St. Louis Cardinals: 30 worst players in team history

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Oct 10, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; The Budweiser Clydesdales parade around the warning track before game two of the NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

#17 Luis Melendez

Here we have a player from one of the worst eras in St. Louis Cardinals’ history. The 1970s. Melendez has the most games and plate appearances on this list, as he successfully completed 561 games as a Cardinal and came to the plate 1,489 times, as he played for the Cardinals from 1970-1976.

Unfortunately, Melendez doesn’t have much to show for his time as a Cardinal. He finished his Cardinals’ career being worth -0.3 fWAR. While on paper you may say there are other players worse than that, if you take into effect a bit of a late career defensive resurgence, he would have been a whole lot worse.

Offensively, Melendez was consistent. Consistently bad that is, as he was worth -43.1 runs above average on offense. While this number may only be good for 27th worst among all Cardinals’ hitters, he’s only the second player on the list worth over -40 runs above average on offense to have a negative defensive value. Which particularly makes him a really bad player.

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