Biggest MLB Duds of Week 21, Position by Position
Putting together our weekly All-Dud team doesn't involve highly scientific formulas or a room full of statisticians crunching numbers. It's all about the eye test. I look at a player's numbers on the week, and if they make me cringe or begin to feel physically ill, then he's a candidate for inclusion.
OK, maybe that's a stretch—but the numbers don't lie, and for those unlucky enough to make the cut on this week's squad, their stats are downright ugly.
To be sure, slumping players on contenders are viewed more harshly than those on non-contending clubs, so I'm not simply looking for, say, the shortstop with the week's lowest OPS or highest strikeout rate.
But it ultimately comes down to the player and whether or not he earned his previous week's paycheck. Using both traditional and advanced statistics, we can safely say that nobody on the pages that follow did so in Week 21.
Catcher: Mike Zunino, Seattle Mariners
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Mike Zunino started last week 2-for-10 (.200) with four strikeouts before getting the news that he was heading back to the minors for the first time since 2013. While no player likes being demoted, Zunino was so lost at the plate that escaping from Seattle—just for a little while—may be the best thing for his career.
"It's been so much tweaking mechanically that I feel like I've tried a bunch of everything and haven't given myself a fair shot to stick with one thing," the catcher told MLB.com's Andrew Erickson during his second day in Triple-A Tacoma. "So I think that's the biggest thing, getting back to where I'm comfortable."
The 24-year-old never looked comfortable at the plate, making this move long overdue. Over parts of three major league seasons, Zunino, 24, owns a .193/.252/.353 triple-slash line with 339 strikeouts in 295 games.
Dishonorable Mention: Yan Gomes, Cleveland; Salvador Perez, Kansas City
First Base: Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles
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Strikeouts have always been—and will always be—part of Chris Davis' game. In fact, no player in baseball has struck out as much as Davis has—710 times—since the beginning of the 2012 season. It's something that Baltimore manager Buck Showalter has come to grips with, though neither he nor Davis accepts it.
“Don’t think that Chris is [not caring],” he told the Baltimore Sun's Eduardo A. Encina. “It bothers him. … Nobody [accepts it]. I’d like to see him hit .300 and strike out 50 times a year. I’d like to see him never strike out. He would too. ... We’re always trying to look to make everybody perfect. I wish it was that way, that it was that simple. It’s been a challenge for him, but the production has been there."
But there's nothing productive about a 55 percent strikeout rate, as Davis posted last week, fanning in 16 of his 29 plate appearances.
Dishonorable Mention: Eric Hosmer, Kansas City; Adam Lind, Milwaukee; Anthony Rizzo, Chicago (NL)
Second Base: Chris Owings, Arizona Diamondbacks
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Chris Owings bounced around the infield for Arizona last week, logging time at both second base and shortstop. But with four games at the keystone, he gets the call as our starting second baseman.
The 24-year-old mustered only one hit last week—a double off Oakland ace Sonny Gray—posting a minus-60 wRC+ that was the second-lowest in baseball. Owings also struck out in nearly 41 percent of his plate appearances, something that doesn't really work for a player with his middling power.
Dishonorable Mention: Logan Forsythe, Tampa Bay; Cesar Hernandez, Philadelphia; Carlos Sanchez, Chicago (AL)
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Third Base: Jed Lowrie, Houston Astros
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After he missed half the season with a ligament tear in his right thumb, Jed Lowrie's return to action was supposed to provide Houston's lineup with a boost. Instead, he's struggled to make his presence felt, especially over the last week.
Since August 19, Lowrie has gone 2-for-30 (.067), a streak that includes a 0-for-19 performance from last week. In fact, Lowrie was the only qualified third baseman to not record a hit in Week 21 and posted baseball's worst wRC+ at minus-75.
In fact, were it not for a walk he drew off Yankees reliever Chasen Shreve last Wednesday and another Saturday, he wouldn't have reached base safely at all.
Dishonorable Mention: Nolan Arenado, Colorado; Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay
Shortstop: Jhonny Peralta, St. Louis Cardinals
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One way or another, the starting shortstop on our All-Dud squad was coming out of Missouri.
While both Kansas City's Alcides Escobar and St. Louis' Jhonny Peralta were the least productive shortstops in baseball last week according to FanGraphs' wRC+ metric, the Royals enjoy a huge lead in the AL Central, while the Cardinals are trying to fend off Chicago and Pittsburgh in the NL Central.
The Cards can ill afford a lack of production from Peralta, who has been one of the team's more consistent bats all season. Hitting .143 (4-for-28) with a .385 OPS simply isn't going to get it done. Perhaps equally as troubling is Peralta's lack of power—he hasn't gone deep since August 1, a span of 24 games over which he's hit only .228 (21-for-92) with a .548 OPS.
Dishonorable Mention: Alcides Escobar, Kansas City; Jimmy Rollins, Los Angeles (NL); Eugenio Suarez, Cincinnati
Left Field: Starling Marte, Pittsburgh Pirates
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Sure, Starling Marte delivered one of the throws of the year last week—and made it look easy—nailing Miami's Adeiny Hechavarria, who foolishly tried to stretch a double into a triple after hitting the ball into the left field corner. And sure, Pittsburgh won six of the seven games it played.
But Marte was a non-factor at the plate, hitting .154 (4-for-26) with a pair of RBI. His wRC+ of three was easily the lowest among all qualified left fielders, more than 30 points below the next man on the list, the Yankees' Brett Gardner.
Dishonorable Mention: Brett Gardner, New York (AL)
Center Field: Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins
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Maybe it's unfair to include Byron Buxton on this list, given his lack of major league experience and the fact that he's only recently come off the disabled list after missing more than a month with a thumb injury.
But the Twins are in the thick of a wild-card race, and they simply cannot afford to be lagging in production at any spot in their lineup—especially the leadoff spot, which Buxton has occupied since Aaron Hicks went on the disabled list August 19 with a hamstring injury.
Buxton reached base only five times last week, hitting .154 (4-for-26) with a walk and 12 strikeouts, including four whiffs against Tampa Bay this past Thursday. In 78 at-bats on the season, Buxton is hitting only .205 with a .504 OPS, three walks and 30 strikeouts.
Dishonorable Mention: Rajai Davis, Detroit; Cameron Maybin, Atlanta; Melvin Upton Jr., San Diego
Right Field: Kole Calhoun, Los Angeles Angels
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While Kole Calhoun took the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, Corey Kluber, deep for his 20th home run of the season on the first pitch of Saturday's tilt between Cleveland and Los Angeles, that's not nearly enough to rescue the 27-year-old from starting in right field on our All-Dud squad.
That was one of only two hits Calhoun managed to produce last week, hitting .083 (2-for-24) with a pair of walks and six strikeouts. With the Angels fighting for their playoff lives and the likes of Albert Pujols and Mike Trout slumping, Calhoun was one of the few productive bats the team had of late.
Now, he'll have to do everything he can to avoid joining his more ballyhooed teammates as a player whose lack of production is undermining the club's late-season playoff push.
Dishonorable Mention: Gerardo Parra, Baltimore; Ichiro Suzuki, Miami; Yasmany Tomas, Arizona
Designated Hitter: Victor Martinez, Detroit Tigers
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It'd be so much easier for the Detroit Tigers if Victor Martinez was still dealing with an injury and was altering his approach and mechanics at the plate, because at least that would explain the lack of production that the team has gotten from its veteran designated hitter.
"No," manager Brad Ausmus told MLive.com's Chris Iott of Martinez's injury status, "other than he's struggling to get hits. ... At times, he looks like he just misses balls. He goes through stretches where he hits the ball hard, and they get caught. He's just having trouble finding grass in the outfield right now."
V-Mart mustered only three hits in 24 at-bats last week (.125), striking out twice while failing to draw a walk. His struggles are nothing new—Martinez is hitting only .192 with nine extra-base hits and a .539 OPS since the All-Star break, the latter one of the lowest marks in baseball, regardless of position.
Dishonorable Mention: Prince Fielder, Texas; Alex Rodriguez, New York (AL)
Starting Pitcher: Williams Perez, Atlanta Braves
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Williams Perez may still be part of Atlanta's long-term rotation plans, but the 24-year-old won't be toeing the rubber for manager Fredi Gonzalez anytime soon, having been demoted to Triple-A Gwinnett after a forgettable Week 21.
Perez was absolutely shelled in his last two outings, allowing 14 earned runs and 13 hits over only 6.1 innings of work, walking five and striking out six. He was especially terrible against the New York Yankees this past Friday, surrendering eight earned runs on five hits while failing to pitch out of the second inning.
While other starters were nearly as unimpressive last week, Perez's lack of innings gives him the edge over some other deserving All-Dud candidates.
Dishonorable Mention: Buck Farmer, Detroit; Matt Garza, Milwaukee; Keyvius Sampson, Cincinnati; Matt Wisler, Atlanta
Closer: Francisco Rodriguez, Milwaukee Brewers
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Milwaukee's Francisco Rodriguez's reign as the only perfect closer in baseball is over.
K-Rod, who had successfully converted all 30 of his save opportunities heading into Saturday night's game against Cincinnati, surrendered four runs (three earned) on four hits over two-thirds of an inning, blowing his first save while falling to 0-3 on the season.
His mistake? Firing fastball after fastball at Joey Votto, who deposited Rodriguez's fourth consecutive heater into the left field stands for a go-ahead, two-run home run. To his credit, K-Rod owned his mistake after the game.
"You make a mistake middle away or up and away he's got the drive to go to left field. I was trying to get back to an even count and see if I could put him away or get a ground ball for a double play," he told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"Eventually, it's going to happen. Unfortunately, this was a bad moment, especially the way we fell behind on the scoreboard and we found a way to chip back and get the lead. It's frustrating for me, the way the guys fought so hard to get back in the game and (I) let it slip away."
Dishonorable Mention: Sean Doolittle, Oakland; Junichi Tazawa, Boston
All statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs and are current through August 29. All contract information courtesy of Cot's Contracts.
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