Who's Your Favorite Bad Oriole?

[BaltimoreTerp]

A good choice, except he doesn't qualify with enough games played. he only played in 136 (or maybe 137) games for us, and the limit was 150.

There wasn't a qualification, other then "they stuck around a while."

[Nuclear Dish]

There wasn't a qualification, other then "they stuck around a while."

I stand corrected. I somehow read "Everybody on the poll played in at least 154 games in the field or pitched in 30 games." to mean there was a limit, and somehow the number in my head was 150.

[DrungoHazewood]

I didn't mean to imply any kind of limits here besides that the guy had to have spent a decent amount of time with the Birds, and had to be pretty awful on the field. I figured about a season's worth of games sorta kinda equated to "decent amount of time."

The only real intent here was to answer the question "who's your favorite Oriole that sucked?"

[Objectivity]

A good choice, except he doesn't qualify with enough games played. he only played in 136 (or maybe 137) games for us, and the limit was 150.

But he appeared in the movie Dave, surely that should count for something.

[MurphDogg]

My choice is the incomparable Eugene Kingsale, while he was far short of the 150 game limit with only 71 games with the O's he did appear in 5 different seasons with the O's, and is still kicking around in the O's farm system as of last season... There was nothing particularly athletic about him, he was a below average outfielder with decent speed who always took the wrong route to the ball, my Dad loved to compare him to Jar Jar Binks... He was however the youngest player to appear in '96 which is always cool, the first Aruban which paved the way for Sir Sidney, a fellow Knight in his homeland, and just an incredibly goofy looking guy, he looked like he was about 6'4" 150.... Also, in his first 14 games he came to bat only twice as he was primarily a pinch runner...

[ScottieBaseball]

Ken "Home Run" Dixon.

He was 26-28 in 105 games as an Oriole. 1.36 WHIP, 4.66 career ERA, but most startling were the 33 HR he gave up in 1986 followed by a much improved 31 HR in 1987. He also gave up 111 runs on 194 hits in 1986.

I even went 2-5 against him once, and I was only 10 years old at the time.

[DrungoHazewood]

Ken "Home Run" Dixon.

He was 26-28 in 105 games as an Oriole. 1.36 WHIP, 4.66 career ERA, but most startling were the 33 HR he gave up in 1986 followed by a much improved 31 HR in 1987. He also gave up 111 runs on 194 hits in 1986.

I even went 2-5 against him once, and I was only 10 years old at the time.

In all of MLB history no man has ever pitched fewer innings in a season and allowed 30+ homers:

INNINGS PITCHED               YEAR     IP       HR     1    Ken Dixon                1987    105         31   2    Andy Benes               2001    107.1       30   3    Greg Gohr                1996    115.2       31   4    Jim Deshaies             1994    130.1       30   5    Scott Elarton            2001    132.2       34   6    Scott Sanders            1997    139.2       30   7    Rob Bell                 2000    140.1       32   8    Casey Fossum             2004    142         31   9    Ryan Rupe                2001    143.1       30   10   Scott Bankhead           1987    149.1       35

[Max Power]

I cant believe this is the first mention but Lenn Sakata absolutely deserves to be on here. Never once slugging over .373 in his years in Baltimore. Check out his OPS+ totals, playing 81 games with an OPS+ of 33 is just horrific.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sakatle01.shtml

[NewMarketSean]

I went with good ol #88 and his Orioles career average and OBP of .228 and .282 respectively.

Tony Batista deserves to be up there too.

[beaner]

Batista was an all star for us in 2002. I went with Ken Gerhart, he was always a fan favorite despite his awfulness.

Nuclear Dish: check out this site, I always like looking at how "our people" are doing.

jewsinsports.org

[Aurelius]

I'd go with Orsulak. He really was pretty bad, you can look it up. I'd love how the commentators would bring up the fact that he had so many assists. A classic case of a guy with many assists who was a poor outfielder. I once saw him throw behind the runner at 1B trying to catch him off-guard and nail him rounding the bag. Only problem was, the runner just cruised into 2B once he committed to making the throw to 1B. Bush league stuff. Lots of fans loved him for his agressive style but....

[ScottieBaseball]

In all of MLB history no man has ever pitched fewer innings in a season and allowed 30+ homers:

INNINGS PITCHED               YEAR     IP       HR     1    Ken Dixon                1987    105         31   2    Andy Benes               2001    107.1       30   3    Greg Gohr                1996    115.2       31   4    Jim Deshaies             1994    130.1       30   5    Scott Elarton            2001    132.2       34   6    Scott Sanders            1997    139.2       30   7    Rob Bell                 2000    140.1       32   8    Casey Fossum             2004    142         31   9    Ryan Rupe                2001    143.1       30   10   Scott Bankhead           1987    149.1       35

Man...thanks for the supporting data, Jon. He sure earned the nickname.

[NewMarketSean]

Batista was an all star for us in 2002.

Well, every team needs at least one All Star representative... and who else from the 2002 team would have made it?

[nevadaO]

What, no Luis Lopez?

[DoobyDoo]

Well, every team needs at least one All Star representative... and who else from the 2002 team would have made it?

Buddy Groom? Rodrigo Lopez? Jorge Julio? All were more worthy of an all-star appearance in 2002 than Batista.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlbhist/teams/pitching?team=bal&season=2002&split=0&seasonType=2&type=std