The Bottom of the Pile

After my post the other day on the "Daily Double" for the Cubs in 1984 I got to thinking about who might be the worst baserunner of the last 40 or so years. I've run baserunning numbers back to 1970 (excluding 1999 of course) and the two players with the lowest overall numbers were Todd Zeile and Wade Boggs. Zeile narrowly edged Boggs at -48.4 to -48.1. What's interesting about Zeile is that he had two seasons of -10 runs or lower in 1992 and 1997 because he attempted to run more frequently than Boggs. However, Boggs was more consistently a drag on his team and managed to record a negative Equivalent Baserunning Runs (EqBRR) in each of his 17 seasons (it would be interesting to see if he actually made it 18 years but again 1999 is missing).

Others who did poorly include Ted Simmons (-47.8), Mike Piazza (-47.5), Lance Parrish (-45.7), and Eddie Murray (-44.7).

The case of Mike Piazza is also worth mentioning since I read Tom Tango's excellent piece "With or Without You" in the 2008 Hardball Times Annual. In that essay Tango looks at the defensive value of catchers and not suprisingly Piazza finds himself second to the bottom in defensive contribution per 5,000 batters at -9.6 runs. Over the equivalent of 10.5 seasons that almost exactly 100 runs worse than average (Dick Dietz was easily last at -13.2 runs). When you combine his baserunning and defense that means that Piazza lost 150 runs for his teams, a fact that highlights just how good an offensive player he is. Not many players (think Derek Jeter) would get enough playing time to cost his team 15 wins in secondary skills.

But I digress. Here are our trailers career lines in terms of baserunning...

Todd Zeile
Year   Team    Opps  EqGAR   Opps  EqSBR   Opps  EqAAR   Opps  EqHAR   Opps  EqOAR   Opps  EqBRR
1989   SLN        4    0.2      0    0.0      6    0.0      6   -0.4     44   -0.2     60   -0.4
1990   SLN       29   -0.5      7   -2.9     41   -0.2     39    0.0    256    0.6    372   -2.9
1991   SLN       33   -0.4     29   -3.2     44   -1.3     46   -0.5    329   -1.0    481   -6.3
1992   SLN       23   -0.7     17   -4.0     43   -1.1     55   -5.4    287    0.0    425  -11.2
1993   SLN       19   -0.4     10   -1.9     36    0.6     53   -2.0    328    1.3    446   -2.4
1994   SLN       24   -0.2      5   -1.1     29    0.3     30   -1.3    249   -1.2    337   -3.6
1995   CHN       12   -0.3      1    0.2     27   -0.3     20    1.0    122   -0.3    182    0.3
1995   SLN        5    0.0      1    0.1      8    0.4     12    0.4     63   -0.1     89    0.8
1996   BAL        6   -0.9      2   -0.1      9    0.4      9    0.3     50    0.8     76    0.5
1996   PHI       22   -0.2      1   -0.4     35   -0.7     43   -1.6    239   -0.4    340   -3.3
1997   LAN       33   -0.5     17   -4.8     25    0.0     61   -4.5    348   -0.4    484  -10.2
1998   FLO       11    0.2      5   -1.8     16    0.3     23   -0.5     76   -0.1    131   -1.9
1998   LAN        5   -0.4      1    0.1     12    0.4      9    0.2     40    0.2     67    0.4
1998   TEX        9   -0.4      1    0.1     10    0.8     13    0.5     80    0.6    113    1.6
2000   NYN       19   -0.5      8   -1.4     35    0.6     33   -2.1    279    0.7    374   -2.7
2001   NYN       31   -0.7      3    0.2     51   -1.1     55   -1.6    327    0.2    467   -3.0
2002   COL       23   -0.2      2   -0.2     26   -0.7     31    0.3    244    0.1    326   -0.7
2003   MON        2    0.1      1    0.3      5    0.0     12    0.0     51    0.4     71    0.8
2003   NYA        5    0.2      0    0.0      6    0.1     20   -0.3     97   -0.2    128   -0.2
2004   NYN       16   -0.5      0    0.0     14   -0.8     26   -1.0    203   -1.6    259   -3.9
                331   -6.2    111  -20.7    478   -2.4    596  -18.6   3712   -0.4   5228  -48.4

Wage Boggs
Year   Team    Opps  EqGAR   Opps  EqSBR   Opps  EqAAR   Opps  EqHAR   Opps  EqOAR   Opps  EqBRR
1982   BOS       32    0.7      0    0.0     22   -0.5     33   -0.1    250   -0.5    337   -0.3
1983   BOS       52   -2.0      6   -0.8     68   -0.5     57   -0.7    506   -1.0    689   -5.1
1984   BOS       50   -0.2      5   -0.5     49   -1.3     71   -0.8    528    0.3    703   -2.5
1985   BOS       49   -0.7      4    0.0     91   -0.3    101    1.1    579   -0.5    824   -0.4
1986   BOS       64    0.2      5   -2.4     96    0.4     52   -1.9    535   -0.6    752   -4.3
1987   BOS       37   -1.8      4   -1.8     54    1.4     49    0.6    409   -0.4    553   -1.9
1988   BOS       63    1.7      5   -0.8     82   -0.9     91   -1.5    600   -1.5    841   -3.0
1989   BOS       60   -0.4     11   -3.1     60    0.5     84   -0.3    529   -1.2    744   -4.5
1990   BOS       48   -1.1      2   -0.6     57    0.5     82   -2.9    453   -1.2    642   -5.2
1991   BOS       55   -1.2      3   -0.8     44   -0.9     75   -2.7    489   -0.2    666   -5.8
1992   BOS       19    0.0      4   -1.8     51    0.3     50    0.7    328   -0.2    452   -1.0
1993   NYA       40   -1.3      3   -1.0     57   -1.5     72    1.4    424    0.1    596   -2.4
1994   NYA       22   -0.3      3   -0.4     41   -1.8     46   -0.9    279    0.0    391   -3.4
1995   NYA       37   -1.0      2   -0.8     51    0.0     70    2.2    380   -0.7    540   -0.2
1996   NYA       47    0.5      3   -1.0     52    0.9     67   -2.7    406   -0.4    575   -2.6
1997   NYA       26   -0.4      1   -0.4     21    1.3     41   -3.0    221   -0.4    310   -2.9
1998   TBA        7   -0.5      4   -1.3      5    0.0     16   -0.8    111   -0.2    143   -2.7
                708   -7.7     65  -17.6    901   -2.2   1057  -12.2   7027   -8.5   9758  -48.1