was expected to be Baltimore’s starter on opening day 2011. But just a few days before the start of the season he underwent an MRI that revealed an intercostal strain under his shoulder blade. He would not make his first start of the season until June 1st. He survived his first 2 starts without getting totally crushed and the Orioles won both games. But he didn’t have his good stuff.
Then his luck ran out and he started getting blasted. After 4 straight losses and with his velocity not up to snuff he was sent down to AAA on July 1st. 46 days later he was back in the bigs but nothing changed. He got crushed in all 3 of his starts in August. Then he got smoked in all 3 of his September starts.
The final numbers were not pretty. In 12 starts, Matusz went 1-9 (.100) with zero QS (0.0%, averaging just 4.1 IP/GS. His average Game Score was just 31. In 49.2 innings, Matusz allowed 60 runs (59 earned) on 81 hits and 24 BB with 38 K. He allowed 18 homers and the Orioles were 2-10 with him on the mound (.167). Opposing batters hit .372/.430/.693/1.123 of him.
Matusz posted a 10.69 ERA, a 2.11 WHIP, a 14.7 H/9, a 4.3 BB/9, a 3.3 HR/9, a 6.9 K/9, and a 1.58 K/BB. Among the 359 ML pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched, Matusz was 359th in ERA, WHIP, AVGA, OBPA, SLGA, and OPSA. He was 303rd in K/BB and 196th in K/9.
To make a long story short (too late): Brian Matusz was simply the worst pitcher in baseball this season.
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