St. Louis Cardinals: 30 worst players in team history

facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
16 of 31
Next

Oct 10, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; A postseason base on the field 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

#16 Rocky Nelson

Rocky Nelson played for the Cardinals from 1949-1950, 1956 and was worth a -1.1 fWAR for the Cardinals during that time. Nelson was a guy who primarily played first base for the Cardinals, but also saw some time in left field for a total of eight games in 1956.

For his career, Nelson slashed .233/.292/.349 in 205 games played for the Cardinals, posting a wRC+ of 66. However, Nelson did improve once leaving the Cardinals, as he posted wRC+ above 120 in his first two seasons with the Pirates in 1959-60. This was largely due to his BABIP normalizing up to around average.

However, that doesn’t mean he gets off on this list. Nelson still had a -1.1 fWAR for the Cardinals in his two and a half seasons with the club. Not only that, Nelson had negative values on both offense and defense.

Nelson’s offensive value was -25.2 runs above average and his defensive value was -5.3 runs above average. Making him yet another on this list with negative values on both sides of his games, but yet having a glimmer of hop on the base paths with 0.9 base running runs above average.

Next: Bad Utility