The 10 worst MLB players in August

August’s Five Worst Hitters

With wRC+ as our measuring stick, these five hitters have separated themselves from the pack in the worst way possible (we’ve included a few other statistics for good measure).

Rosell Herrera‘s rookie year hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, but his time with the Kansas City Royals has been better than the start of this season, which was with the Cincinnati Reds. After posting a -25 wRC+ through his first 13 plate appearances, it’s gone up to 62 over his most recent 216 trips to the plate. It’s the small victories, guys.

Corey Dickerson has had a solid overall year for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but it seems like he’s starting to come back down to Earth a bit. His 2.1% walk rate in August is among his worst months this season, while that 23.4% strikeout rate is the worst. It’s also just the second time all year it’s risen above 20.0%.

Ian Desmond‘s 2018 performance has been quite odd. His overall production hasn’t been great again (78 wRC+ in 507 plate appearances), but he just secured the fifth career 20-homer season and second in the last three years. This has happened despite a 60.9% ground-ball, which is the worst in baseball heading into Saturday’s games.

Carlos Correa hasn’t been a driving force for the Houston Astros’ offense like he was last year. Missing all of July because of a disabled list stint certainly doesn’t help getting into a groove, either. He’s struggling in front of the home fans, posting a .643 OPS, 81 wRC+, and 19.7% hard-hit rate at Minute Maid Park. Those numbers increase to .869, 133, and 38.4%, respectively, on the road.

Brandon Crawford was white-hot for a two-month stretch earlier this year, but has completely fallen off a cliff. His month-by-month wRC+ production from April to August looks like this: 40, 188, 167, 40, 29. Woof. One could’ve imagined that his .345 first-half BABIP would regress, but going all the way down to .220 was probably more than he would’ve expected.

About Matt Musico

Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.

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