The Greatest Award of All: Baseball

We here at Unique Sports Theme Name like to recognize top performers in sports, much like any other organization. As such, with the close of the Major League Baseball regular season, it is time to recognize those that outperform all others at the toughest of all statistics: sucking really bad.

Yes, only so many players can be so bad as to even qualify for this award. Cesar Izturis? Sure, his -31.2 batting rating is tempting to add him to the list, but this is a man with a positive UZR! He has value somewhere, and as such cannot be considered. Yuniesky Betancourt even relinquished his two year stranglehold on this award, hitting well enough to not be completely worthless (with Yuni, you take what you can get).

Indeed, there is really only one MLB player that can possibly being given the title of worst of the year. And without further ado, we salute you, Melky Cabrera, for being so incredibly terrible.

The numbers speak for themselves really: negative 1.2 Wins Above Replacement. That's right, Melky Cabrera is not only worse, but significantly worse than a random minor leaguer called up to play every day. Furthermore, Cabrera had a negative 16 UZR. Playing the corner outfielder. What is arguably the easiest spot on the entire diamond to field was too hard for Melky. For comparisons sake, Franklin Gutierrez's 31 UZR last year was historically good; Brett Gardner led all of baseball this year with a 22 UZR. Melky Cabrera was so bad at defense that his UZR was only bested (worsted?) by two players; the unbelievable Carlos Lee (-17.4) and the incredibly lazy centerfielder Matt Kemp (a mindboggling -24.3).

Ok, you say. Maybe Melky could hit well enough to make up for it, you say. Melky Cabrera batted .254, which would be ok if he had some power (4 HRs in 500 ABs, .354 SLG). He drove in 42 runners. The only positve stat Melky had was 11 IBBs, which is kind of ridiculous to think that anyone would want to walk him. Considering he has the hitting ability of a backup middle infielder (Josh Wilson, anyone?), it's sad he plays the corner outfielder every day.

Regardless of his excuses, Melky Cabrera is the worst player in baseball this season. Enjoy the playoffs, Melky, for you are already a winner in our minds.