Continuing my series on the worst hitter in the Hall of Fame at each position I'm now at Catcher.

Perhaps more than any other position, catcher is the one where it's hard to find players with truly eye popping hitting stats. That being said, all of the Hall of Famers at the catcher position except for two have at least an OPS+ of 115.

The two exceptions are Rick Ferrell at 95 and Ray Schalk at 83.

Schalk is my "winner" for the worst hitting Catcher in the Hall of Fame. He played from 1912 to 1929. All but 5 of his 1762 games were played for the Chicago White Sox. He was a member of the White Sox during the infamous "Black Sox" scandal of 1919. He hit .304 in the 1919 World Series (well above his standard) so he was never suspected of being in on the scandal.

His career stats include a .253 batting average and a .316 slugging percentage. He hit 11 home runs during his entire career.

His best season was 1915 when his OPS+ was at a career high 105. He hit .266 that year.

Schalk lead all catchers in the AL in fielding percentage eight times. Clearly he is not in the Hall of Fame for his bat, so it must be for his glove.

Labels: Hall Of Fame, Ray Schalk

I've already done 3rd base, shortstop, and 2nd base, now it's time for 1st. Unlike the positions I've done already, first basemen are generally among the best hitters on a team. Because of that the worst hitting Hall of Fame first baseman is likely a much better hitter than the worst hitting Hall of Famers at the other infield positions.

That theory is proven to be true by looking at the numbers among Hall of Fame first basemen. Of all of the eligible players, only one has an OPS+ below 122: George Kelly at 109.

George Kelly is the winner of this "prize." He is the worst hitting first baseman in the Hall of Fame. Unsurprisingly he played the majority of his career in New York (I've noticed that many of the substandard Hall of Famers played in New York and clearly benefited from a NYC bias.)

Kelly's career ran from 1915 to 1930 with most of those seasons being with the New York Giants. His best season was 1924 when he hit .324 with 21 home runs (142 OPS+) He finished that season 7th in OPS, 6th in SLG, and 4th in Home Runs.

Kelly did actually lead the league in home runs in 1921 with 23 home runs. That year Babe Ruth lead the American League with 59 home runs.

Kelly's career numbers:

1622 Games
1778 Hits
337 Doubles
76 Triples
148 Home Runs
.297 Batting Average
.342 On Base Percentage
.452 Slugging Percentage
109 OPS+

It's clear from Kelly's numbers that he was an above average hitter for his era, an all star level first baseman. But it's also clear that he's not really a Hall of Fame caliber player. He was boosted to the level of Hall of Famer by the fact that he played for a successful New York Giants team (he won 2 World Series in 4 WS appearances.)

If you look at his 10 most similar batters (according to Baseball Reference) none of them are in the Hall of fame.

Labels: George Kelly, Hall Of Fame

I'm a little slow getting to 2nd base. So far Brooks Robinson is the worst hitting Hall of Fame 3rd baseman and Rabbit Maranville is the worst hitting Hall of Fame Shortstop.

The worst hitting Hall of Famer at 2nd base? This one is pretty easy: Bill Mazeroski.

Mazeroski played his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1956 to 1972. Check out these career hitting stats: .260 batting average, .299 on base percentage, .367 slugging percentage. All of those numbers are pretty poor but it's the .299 OBP that's particularly awful. All of that adds up to an 84 OPS+. His career high OPS+ was in 1958 when it was 98. In other words even at his peak, he was still a below average hitter.

Mazeroski did hit .323 in the playoffs during his career (10 hits, 31 at bats.) "Clutch" or merely small sample size? I'm leaning towards small sample size.

Mazeroski is obviously in the Hall for his glove and not his bat. He won 8 Gold Gloves during his career.

Labels: Bill Mazeroski, Hall Of Fame

Let's just make our way around the infield, alright? The other day Travis Jackson won the honor of being called the worst hitting Hall of Fame 3rd baseman. Now I'm at shortstop, which is actually the position Jackson spent most of his career at. How about that? Maybe I should go back and give the award of worst hitting Hall of Fame 3rd baseman back to Brooks Robinson?

Shortstop is one of only two positions that has a large amount of Hall of Fame inductees who were actually below average hitters (the other being 2nd baseman.)

The first player that may jump into your head is Ozzie Smith. Smith had a career 87 OPS+. His career OBP was only .337 and even worse, his career slugging percentage was an anemic .328, obviously Smith is in the Hall for his glove and not his bat.

But, believe it or not, there are actually two shortstops in the Hall of Fame with even lower OPS+ than Smith.

One of them is Rabbit Maranville who played from 1912 to 1935. His career OPS+ was only 82. His career batting average was .258 which is the lowest of any Hall of Fame shorstop. His .318 OBP is 3rd worst and his .340 SLG is 2nd worst (above only Smith's.)

The other is Luis Aparico who played from 1956 to 1973. His OPS+ was also just 82. His BA/OBP/SLG career numbers wer .262/.311/.343 --- Only once in his 18 seasons did he have an OPS+ above 100. In otherwords he was a below average hitter all but one season. The one exception was 1970 when he hit .313 with a .372 OBP and a .404 SLG for an OPS+ of 114.

So who is the worst hitting Hall of Fame shortstop? It's really a toss-up between Maranville & Aparico with Smith getting an honorable mention.

In the end I'm going to go with Rabbit Maranville. The clincher is that he he hit just 8 home runs from 1920 to 1935 (Babe Ruth hit 667 homers during the same time period.)

That also makes Maranville the worst hitting Hall of Famer overall (not counting pitchers of course.)

Labels: Hall Of Fame, Luis Aparico, Ozzie Smith, Rabbit Maranville

What, you think I'm trying to come up with the most random topics I can think of? You don't think it's relevant that Pedro Feliz & Vic Power are tied for #999 all time in OPS? What can I say. This is how I get down.

I intend this to be some kind of series on the worst hitting Hall of Famer at each position. But I am going to continue my policy from the past of pretty much ignoring players who played their entire career in the dead ball era. It's just too hard to compare them to the players that played ball post 1920.

With that being said, my selection for the worst hitting 3rd baseman among Hall of Famers is none other than Brooks Robinson. Certainly his numbers are dampened somewhat by playing in a pretty pitcher dominated era, but regardless of your era it's hard to put a positive spin on a career OBP of .325 or a career SLG of .401 or a batting average of .267 for that matter.

But his career OPS is actually above 100 (104 to be exact) so I will not say he was a below average hitter, just far below average for a hall of famer. Obviously he was selected to the hall mostly on the strength of his glove (16 Gold Glove awards) and his long solid career.

Robinson won the MVP award in 1964. He hit .317 with 28 home runs that year. Both numbers were career highs. That was actually the only time in his career he finished in the top 10 in OPS. He was 6th at .889.

Actually. I'm wrong. It really should be Travis Jackson. At 102, his career OPS+ is even lower than Robinson's. In fact it's the lowest of all of the 3rd basemen in the Hall of Fame (including dead ball era players.)

Who is Travis Jackson? I consider myself reasonably well versed in baseball history but his name doesn't even ring a bell for me. He has to be one of the least known Hall of Famers.

He played from 1922 to 1936. His entire career was with the New York Giants which probably explains why he's in the Hall of Fame (New York bias anyone?) There were no Gold Glove awards back then but I assume he must have been considered a very good fielder to make up for his rather average hitting. It's hard to understand how he finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 4 times otherwise. (Except for maybe New York bias...)

Labels: Brooks Robinson, Hall Of Fame