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Where Have You Gone, Joe Charboneau?
2007-06-07 09:32
by Mike Carminati

As I ponder the fate of the Phils, an incredibly streaky team with constantly reversing fates, with the win yesterday on Jimmy Rollins' three-run home run, it occurs to me that J-Roll is this team—he epitomizes it.

He's streaky with flashes of brilliance offensively and defensively but has lapses when he can't master even routine plays—remind you of any team that you know? He strikes out way too much. He has never really settled into his leadoff role, always talking about an on-base percentage but reveling in his delusions of being a slugger. His hot April—9 homers to lead the league at one point, .297 average, and .978 OPS—of course led to his abysmal May—.250, no homers, .279 on-base percentage, and .679 OPS.

The end result is Rollins is a better than average shortstop, and what are the Phils this decade but a consistently slightly above average team with flashes of brilliance mixes with stretches in which they cannot make simple plays, they strike out too much, they don't know what their team makeup is, whether they are fish or fowl. Their opening day starter two weeks later is their closer. They change their third baseman daily. They bat their MVP third to get him more at-bats while setting him up for his—yet far—Kafkaesque season. They take a Mulligan on the bullpen even though they are committed to pulling their starters after one hundred pitches. And their GM might be leading a group that is trying to buy the Mariners even though he denies it.

But, hey, they are over .500 at least for one day.

Anyway, in other shortstop news, former Rookie of the Year, Angel Berroa, was let go by the Royals yesterday four years after winning the award. My first thought was if Berroa's career were truly over—and when you are released by probably the worst organization in baseball, it probably is—would he be the worst former Rookie of the Year ever.

Then I remember Joe Charboneau. And Butch Metzger.

So who is the worst player to win a Rookie of the Year? Who was worst if you ignore his award-winning year? To quote Mr. Owl, let's find out.

I ran the numbers for all former RoY winners, here are the worst on career Win Shares prorated by the number of years the player played. Berroa comes in at just #14:

RoY YrNamePOSWin Shares Bat WS Field WS Pitch WS #Yrs WS per Yr
2000Kazuhiro SasakiP38 - - 14.52 4 3.63
1976Butch MetzgerP21 - - 20.40 5 4.08
1989Jerome WaltonOF40 29.70 11.40 - 10 4.11
1994Bob HamelinDH30 27.80 1.80 - 6 4.92
1961Don SchwallP39 - - 38.50 7 5.50
1952Joe BlackP33 - - 33.40 6 5.57
1980Joe CharboneauOF17 15.70 1.10 - 3 5.63
1952Harry ByrdP42 - - 41.10 7 5.87
1976Pat ZachryP60 0.30 - 59.70 10 6.00
1990Sandy AlomarC115 61.49 52.79 1.20 19 6.06
1980Steve HoweP76 - - 74.20 12 6.18
1999Scott WilliamsonP50 - 0.10 49.60 8 6.26
1954Bob GrimP53 0.10 - 52.00 8 6.51
2003Angel BerroaSS40 22.05 14.90 3.30 6 6.56

Maybe Berroa is helped out too much by his award-winning year—Charboneau sure was. Let's run the numbers again without the Rookie of the Year season:

RoY YrNamePOSWin Shares Bat WS Field WS Pitch WS #Yrs WS per Yr
1980Joe CharboneauOF2 1.3 0.4 - 2 0.90
1976Butch MetzgerP9 - - 8.8 4 2.20
1976Mark FidrychP9 - - 9.9 4 2.48
1952Joe BlackP13 - - 13.3 5 2.66
1989Jerome WaltonOF23 16.2 7.9 - 9 2.68
1994Bob HamelinDH18 16.4 1.3 - 5 3.52
1961Don SchwallP24 - - 23.2 6 3.87
1952Harry ByrdP24 - - 23.6 6 3.93
1992Pat ListachSS20 7.4 13.0 - 5 4.08
2003Angel BerroaSS24 12.4 8.8 3.3 5 4.72
1999Scott WilliamsonP33 - 0.1 32.8 7 4.76
2000Kazuhiro SasakiP27 - - 14.5 3 4.84

Berroa comes in just tenth here. I was pleased to see Charboneau and Metzger at the top, however. But Berroa can't shake a stick at the abysmal Jerome Walton and former Royal Bob Hamelin.

For fun, here are the best former RoY winners. First, by their career Win Shares per year:

RoY YrNamePOSWin Shares Bat WS Field WS Pitch WS #Yrs WS per Yr
2001Albert Pujols1B219 177.89 9.90 2.00 6 31.73
1951Willie MaysOF642 538.10 104.20 - 22 29.18
1991Jeff Bagwell1B388 355.40 31.95 0.30 15 25.82
1947Jackie Robinson2B257 201.70 55.10 - 10 25.68
1956Frank RobinsonOF519 468.10 51.00 - 21 24.70
1996Derek JeterSS278 219.65 51.61 6.00 12 23.10
1963Pete RoseOF547 461.90 85.80 - 24 22.82
1964Dick Allen1B342 312.50 29.70 - 15 22.79
1997Scott Rolen3B241 190.93 48.19 2.10 11 21.90
1999Carlos BeltranCF193 147.81 39.65 7.20 9 21.53
1987Mark McGwire1B343 323.30 20.20 - 16 21.45
1993Mike PiazzaC322 261.26 57.37 3.30 15 21.44
1968Johnny BenchC356 255.20 99.60 - 17 20.88
1961Billy WilliamsOF374 329.10 45.10 - 18 20.79
1977Eddie Murray1B437 397.50 37.00 - 21 20.69
2001Ichiro SuzukiRF159 104.00 15.18 4.30 6 20.55
1982Cal RipkenSS427 290.60 136.50 - 21 20.34
1967Rod Carew1B384 331.90 53.50 - 19 20.29
2004Jason BayLF81 70.54 6.00 3.30 4 20.06
1967Tom SeaverP388 0.20 - 389.30 20 19.47

Then they are ranked by the career stats ignoring their RoY season:

RoY YrNamePOSWin Shares Bat WS Field WS Pitch WS #Yrs WS per Yr
2001Albert Pujols1B190 177.9 9.9 2.0 5 38.08
1951Willie MaysOF623 523.9 99.1 - 21 29.65
1947Jackie Robinson2B236 182.9 53.4 - 9 26.26
1991Jeff Bagwell1B365 333.9 30.1 0.3 14 26.00
2001Ichiro SuzukiRF123 104.0 15.2 4.3 5 24.66
1956Frank RobinsonOF493 444.7 48.4 - 20 24.64
1996Derek JeterSS260 208.5 44.6 6.0 11 23.57
1963Pete RoseOF528 447.4 81.1 - 23 22.97
1999Carlos BeltranCF175 133.6 36.1 7.2 8 22.01
1964Dick Allen1B301 277.6 24.1 - 14 21.53
1997Scott Rolen3B212 168.1 42.3 2.1 10 21.22
1961Billy WilliamsOF359 315.8 43.6 - 17 21.14
1987Mark McGwire1B313 295.4 18.4 - 15 20.90
1993Mike PiazzaC291 239.7 48.6 3.3 14 20.79
2004Jason BayLF63 54.6 4.1 3.3 3 20.75
1968Johnny BenchC332 240.7 90.4 - 16 20.70
1977Eddie Murray1B416 377.3 36.4 - 20 20.69
1967Rod Carew1B365 317.4 48.7 - 18 20.34
1982Cal RipkenSS404 275.0 129.0 - 20 20.20
2000Rafael FurcalSS129 84.5 26.9 8.1 6 19.96
1967Tom SeaverP367 0.2 - 368.7 19 19.42

Pujols is still outclassing Mays but that might change as he ages. Still that tells you how historically good he's been.

Comments
2007-06-07 09:40:07
1.   ToyCannon
Good stuff. Amazed that Todd Hollandsworth did not make it as one of the worse ROY winners.
2007-06-07 11:26:53
2.   rbj
Or that Mark Fydrich didn't make it. Yes, he was injured, but what a flameout from such a promising start.

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