OT- Who had the worst season ever?
 

AJ Burnett had statistically the worst season ever as a Yankee starter last season. Adam Dunn hit .159 and struck out in 36 percent of his at bats.

But who had the worst season in history? Both as a pitcher and as a batter?

Pitcher: My vote goes to John Coleman who pitched for Philadelphia in 1883. He went 12-48 with a 4.87 ERA giving up 772 hits in 538 innings. That year he led the league in hits surrendered, earned runs, losses, and home runs surrendered.

Batter: I would say either Bergen's .139 1 HR 15 RBI performance in 1909 or Rob Deer hitting .179 in 1991 and striking out in almost 40 percent of his at bats. Though he did hit 25 HRs.

Burnett's season last year is looking pretty good right now. Bunting practice for the Pirates results in a broken orbital bone and he's out 8-12 weeks.

At least he hurt himself and had to get surgery. Pavano just pulled his butt.

I remember Craig Grebeck being absolutely horrible for the Red Sox about 10 years ago. I just looked up his stats:

2001 - 2-for-41, a .049 average, and if I'm not mistaken, that double came in the last game and was a gift from the scorer (should've been an error).

That's got to be a tough stat line to end an 11-year career!

Has to be Dunn.

He was paid $15 million dollars just to DH. The White Sox were supposed to be contenders for the Post Season but because of Dunn (and Alex Rios) tanking on offense they didn't even have a .500 record (it would have been worse for the Pale Hose if Dunn had been "playing" defense).

To keep from setting the record for WORST Batting Average EVER for a player who qualified for the batting title, Ozzie Guillen had to bench Dunn the last few Games of the season.

At least with Bergen, from what I heard last year, he was good defensively and that is what allowed him to play so many games. Also, back then, there were no steroids and it was the Dead Ball Era, so having a poor offensive season wasn't as shocking as it is today with the lively ball and small ball parks...

David

Gotta agree with ctownboy.. I'd go with Dunn too.

Bergen's 1909 wasn't actually that far off of his career averages. .139 compared to his career .170 average. 1 HR out of his total of 2 in his 11 year career. 15 rbi compared to 5 other seasons with 15 or less. And a .183 OBP compared to a career of .193. For a guy with ZERO power, a walk is as good as a hit. So with OBP I'd say he pretty much one of his average years. All probably hitting in a less than favorable spot in the order. Bergen was what he was, and that's it.

Dunn however, .159 compared to his .243 career average. 11HR compared to a 36HR 162 game average. 42 RBI compared to his 162 game average of 95. And a .292 OBP compared to his career average of .374.(yes, I'm aware that he only played 122 games, but some of that was because he sucked so bad). This production from a middle of the order hitter. OUCH!!!

Worst season ever METS 2012.

Speaking of Mets. In 1993 Anthony Young went 1-16 despite only starting 10 games.

Last season Ian Stewart (3B Rockies) had 1 RBI in about 100 at bats. That's not the production you expect from a power hitting 3B. He ended the season with 122 at bats, 6 RBI, 0HR and hit well below the Mendoza line.

Oh yeah, expectations wise Dunn was a total disappointment with 11 HRs, 42 RBIs and .159 BA (415 at bats) for his $12M salary.

Crazy Schmit pitched for the two worst teams ever, the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys and 1899 Cleveland Spiders and both teams actually played better when he wasn't on the mound. He went 1-9 in 1890 and 2-17 in 1899

Ugh!
 

Kind of hard to find any good in John Coleman's 1883 pitching record:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...olemjo01.shtml

And Frank Gilmore didn't exactly put fear in any pitcher's heart during his short, but flaccid career:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ilmofr01.shtml

The team of course had something to do with it, but Roger Craig's 5-22 in 1963 was pretty undistinguished.

in 2009 Sam Fuld had 2 RBI in 97 at bats.

In his defense, he did have a 3.77 ERA..

Im going with Dunn.

Of course, I might be biased cuz Im in Chicago and had to read and hear about him everyday.
But man, even from an "outsider", he was just....awful. GAWDAWFUL!
What makes it worse is that he seemed to kind of shrug it off.

Im a Cubs fan though, I pretty much hate the Sox, so it was also pretty funny.

I dont think Ill be laughing this year though when we have Ian Stewart starting for us a 3rd.

Btw, I think Sam Fuld probly came to the plate with an oppurtunity to drive someone in about 2 times. He was primarily used to start off innings and get on base as a rally starter. We loved him here. Tough, little, charlie hustle type.

I vote for the 2011 Minnesota Twins training staff. They managed to keep the whole team hobbled and off the field for months at a time due to concussions (Morneau and Span), to planter's warts (Cuddyer), to bilateral leg weakness (Mauer), sore feet (Kubel), twisted ankles, etc. They also planned surgeries, not in November or December, but right before the season started last year, showing their idiocy. Of course you had an enabling manager who let the boys have as much time off as they thought they needed, but still, players who would have been out 1 to 2 weeks with any other team, were out 1-2 months with the Twins.
One writer for ESPN called the Twins and their manager Gardenhire, Camp Cupcake in a recent article. Sheesh...:(

The 2012 Indians are already on pace to top last year's Twins. First, the Fausto Carmona/Roberto Hernandez Heredia mess. Second, Grady Sizemore hurts himself fielding grounders, resulting in surgery and is due to miss 8-12 weeks. Closer Chris Perez hurts himself on the first day of spring training, BUT may be ready in time for the opener... Plus, John Garland had agreed to a minor league contract, pending a physical. Ultimately, he couldn't pass the physical and apparently decided not to even take it...Just waiting to see what comes next...

Here's an 1887 card of Coleman, luckily he didn't pitch at all that year

http://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/1213153001.jpg

Although his ERA of 3.77 (ERA+ of 108) was very respectable, Anthony Young's 1993 season where he went 1-16 has to get a mention.

Or Craig Anderson going 3-17 with a 5.35 ERA for the 1962 Mets.

Or maybe Terry Felton going 0-13 with a 4.99 ERA in 1982 for the Twins, though that was mostly as a reliever. Did set a record for most losses without a win, however.

Tabe

As for hitters, Adam Dunn's 2011 was amazingly bad but what about Ray Oyler's 1968? He played in 111 games, hitting just .135 with a SLG% of just .186. His OPS+? Just 20. Dunn's, by contrast, was 56. Oyler was almost unquestionably the worst hitter in the post-WW2 era, at least among guys who played more than 50 games, with his career .175 BA and career 48 OPS+. But, man, he was a heckuva shortstop!

Tabe

Weak Hitting Shortstops
 

Mark Belanger had a couple of pretty weak hitting seasons (although his 1969 season makes him look like a HOFer) and was consistently bad with the bat over a much longer period than Oyler:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...elanma01.shtml

And lest we forget, they named the Mendoza line after this guy for a reason:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...endoma01.shtml

What about Enzo Hernandez for the 1971 Padres driving in just 12 runs in his 618 plate appearances while also leading all NL shortstops in errors committed

1979 Mario Mendoza .198, not that that is so low, but he got a "line" named after him

But as they say, you have to be good to be a 40 game loser.
Look at that 4.87 era!

Also, I find it hard to believe that AJ Burnett's 2011 season was the worst ever for the Yankees. I haven't read the other posts, yet, but I'll bet others have already verified as much.

Doug

Off base percentage= 1-on base percentage
 

I'd vote for Bergen who added extremely low walk totals to his anemic batting average. He has to have the highest OFF BASE PERCENTAGE in history.

In the modern era, Alfredo Griffin walked only 4 times in 442 plate appearances in 1984. Dunston is the modern player who comes closest with 8 in 511 in 1997.

I still think it HAS to be Adam Dunn.

A lot of the guys who have been mentioned so far either played in the Dead Ball Era or they played a defensive position where offense was expected to come from. I mean, before the 1970's, the few Catchers that I can think of that were good offensively (off the top of my head) were Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella and Bill Dickey.

As has been mentioned, Bergen's total offensive line wasn't far off from his usual (non) production then, when you take into account the time he palyed and also when you compare him other Catchers of that time period, I imagine his stats don't look as bad.

Short Stop wasn't really thought of as an offensive position until Alan Trammell and Cal Ripken came along.

With Dunn, his defense was HORRIBLE in the NL and he was expected to provide MORE value to his team just by hitting and NOT having to play D. White Sox fans are going to be REALLY upset if Dunn doesn't hit well this year AND plays defense poorly.

David

Rob Deer 1991, 448 ab, 80 hits of which 25 were homeruns and 175 strikeouts!!! Exclusive of those 25 hrs he was 55 for 423!!!

I totally agree with you on Dunn. I laughed when they signe him and did their "All In" campaign. If he ups is average 50 points he could get a comeback player of the year award and still suck :D

Highest ERA less than infinity
 

Joe Cleary 1945 (only year in the majors), 7 earned runs in 1/3 of an inning for a career ERA of 189.00.

With Cleary pitching and Dunn batting, imagine the possibilities.

There were a lot of 60's/early 70's era Shortstops who couldn't hit, most of which have been alluded to. But I think as a Cardinal fan, Maxxy had one of the longer careers of this type of player.

Dal Maxville - http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...axvida01.shtml

Ironically Maxville had his best season in 68 (the year of the pitcher) and his worst the next year). He also couldn't hit in 1973, despite numerous attempts to force him to....

Jim Hughey, 1899 Cleveland Spiders, 4 wins 30 losses, and look at that WHIP 1.73! Now that is bad.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ugheji01.shtml

Oyler for his career.That's a lot of years for a nasty batting average. I know he is not pre-war.
BTW - someone also posted Anthony Young at 1-16, but it is worse. He lost 27 consecutive decisions. During the streak, he pitched a great game when everyone was pulling for him to finally get a win and not be the all-time looser. I was watching. He was the starting pitcher, and after 8 great innings was the winning pitcher, with the lead. The bullpen blew is win in the 9th. He had it! But he got a no-decision. He then continued his streak. Another snake-bitten MET.

Brandon Wood, once an all-world prospect, had maybe the worst season in 2010. In 81 games he had 243 at bats and hit .146 with 71 strikeouts. His OBP was .171 and he slugged .208! What happened to this guy?