St. Louis Cardinals: 30 worst players in team history

Apr 7, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; A general view of Busch Stadium on Opening Day between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

#5 Nippy Jones 1B

Nippy played for the Cardinals from 1946-1951 totaling a fWAR of -1.5. During that time Jones slashed .270/. 308/.384 with a wRC+ of 81. These numbers seem pretty good for a player who only had two full seasons.

However, when you look into it all Jones had one season where he hit .300 with eight homers, and every other season he had an average 30-40 points lower. Ultimately on offense Jones was worth a -32.9 runs above average, totaling just one positive rated season (0.4 1946 rookie year in 16 games).

Jones’ had no great defense or base running to hang his hat on either, as he was worth -26.5 runs above average during his six seasons in St. Louis. Posting -21.7 of that in 1948 and 1949 his only two “full seasons”. Jones also was worth just -0.1 base running runs above average. All of this combined helped Jones to post just two positive fWAR seasons in his career (0.1 in 1946 and 0.1 in 1949).

Jones bounced back and forth between the majors and minor leagues throughout his career, never really sticking with the team very long after his 1949 season. Jones moved on to the Phillies organization in 1952 and the Braves in 1957, playing in just 38 games the rest of his career.

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