With the season winding down, I got to wondering who’s stinking up the joint? Here are the players with the lowest OPS+ by position (minimum 430 PA, roughly what it would take to qualify for the batting title if the season ended now) and the pitchers with the highest ERA+ (minimum 140 IP for starters, 40 G for relievers):

Worst Position Players of 2007

Pos
Name
Team(s)
BA
OBP
SLG
OPS+

Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of September 9, 2007.

C
Jason Kendall
Oak/ChN
.245
.300
.313
63

1B
Lyle Overbay
Tor
.239
.317
.397
85

2B
Josh Barfield
Cle
.245
.273
.326
59

3B
Nick Punto
Min
.199
.286
.255
46

SS
Tony Pena
KC
.256
.276
.334
56

Omar Vizquel
SF
.239
.299
.295
56

LF
Jason Bay
Pit
.253
.331
.424
95

CF
Juan Pierre
LA
.290
.323
.347
73

RF
Delmon Young
TB
.293
.322
.416
92

Quick comments:

Kendall and Pierre have humongous contracts. Kendall’s is up at the end of the ‘07 season, …read more

Anthony Amobi and Andrew Stebbin pick apart the Washington Nationals’ first half over at Oleanders and Morning Glories. I actually understand what the Nats are doing in terms of gutting the big-league team and rebuilding from scratch, but it’s got to be tough as a fan to watch. Still, Anthony and Andrew manage to keep their heads up:
They aren’t historically bad. In a way not even embarrassingly bad. It was a blessing in disguise when everyone (who didn’t follow the team closely) predicted 110+ losses this season.
They might not even lose 100 games.
Here’s what I don’t understand. Remember how we …read more