The Worst Position Player of 2011

This is the first post of what will hopefully be more than one post. I will post my random thoughts and hilarious quips about what my Latino friends call beisbol.  I am leading off with a look at the worst position player in the majors last year:

The White Sox sure had their share of under-performers in 2011. Out of the 203 players who had at least 400 AB's last year, they had 4 players rank in the bottom 20 in WAR and wOBA. For my friends who don't buy into the "Bill James bullshit" (as America's greatest actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman said as Art Howe in Moneyball) that means they sucked, like a lot.

The worst offender of all, was a guy who I always considered to scream consistency, Adam Dunn.  He managed a minuscule .159/.292/.569 batting line. To put that in perspective, Luis Sojo retired with a career .261/.297/.650 line.

The Big Donkey didn't do himself any favors in the field either. In only 37 games in the field (35 at 1B, 2 in the OF) he managed to be worth -6 runs. Taking into account all his offensive woes and defensive butchery, Dunn managed to be worth 2.9 wins less than your average replacement player (minor league call up).

How did he manage to be so awful? Well, bad luck had something to do with it. A BABIP 50 points lower than his career average will definitely hurt the numbers. Dunn, throughout his career, has been known for three things: striking out a lot, walking, and hitting for big time power. In 2011, he struck out more, walked less, and didn't show any of that power.

Over the past two seasons, Dunn has swung at nearly 10% more pitches out of the strike zone than he has averaged over the rest of his career, what hurt him in 2011 was that he made contact with 53% of those pitches, as opposed to only 46% the year before.

Basically what Dunn needs to have a rebound year, is to lay off pitches outside the zone, and a reversal in luck. To be honest, the entire White Sox organization needs a reversal of luck, especially that rat bastard Gordon Beckham who has been instrumental in my fantasy baseball suckitude the past two seasons. Fool me once Gordon, shame on you, fool me twice.. STILL SHAME ON YOU, LEARN TO HIT A FASTBALL!