The Kindest Cut Of All?

Today the Devil Rays took a deep breath and released team albatross Greg Vaughn. Vaughn is guaranteed $9.2 M this season, but the Rays are looking in a new, younger direction with new manager Lou Piniella. Vaughn is coming off a 2002 season (or half season) in which he batted .163, hit 8 home runs, and drove in but 29 runs.

To put that in an historic context, here are the men to have amassed at least 250 at-bats in a season and have failed to hit better than .175:

Name            Year AB HR RBI BA OBP SLUG OPS
Will White      1879 294 0 17 .136 .153 .156 .310
Bill Bergen     1909 346 1 15 .139 .163 .156 .319
Fritz Buelow    1904 255 0 10 .141 .201 .176 .377
Jack Burdock    1888 325 1 12 .142 .167 .166 .333
Charley Bassett 1885 285 0 16 .144 .197 .186 .383
Henry Easterday 1890 289 2 21 .149 .241 .197 .438
Harry Sage      1890 275 2 25 .149 .230 .229 .459
Sam Crane       1886 301 1 19 .153 .208 .199 .407
Bill Traffley   1885 254 1 20 .154 .207 .220 .427
Joe Gerhardt    1885 399 0 33 .155 .203 .195 .399
John Humphries  1884 257 0  2 .156 .211 .163 .374
Les Moss        1947 274 6 27 .157 .252 .255 .508
Doc Bushong     1882 253 1 15 .158 .174 .194 .368
Bill Bergen     1906 353 0 19 .159 .175 .184 .359
Silver Flint    1880 284 0 17 .162 .176 .225 .402
Billy Sullivan  1909 265 0 16 .162 .213 .174 .386
Stump Wiedman   1884 300 0 26 .163 .198 .183 .381
Greg Vaughn     2002 251 8 29 .163 .286 .315 .601
George Baker    1884 317 0    .164 .177 .183 .360
Frank Meinke    1884 341 6 24 .164 .179 .273 .451
Joe Battin      1884 286 0  0 .164 .173 .192 .365
Ray Oyler       1969 255 7 22 .165 .260 .267 .526
Herman Pitz     1890 284 0  9 .165 .307 .165 .473
Bill McClellan  1881 259 0 16 .166 .212 .185 .397
Jim Canavan     1892 439 0 32 .166 .248 .239 .488
Dave Roberts    1974 318 5 18 .167 .246 .252 .497
Charlie Bastian 1885 389 4 29 .167 .236 .252 .488
Bill Kuehne     1892 339 1 40 .168 .203 .224 .428
Red Kleinow     1908 279 1 13 .168 .229 .204 .434
Jimmy Peoples   1884 267 1 16 .169 .187 .202 .389
John Henry      1914 261 0 20 .169 .272 .226 .498
Kid Butler      1884 255 0    .169 .206 .227 .433
Juice Latham    1884 308 0 23 .169 .190 .198 .388
Davy Force      1880 290 0 17 .169 .197 .203 .400
George McBride  1906 313 0 13 .169 .212 .208 .420
Adonis Terry    1885 264 1 20 .170 .201 .208 .409
Ben Conroy      1890 404 0 21 .171 .254 .208 .462
Deron Johnson   1974 351 13 43 .171 .237 .305 .542
Jimmy Cooney    1892 263 0 24 .171 .248 .183 .431
Ed Crane        1886 292 0 20 .171 .207 .229 .436
George Scott    1968 350 3 25 .171 .236 .237 .473
Al Weis         1968 274 1 14 .172 .234 .204 .438
Clay Dalrymple  1967 268 3 21 .172 .271 .239 .510
George Pinkney  1892 290 0 25 .172 .264 .197 .460
Taylor Shaffer  1890 261 0 21 .172 .253 .215 .467
Henry Easterday 1889 324 4 34 .173 .266 .275 .540
Joe Sugden      1905 266 0 23 .173 .239 .188 .427
George Strief   1879 264 0 15 .174 .204 .208 .413
Dal Maxvill     1969 372 2 32 .175 .263 .228 .492

Vaughn can take some solace in having the best OPS of the group but it is not an enviable group to be a part of, especially when the last member was added 28 years earlier.

But what does it mean for Vaughn's future. Well, only 31 of the previous 48 even had a next year to their career. Of those only 14 recorded 250 or more at-bats the next season. Their overall average for the next season was just .215. It appears that when a player's career hits such a nadir, it's hard for that player to comeback. Whether this will hold true for Vaughn will have to be seen, but I wouln't be surprised to see a team giving him a try as a role player for the league minimum. Who knows--given that the type of season that he had in 2002 is such a rarity today, who's to say he can't turn it around? Though 37-year-old power hitters rarely do turn their careers around after being dropped by arguably the worst team in baseball.