Who was worst?

Saturday, August 23 2008 @ 09:41 PM EDT

In honor of ESPN asking fans to pick the best players in the history of all 30 franchises, ESPN.com's Page 2 is, as they put it, " honoring those who weren't so accomplished."

They're providing three candidates for each team and want readers to choose the worst (player) season for each franchise from the past 50 years. "We scoured the records beginning in 1959 and came up with what we believe are three viable candidates for each team," it says on Page 2. Ready to meet your Blue Jay candidates? Feel free to defend/criticize their choices, but provide alternatives ... here we go ...

• Danny Ainge, 2B, 1979 (.237/.269/.286, 2 HR, 19 RBIs, 10 extra-base hits in 308 at-bats): In its way, Ainge's 1981 season (.187) was even worse, but he didn't make our 300 plate appearances requirement that year. On the other hand, there was a strike that year, so we could waive it in this instance. Let's think of it this way: a vote for Ainge is to endorse his entire body of work. Still, though, the list of men who could function even this well in their second professional sport is minuscule -- especially considering Ainge was just 20 years old.

• Bob Bailor, RF, 1979 (.229/.297/.287, 1 HR, 38 RBIs, 17 extra-base hits in 414 at-bats): The list of right fielders who have had seasons this bad since 1959 is a very short one. In fact, all the other members of the list also appear in our poll. Just one home run and 38 RBIs from a corner outfielder in 465 plate appearances? It's no wonder that 1979 was the worst Blue Jays team of them all.

• Dave Lemanczyk, P, 1978 (4-14, 6.26 ERA, 136.2 IP, 170 H, 65 BB, 62 SO): Speaking of the worst Blue Jays team, here is the man who represented them in the 1979 All-Star Game. Not that he was a Cy Young candidate in '79 (he was 7-6 with a 3.09 ERA at the break when chosen), but he was greatly improved from the year before when he could have arm-wrestled Dick Pole of the Mariners for the worst season in the league. Phil Huffman's 1979 (6-18, 5.77) would have also made a worthy candidate, but we opted not to have all three choices from the same season.
  

Want to see more? The Page 2 crew has compiled separate lists of both the worst seasons for each National League franchise and the same for the American League.

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