Mark Reynolds Fails To Join Club

Mark Reynolds really let me down this year. When he was sent to the Orioles before the 2011 season, I had grandiose dreams of a 400 strikeout performance against the power pitching of the American League East. At 196 K's, he still led the AL in striking out but, for once, that wasn't the source of my obsession. If you follow me on Twitter, you already know where I'm going with this.

Thanks to Reynolds playing third base like a fawn wondering onto the interstate for the first time, he had a pretty good chance to hit 30+ home runs and produce no value. By no value, I mean a 0.0 Wins Above Replacement (WAR). Using Baseball-References version of WAR, only eight (8!) players have ever hit 30+ homers with an rWAR equal to or less than goose egg...

Rk		Yrs	From	To	Age
1	Dave Kingman	2	1982	1986	33-37	Ind. Seasons
2	Mike Jacobs	1	2008	2008	27-27	Ind. Seasons
3	Tony Batista	1	2004	2004	30-30	Ind. Seasons
4	Dante Bichette	1	1999	1999	35-35	Ind. Seasons
5	Joe Carter	1	1996	1996	36-36	Ind. Seasons
6	Cecil Fielder	1	1995	1995	31-31	Ind. Seasons
7	Cory Snyder	1	1987	1987	24-24	Ind. Seasons
8	Tony Armas	1	1983	1983	29-29	Ind. Seasons

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/29/2011.

In 1999, Dante Bichette was secretly replaced in the outfield with a can of Folgers coffee and nobody could tell the difference.

In 620 plate appearances, Reynolds hit 37 home runs and a .221/.323/.483 line. It's a pretty accurate picture of the player he has been over his five year career. But in 2011, his defense was off the charts poor and that gave him a chance to become the ninth player to join the club.

The Orioles, afraid of my Twitter campaign, moved Reynolds to first base. So, much to my chagrin, he finished the season with a 0.5 rWAR. He flirted with the zero mark several times down the stretch but, alas, it was not to be.

We were so close, people. So close.

Ozzie Smith Had Some Elite Company

Occasionally, just occasionally, Derwood and I take a break from making jokes about Steve Balboni, Jose Canseco and other hobos to stare at stats. I'd like to thank Baseball Reference in particular for ruining my social life in New Orleans. It's cool though, turns out I'm only attracted to crazy women.

Today was one of those days where I found myself with too much free time and 12 tabs of Baseball Reference and Fangraphs open. If you follow me on Twitter (and why aren't you), you might know about my fascination with home runs and Wins Above Replacement. If you don't follow me, this is the kind of stuff I wonder about on a daily basis.

*NOTE: For posts like these, I'll be using rWAR (Baseball Reference Wins Above Replacement) because of their baseball nerd crack invention of the Play Index.*

Ozzie Smith had an incredibly rare season in 1987. He hit .303/.392/.383 while playing his usual brand of sterling defense at short. Of course, Smith didn't hit for much power that year either. It was one of the seven homerless seasons of his 19 year career. The Hall of Famer finished second in MVP voting (Smith's highest finish but losing out to Andre Dawson and his .328 OBP) with a 7.1 rWAR. So the obvious question that had to be answered? How many players have had a season with a 7+ rWAR without hitting a home run?

Rk		Yrs	From	To	Age
1	Ozzie Smith	1	1987	1987	32-32	Ind. Seasons
2	Tris Speaker	1	1915	1915	27-27	Ind. Seasons
3	Eddie Collins	1	1912	1912	25-25	Ind. Seasons
4	Nap Lajoie	1	1906	1906	31-31	Ind. Seasons

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/12/2011.

Four players managed to achieve that feat. Ozzie and three of the greatest dead ball hitters in the history of baseball. It's hard to imagine another player being able to accomplish that random criteria I looked up unless someone reinvents the wheel defensively or walks his way to a .700 OBP. I'd also like to point out here that I'm not good at math and might be completely off base (hey look, there's part of our blog name).

Nap Lajoie had the best season of the group in aught-six hitting .355/.392/.465 for the cleverly named Cleveland Naps. Pretty sure he didn't get any points added on to his 9.6 WAR for managing the team or designing the logo.

Eddie Collins hit .348/.450/.435 in 1912 good for a 9.2 WAR for the Philadelphia A's. He finished sixth in the MVP voting behind former WWE Diva Trish Stratus.

My bad, that should have read former Red Sock Tris Speaker. Speaker won the MVP in 1912 after belting a league best 10 home runs. But in 1915, he hit nary a ball yard. He was able to manage a .322/.416./411 line which resulted in his 8.1 WAR.

This, my dear readers, is the stuff I look up on the Internet with my free time. Well, this and pictures of dogs wearing hats.