The Worst Hitter in Modern Major League History

A record was set tonight in Major League Baseball. It's a bit of a big record, though I'm supposing that the record-holder would just as soon not have it. And you wouldn't know it from that picture, either (that was a home run).

In Chicago, the Designated Hitter -- and if ever there was a more ironic title, I'd like to know it -- Adam Dunn went 0-for-2 with a walk. For the year now, he has 66 hits and 75 walks. Not many players get more walks than hits in a season, though some of those players are very, very good. That list includes Rickey Henderson and Barry Bonds. But this in not about Dunn's ability to draw walks.

Dunn has also amassed 174 strikeouts this season. That's 108 more strikeouts than hits; the record is 112, set just last year by Mark Reynolds, then of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The ratio of strikeouts to hits, 2.64, is a record for someone with as many hits as Dunn. But this is not about Dunn's impressive ability to miss the baseball.

Tonight in Chicago, Dunn collected two walks and two strikeouts. That is, in 4 plate appearances, he never once hit a fair ball. Overall this season, Dunn has put the ball in fair territory in less than half of his plate appearances -- 48.3%, to be exact. Only 46.0% of Dunn's plate appearances have ended with a ball in play (Dunn has hit 11 home runs). Barry Bonds nearly matched this in 2004... but then, Barry Bonds was the National League MVP that year, with 45 home runs and an astounding 232 walks, an on-base percentage of .609, and an OPS of 1.422. Those are also all-time major-league records. If you set those kinds of records, it's probably ok to have so many plate appearances end without the ball being touched by a fielder. I'd have liked to have seen a splash-down in McCovey Cove, too. But, though Dunn has hit at least 38 home runs in each of the past 7 seasons before this one, this isn't about Dunn's all-or-nothing batting approach.

Dunn, as every poor Chicago White Sox fan sure knows, is having an absolutely miserable season. With tonight's game, Dunn now has 412 at bats and a .160 batting average. That's less than the pitching staff of the Philadelphia Phillies, and though Dunn still has a chance to outhit them (they're at .161, overall), he's not about to outpitch former Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee, who has a .200 batting average to go along with his 17 wins.

What Dunn did tonight might not be recognized for a little while... if at all.
Dunn's plate appearances this evening give him 493 for the season. As baseball statheads know, to officially "qualify" but batting titles involving averages, there is a requirement for 3.1 plate appearances per each game the player's team plays. Or, 502 plate appearances in 162 games. Just a few weeks ago, resigning manager Ozzie Guillen finally decided to bench Dunn. As an ESPN article from August 31st stated, "Dunn would need 502 total plate appearances to officially be anointed the worst of the worst when it comes to batting average over a full season, and the plan the White Sox have laid out figures to save him from being a historical footnote." But, after a couple weeks of having Dunn sit, Guillen re-inserted Dunn in to the line-up. He is now 0 for hist last 20, which, as unbelievable as it may seem, is his longest hitless streak of the year... unless I've missed one or two (there are a lot of long hitless streaks for Dunn this year).

Dunn set the record, tonight, for worst ever batting average in a season. Now, as noted about, Dunn has not yet officially qualified for this honor. And, with just 2 games left, he may very well not get the 9 plate appearances he needs to get to 502; he hasn't had more than 4 in any of his past 7 games, after all.

But it no longer matters, and here is why:
The modern record holder for worst batting average in a season was by Rob Deer of the Detroit Tigers, with a .179 average in 1991. Deer, much like Dunn, struck out a lot, walked a lot, and hit a lot of home runs.

ok, here's where I note that, officially, the record belongs to Bill Bergen, a catcher for the 1909 Brooklyn Superbas, who hit an astounding .139. Bergen "qualified" by the rules in use at the time, though he would not, by today's rules. The New York Times ran an article on Bergen's futility last month, calling it awesome.

Since 1967, according to baseball-reference.com, "a player could lead if they still led after the necessary number of hitless plate appearances were added to their at bat total."

I figure, then, that the converse must be true as well: "a player could be worst if they are still worst after the necessary number of plate appearances with hits (or HRs, walks, whatever) were added to their at bat total." In other words, for Mr. Dunn, I can get to 502 plate appearances by adding 9 hits! And, upon doing so, I could raise his batting average only to .178, thus ensuring that he will finish worse than Deer, even if we have to add hits to get Dunn to 502 plate appearances. Barring a long extra inning game or an unexpected surge from the Chicago offense, Dunn will not get more than that number of plate appearances. Therefore, he has clinched the new record for "worst modern major league batting average."

Not that Adam Dunn needs congratulating, but, at least so far as I'm concerned, he has the record now.
Photo by Brian Kersey/Getty Images of Dunn swinging... and not missing.