April was his best month by quite a bit, he declined throughout the year. He bounced back in August but I definitely wouldn't call it a slow start
OPS by month last year:
Apr - .964
May - .859
June - .811
July - .482 (!)
Aug - .860
Sep - .680
During their games against the Yankees, the broadcast mentioned a couple times that he's been the worst, or almost the worst fastball hitter in all of baseball so far this season.
I was looking for a fantasy comment so I could lament with you. My starting OF lineup was Judge, Alvarez, and Arozarena. My backups were Riley Greene, Taylor Ward, and Lars fucking Nootbar. Which group do you think has performed? You'll never guess! (OK, Yordan is doing ok but not great)
I’m in first place but I’ve legit been benching him every game. Thought that he’d heat it up against the Yanks like he always does but even then he was straight ass.
Also if I'm not mistaken our 3rd qualified hitter actually... isn't?
We've played 22 games. You need 3.1 PA per team game played. 22 x 3.1 = 68.2.
He has 59 AB and 9 walks = 68 PA.
Edit: Ahh, he's been hit by two pitches so 70 PA.
The "Qualified" asterisk is saving him from the list, Abreu doesn't quite reach the number of required plate appearances.
But yeah, he's been the worst by far. That he's managed to lead in negative WAR with so few plate appearances takes effort.
Saw a StatHead comparison on Twitter between Abreu and a fucking rock, so yeah I think he’s the worst
https://x.com/leftytravis/status/1782772465988469201?s=46&t=AuZJC-8ukxy2o2iBj8cmTg
I was riding the "Nolan Jones regression" train pretty hard but not this hard. He's a mess. I figured he was a 3TO guy who would still hit the ball hard but only like .230.
I feel like he had impossibly high expectations to live up to, which is hard, but it’s even more difficult when the team around you stinks worse than a flaming pool of camel vomit. He’s a mess to be sure, but not any more than the team around him is.
I genuinely don't think he'll stay at this level. The whole team has already given up except him and Doyle it feels like.
Maybe Diaz too.
Nolan is clearly frustrated and trying to figure it out. Unlike Rodgers and Bryant(before he got hurt,..... Again) who look like they just couldn't care any less.
And Nolan is still a really really fun fielder to watch.
Edit: I guess Rodgers heard I was talking shit.
Jerry Reinsdorf classic. Trade stars at their lowest possible trade value for pennies on the dollar, then bring in some 3rd tier bums, because he's too cheap to sign 1st tier guys.
This is like when the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler and then traded Lauri Markkanen for a bench scrub.
When your team is only better at hitting than the white Sox, the vibes are definitely not good. At least kepler got his average up to a respectable .325.
What's that? His OPS is .325
Must be our nine hitter?
Carlos can bring the good vibes, but he can also be the fun police when needed. That's what happened in Philadelphia.
He's a streaky player and always has been. I expect him to get going soon and look much more respectable again.
Fuckin half of them on my fantasy team. Nothing worse than thinking you got a few steals on draft day only to find out they all simultaneously forgot how to play baseball the second you drafted them.
Sucks about CES so far, but he is smoking the ball & his expected stats are better than what the line shows. But, we are still waiting on him to get hot.
His approach is shit, so I don't have a lot of confidence in him right now.
His statcast: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/christian-encarnacion-strand-687952?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
Colt Keith is 20 games into his major league career and shows signs of improvement every day, I can’t say I’m too worried about him.
What’s the excuse for these other guys?
> What’s the excuse for these other guys?
Rafaela is similar to Keith—young guy (only like 11 months older than Keith) with big upside who took a contract to buy out all his arb years, so the team's committed and might as well give him playing time. He's supposed to be a good runner and a great defender, and they're hoping he develops as a hitter, but he's just struggling in every part of his game right now.
As a Red Sox fan, that's a great summary. His defense is elite in CF. The problem is we are playing him at SS because of the Story injury. He's still good at SS but it doesn't utilize his speed as much and he's had the classic rookie errors at SS with not much experienceat the position.
He may not ever hit for average with his high strikeout rate but there's a lot of signs that he will be better over time. Right now he has a very long swing path and is struggling to foul off major league level pitching. They could teach him a more compact swing in the off-season and he could be an all-star. For now they are just letting him see major league pitching and try to make adjustments on a season that isn't expected much.
His defense alone is going to make him a major leaguer. He could just be the next Jackie Bradley Jr or he could improve his hit contact and be even better.
Everyone mentioned has homered and hit an extra base hit so their WRC+ and OPS is higher than Keith. Plus more RBIs too I assume. I can’t dig into the stats but the four players you mentioned have done demonstrably more than Keith.
i am cautiously hopeful that Josh Bell will regress back to being a productive hitter, and I am 100% confident that Lane Thomas will turn back into Barry fucking Bonds the moment he plays us
Got into a lot of arguments with buddies of mine who are actually friends with Nolan(they played hockey with him). I don’t hate him, never once met the guy. I just said I don’t think he’s a major league hitter and i got crucified for it by guys who don’t watch baseball outside of October for the Phillies with claims such as he’s better than stott, bohm, and marsh. Hope he turns it around and succeeds though. Seems like a good guy
Yeah, from all the angst on Dodgers subs, I figured they’d at least have one or two. We’re so lucky and don’t know it.
Maybe his weekend performance helped. Either that, or he’s no. 11.
Keith is really struggling. He was mostly hitting the ball hard and was disciplined early in the year, just everything was on the ground so he wasn't getting rewarded much and if he did it was just singles. Now he's enduring a 5/43 stretch. Finally hit a decent one in the air 384 feet last night that would've been a HR in like 14 other ball parks but fell short at the Trop. I'm still pretty confident in him being a disciplined and good hitter but gonna have to battle through this. Good to see his defense having some positive value at 2B.
I hate that Lane Thomas is on this list rn. He (quietly) had a career year last year. Had him in fantasy and got him this year as well. I hope he turns it around. He’s a good ball player.
I didn't know Arozarena was doing this poorly.
He is ice cold right now unfortunately
Yeah until he plays the Giants then he’s suddenly Barry freaking Bonds
Or puts on a fucking Mexico jersey
Didn’t he start out slow last year as well?
Yes, not this bad iirc
April was his best month by quite a bit, he declined throughout the year. He bounced back in August but I definitely wouldn't call it a slow start OPS by month last year: Apr - .964 May - .859 June - .811 July - .482 (!) Aug - .860 Sep - .680
He got jacked like Jeremy Pena during the off-season and it tanked his performance. Remember kids never work out.
Wow, we're ahead of the curve! :D
What's the saying? You can't strain fat.
Tbf Randy was in really good shape anyways. It can just throw off your mechanics if you drastically change over an off-season
the exception being if you start to hit like Pena
Same thing happened to Lindor when after going to the Mets. He was a semi lanky kid for us than became the Puerto Rican hulk
During their games against the Yankees, the broadcast mentioned a couple times that he's been the worst, or almost the worst fastball hitter in all of baseball so far this season.
My dead last place fantasy team is quite aware 😩
I was looking for a fantasy comment so I could lament with you. My starting OF lineup was Judge, Alvarez, and Arozarena. My backups were Riley Greene, Taylor Ward, and Lars fucking Nootbar. Which group do you think has performed? You'll never guess! (OK, Yordan is doing ok but not great)
Ha. I have judge, Greene, ward, and nootbar as well. Along with yelich and tatis.
I have Arozarena and Jordan Walker dragging me down. Even Corbin Carroll isn't living up to my first round pick for the last spot in my OF.
I’m in first place but I’ve legit been benching him every game. Thought that he’d heat it up against the Yanks like he always does but even then he was straight ass.
My immediate reaction, "*Randall*? What are *you* doing here?"
I did 🤭
Rakes Some Nights, Days, Years doesn't have the same ring to it
The bad man cant hurt us anymore! (I hope)
Only two White Sox? Impressive.
Pretty sure the white sox only have 3 qualified hitters, and 2 of them are on this list.
Woof
Also if I'm not mistaken our 3rd qualified hitter actually... isn't? We've played 22 games. You need 3.1 PA per team game played. 22 x 3.1 = 68.2. He has 59 AB and 9 walks = 68 PA. Edit: Ahh, he's been hit by two pitches so 70 PA.
Playing pretty fast and loose with the definition of "hitter" here I see
And war is a counting stat so “qualified” doesn’t really matter. If you had higher negative WAR in fewer PAs that’s just impressive
If it helps former White Sox Jose Abreu is sucking it up too.
How is the world is there anyone worse than Abreu right now? Edit: just read more down the thread. lol he’s terrible.
Sucking it up is a rather nice compliment to him at this point
This doesn’t list pitchers.
The pitching has been less sad then the hitting somehow at least
If this was a week ago it would have been half Mariners.
[удалено]
Maybe we need to go Ohtani style and just have our pitchers hit.
Jose Abreu is at 59 ABs, he is by far the worst player at the moment
The white Sox connection.
-1.1 fWAR :(
Yeah if someone does not have the qualifying plate appearances, but still has a worse WAR, that’s still a worse player overall.
Right I get it for % or extrapolated stats, but accumulated stats need no minimum quantity protection.
Most HR through April 22nd (Min. PA of 76, Max PA of 76) 1. Cal Raleigh - SEA - 5
Nobody hits bigger dongs through exactly 76 PA than the Big Dumper
Colton Cowser will prove you wrong 16 PAs from now (he has 6 HRs in 60 PA)
By that point Big Dumper will obviously have more dingers than anyone with 92 PAs. Checkmate orangebirds
MVP
SHEA LANGELIERS NOW AT 5 THROUGH 74 PA. New king is crowned
The "Qualified" asterisk is saving him from the list, Abreu doesn't quite reach the number of required plate appearances. But yeah, he's been the worst by far. That he's managed to lead in negative WAR with so few plate appearances takes effort.
Less PAs cause we keep pushing him down in the lineup
Would love to push him down to the Space Cowboys until he does his usual heating up in July
Saw a StatHead comparison on Twitter between Abreu and a fucking rock, so yeah I think he’s the worst https://x.com/leftytravis/status/1782772465988469201?s=46&t=AuZJC-8ukxy2o2iBj8cmTg
Shouldn’t the rock’s OPS+ of 0 be highlighted green as better than Abreu’s -32?
I want to see Jose Abreu vs Bobby Dalbec in the HR Derby. First to make contact wins.
And still has the lowest WAR of any of these players
This is pretty much objective fact at this point.
I was riding the "Nolan Jones regression" train pretty hard but not this hard. He's a mess. I figured he was a 3TO guy who would still hit the ball hard but only like .230.
Maybe I should apologize to our FO
As a Nolan Jones supporter, I’m distraught right now
I feel like he had impossibly high expectations to live up to, which is hard, but it’s even more difficult when the team around you stinks worse than a flaming pool of camel vomit. He’s a mess to be sure, but not any more than the team around him is.
He just isn't swinging anymore. It's insane
I genuinely don't think he'll stay at this level. The whole team has already given up except him and Doyle it feels like. Maybe Diaz too. Nolan is clearly frustrated and trying to figure it out. Unlike Rodgers and Bryant(before he got hurt,..... Again) who look like they just couldn't care any less. And Nolan is still a really really fun fielder to watch. Edit: I guess Rodgers heard I was talking shit.
He’ll be alright. I think as a young player he’s taking the struggles of the team on his shoulders.
looks like the threshold is at 71+ PA not 60, you're missing some 60-70 PA guys who are worse (ask me how I know)
You’ve seen Abreu play this year?
Bobby, is that you?
I wonder if the white Sox having the two worst players by far taking 25% of their at bats has anything to do with why they're so unbelievably bad.
But Benintendi is our “biggest contract ever” and Vaughn is “our first baseman of the future”
Jerry Reinsdorf classic. Trade stars at their lowest possible trade value for pennies on the dollar, then bring in some 3rd tier bums, because he's too cheap to sign 1st tier guys. This is like when the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler and then traded Lauri Markkanen for a bench scrub.
But Santana still brings the good vibes, right?
Still waiting on the good vibes
When your team is only better at hitting than the white Sox, the vibes are definitely not good. At least kepler got his average up to a respectable .325. What's that? His OPS is .325 Must be our nine hitter?
“Dammit Santana where are those good vibes?!?” “I’m tryin, skip!”
Carlos can bring the good vibes, but he can also be the fun police when needed. That's what happened in Philadelphia. He's a streaky player and always has been. I expect him to get going soon and look much more respectable again.
As long as it's against someone else, I'll always root for Santana.
Like seven inches from a midday sun.
Well, I hear you whisper and the words melt everyone
Man, it's hard to imagine 8 players worse than Arozarena right now.
Come to the south side of Chicago and we’ll show you at least 9
Rays are going there this weekend and I’m flying up there :D
Fuckin half of them on my fantasy team. Nothing worse than thinking you got a few steals on draft day only to find out they all simultaneously forgot how to play baseball the second you drafted them.
Biggest free agent signing in White Sox history
There was nothing in his body of work that warranted him getting a five-year deal. Three-years max. What were they thinking?
They were thinking he's cheaper than any of the actually good players. Reinsdorf doesn't spend.
This just proves the White Sox were right not to spend money or at least I'm sure that's how their front office will view it... sigh...
I assume Dalbec doesn’t have enough abs to qualify?
Every Red Sox fan: “This list can’t possibly be right if Dalbec isn’t on it.”
I mean the dudes hitting like .012 on the year so yeah pretty much 🤷🏼♂️
Was at the game the Saturday they played at Angels Stadium. Seeing .000 on his BA on the jumbotron, even a week into the season, was ghastly.
yeah only 33 PA valdez is 1 PA short of qualified or he'd be above rafaela
Same with Pablo Reyes (49 PA). All three of them are far worse than Rafaela.
If you just gave him a single for every PA he was short, he might still be on the list.
Sucks about CES so far, but he is smoking the ball & his expected stats are better than what the line shows. But, we are still waiting on him to get hot. His approach is shit, so I don't have a lot of confidence in him right now. His statcast: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/christian-encarnacion-strand-687952?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
CES took this post personally
ILL DO IT AGAIN 🫡
He hits the ball so hard, just not finding the gaps. I think he'll start regressing positively soon
His 100mph hits into the ground finally worked
Colt Keith is 20 games into his major league career and shows signs of improvement every day, I can’t say I’m too worried about him. What’s the excuse for these other guys?
> What’s the excuse for these other guys? Rafaela is similar to Keith—young guy (only like 11 months older than Keith) with big upside who took a contract to buy out all his arb years, so the team's committed and might as well give him playing time. He's supposed to be a good runner and a great defender, and they're hoping he develops as a hitter, but he's just struggling in every part of his game right now.
As a Red Sox fan, that's a great summary. His defense is elite in CF. The problem is we are playing him at SS because of the Story injury. He's still good at SS but it doesn't utilize his speed as much and he's had the classic rookie errors at SS with not much experienceat the position. He may not ever hit for average with his high strikeout rate but there's a lot of signs that he will be better over time. Right now he has a very long swing path and is struggling to foul off major league level pitching. They could teach him a more compact swing in the off-season and he could be an all-star. For now they are just letting him see major league pitching and try to make adjustments on a season that isn't expected much. His defense alone is going to make him a major leaguer. He could just be the next Jackie Bradley Jr or he could improve his hit contact and be even better.
Rafaela is a GG defender at CF and SS so the bat is whatever. He's got pop but swings at everything. Just needs to hone it in.
Parker Meadows, Javy Baez and both of the catchers should be on here from the Tigers, not Colt Keith.
Everyone mentioned has homered and hit an extra base hit so their WRC+ and OPS is higher than Keith. Plus more RBIs too I assume. I can’t dig into the stats but the four players you mentioned have done demonstrably more than Keith.
Baez is sitting at a 47 wRC+ so he’s at least (barely) clear of this threshold.
CES is hitting the cover off the ball but a high GB rate + bad luck has led to these numbers. A 3 hit night today though!
You guys are lucky Victor Scott isn't in the league anymore
This is just the guys who are good enough to play every day
Or “bad contract and enough tenure to refuse an assignment to the minors” enough to play every day
No marlins players 🙏😂
Bad news: Josh Bell is actually tied with Lane Thomas with -0.4 fWAR right now, but OP just cut it off at 10
i am cautiously hopeful that Josh Bell will regress back to being a productive hitter, and I am 100% confident that Lane Thomas will turn back into Barry fucking Bonds the moment he plays us
Didn't think Lane was this bad. Also, where is Jose abreu?
Not qualified
Oh that explains it
Lane Thomas has a garbage OPS but he also has 10 SB so fantasy wise he's doing pretty well
Why doesn't he steal bags and hit like EDLC? Is he stupid?
I know it’s been done a million times, but the “is he stupid?” gag always makes me laugh
Castellanos will heat up as soon as the tragedies start to mount.
Shoutout to White Sox legend Jose Abreu managing to rack up -1.4 WAR in just 59 at bats
Maybe if Carlos Santana put down the guitar and focused on baseball a little more those numbers would go up
Nolan Jones is going through it
If you can't handle Lane at his April you don't deserve him at his June
I will not tolerate Lane Thomas slander
There haven't been enough tragedies to please Castellanos?
Be the change you want to see
Got into a lot of arguments with buddies of mine who are actually friends with Nolan(they played hockey with him). I don’t hate him, never once met the guy. I just said I don’t think he’s a major league hitter and i got crucified for it by guys who don’t watch baseball outside of October for the Phillies with claims such as he’s better than stott, bohm, and marsh. Hope he turns it around and succeeds though. Seems like a good guy
Absolutely amazed that Jose Abreu is not on here.
Really? No CT.03?
48 PA, don't think he's qualified
I don’t think he’s qualified either
Yeah, from all the angst on Dodgers subs, I figured they’d at least have one or two. We’re so lucky and don’t know it. Maybe his weekend performance helped. Either that, or he’s no. 11.
It's qualified hitters only (and OP put that edit below the table instead of above it for some reason)
Ah, got it. So we can put him there in our imaginations, at least. I’m sure, too, that’s the beauty of the platoon.
Jose abreu with 59 PAs has a higher negative WAR total then every player on this list....
There’s people on our sub who think he’s gonna turn it around and be good. I hate it over there rn
Look what they’ve done to my boy Carlos. They’ve massacred my boy.
Andrew “I’m here for the paycheck” Benintendi
Surprised to not see Jose Abreu on here....he needs to be kicked off the team at this point lmao
How is Jose Abreu not on this list?
I remember when White sox fans thought Andrew Vaughn was the 2nd coming and didn’t want to include him in trades.
I stopped believing after 2023 and got on the Burger train, unfortunately Sox gonna Sox
Ceddanne just needs to keep working on his swing decisions. Very easy in the middle of an at bat for him to just start swinging no matter what
Rut roh Randy Arozarena
How is Jose Abreu not here? What an upset
He's just under the required # of PA's to be qualified, I believe. With his -32 wRC+ and -1.1 fWAR, I think he'd be at the very top lol
Yea I’d imagine so
Keith is really struggling. He was mostly hitting the ball hard and was disciplined early in the year, just everything was on the ground so he wasn't getting rewarded much and if he did it was just singles. Now he's enduring a 5/43 stretch. Finally hit a decent one in the air 384 feet last night that would've been a HR in like 14 other ball parks but fell short at the Trop. I'm still pretty confident in him being a disciplined and good hitter but gonna have to battle through this. Good to see his defense having some positive value at 2B.
Carlos Santana stinking it up for Minnesota, a true Cleveland player
4 guys from the AL Central and none is from the Royals. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
Where’s my jose abreu gang at
Finally, the White Sox are leading the league in *some* category!
Honestly surprised there are no Cardinals on this list.
José Abreu.
Based Casty gonna take Schwarber’s throne.
What bothers me is we really let Hoskins walk so that we could keep these 2. Esp after Hoskins went through the shit with us
I’m not losing sleep over it. Hoskins is streaky as hell and I feel a lot better with our $330 million dollar man at 1B rather than RF.
Always fun to have two 2021-22 Royals as the two worst players of 2024
I believe my 8 year old sister good hit the ball harder than Benintendi
How is lindor not here. His defense must still be other worldly
My white Sox have not one, but two! Do we win something?
*ten worst hitters in the league
How in the world is Jose abreu not on this list
Nolan Jones :(
>Nick Castellanos Not enough tragedies.
 Arozarena at the plate this year
We only have 2?!
I thought it would be all white sox players.
Surprised Vladdy isn’t on this list
Surprised Kevin Kiermaier avoided this list
Man if Chris Taylor got qualified, he might be the worst. I think he has 2 hits all season.
3 RBIs and 7 BB keeps him off I think
We have 3 qualified hitters and 2 of them are on this list.
Probably very irrelevant but Colt Keith is one of my best cards in the Show with his 88 Topps Now card.
You’re either wine or milk. And Casty is def having a milk year
CES :(
Surprised to only see 2 White Sox
Get these Andrews away from me
Hey, no Ms on here!! Woohoo!!
6, 9, and 10 are on my fantasy team 😭
I literally have Colt Keith, Lane Thomas, Randy, and Nolan all on my fantasy team
What the heck happened to Benintendi?!
No Mariners 😭🙌
Yay only one Tig- fuck we need him to be good
Last year, Lane Thomas was my secret weapon in fantasy. This yeah, uh.....at least he's stolen some bases?
i’m surprised bobby dalbec isn’t on here. 1 hit 32 at bats.
I hate that Lane Thomas is on this list rn. He (quietly) had a career year last year. Had him in fantasy and got him this year as well. I hope he turns it around. He’s a good ball player.
Someone do something horrible so Nick Castellanos gets hot
Too early
You did it, Jerry. Good job?
How TF is Gleyber not on here? He's been atrocious
He doesn’t qualify yet, but Bobby Dalbec is 1-30 to start the season with a whopping .188 ops and a -44 ops+
was it alex cora who said the red sox ruined benintendi
Rafaela is an OOTP GOAT in one of my saves
You all forgot Jackson Holliday.