Lowest OPS by a SS in a Season Since 1920

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.

As with second basemen, shortstops have traditionally hit very poorly. That means we should see some pretty bad numbers on the list again. Qualifiers remain the same: the player must have qualified for the batting title during the season while playing 75% or more of his games at shortstop.

Name	Year	Team	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Hal Lanier	1968	SFG	518	.206	.222	.239	.461
Jim Levey	1933	SLB	567	.195	.237	.240	.477
Skeeter Webb	1945	DET	449	.199	.254	.238	.492
Hal Lanier	1967	SFG	557	.213	.239	.255	.494
Tim Johnson	1973	MIL	510	.213	.259	.243	.502
Bobby Mattick	1940	CHC	464	.218	.250	.252	.502
Leo Durocher	1937	STL	520	.203	.262	.245	.507
Ivan DeJesus	1981	CHC	460	.194	.276	.233	.509
Alfredo Griffin	1990	LAD	502	.210	.258	.254	.512
Billy Hunter	1953	SLB	604	.219	.253	.259	.512
Skeeter Webb	1944	CHW	540	.211	.242	.271	.513
Tommy Thevenow	1931	PIT	441	.213	.266	.248	.514
Hal Lanier	1969	SFG	537	.228	.263	.251	.514
Mark Belanger	1968	BAL	531	.208	.272	.248	.520
Ozzie Smith	1979	SDP	649	.211	.260	.262	.522
Otto Bluege	1933	CIN	323	.213	.278	.247	.525
Whitey Wietelmann	1943	BSN	591	.215	.281	.245	.526
Skeeter Newsome	1936	PHA	508	.225	.266	.265	.531
Zoilo Versalles	1967	MIN	626	.200	.249	.282	.531
Alfredo Griffin	1981	TOR	414	.209	.243	.289	.532

Only one member of the Boston Braves appears on the list. Hal Lanier appears on this list three times after showing up once on the second basemen list. He just really couldn't hit.

There have been 153 seasons of an OPS under .600 by a shortstop since 1920. Four of them have occurred since 2000: Neifi Perez in 2002 (.563), Angel Berroa in 2006 (.592), Cesar Izturis in 2003 (.597), and Clint Barmes in 2006 (.599). The lowest shortstop OPS in 2007 was the .621 put up by Omar Vizquel.