We always talk about the best baseball players ever. Is Barry Bonds really worth more to his franchise over the course of his career than Babe Ruth? Their respective WAR’s show that Ruth was worth .2 wins above replacement than Bonds for the all-time lead. We hear about guys as the all time best players but, what about those guys who were just plain awful? I’m talking the guys who were good enough to stick around the Big Leagues but proved totally inept while taking their hacks or making their pitches against fellow Big Leaguers.
Mario Mendoza (SS/3B 1974-1982): The Mendoza Line is named after this guy for his
Mario Mendoza (above) was actually a baseball player
total failure at getting his batting average over .200. His career average stood at .215 but 5 of his 9 single season batting averages fell below the Mendoza line. Mendoza’s career -4.6 WAR shows that his respective teams would have been better off calling up a scrub off the street. When your name is intrinsically linked to batting ineptitude, your one of the worst players ever. Sorry Mario.
Tommy Dowd (OF/2B 1891-1901): Dowd was not a good player. At all. But, it was because of his glove. His career .252/.302/.373 line is at or above replacement level. Tommy Dowd was 144 runs below average on defense (Mariano Rivera has allowed 139 earned runs since 2001). The problem was that Dowd was an outfielder who played the infield. Dowd had 352 errors in 1334 games total. But breaking this down as a 2B he committed an error 57% of games played, as a 3B he had 23 errors in 37 games, as a SS he had 6 errors in the 6 games he played. Dowd’s on the list for trying to play the infield despite the fact that he totally hurt his team in doing so.
Jim Lillie (OF 1883-1886) Lillie only played 4 seasons because he was so awfully awful in his last season. He hit .175. Ok that’s bad but some guys take a lot of walks. Not Lillie: he took only 23 walks in his 4 year career. His 1886 OBP was .197 and slugged .197. No Homers, no triples, only 9 doubles. He cost his team 42 runs to replacement level player in 1886 alone. This may be the worst year in the history of hitting.
Bill Bergen (C 1901-1911): The old adage that catchers can just play defense and get by is perfectly embodied in Bergen. Bill is the poster boy for the non-hitter. He has a career .170/.194/.201 line. He was a career .170 hitter! Over 11 seasons. He had exactly one year over the Mendoza line. As a catcher, he was in the top 5 in stolen bases allowed in 8 of his 11 years and is 19th on the all time SBA list.
I got the graph to the left from Fangraphs. It compares the above 4 players’ career cumulative WAR. Notice that none of the players were ever at replacement level for their career. Bergen’s line just keeps going down. Very sad.
Time for two pitchers:
Jose Lima (SP 1994-2006): Lima often referred to himself as the worst pitcher who ever lived. It’s easy to see why when you look at his career 5.26 ERA. He lead the league in earned runs allowed twice and had a career 89-102 record. Lima had single season ERA’s of 7.77, 6.65, 6.99, and 9.87. Not so good.
Doc Hamann (RP 1922): The original Doc came in a game September 21, 1922 and proceeded to give up 3 hits, 3 walks, and hit a batter. He gave up 6 earned runs and never got an out. He’s one of 13 pitchers with infinite career ERAs. Sorry Doc.
As bad as all these players were, none were as bad as Mayor Mark Mallory when he tried to throw out the first pitch at a Reds game, a few years back. Take a look
