Especially with the internet, there is more access to baseball statistics, and people are always finding new ways to manipulate them. A new one making its way through the blogosphere is pretty funny: the Suckage Index. It was created by Batter’s Box for pitchers, but now has been applied to hitters.
You calculate it as follows: (80-OPS+) * PA, which has been defined as “suckage density times suckage volume.”
Geoff Young at Ducksnorts shows the calculations for the worst Padres hitters in history in a single season. The worst ever, by far, was Ozzie Smith in 1979, with a Suckage score of 21,417. Too bad that the guy we traded him for, Garry Templeton, had the third worst in 1987.
4 comments:
I didn't think anyone could have been worse than Enzo Hernandez.
Or as the announcer used to say when he came to bat, all in one word, "numberelevenenzo." How about this--in his rookie year (1972) he had 549 ABs, with no homers and 12, yes TWELVE, RBIs. That's so bad it is funny.
Yes, I almost posted his name that way!* For those who missed out on those days, the announcer swallowed the first five syllables (of "numberelevenenzo," which clearly is one word) and then really PUNCHED the "en"--rather the second "en"--and he also had this way of hanging on the "Her" in the last name. Well you had to be there. Or surely there's an audio clip somewhere. It's been more than thirty (!) years, but I remember it as though it were yesterday!
I am not sure his 12 RBIs are the worst ever for someone with so many ABs, but I did see a list once somewhere, and he was quite prominently located on it.
He managed 34 RBIs in 1974, and an OPS of 562! He got the OPS all the way to 641 in 1976, but was in a mere 113 games that year.
You can't make up stats like this! Hard to believe someone that bad ever played 140+ games in a season (as he did twice).
(I must confess that I did not remember that he was ever a Dodger--3 ABs for them in 1978!)
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* I will admit, Greg, that I feared you would be too young to know what I was referring to. :-)
Yes, I was very young (single digits) but who knows why some things stand out in your memory. The other one that comes to mind is Bob Owchinko, or "bob-ohhhhhhhhhCHINKO."
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