This is our old blog. It hasn't been active since 2011. Please see the link above for our current blog or click the logo above to see all of the great data and content on this site.

Worst OPS+, 17+ HR

Posted by Andy on August 17, 2009

Among the 69 players with at least 17 HR so far this season, here are the worst OPS+ figures:

  Cnt Player            **OPS+** HR Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+--------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 David Ortiz           84   17 2009  33 BOS AL 109 456 394  48  87 24  1  65  52   3  99   4   0   6   8   0  2  .221  .314  .416  .730 *D/3
    2 Jay Bruce             85   18 2009  22 CIN NL  83 333 299  38  62 12  2  41  30   2  63   2   1   1   5   3  2  .207  .283  .441  .724 *9
    3 Alfonso Soriano       86   19 2009  33 CHC NL 107 487 445  62 108 25  0  51  37   6 109   3   0   2   7   8  2  .243  .304  .427  .731 *7/45
    4 Clint Barmes          91   18 2009  30 COL NL 112 446 405  59 101 25  3  62  22   0  94   9   4   6   3   9  7  .249  .299  .459  .758 *46
    5 Hank Blalock          95   23 2009  28 TEX AL  98 400 378  52  91 18  3  56  16   2  88   3   0   3   5   2  0  .241  .275  .487  .762 D3/5
    6 Brandon Phillips      99   17 2009  28 CIN NL 109 459 408  58 107 20  3  75  36   3  51   5   2   8  14  18  8  .262  .324  .451  .775 *4
    7 Grady Sizemore       100   17 2009  26 CLE AL  91 432 376  60  91 17  4  60  50   1  88   3   2   1   3  11  8  .242  .335  .444  .779 *8D
    8 Ian Stewart          102   18 2009  24 COL NL 110 361 314  59  73 18  2  54  39   2  89   5   0   3   5   7  3  .232  .324  .475  .799 *54/79
    9 Mark DeRosa          104   21 2009  34 TOT ML 101 434 388  65 101 16  0  65  36   1  93   5   1   4   8   1  2  .260  .328  .464  .792 *573/9D4
   10 Brandon Inge         105   23 2009  32 DET AL 115 451 392  59  97 11  1  65  42   1 120  14   1   2   9   2  4  .247  .340  .457  .797 *5
   11 Paul Konerko         108   21 2009  33 CHW AL 114 464 412  51 113 21  0  70  37   4  66   8   0   7  11   0  0  .274  .341  .478  .819 *3D
   12 Curtis Granderson    108   23 2009  28 DET AL 115 522 457  70 118 14  6  54  58   2 101   2   3   2   1  20  6  .258  .343  .466  .809 *8
   13 Ryan Ludwick         109   18 2009  30 STL NL  99 386 347  48  93 14  1  74  30   3  71   4   1   4   2   4  1  .268  .330  .470  .800 *9/8

Man there are some low OBP numbers in there. Thanks goodness for the few homers they've hit, otherwise Blaylock (.275 OBP!!!) and Bruce and Barmes wouldn't even crack 80 in their OPS+ numbers.

We've got 11 players at the moment qualified for the batting title with OBP values at or below .300:

  Cnt Player             **OBP**  Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+---------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Hank Blalock         .275   2009  28 TEX AL  98 400 378  52  91 18  3 23  56  16   2  88   3   0   3   5   2  0  .241  .487  .762 D3/5      
    2 Willy Taveras        .276   2009  27 CIN NL  97 424 391  54  94 11  2  1  15  18   0  57   2  11   2   2  25  6  .240  .286  .562 *8        
    3 Bengie Molina        .279   2009  34 SFG NL 103 412 389  36 103 22  1 15  63   8   2  49   4   0  11  10   0  0  .265  .442  .721 *2/D      
    4 Jimmy Rollins        .291   2009  30 PHI NL 110 517 478  73 116 30  3 15  57  32   1  53   2   2   3   6  23  8  .243  .412  .703 *6        
    5 Jeff Francoeur       .296   2009  25 TOT NL 114 457 426  45 112 16  3 10  56  17   4  60   6   1   7  11   5  3  .263  .385  .681 *9        
    6 Kazuo Matsui         .296   2009  33 HOU NL  91 375 334  38  81 12  1  5  29  25   1  63   2  10   4   3  12  3  .243  .329  .625 *4        
    7 Chris Young          .297   2009  25 ARI NL 103 366 315  35  61 23  4  7  28  45   1  95   2   2   2   2  11  2  .194  .359  .656 *8        
    8 Clint Barmes         .299   2009  30 COL NL 112 446 405  59 101 25  3 18  62  22   0  94   9   4   6   3   9  7  .249  .459  .758 *46       
    9 Vernon Wells         .300   2009  30 TOR AL 113 494 459  61 117 27  2 12  48  31   1  61   0   0   4  14  14  2  .255  .401  .701 *8/D      
   10 Kevin Kouzmanoff     .300   2009  27 SDP NL 116 467 436  41 114 26  1 15  68  17   1  87   9   0   5  22   1  0  .261  .429  .729 *5        
   11 J.J. Hardy           .300   2009  26 MIL NL 102 417 371  49  85 14  2 11  45  38   0  73   2   1   5  14   0  1  .229  .367  .667 *6        

I guess that shouldn't be too surprising....10 guys finished last year that way:

  Cnt Player             **OBP**  Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+---------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Michael Bourn        .288   2008  25 HOU NL 138 514 467  57 107 10  4  5  29  37   0 111   2   7   1   3  41 10  .229  .300  .588 *8        
    2 Jeff Francoeur       .294   2008  24 ATL NL 155 652 599  70 143 33  3 11  71  39   5 111  10   0   4  18   0  1  .239  .359  .653 *9        
    3 Bobby Crosby         .296   2008  28 OAK AL 145 605 556  66 132 39  1  7  61  47   0  96   0   0   2  18   7  3  .237  .349  .645 *6        
    4 Carlos Gomez         .296   2008  22 MIN AL 153 614 577  79 149 24  7  7  59  25   0 142   7   3   2   7  33 11  .258  .360  .656 *8        
    5 Freddy Sanchez       .298   2008  30 PIT NL 145 608 569  75 154 26  2  9  52  21   1  63   4   8   6  13   0  1  .271  .371  .669 *4/D      
    6 Mike Jacobs          .299   2008  27 FLA NL 141 519 477  67 118 27  2 32  93  36  10 119   1   0   5   7   1  0  .247  .514  .813 *3/D      
    7 Kevin Kouzmanoff     .299   2008  26 SDP NL 154 668 624  71 162 31  4 23  84  23   3 139  15   0   6  14   0  0  .260  .433  .732 *5        
    8 Corey Hart           .300   2008  26 MIL NL 157 657 612  76 164 45  6 20  91  27   2 109   5   4   9  17  23  7  .268  .459  .759 *9        
    9 Yuniesky Betancou    .300   2008  26 SEA AL 153 590 559  66 156 36  3  7  51  17   0  42   2   6   6  23   4  4  .279  .392  .692 *6        
   10 Jose Guillen         .300   2008  32 KCR AL 153 633 598  66 158 42  1 20  97  23   3 106   9   0   3  23   2  1  .264  .438  .738 97D       

Paging Kevin Kouzmanoff's agent...

4 Responses to “Worst OPS+, 17+ HR”

  1. eorns Says:

    Wow, Taveras is on pace to be the first qualified player since Matt Walbeck in '94 to post an OBP and SLG under .290! Why is Cincinnati wasting so many PA's on this guy? He's not even stealing as much as last year!

  2. glanzerr Says:

    I have a question that I'm not sure how to research. What is the highest batting average under 1.000 that any player has ever possessed at any point during a season? Anybody can go 1-for-1 and bat 1.000, but has anyone at any point ever had a .900 average a few games into a season? Would be very interesting to find out...

  3. Raphy Says:

    If anyone is interested in trying to come up with an answer to Glanzer's question, you can start with what we came up with a year and half ago when he originally asked it in the comments to this post:

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/603

  4. tomepp Says:

    If you lower the HR requirement just a bit to 15, you get Chris Davis from Texas in there with his 72 OPS+ (.671 raw OPS). Of course, he was sent to the minors in early July due to his low OBP. Maybe he'll be back in late August or September to finish that hunt for a 30 HR - sub-.300 OBP season.