There are levels of bad. The first level of bad, some might consider just mediocre, but looks bad when put on a good team. When you have a good team with a mediocre player, fans will call for a change and generally overestimate how poorly the player is playing.
The Amazing Chone Figgins: A Collection Of Facts
Chone Figgins has been bad. You may know that Chone Figgins has been bad. You may not know just how bad he has been. Let’s explore.
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The second level of bad is bad. This looks bad regardless of team-wide context, and fans will be proportionally frustrated with the player in question.
The third level of bad is really bad. Underratedly bad. Unthinkably bad. So bad that it’s actually hard to wrap one’s head around just how bad. This is the kind of bad that you look at and think wow that’s bad, but it’s only when you sit back and actively mull it over that it dawns on you just how bad it really is.
So far in 2011, Chone Figgins has been the third level of bad. And third level only because a fourth level has not, to this point anyway, been discovered yet. So in case you've found yourself casually underestimating how bad he's been, I have taken the liberty of collecting some facts.
Chone Figgins has been arguably the worst player in baseball
If you sort by Fangraphs’ Wins Above Replacement, Figgins brings up the rear with a WAR of -1.2. There are, of course, a lot of questions and concerns with the WAR calculation, but Figgins’ .472 OPS ranks tied for last, and his .207 wOBA is last on its own. Whether or not Figgins has actually been the worst player in baseball isn’t as important as the fact that he has a compelling argument.
Chone Figgins has a lower OPS than Astros pitchers
I mentioned that Figgins has a .472 OPS. Houston Astros pitchers have a .491 OPS. Now granted, Houston Astros pitchers have hit better than any other team's pitchers, so Figgins is only being compared to the best of a group, but the group is pitchers. Hitting. It's like hitting worse than only the most potent head of lettuce.
Chone Figgins has a career-best contact rate
Ordinarily, we think that it’s good for a hitter to make contact. Chone Figgins is making more frequent contact than he ever has before in the Majors. That’s good! But the contact is bad. Less important than frequency of contact is quality of contact and, well ...
Chone Figgins has a career-low walk rate
When the Mariners signed Figgins, they thought they were getting a guy who could make contact, play defense, and draw walks. He still makes contact, but his defense hasn't been great, and his walk rate has eroded. He's walked in 5% of his plate appearances in 2011, down from 11% in 2010 and 14% in 2009. It's almost as if pitchers finally figured out that he's Chone Figgins.
Chone Figgins has been successful on just seven of 13 steal attempts
This isn’t really very important, but just to drive home the point of how Figgins has struggled pretty much across the board, the career 74% base-stealer has sucked there, too. If Chone Figgins is literally opposed to standing on base, that would explain an awful lot, but in that event it would be nice to have a diagnosis so that the M’s could see about getting him some therapy.
Chone Figgins has hit below the Mendoza Line
Remember Mario Mendoza? You know how Mario Mendoza is often the first player to come to mind when discussing terrible hitters throughout baseball history? Mario Mendoza posted a career OPS+ of 41. Chone Figgins is now sitting on 36.
Chone Figgins is under contract for $9 million in 2012 and $8 million in 2013
The contract has nothing to do with how poorly Figgins has played so far, but I thought I’d tack the information on at the end, for anyone who didn’t know. There’s also a $9 million vesting option for 2014 should Figgins bat 600 times the previous year. I don’t know if he’s going to make it. I’m not sure if Figgins’ qualifies as one of the most crippling contracts in baseball - it’s hard to make too big a deal of any seven-figure annual salary - but even if it doesn’t, it definitely qualifies as one of the biggest wastes, as Figgins right now looks basically worthless. It’s at the point where his upside might be serving as a semi-useful utility infielder, and the Mariners have already had Chris Woodward for pretty much nothing. Boy did this ever go wrong.
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