MLB: The Five Biggest Busts Of The 2016 Baseball Season
Sometimes, especially in the MLB, things just don’t go according to plan. Teams make moves acquiring players in a trade, or a player decides that, yes indeed, the grass is greener on the other side and he makes a move. Here are players who find themselves listed as a biggest bust of the 2016 baseball season and wish now that they could hit the reset button and start all over again.
More so than all other professional sports, the MLB is accented as a game of failure. A team that qualifies for a playoff spot with 90 wins still loses more than 70 times they take the field. A pitcher who loses 13 games is still credited with having a “decent year” when he wins 16 games. And hitters who are enshrined in the Baseball Hall Of Fame failed seven out of ten times they came to the plate.
Generally, we have come to accept all of that as merely a part of the game. And some would even say it’s part of the lure of the game. But what happens when expectations don’t meet what is actually delivered on the field, and performance falls under the line of the player’s past history. How do we explain that?
Or to put it another way, what happens when a “A” student gets a “C” on a test, or even worse fails the test? Are you slipping, what happened to you, didn’t you study, is this going to continue? These are just a few of the questions that parents and others will be asking of this student who may have simply had a bad day. Or, maybe not. Time will tell.
Following are five players who failed miserably this year. And in fact they failed so badly that they qualify for the biggest busts of the 2016 season. In no particular order, let’s get started……..
Jason Heyward didn’t just have a bad year in 2016. He just about disappeared off the baseball charts. He’s never been great, but he’s always been good. His best year came four years ago when he hit 27 home runs and drove in 82. Not spectacular, but certainly a good season.
So, when the Chicago Cubs signed him as a free agent over the past winter for eight years at $184 million that included a $20 million signing bonus, the eyes of the baseball world took notice with most saying, “Say what?” And even the most true believers in the baseball fraternity looked to Cubs General Manager Theo Epstein to “say it ain’t so.
How Deep Was This Biggest Bust Of 2016
It was quite deep. In more than 500 at bats this year, Jason Heyward managed only seven home runs and accounted for a mere 49 RBI as a corner outfielder. His slugging average was a full 85 points below his career average, and his OPS fell to a career low of .631. Even his on base percentage of .306 (normally judged to be decent) was forty points below a normal year for him in previous seasons.
In short, he was abominable. And the only thing that probably saved him from the wrath of the always baseball savvy Cubs fans is the fact that the team he signed with was having a walk off type year in NL Central Division.
This enabled Heyward to fly under the radar for the most part as the focus on the team turned to all of the players who were having good years.
Jason Heyward was not worth the money he was given. He’s not as bad as he was this year, but he’s not much better than that either. Everyone involved knows that now. And even more importantly, Jason Heyward knows it too. The pressure he put on himself to “earn his keep” given his salary was destined for failure. And fail it did in spectacular fashion.
The Cubs and Theo Epstein made a mistake. And maybe all Jason Heyward needs to do next year to help rectify it is simply to be Jason Heyward.
Chris Archer cannot possibly be as bad as he was this year. At least that is as far as his 9-19 record would indicate.
And I say that because if you’ve been following this game for a while, you just “know” when you are seeing a major league pitcher out there on the mound. And you see the moving stuff at the last microsecond before the ball reaches the plate. And you see the demeanor of the guy between pitches showing that all important built in confidence that says (no matter what just happened), “I can get you out. So get in the box and let’s go for it.”
How Deep Was This Biggest Bust Of 2016
Except that Chris Archer did lose 19 games this year and I’ll check later but I doubt anyone lost more. His earned run average was higher than normal (4.02), but he still struck out more than a batter per inning (233/221). And that ERA isn’t really that bad when you consider he pitches in the hitting laden American League with no pitchers hitting.
So, what’s the problem? Aside from the fact that Tampa Bay wasn’t a particularly good team this year, it appears that Chris Archer is one of those guys who pitches just well enough to lose.
But no matter what, if you come within a hair of losing 20 games in a major league uniform, you have to be included in a list such as this one. If ever a player needed a change of scenery to realize his full potential, it’s Chris Archer. Mmmmm……He’d look great in a New York Yankees uniform……….
The Arizona Diamondbacks are either snake bitten or just plain stupid when it comes to the players they trade for or sign as a free agent. Exhibit A has to be starting pitcher Shelby Miller, who was once a valuable piece of the St. Louis Cardinals rotation, then moved on to Atlanta where he began to flounder, and then was subsequently traded to the D’Backs for three prospects over the past winter.
How Deep Was This Biggest Bust Of 2016
It’s very very deep. He’s now put together two disastrous seasons in a row. In 2015, the year just after the Cardinals gave up on him, he went 6-17 for the Braves and followed that up with a 3-12 season for Arizona this year. How bad can it get? Well, a 6.15 ERA is not gonna help matters any, nor is a WHIP of 1.67 or a batting average of .310 for opposing hitters.
But numbers tell only a part of the story about Shelby Miller. Start with the fact that Miller had a stellar year for the Cardinals in 2013 going 15-9 in 31 starts. Now, the Cardinals pride themselves on the strength of their organization from top to bottom, and they are indeed everything they say they are. Why then did they let Shelby go?
The answer is that they sensed something wss “off” about him. They never said what it was, but we have all the proof we need now in determining that they were right.
What Does The Future Hold For Shelby Miller
Well, if he has a futurein the MLB, someone is going to have to claim him as a reclamation project. Again, like the others in this article, he can’t be as bad as he’s been if he was as good as he was only three years ago. But whether it’s the Diamondbacks or some other team that takes him on, it’s going to be a hard fought battle for both him and his team to come back from the mess he’s in now.
We all know what the Giants were thinking when they let him go. Get that tub of lard off the field before he explodes. But what in heavens name were the Red Sox thinking when they signed him on the heels of his out of this world post season in 2014? That the illusion would last forever? Okay, Boston is a pretty good franchise and they don’t make many mistakes.
So, Pablo Sandoval gets the nod here for one of the spots in this sequence only because someone believed that he can play baseball at a major league level at 5’11” tall and weighing 260 pounds, give (not take) 35 pounds or so.
How Deep Was This Biggest Bust Of 2016
Plagued with injuries all year, Sandoval managed only six plate appearances this year. But it’s for his 2015 season that he’s included here (10 home runs and 47 RBI in almost 500 plate appearances). Plus the more than $35 million he’s been paid and the more than $50 million he’s likely to steal from the Red Sox over the next three years that qualifies him as one huge (quite literally) bust.
And to compound things, it turns out that Boston doesn’t really need him and they’re doing better than fine without him. So, if he ever gets healthy again, and that alone is a legitimate question, where he fits into team plans is a open question.
Chances are though that, whether he plays or not, we’ll be seeing his name here again next year.
Hands down, James Shields had to be the poorest excuse for a starting pitcher in all of the MLB in 2016. And in this case, you do want to repeat the numbers to solidify the point. Six wins against nineteen losses, a 5.85 ERA, only 135 strikeouts in just 181 innings pitched, and a off the chart WHIP of 1.60.
That’s enough to where any of could say, “Geez, I coulda done that!” And about the only mystery attached to his season is this. Were the White Sox more gullible than the Padres were wise when the trade was made bringing Shields to the White Sox.
And oh to be a fly on the wall when White Sox manager Robin Ventura, who just recently escaped from Chicago by resigning, thought when he saw Shields walk through the door. Like, “Tell me, what am I supposed to do with this guy?”
James Shields has always been one of those pitchers who has been blessed with a reputation as a real top of the line starting pitcher. But in fact, he’s only ranked once in single digits on the leader board in wins over ten big league seasons.
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Plus, he’s had a remarkable tendency to give up a home run averaging 30 a season. Basically, he’s not all he’s hyped up to be. The White Sox found that out the hard way. Next team, please…….