Lowest OPS by a DH in a Season Since 1973

Same old story again...as for all the positions: the explanation of why I chose to look at seasons since 1920 can be found here. The short story is I wanted to avoid the low-power years of the deadball era while compiling lists of poor-hitting position players.

Qualifiers also remain the same: the player must have qualified for the batting title during the season while playing 75% or more of his games as a designated hitter.

The Top 20:

Name	Year	Team	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Ted Simmons	1984	MIL	532	.221	.269	.300	.569
Alvin Davis	1991	SEA	528	.221	.299	.335	.634
Dave Parker	1991	CAL/TOR	541	.239	.288	.365	.653
Mitchell Page	1979	OAK	539	.247	.323	.335	.658
Gerald Perry	1990	KCR	512	.254	.313	.361	.674
Scott Hatteberg	2005	OAK	523	.256	.334	.343	.677
Dave Kingman	1986	OAK	604	.210	.255	.431	.686
Hank Aaron	1975	MIL	543	.234	.332	.355	.687
Deron Johnson	1975	CHW/BOS	621	.239	.300	.388	.688
Carl Yastrzemski	1981	BOS	390	.246	.338	.355	.693
Ruben Sierra	1996	NYY/DET	587	.247	.320	.375	.695
Alex Johnson	1973	TEX	663	.287	.322	.377	.699
Lee May	1978	BAL	590	.246	.286	.414	.700
Tommy Davis	1974	BAL	673	.289	.325	.377	.702
Reggie Jackson	1984	CAL	584	.223	.300	.406	.706
Andre Thornton	1985	CLE	514	.236	.304	.408	.712
George Bell	1992	CHW	670	.255	.294	.418	.712
Rico Carty	1979	TOR	512	.256	.322	.390	.712
Darrell Evans	1988	DET	522	.208	.337	.380	.717
Paul Molitor	1998	MIN	559	.281	.335	.382	.717

This list has a lot of good players on the downside of their careers on it. Mitchell Page and Gerald Perry are the only two players under the age of thirty to appear and besides them, only five others were under the age of thirty-five. There's also no repeats which suggests the players stopped being everyday players (whether through injury or age) and/or teams found they simply had better options at designated hitter.

Since they are the only two guys on the list under thirty, we might as well look at Page and Perry.

Mitchell Page was a one-time Rookie of the Year candidate (who may have been robbed: compare his rookie stats to 1977 winner Eddie Murray's) that essentially disappeared after his age-28 season in 1980. He played four more years but never got more than 100 at bats in a season. He played the role of Angels player "Abascal" in the movie Angels in the Outfield and spent time as a coach for the Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, and Washington Nationals before being granted a leave of absence from his position as hitting coach for the Nationals this past May.

Gerald Perry also is a hitting coach in the major leagues, plying his trade for the Mariners, Pirates, Athletics and, currently, the Cubs. He only spent one season in the American League, depriving him of a chance to appear on the Lowest OPS by a DH more than once. He was a first baseman for most of his playing career.

Only 83 seasons by a DH ended with a below-.800 OPS. Ten of those have occurred since 2000 with Scott Hatteberg's 2005 obviously the lowest. Here are the rest of the guys:

• Edgar Martinez, 2004, .727
• Carl Everett, 2005, .746
• Greg Vaughn, 2001, .766
• Brad Fullmer, 2001, .770
• Jose Vidro, 2007, .775
• Randall Simon, 2002, .779
• Aubrey Huff, 2007, .779
  
• Raul Ibanez, 2005, .791
• Dmitri Young, 2005, .796

Obviously, Vidro and Huff take the cake as the worst DH's of 2007. To really cherry-pick and make them look bad, they have the 29th and 31st worst seasons ever by OPS of DH's under age 35 qualifying for the batting title. :)