Nunez sinking deep into abyss of historic lows

Abraham Nunez has entered a new, ironic phase where his futility should be celebrated.

Nunez’s 2006 season is a modern baseball marvel. Usually when a player hits this poorly, he would be long gone, either sent to the minors or released. Yet somehow, the war of attrition known as the Phillies '06 season has not taken him as a casualty. His only defense is that he’s the ranking utility man, a title he’s wearing like a polymeric bulletproof vest.

Personally, I’m pulling for Nunez (pictured right in a great moment in Phillies history) to keep his average below .150. That way, he can go down as having the worst, longest-sustained, single Phillies season of my lifetime. I say this in full acceptance that the Phils are out of the race, and have resorted to grasping at straws, like this story, to keep readers interested.

Yesterday, Nunez tripled, which was completely unacceptable. It was his first hit in just under a month. It brought his average up .009 points to .142. and OPS up .034 points to .390.

Readers at PhilliesPhans.com have started to pick up on Nunez’s historically futile season, undertaking in research projects to insert Nunez somewhere in his rightful place among the bowels of Phillies history.

Poster Joe Cowley has taken the lead, and believes Lee Tinsley might be the closest player to match Nunez’s sustained level of futility over the past 20 years:

--- Lee Tinsley (1996) had a .135 AVG and an OPS of .331, but that was for only 52 AB. (Nunez has 106 ABs).

--- Bill Almon only got 26 ABs in 1988 to show off his .115 AVG. But 2 doubles and 3 walks helped skyrocket his OPS to .399.

I keep looking for a worse performance, but it's hard:

--- Sil Campusano (1990) .212/.587
--- Dale Sveum (1992) .178/.513
--- Braulio Castillo (1992) .197/.580
--- Mark Parent (1997) .150/.375
--- Felipe Crespo (2001) .171/.527
--- Eric Valent (2001) .098/.342
--- Shawn Wooten (2004) .170/.454

More from the 1996 Phillies
I forwarded this information on Tinsley to Senior Beerleaguer Correspondent Martin Smith, who shot back this e-mail on the 1996 Phillies.

"I forgot about Tinsley, so I looked up that awful team. J.R. Phillips, Jon Zuber, Glenn Murray, Mike Mimbs, Dave Leiper ... but there is another great story from that year. The Phils needed a starting pitcher for one game, much like this year with Adam Benero. They brought up Rafael Quirico, a 26-year-old that they found somewhere in the Dominican. I don't believe he had much experience in organized ball before this, but he was at SWB and had done OK.

"He was awful, or had an incredible case of stage fright. He gave up 7 runs in 1 2-3 with 5 walks, but what they found out is he did not know how to throw to first base to hold a runner. After the game, Phils management was really pissed, wondering why this guy was brought up, and didn't they teach him how to throw to first while at SWB. And like Benero, he was out of here. He was released and never pitched for the Phillies again."

Links:
Lee Tinsley’s career numbers
Lee Tinsley wikipedia biography
Rafael Quirico’s career numbers
... and just for jags, Felipe Crespo's career numbers

Comments

[JZ]

This is why I love the beerleaguer. I also find it hysterical that a bunch of us are now rooting for the Phillies to tank so that next year, or soon thereafter, they can make a run.

On a side note, I tried to come up with a lineup if they move Abreu. Victorino, Rowand, Utley, Howard, Burrell, Rollins, Bell and Lieberthal. Man does 6-7-8 blow.

With Charlie, he'd probably bat Shane 6th and keep Mr. Hitting250 in the lineup spot because boy does he ever have a dreamy smile and good speed.

[Mr.Sucks]

Who in the heck took the time to create a Wiki for Lee Tinsley? lol

[Tom Goodman]

rightful place among the bowels of Phillies history

Why is everyone limiting their research to the Phillies' history? We could be talking Major League annals!

[Mike H.]

As bad as this current crop is, there is more talent in the Black Hole than all of the names mentioned combined. We can be thankful this is not 1996, '88, or '72. Who can forget Chris James's .242 average and .283 OBP in 1988?

[dickie thon]

keep up the good work beerleaguer. the phils sure aren't...

[Dick Richards]

Uh...you missed John Vukovich. He wouldn't be on anybody's radar screen at all if he weren't still with the team. In 1973 Vuke hit .166 in 217 ABs. He reprised that achievement with a .125 average in 128 1974 ABs. A born third base coach. There is no record of his saying that he does better with more ABs.

[Lee Tinsley's mom]

Don't you rip on my boy Lee. He may not be the best but he tried real hard.

[theragtopguy]

This is the kind of stuff that keeps my interest in Beerleaguer up! Good stuff Jason.

And I thought Endy Chavez was bad last year. Look at him this year, I guess being up there in NY with all the other Latinos got him straightened out!

Nunez actually had a decent year with StL last year, what happens to these guys when they come to Philly? It's like they go thru some kind of warp that destroys their skills or something.

[Jon]

Nunez is absolutely brutal. Nice job listing Rafael Quirico, Braullio Castillo, Dale Sveum, Glenn Murray, J.R. Phillips, Mark Parent, Felipe Crespo, Eric Valent, and Shawn Wooten. They all were terrible in their own right.

How bout this list of bums:

Tom Nieto - .160 in 50 ABs btw. '88 & '89.
Kyle Abbott - 31 G, 1-14, 5.13 ERA in '92.
Dave Leiper - 26 G, 6.43 ERA in '96.
Rich Hunter - 14 GS, 6.49 ERA, 33 BB, 32 K in '96.
Scott Ruffcorn - 18 G, 7.72 ERA, 36 BB, 33K in '97.
Domingo Cedeno - .152 in 66 ABs in '99.
Paul Spoljaric - 15.09 ERA in 5 G in '99.
Mark Holzemer - 25 G, 7.72 ERA in '00.
Steve Schrenk - 52 G, 5.25 ERA btw. '99 & '00.
Paul Abbott - 10 GS, 6.24 ERA, 31 BB, 21 K in '04.

Abraham Nunez definitely is at home on this list of Phutile Phils...

[MG]

Anyone notice a trend that so many of those terrible seasons came in the late 90s. I remember going down to the Vet and almost getting scalpers to give away tickets by the end of August.

I actually remember going to a Giants-Phils game for free in Sept. Scalper wasn't able to sell 700 level seats and just gave them away once the game was in the 2nd inning.

[John Salmon]

J.R. Phillips! Talk about all or nothing-he made Rob Deer look like Ted Williams.

I'm still freaked out that Gillick gave Nunez a two year deal. In fairness (not that I want to be fair about a move that's gone this sour) no one could've anticipated Nunez being THIS bad. You could sign your awkward kid brother who's afraid of the ball and he'd do better than this.

I remember being at a game at the Vet watching Michael Mimbs, and being fascinated how he changed speeds on every pitch. Sometimes a lot faster or slower, sometimes a little, but always different. Fascinating though it was, he still got bombed. But he did have a few good months.

[Nat]

Endy Chavez had a "career-low" year when he was with the Phillies. Sorta like Nunez this year.

Sense a theme here? Do the Phillies bring out the worst in players?

Anyway, I would like to nominate to the list of Phutile Phillies a guy from the 1961 team, the last year they lost more than 100 games:

Choo Choo Coleman .128 BA; .180 OBP; .149 SLG.

Like Chavez, he went to the Mets the following year, where he turned in somewhat better numbers.

[theragtopguy]

Like I said above Nat, I think they go thru some kind of warp when they come to Philly.

Now that J-Roll hit that dinger, will he hit 10 more fly balls trying to hit another?

[Nat]

Well, that's one down, nine to go.

I'm seriously considering the possibility that playing for the Phillies has some kind of depressing factor on players. Trying to think of any counter examples -- guys who suddenly got better after putting on the red pin stripes -- and I'm not coming up with any.

[Jon]

How many times do we need to see Ryan Madson lit up as a starter before one realizes he is best suited to help this team out of the bullpen?? And why is it Manuel can pull Hamels when he is pitching well, but leave in Madson when he clearly has lost it here in the 6th inning?? The way Madson is going, he may end up on this list of Phutile Phillies, which is a shame cause he once was an effective reliever...

[Jon]

After this season is done, maybe we can add some of Nunez's pals to the Phutile Phillies team. Madson, Floyd, Franklin, Santana, Bernero, Fasano, and Gonzalez all are on their way or already on this list. While we are at it, can we add Manuel and his coaching staff too?? Its been a number of years since we have had this many candidates. That really says it all right there. Ugh...

[Jon]

Hey Nat, you are on to something there. Not many players got better after putting on the pinstripes. In fact, I can only think of four off the top of my head (in the last 20 years), and surprisingly none of them are recent (not too much of a shocker with Wade as the GM). Anyway, Glenn Wilson was better here than in Detroit. John Kruk was better here than in San Diego. Terry Mulholland was better here than in San Fran and Benito Santiago had one of his best years here. Other than that, I am at a loss. There has to be others, right?? Ugh...

[Jon]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Arthur Lee Rhodes. We will most likely be able to add his name to the list as well. Way to give up 3 more runs tonight in one-third of an inning!! Retire already...

[seth.]

I remember a Phillies pitcher that was going for the record of...most losses in a row? most losses in a row to start a career? Something like that. Sometime in the 90's.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about, and who this was?

[Jon]

Hey Seth. It was Kyle Abbott in 1992. I think he started out something like 0-9, but I cannot remember for sure. I do know he finished the year 1-14 with a 5.13 ERA.

[Mike H.]

Jon, how about Lenny Dykstra better in Philly than he was with the Mets?

[Bob D]

Don't look now - Nunez has a 2 game hit streak with another pinch hit tonight. He's scorching hot now!

Good article, it'll keep us entertained thru the rest of the year. Good to see Rhodes included. maybe Gillick will trade him to the AL for a Steve Jeltz rookie card and a pack of twizzlers.

[Jon]

Lenny was pretty good with the Mets. He didn't get off to a great start here in '89, but that did change. You can make the argument that he was better here though. I wasn't counting him due to the number of times that he was injured, but his two full seasons ('90 & '93) he did put up great numbers for the Phillies. In '91 he only played in 63 games, in '92 he was in 85 games, in '94 he was in 84 games, in '95 he was in 62 games, and in '96 he was in 40 games. That is only 334 games (a 67 game average) over a five year span, which I why I didn't mention him.

[Jon]

* Which is why I didn't mention him.

I type too fast sometimes.

[seth.]

Thanks Jon.
I was guessing that's who it was when I saw his record up there. But the name wasn't familiar for some reason.

[rubylegs]

http://willdo.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/2006/07/root_root_root.html

when does this just become straight plagiarism? I mean he even uses the picture from your post.

[J. Weitzel]

It's not even close to plagiarism. He cites his source. I got a lot of my information from PhilliesPhans, including the picture. D-Mac runs an outstanding blog and we've corresponded on some things. It's not a story that Beerleaguer has exclusive rights to and D-Mac has every right to pass it along to his audience, which is a different audience.

[dmac]

It's not even close to plagiarism. I cite my source. Jason got a lot of my information from PhilliesPhans, including the picture. I run an outstanding blog and Jason and I have corresponded on some things. It's not a story that Beerleaguer has exclusive rights to and I have every right to pass it along to my audience, which is a different audience.

[fluidmasterflapper]

Wow. Sophisticated humor for way down on a blog post's comments. Doesn't this violate some sort of blogging code?

(Although, according to some unwritten Philly blog rules, the conversation should have turned to Geno's by now.)

(This should not be treated as a suggestion.)