For baseball’s biggest duds in 2015, the good news is that April is over, a new month has begun and things couldn’t possibly get any worse. The bad news is that, for most of the players who failed to impress over the regular season’s first month, we’ve yet to see even a shimmer of hope that they’re close to breaking out of their slumping ways.
Some will point to a player’s career numbers and claim that better days lie ahead, and that may very well be the case. But when you ask those folks what “Player X” has done for his team lately, the only realistic answer is “not much.”
In order to qualify for our “All Dud” team, a player must have enough plate appearances on the season to qualify for the league leaders at his respective position. Additionally, players who are currently on the disabled list or sidelined with injury were not eligible for inclusion—you can’t blame a player for an injury.
For those who met the above criteria, we looked at their entire body of work. For position players, their offensive contributions (or lack thereof) were the most important factor, though defense certainly played a part in separating the starters from the dishonorable mentions around the diamond.
On the mound, we looked at a pitcher’s entire body of work. Are his ugly statistics a result of one or two bad outings, or has he been ineffective nearly every time he toes the rubber?
Let’s take a look at who made the cut.