St. Louis Cardinals: 30 worst players in team history

Jul 5, 2014; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Reds ball bat boy holds new game balls during a game with the Milwaukee Brewers at Great American Ball Park. The Brewers won 1-0. Image Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

#19 Charlie James

Here we have another disappointing World Series winner for the Cardinals, who was pretty woeful over his Cardinals’ career. James finished his career with the Cardinals with a slash of .256/.285/.374.

While his average may not be “that bad”, his OBP is really bad, and this was ever evident by his incredible inability to work a walk in his career. As a Cardinal, James walked at a rate of 3.3% of the time and struck out at a rate of 17.5%. Those are some numbers to be especially not proud of.

These numbers led James to be worth an atrocious -48.6 runs above average over the course of his four year Cardinals’ career. Simply put James was not a good hitter, and his fWAR of -0.1 could have been much worse had he not been a relatively average baserunner and defensive player.

While James was able to win a World Series with the Cardinals in 1964, that was the it as far as his career as a Cardinal. As the local product was sent to the Cincinnati Reds in 1965, where he wound up retiring after the 1965 season. It is unfortunate to have a local product on this list, but I can’t play favorites here!

Next: Elementary my dear Watson