MLB: The Worst Players on Every AL Team
SP Ubaldo Jimenez, 5-10, 6.94 ERA, 1.91 WHIP in 94 2/3 innings
-1.3 fWAR (Fangraphs WAR)
-1.2 bWAR (Baseball-Reference WAR)
Some teams have a number of candidates for the title of worst player, but Ubaldo Jimenez is running away from the competition on the Orioles. He’s been incredibly bad. With an ERA near 7.00 and a WHIP near 2.00, the most surprising thing about Jimenez’ season is that he actually won five games. And he pitched well in those five wins. It wasn’t a matter of the Orioles bludgeoning the other team to victory. In Jimenez’ five victories, he has a 2.03 ERA.
Of course, the four teams Jimenez has defeated are the Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, and San Diego Padres (twice). Of those teams, only the Twins are in the upper half of baseball in runs scored. The Padres (20th), Athletics (26th), and Royals (27th) are all pretty far down the list.
The other problem with the few good starts that Jimenez has had this year are that they came on April 7, May 7, June 7, June 22, and June 28. For a while there, he only had a good start about once a month. Staring Ubaldo Jimenez was like playing a slot machine. Win, lose, lose, lose, win, lose, lose, lose, win, lose, win, win, lose, lose, lose. It wins just often enough that you keep on playing. The good news for Orioles’ fans is that Jimenez has been moved to the bullpen and has only pitched three times in the last 22 days.
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