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Who is the worst everyday player in baseball?
By Jonathan C. Mitchell on May 21, 2008

Who is the worst everyday player in all of the MLB? Some may name former start that are playing awful like Andruw Jones, Ryan Howard, Adam LaRoche, Gary Sheffield, et al. Others will name a SF Giants player. I say it’s Royals shortstop Tony Pena Jr. Here’s why.

- Among all players in the majors with atleast 125 plate appearances he is tied for last in AVG with Andruw Jones at .167 (21/126) in 40 games played (stats are from games played up to 5/21).

- He’s hitting .149 against right handed pitchers and only .205 against lefites. Not even platoon material.

- His glove has always been his “best asset” but he is 2nd to last in fielding percentage among shortstops with a .959. The only one worse is Julio Lugo who has 11 errors.

- He is last among shortstops in putouts and his range seems to be getting worse.

I’m getting to the good stuff now.

- His OBP is last in the majors at .191! .191! He has only 4 walks all season and one was intentional (God help me to understand why John Gibbons wasn;t fired on the spot for that). The next lowest OBP is Eugenio Velez at .244.

- His SLUG is also the lowest at .214. He has 5 extra base hits on the season and none are homers (4 doubles, 1 triple). The next lowest is Asdrubal Cabrera at .242.

- You may have guessed that if he is last in OBP and SLUG he is last in OPS. At .405 He is 106 points lower than Asdrubal Cabrera who is next on the list. That is pathetic!

With Mike Aviles playing so well in AAA (.337/.366/.619 with 7 homers, 18 doubles, 6 triples, 3 steals, 35 runs, 34 RBI, and only 21 K in 181 at-bats) I honestly think someone needs to be fired over this.

Aviles isn’t a top prospect (he’s 27 years old) but he, and Rafael Belliard for that matter, can play now and post better numbers at a league minimum salary.

It’s time for the Royals to do what they did with Angel Berroa (who is probably screaming wondering what the heck is going on because he can play this poorly) and cut bait before they waist more time giving away outs at the plate.

-Jonathan C. Mitchell

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