Phillies' Howard, Brown among MLB's worst players in 2014
This year has been something of a healthy season for the Phillies. Their aging core managed to get through the year without proving right any predictions of prolonged disabled list stints. Sadly, the production they were supplying while in the lineup quickly dashed any excitement over what they could do with a full year of plate appearances.
Ryan Fagan of The Sporting News confirmed this in three specific cases after putting together a list of the worst everyday position players in MLB, taking into account their WAR and salary for the year.
At first base, Ryan Howard:
"[Howard has] never been much of a fielder or much of a runner. And when you add his career-worst .220 average and .682 OPS to the mix, he winds up on this list for 2014."
Howard is fourth in the National League in RBI (93). Granted, that relies moreso on his teammates' ability to get on base. When it comes to plain old hitting the ball, Howard, you know, wasn't. He's reluctant to throw to second base and his range is naturally limited following an injury that put him in a motorized scooter that required many months of rehab.
But this isn't new information to anyone who watches Howard on a regular basis. Ryne Sandberg inserts him at clean-up because there really isn't anywhere else for him to go - either on this team or off of it. His sharply declining performance is made to feel all the worse by the infamous contract that solidifies he's not going anywhere. Howard is likely in the designated hitter phase of his slugger's career, but he can't be moved to allow for it to begin.
As for Domonic Brown, again, anyone watching him could tell you the National League features many, many superior outfielders. But the wrinkle here is that Brown was so good last year, at least in large chunks. Rising from failed prospect to NL All-Star is no easy feat, but even more difficult is to come back the next season and be even worse than he was initially. But Brown has done it.
He has supplied the Phillies with exactly zero good times in 2014, hitting only 10 home runs as opposed to 27 last year, when Deadspin was crowning him "your new favorite slugger." His batting average dropped over 30 points to .239 and his on-base percentage is struggling to touch .300. He has all but faded into the background, reappearing for the occasional fielding miscue, and making a rumored trade to the Indians for Lonnie Chisenhall seem absolutely real.
Lastly, Roberto Hernandez, no longer a Phillie, made the list as a starting pitcher, along with Kyle Kendrick. Fagan points out that the Phillies actually got the right side of the Hernandez deal, for once.
"Hernandez was actually a relatively positive part of the Phillies' rotation for much of the year (3.87 ERA/4.67 FIP), but in eight starts after the Dodgers traded for him, he's posted a 4.74 ERA and 5.28 FIP... Kendrick has identical 0.4 WARs for both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference, which isn't too surprising considering his ERA (4.61) is nearly identical to his FIP (4.57). And neither number is good."
So there you go. If it makes you feel any better, the Phillies weren't the worst at every position. And hey, Derek Jeter was baseball's worst shortstop in 2014.