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On the ninth day of D-backsmas, Ken Kendrick gave to me...

Time for more women in packs.

By Jim McLennan
Stella McCartney : Runway - Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2017 Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Another close-fought battle here, with all five entries receiving three or four recs. There was a tie at the top, between the final two entries: Michael suggested “Eight bad relievers”, while AZRattler chipped in under the wire with, “Eight new uniforms”, both of which were turned Sedona Red. The judging panel considered both highly credible choices, and the decision eventually came down to which topic was easier for me to knock out a couple of semi-meaningful paragraphs about. :) So, #8 is:

Eight bad relievers

We have had some bad relievers in our time. But how do we qualify this? You can go for straight ERA. The winner there is J.D. Durbin, who had a career ERA with the Diamondbacks of 94.50. That’s because he appeared in one 2007 game for us, and got two outs while allowing seven earned runs. That’s pretty bad. If you require a semi-meaningful number of relief innings - say, more than 10 - the highest ERA belongs to Bob Howry, who appeared in 14 games during 2010, with a 10.67 ERA. Up it again, to 30, and the worst is Eddie Oropesa, a 7.59 ERA over an impressive 64 innings in 2002-03 (second is now Blue Jay Dominic Leone’s 7.34). But that was in a different, more offensive-minded ERA.

I guess we need a metric that combines ERA with volume of suckage, and also takes into account the run environment. So let’s go for bWAR. Here are the eight worst pitchers that were mostly relievers, in Arizona Diamondbacks’ franchise history. In case you’re wondering, Leone is #11. :)

Worst Diamondbacks relievers

Rk Player WAR Years G IP H R ER BB SO ERA FIP ERA+
Rk Player WAR Years G IP H R ER BB SO ERA FIP ERA+
1 Lance Cormier -1.9 2004-05 84 124.2 148 92 86 68 87 6.21 5.53 72
2 Eddie Oropesa -1.9 2002-03 79 64.0 77 57 54 42 57 7.59 5.21 61
3 Brian Bruney -1.3 2004-05 77 77.1 76 55 53 62 85 6.17 4.82 73
4 Mike Fetters -1.3 2002-04 56 43.1 51 40 32 33 38 6.65 4.64 69
5 Matt Stites -1.2 2014-15 48 41.2 47 37 33 21 32 7.13 5.36 55
6 Aaron Heilman -1.2 2010-11 102 107.1 121 65 63 37 88 5.28 4.68 79
7 Clint Sodowsky -1.2 1998 45 77.2 86 56 49 39 42 5.68 4.67 74
8 Sam Demel -1.0 2010-12 72 63.2 75 41 35 26 48 4.95 4.75 84

Interesting to see that, despite our bullpen’s struggles in 2016, none of the current crop of relievers are listed. It doesn’t take long before you find them, however. Perhaps surprisingly, Edwin Escobar’s 10th-place is the worst, just ahead of Leone; Enrique Burgos and Keith Hessler also make the worst twenty. If you’re curious, looking at the same thing using fWAR, we find Stephen Randolph the worst at -0.9 fWAR. The rest of the top eight are: Scott Schoeneweis; Howry; Stites; Jordan Norberto; Leone; Demel; and Barry Manuel. The last is a name I honestly had never heard before, but who apparently appeared for Arizona 13 times in 1998, posting a 7.47 ERA.

And into the final third we go!

On the ninth day of Xmas, Ken Kendrick gave to me...

  • ___________________________ [Nine Ladies Dancing]
  • Eight bad relievers
  • Seven fans a'sitting
  • Six months of torture
  • Five division rings
  • Four robot umps
  • Three Miller wins
  • Two Cuban projects
  • And a catcher you can have for free!

As usual, throw your suggestions into the comments and/or rec the ideas you feel most deserving of praise. The winner will be announced tomorrow. It may be a bit later, since we’re going out tonight - for the first time in a long while on New Year’s Eve! #PrayForTheSnakePit

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