Kansas City Royals: Five Worst Royals All-Star Selections
By Mark Kanter
Mark Redman #21 of the Kansas City Royals – (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Mark Redman‘s name has actually been popping up in the news lately, although again for less than ideal reasons. After Guthrie’s recent implosion against the Yanks, many began to reference Redman’s own 10-run inning against the Dodgers back in 2008 as another “worst inning of all time” contender (he was pitching for the Rockies at the time).
In terms of Redman’s 2006 All-Star selection, where does one even begin? In his one year with the Royals, Redman finished 11-10 with barely a sub-6.00 ERA. His first half K/9 was 3.51, and his ERA at that point ranked 106/135 for pitchers with at least 50 innings thrown. For symmetry sake, Redman did manage to accompany his 32 strikeouts in the first half with 32 walks.
It didn’t get any better from there. By the end of the year, his 5.71 ERA ranked 78/82 of qualified starters. In other words, not only was Redman light-years away from being the best Royal, but based on the stats, he should’ve been considered one of the five worst fifth starters in the league.
This isn’t the first time anyone noticed this All-Star abomination, either. In 2012, Al Yellen of SB Nation wrote about Redman’s selection being one of the worst of all time . Remember folks, before showing Mark too much pity, remember that he still made $4.5 million as a Royal that year, plus a little bonus for being an All-Star.
Really though, who else was there? The 2006 Royals lost 100 games in this Baird to Moore transition year with Buddy Bell at the helm, and their best hitters ended up being Mark Teahen and Emil Brown, both who had careers that do not conjure up thoughts of “All-Star material”.
Pitching-wise, the Royals had 17 different guys start a game, including one from their closer Ambiorix Burgos. Of those 17, only one had a season ERA under 5.00 (Adam Bernero started two games, pitched 13 innings, and had a 1.38 ERA; 2006 also happened to be the last year he played in the majors).
Next: Conclusion