Adam Dunn and the 10 Worst Individual Chicago White Sox Seasons

Adam Dunn had an historically poor hitting season for the Chicago White Sox in 2011. His was the worst ever for a designated hitter and among the worst hitting seasons for any position player in major league history.

Also, the White Sox had a collection of bad hitting. Alex Rios had the lowest on-base-plus-slugging percentage in the American League (.613), although Dunn would have been placed at the bottom had he picked up the requisite 500 plate appearances. 

The White Sox had three players among the bottom 13 in OPS—Rios, Juan Pierre and Gordon Beckham.

Inquiring minds want to know which White Sox hitters in the franchise's illustrious history would have given Dunn a fight for having the biggest hole in their bats. 

The list includes some familiar faces. 

Some leeway is given to middle infielders and players who were in the first or second years of their careers. 

Read along to see which White Sox players made the list.

10. Ozzie Guillen (1995)

.248 AVG, .270 OBP, .588 OPS, 1 HR, 41 RBI, 6 SB, 7 CS

Ozzie Guillen wasn't much of a hitter in his day; he was relied upon more for his fielding. 

Guillen was a career .264 hitter and had a lifetime .287 on-base percentage. Since he was a shortstop, Guillen needs only one mention.

Guillen didn't have a kind year at the plate in 1995. He was next to last in the majors in on-base percentage and OPS.

That year, Guillen posted the lowest batting average of any season in which he had at least 400 plate appearances. For the first of two times in his career, Guillen was caught stealing more often than he stole bases successfully.

9. Eddie Mulligan (1921)

.251 AVG, .293 OBP, .623 OPS, 12 3B, 1 HR, 45 RBI, 13 SB, 18 CS

Eddie Mulligan didn't have a proud major league career. 

Mulligan played five major league seasons across 14 years. He hit .232 in his career. 

His first season in the big leagues in five years, 1921, was his only season with 500 or more plate appearances.

Apparently, the White Sox had a hard time fielding third basemen after the Black Sox scandal.

The season might have provided a bit of excitement for Mulligan, but others were probably underwhelmed watching him. 

Mulligan came through in one slugging area, smacking the most triples of any White Sox player that year, but barely scratched the surfaced in terms of home runs, hitting the only homer of his career.

Being caught stealing five more times than he successfully stole bases didn't help anything, either. 

His offensive wins above replacement was minus 1.7.

After the 1922 season, the White Sox sent Mulligan to the San Francisco club of the Pacific Coast League, completing an earlier deal in which the White Sox sent pitcher Doug McWeemy and $100,000 to San Francisco for third baseman Willie Kamm.

8. Juan Pierre (2011)

.279 AVG, .329 OBP, .657 OPS, 2 HR, 50 RBI, 27 SB, 17 CS

In his song "Crazy," Jay-Z said, " I used to run base like Juan Pierre."

That was a Juan Pierre of prior years.

Pierre struggled on the basepath in 2011. He was caught stealing more than anyone else in the AL and had the worst stolen-base percentage of his career (.614).

This might be a milder position than sabermetricians would take, but it's worth being moderate here.

Base stealing is fine if a player makes it at least 75 percent of the time. Stealing at a lower clip—especially if the player isn't stealing 40 bases in a season—is creating unnecessary outs.

That Juan Pierre was one of the White Sox's leading run producers last season was unfortunate.  Pierre had the second-highest RBI total of his career, but left fielders are supposed to collect at least 70 RBI. 

He was 19th among left fielders in RBI. 

Also, his league-leading 155 singles might be nice for some players, but left fielders are supposed to get extra-base hits. 

Pierre was tied for 35th among major league left fielders in extra-base hits (35).

7. Hervey McClellan (1923)

.235 AVG, .270 OBP, .574 OPS, 29 2B, 1 HR, 41 RBI

Hervey McClellan played his entire five-year career with the White Sox. His only year as a full-time starter was 1923.

He started at shortstop, even though he played more games in his career at other positions. 

McClellan had the lowest batting average among White Sox starters.

McClellan, who was among five White Sox players to be caught stealing at least 10 times that season, had a minus-1.9 wins above replacement.

He saw his 1924 cut short by a surgery to remove two gallstones and died in 1925.

6. Mike Hershberger (1964)

.230 AVG, .308 OBP, .598 OPS, 2 HR, 31 RBI

Mike Hershberger had a rough start to his career with the White Sox. He hit .262 in 1962 and jumped to .279 in 1963.

Some might have thought he was developing a bat to support his strong right field arm.

However, he slipped in 1964. 

Hershberger had the worst batting average among only six White Sox hitters with 500 plate appearances. He had an OPS+ (OPS adjusted for ballparks) of 70.

After the season, the White Sox sent Hershberger to the Kansas City Athletics in a three-team deal.

Hershberger had better seasons later in his career. He drove in 57 runs and doubled 27 times in 1966. In 1968, he hit .272.

5. Ron Santo (1974)

.221 AVG, .293 OBP, .591 OPS, 5 HR, 41 RBI

Ron Santo was on the backside of his fine career by the time he joined the White Sox.

Santo had the lowest figures of his career in his final year, which still saw him start 110 of his 117 games. He had an OPS+ of 69.

Santo had a minus-1.4 wins above replacement, only the second time in his career in which he had a negative WAR.

4. Bob Kennedy (1942)

.231 AVG, .270 OBP, .568 OPS, 0 HR, 38 RBI

The World War II period soiled the talent pool of professional sports a bit. Thus, Bob Kennedy, who is known for being the first teenager to play 150 games (in 1940), isn't as high on the list as he otherwise would have been.

Kennedy had his second season of regular play in 1942, two years after receiving MVP votes despite hitting only .252 with 52 RBI.

In 1942, Kennedy had 442 plate appearances. He had the worst batting average among White Sox starters.

After three years of military service, Kennedy returned to the White Sox. He had better years after returning, hitting .291 one year and driving in 50 runs three times in his 19-year career.

3. Scott Fletcher (1990)

.242 AVG, .304 OBP, .617 OPS, 4 HR, 56 RBI

Scott Fletcher had a nice, 15-year career. Interestingly, he could never get it right playing on the South Side. 

Fletcher was a career .262 hitter, but he hit only .244 in his six seasons with the White Sox. He had five seasons hitting .275 or better elsewhere.

Fletcher's worst season with the White Sox came in 1990. He had been brought in with Wilson Alvarez as part of the Sammy Sosa trade. Fletcher managed only 25 extra-base hits, and he had an OPS+ of 75.

After hitting .206 in 277 plate appearances the following season, Fletcher went on to hit .275 with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Such was the luck the White Sox had with Fletcher.

2. Alex Rios (2011)

.227 AVG, .265 OBP, .613 OPS, 13 HR, 44 RBI, 11 SB, 6 CS

Alex Rios might have seemed set for a big year last season. He had driven in a career high 88 runs and 34 steals in 2010.

Instead, he fell hard in 2011. 

If being last in OPS wasn't bad enough, Rios was also 19th among center fielders in RBI and third to last in the majors in on-base percentage. 

His wins above replacement was minus 1.5.

1. Adam Dunn (2011)

.159 AVG, .292 OBP, .277 SLG, .569 OPS, 11 HR, 42 RBI

Dunn had by far the worst season ever by a designated hitter. He had the fewest runs driven in of any designated hitter ever to collect 400 plate appearances. No one would have ever imagined that Juan Pierre would have driven in more runs than Dunn.

Dunn's batting average was 59 points lower than the second-worst hitter.

He was frequently mentioned as a challenger to beat Bill Bergen's .132 mark in 1911 for worst batting average ever. 

His walks usually save his low batting average, but Dunn collected 75 walks, one more than his career low.

Dunn had an OPS+ of 56. His wins above replacement was minus 2.7.

All that for $12 million.