The Best Bad Player in UMEBA (Or "20/20 Vision")

[chicoruiz]

Okay... this started out to be something very different. I had the idea of looking at the UMEBA players who carried ratings of 20/20 (at least in the ratings I see). Players rated as the worst, with no expectation of improvement. I thought maybe I could do an all-star team of 20/20 guys who had decent years at their levels despite their low ratings, and submit it for the media guide next year.

You know what? You can't. With the last two drafts being so strong, there aren't that many 20/20 guys in the UMEBA organizations, and the pitiful few are mostly in the international complexes, where of course they accrue no stats. I ended up finding several 20/20 pitchers who had pretty good years in AA, but no position player who had a meaningful 2045.

Except for one...

In the parade of no-hope ballplayers, Joey Gunter of the AAA Victoria Purple Knights in the Beirut organization is the grand marshal. He came to the plate 106 times, which doesn't sound like much, but he missed almost two months with a torn ACL. His slash numbers were .296/.340/.408. He played four positions: first second, short and the outfield and played at least seven games at each of them He actually reached the majors in 2044 and hit .324 in a small sample size. He's rated with 11 speed, 8 stealing, 10 baserunning, 9 bunting, and 9 in avoiding Ks. To me, that doesn't sound like a 20/20 ballplayer, but that's what my OOTP gods say.

So let's take a second to raise a glass to Joey; an inspiration to all of us who weren't given much to work with, but still think in the back of our minds that the world might be underrating us...

[tylertoo]

Love stuff like this. But you neglected to mention his bizarre nickname: Onion.

[RichY]

Love stuff like this. But you neglected to mention his bizarre nickname: Onion.

yeah "Onion" Gunter sounds..bad

[BrianH]

Joey maybe looking for a September call up this year, depending how he does.

[woods]

Really fun feature idea here. I always take OOTP player ratings with a grain of salt, since it's usually the product of the position to which they're assigned. I.e., take Gunter and set his position to left field, and he'll probably jump up to 30/30 or something close to it.

In any case, would love to see more stuff like this. You guys are killing it with the off-season features!

[usnspecialist]

(insert bill raftery voice) ONIONS!!

[kmcbride]

I say call him Onions because . . . (wait for it) . . . he's probably going to make you cry.

Time will tell though. Maybe he steps up?