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A friend of mine sent this piece to me so I thought I'd share it. I do not have a link. I apologize.
There are 22 players this season in baseball who are living out their own dream of being professional players, players so bad that they have to pay their respective clubs to be on the 25 man roster. OK, so maybe not – but here are 22 players who are so bad that they should be paying to play. Each of the players in the list have at least 200 at bats with their Wins Above Replacement (or WAR, a statistical measure of their worth – or otherwise in this case - to the team) converted to a dollar salary of $4 million per win.
Topping the list is the Astros 3B Pedro Felix who, despite being paid $4.5 million in 2010, already owes the Astros $6.5 million for his dismal performance. Although the signing of Feliz in December 2009 was an odd choice, it wasn't necessarily the worst move of the baseball offseason. Although Feliz only signed for a one year deal there was at least some value in the signing since he had never failed to post less than a 1.2 WAR (around the breakeven level for his contract) since he became a regular in the Giants lineup in 2003. However he was only a marginal improvement over Geoff Blum and Jeff Keppinger, who shared duties at 3B for Houston in 2009, so it didn't seem to be money well spent. Although he has never been a power hitter nor particularly patient at the plate both his ISO and his BB/9 are career lows and his nightmare of a time in the field gives him the second worse UZR/150 for all major league players at 3B. And the list must make even worse reading for Houston fans as three out of the four worst performing players are Astros.
Looking down the list there are a few more notable inclusions with their respective teams not having the benefit of having the under performing players tied to one year deals. Signing the then 36 year old Raúl Ibáñez to a 3 year contract with a $10.5 million annual salary in 2008 caused a few eyebrows to be raised for an aging slugger who had only averaged an annual $9.6 million worth of production over the preceding three years. However, his 2009 performance saw a career high in home runs and SLG as well as an above average defensive performance which seemed to justify the contract; his 2010 performance certainly has not. With a career low in slugging, and 75 points under his career average, his defensive play has also vanished and he ranks 64th out of 71 qualified outfielders in terms of UZR/150. Even worse is that he is going to cost the Phillies another $10.5 million in 2011 although that is not the bitterest pill on the list; Houston's Carlos Lee is fourth in the 2010 Hall Of Shame and is owed $18.5 million in 2011 and $18.5 million in 2012. How 'bout dem Astros?
As a side note, notable mentions go to Randy Wolf (Brewers), Nick Blackburn (Twins), Wade Davis (Rays) and Kevin Correia (Padres) who are the only qualified pitchers in negative territory in 2010.
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Topping the list is the Astros 3B Pedro Felix who, despite being paid $4.5 million in 2010, already owes the Astros $6.5 million for his dismal performance. Although the signing of Feliz in December 2009 was an odd choice, it wasn't necessarily the worst move of the baseball offseason. Although Feliz only signed for a one year deal there was at least some value in the signing since he had never failed to post less than a 1.2 WAR (around the breakeven level for his contract) since he became a regular in the Giants lineup in 2003. However he was only a marginal improvement over Geoff Blum and Jeff Keppinger, who shared duties at 3B for Houston in 2009, so it didn't seem to be money well spent. Although he has never been a power hitter nor particularly patient at the plate both his ISO and his BB/9 are career lows and his nightmare of a time in the field gives him the second worse UZR/150 for all major league players at 3B. And the list must make even worse reading for Houston fans as three out of the four worst performing players are Astros.
Looking down the list there are a few more notable inclusions with their respective teams not having the benefit of having the under performing players tied to one year deals. Signing the then 36 year old Raúl Ibáñez to a 3 year contract with a $10.5 million annual salary in 2008 caused a few eyebrows to be raised for an aging slugger who had only averaged an annual $9.6 million worth of production over the preceding three years. However, his 2009 performance saw a career high in home runs and SLG as well as an above average defensive performance which seemed to justify the contract; his 2010 performance certainly has not. With a career low in slugging, and 75 points under his career average, his defensive play has also vanished and he ranks 64th out of 71 qualified outfielders in terms of UZR/150. Even worse is that he is going to cost the Phillies another $10.5 million in 2011 although that is not the bitterest pill on the list; Houston's Carlos Lee is fourth in the 2010 Hall Of Shame and is owed $18.5 million in 2011 and $18.5 million in 2012. How 'bout dem Astros?
As a side note, notable mentions go to Randy Wolf (Brewers), Nick Blackburn (Twins), Wade Davis (Rays) and Kevin Correia (Padres) who are the only qualified pitchers in negative territory in 2010.
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