Failure is often even more fascinating than success. I am definitely intrigued by the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the worst Red Sox team of all time. The team finished with a record of 43-111, for a winning percentage of .279 and very little went right.
Rabbit Maranville is a Hall of Famer, based primarily on his defense. Rabbit Warstler is not Rabbit Maranville.
Warstler came up with the Red Sox, making his Major League debut in 1930 at the age of 25 and spent four seasons with the Red Sox. By 1932 he became the team's regular shortstop. To say that he was not a good hitter is like saying water is wet. He had a career OPS+ of 59, meaning he is 41% WORSE than the average hitter. In 1932 he was even worse than that with a 42 OPS+.
In 1930, Warstler made it into 54 games, hitting just .185/.275/.253, but he did hit his first home run, and one of just two he would hit in the entire four seasons in Boston. In 1931, he split his time between second base and shortstop and hit a reasonably okay .243/.308/.304, which was his best offensive season with the Red Sox.
That brings us to 1932. Warstler played in 115 games, all of them at shortstop. He hit just .211/.259/.276 with 82 hits, 26 runs scored, 15 doubles, five triples, 34 RBIs and nine stolen bases. He failed to record a home run. Defensively, he was passable if still a work in progress. He was fourth in the league in putouts, fifth in assists and fourth in double plays turned as a shortstop. He was first in range factor. It was not all decent numbers though as his 41 errors were third in the league.
1933 saw Warstler improve slightly as a hitter, but he played in just 92 games. In his four seasons with the Red Sox, he hit .215/.285/.276 with two home runs, 106 runs scored, 226 hits, 35 doubles, 74 RBIs and 13 stolen bases.
After the season he was sent packing along with Bob Kline to the Philadelphia A's. Somehow that trade landed Boston Max Bishop, Rube Walberg and Lefty Freaking Grove. The Red Sox also sent $125,000.00 to Philadelphia, which was probably the primary impetus of the trade. Warstler would later play with the Boston Bees (Braves) and the Chicago Cubs.
No comments:
Post a Comment