Biggest MLB Duds of Week 3, Position by Position
The funk doesn't care about a player's salary, track record of success or stat line on the season. At some point over the course of a 162-game regular season, the funk pays a visit to every player in baseball.
With no surefire way to get rid of the funk—what works for one player won't necessarily work for another—players take different approaches in their attempts to get back on track. Some get to the ballpark earlier for extra work, while others may choose to grind it out, hoping that the passing of time is all they need.
Regardless of what method players take, they all generally find a way to leave the funk behind.
Taking both traditional and advanced statistics into consideration, let's look at the players who can't wait to leave April behind and, they hope, move on to bigger and better things in May.
Catcher: Curt Casali
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It was a week to forget for Tampa Bay's Curt Casali, who literally couldn't get out of the way Saturday at Yankee Stadium, when he was called for catcher's interference after his glove made contact with Jacoby Ellsbury's bat during a swing, which loaded the bases.
Friday, Casali suffered the indignation of being behind the plate when Ellsbury stole home against Matt Moore, who never checked him before beginning his delivery. Add in that he hit only .133 (2-for-16) with a .433 OPS while striking out 56 percent of the time, and it's clear why he gets the nod on our All-Dud squad.
Dishonorable Mentions: Jason Castro (HOU), Carlos Perez (LAA), J.T. Realmuto (MIA)
First Base: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
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Miguel Cabrera is typically in the running for a spot on our Team of the Week, not the weekly All-Dud squad. But the future Hall of Fame inductee finds himself mired in a miserable funk.
He hit only .083 (2-for-24) and posted a minus-45 wRC+*, both easily the worst numbers by a qualified first baseman last week. While not saying Cabrera had fallen back into bad habits, Detroit manager Brad Ausmus didn't rule it out as a reason for Miggy's slow start.
"I think you go back to the core surgery and the ankle, and he and I talked about it a little bit, I think he got into a little bit of a habit at times of not using his legs so much," Ausmus told MLive.com's Scott DeCamp.
Cabrera certainly isn't driving the ball as we've become accustomed to seeing, with more than half of the balls he put in play staying on the ground. That's a recipe for disaster, given his lack of speed.
Dishonorable Mentions: Jose Abreu (CHW), Brandon Moss (STL), Joey Votto (CIN)
*wRC+ stands for Weighted Runs Created Plus, and it attempts to provide a more accurate picture of a player's offensive contributions than batting average while normalizing for differences in ballparks.
League average is always 100, so a player with a 110 wRC+, for example, is said to have produced at a rate 10 percent better than league average. Cabrera, at minus-45, produced at 145 percent below league average last week.
You can read more about wRC+ here at FanGraphs.
Second Base: Jonathan Schoop, Baltimore Orioles
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Were it not for a pair of singles Saturday night in Baltimore's 8-3 win over Kansas City, Jonathan Schoop would have gone 0-for-the week. As it is, Schoop's 2-for-17 (.118 BA) showing last week was among the least productive of any second baseman, with only three posting a lower wRC+ than his minus-29.
More troubling is the fact that Schoop just isn't making solid contact. His 15.4 percent hard-contact rate was among the lowest at the position while posting one of the highest ground-ball rates (61.5 percent). Like Miguel Cabrera, Schoop isn't built to leg out infield singles.
Dishonorable Mentions: Ryan Goins (TOR), Howie Kendrick (LAD), DJ LeMahieu (COL)
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Shortstop: Brad Miller, Tampa Bay Rays
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It looked like Brad Miller's bat was finally starting to come around at the end of Week 2, with the 26-year-old going 2-for-4 with a double, home run and three RBI against the Chicago White Sox on April 16. But it turned out to be nothing more than a tease.
Miller managed to reach base only twice last week (one walk, one single), hitting .067 with a minus-51 wRC+ and .192 OPS. All three put Miller firmly at the bottom of the shortstop leaderboard.
Dishonorable Mentions: Erick Aybar (ATL), Addison Russell (CHC), Marcus Semien (OAK)
Third Base: Yunel Escobar, Los Angeles Angels
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Huge fluctuations in a player's numbers aren't uncommon this early in the season, but that doesn't make them any less stunning when they occur. Take Los Angeles' Yunel Escobar for example, who entered the week hitting a robust .356 with a .987 OPS.
After going 3-for-28 in seven games, the 33-year-old's batting average dropped nearly 100 points to .260, while his OPS plummeted by 260 points to .717. That makes Escobar one of the week's biggest duds with a capital "D."
Dishonorable Mentions: Chase Headley (NYY), Jose Ramirez (CLE), Kyle Seager (SEA)
Left Field: Justin Upton, Detroit Tigers
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Justin Upton has always managed to be a productive hitter despite his penchant for striking out. But that wasn't the case last week, when he posted a 48 percent whiff rate, tops among qualified left fielders, which played a big part in his measly 1 wRC+, .130 batting average and .374 OPS.
“He’s grinding,” Detroit manager Brad Ausmus told the Detroit Free Press' Anthony Fenech, adding that he believed Upton was frustrated and going through an adjustment period after spending his entire career in the National League.
While we expected some struggles adjusting to a new leagues, the Tigers surely hoped that Upton, who they signed to a six-year, $132.5 million deal over the winter and now leads baseball with 30 strikeouts on the year, would need far less time to get comfortable in his new surroundings.
Dishonorable Mentions: Craig Gentry (LAA), Desmond Jennings (TB), Gerardo Parra (COL)
Center Field: Leonys Martin, Seattle Mariners
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Minus-55. That number belongs to Seattle's Leonys Martin, baseball's least productive player to qualify for last week's leaderboard, according to FanGraphs' wRC+ metric.
While he drove in a pair of runs, Martin went 2-for-22 (.091) with a .223 OPS and nine strikeouts, failing to reach base in four of the six games in which he played. Hitting .193 with a .593 OPS, Martin's disappointing week dropped his wRC+ on the year to 67, which ranks 17th among 23 qualified center fielders.
Dishonorable Mentions: Lorenzo Cain (KC), Delino DeShields Jr. (TEX), Austin Jackson (CHW)
Right Field: Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers
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While he made highlight reels with a throw for the ages to nail Colorado's Trevor Story at third base, there were no highlights of Yasiel Puig's bat to be found last week.
The oft-maligned but supremely talented Puig hit only .190 (4-for-21) and failed to drive in a run, crossing home plate once, stealing a pair of bases and striking out seven times. His 13 wRC+ was the lowest among qualified right fielders.
Dishonorable Mentions: Lonnie Chisenhall (CLE), Carlos Gonzalez (COL), Giancarlo Stanton (MIA)
Designated Hitter:Albert Pujols, Los Angeles Angels
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Last week started off about as well as it possibly could for Albert Pujols, with the future Hall of Fame inductee hitting a two-run home run against Minnesota to give Los Angeles a 2-0 first inning lead last Sunday.
And then his bat went silent, as Pujols would go 0-for-26 the rest of the week, hitting .037 while reaching base three more times courtesy of a free pass. According to the Los Angeles Times' Mike DiGiovanna, that marks the longest stretch of Pujols' career that he's gone without a hit.
Dishonorable Mentions: Pedro Alvarez (BAL), Avisail Garcia (CHW), Evan Gattis (HOU)
Starting Pitcher: Jarred Cosart, Miami Marlins
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After allowing six earned runs, eight hits and six walks against San Francisco in his latest outing, Jarred Cosart tells the Miami Herald's Andre C. Fernandez that he's ready to give up on the mechanical changes he and Miami's coaches agreed upon before the season:
"After all spring training, we thought it would be more beneficial to move my hands down. And I’m just kind of feeling out of sync and out of whack. I’m talking with [pitching coach Juan Nieves and vice president of pitching development Jim Benedict] to see if I can go back to what was working. I just feel kind of out of sync, uncomfortable with all my pitches."
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It marked the second consecutive start in which Cosart walked six batters, giving him 12 for the week, which along with 12 hits and 10 earned runs over 10 innings of work gave him an unsightly 9.00 ERA and 2.40 WHIP for his Week 3 efforts.
Dishonorable Mentions: David Price (BOS), Carlos Rodon (CHW), Adam Wainwright (STL)
Relief Pitcher: J.J. Hoover, Cincinnati Reds
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Cincinnati manager Bryan Price wasted little time in anointing J.J. Hoover the team's closer, announcing that the job was Hoover's to lose when pitchers and catchers reported to spring training. Three weeks into the season, Hoover has lost the gig.
“I talked to J.J. I told him I’m going to bring you in different situations and sometimes that might be the ninth and sometimes it might be the seventh or eighth,” Price told the Cincinnati Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans. “But...he needs to get himself on a roll and start to pitch the way we’ve seen almost the entire 2015 season.”
Hoover, who pitched to a 2.94 ERA and 1.17 WHIP last season, allowed six earned runs and seven hits last week, including a pair of home runs, in 2.1 innings over three relief appearances.
Dishonorable Mentions: Leonel Campos (SD), Tyler Thornburg (MIL), Koji Uehara (BOS)
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs and are current through games on April 23. All contract information courtesy of Cot's Contracts (via Baseball Prospectus).
Hit me up on Twitter to talk all things baseball: @RickWeinerBR
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