If you follow baseball, you probably don’t need to be reminded of the terrible 2010 that Ken Griffey, Jr. is experiencing. but here it is anyway: 89 plate appearances, a .270 on-base percentage, zero home runs, and an OPS+ of 40. We’re all as certain as we can be that Griffey is headed to the Hall of Fame, and players tend to tail off in production at career’s end, so why is this important?
Ken Griffey, Jr. Is Having The Worst Season A Legend Can Have
↵Well, from a certain perspective, Griffey’s season so far is reaching historic levels of bad. Take a look at the top 50 home run hitters of all time (Griffey is fifth on the list). No hitter near the top of the list posted a season OPS+ anywhere near Griffey’s 40, even if we’re counting half-seasons. You have to scroll far down the list -- to 49th place -- to find Andruw Jones and his dreadful 2008 season (209 plate appearances, 35 OPS+).
↵Sample size, of course, is an important thing to consider here, but at some point one has to stop calling it a slump. And unlike many of Griffey’s peers on the list, he figures to see more playing time than he should -- our Mariners blog, Lookout Landing, says Griffey is a player that the team will have a very hard time cutting. This is so because the fans love him, and for this same reason, they might be compelled to throw him more at-bats than they otherwise would.
↵I’d say that we might be witnessing history here, but we all love Griffey, and we’d probably rather avert our eyes.
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