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At Least He Can Say He Was in the Top 10

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Joe Posnanski's "The Soul of Baseball" has been a wonderful addition to the baseball blogosphere this year. I'm looking forward to reading his book on Buck O'Neil at some point this spring. Memorial Day weekend, I'm lookin' at you.

(I had the good fortune of meeting O'Neil once at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City, and remembered that I already told this story to the Bleacher Guy, so I'll just link to that post. I believe I found Posnanski's blog through Rob, so a tip of the cap is in order. I'd also like to welcome Rob back after he took a blogging sabbatical for the last few months. I'm glad I get to read his stuff again.)

Today, Posnanski reminisces over some of the awful individual seasons he's had to watch during his time in Kansas City, estimating that at least five of the 10 worst seasons over that 11-year span have been posted by Royals players. I figured Neifi Perez and Juan Gonzalez would be included in that group, and thus worth a mention here. However, Posnanski highlighted another player of local interest among his 10 worst seasons since 1996:

4. Ramon Santiago, Detroit, 2003. That 2003 Tigers team was the worst I ever saw, but it was truly a team effort - there were not too many comical seasons. Mike Maroth went 9-21, but you always got the sense that he was a good pitcher in a bad situation. Franklyn German led the team with five saves, and he had a sparking 6.04 ERA, but that won't rank him with the worst relievers of the last decade. So, the star has to be Santiago, who did not do anything particularly well other than bunt people over. He managed a .284 slugging percentage in more than 500 plate appearances, which was hard to do in 2003.

Above Santiago in the top two of the list are Lima Time and, of course, Neifi. But hey, only three Royals on that list, so I guess that's something.