FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: September 6, 2025
Hello everyone, and welcome to the first mailbag of September. We have just over three weeks to go in the regular season, and despite what our Playoff Odds say, I am still holding out hope for at least one or two exciting postseason races.
Entering play Friday night, 11 teams (six in the NL and five in the AL) had a better than 90% chance to reach the playoffs; at 74.2%, the Mariners were the only club in possession of a playoff spot that was on less solid ground. Three other teams could still spoil Seattle’s fun: the Rangers (12.5%), the Royals (10.6%), and the Rays (10.2%). Of the Senior Circuit teams that aren’t in a playoff position, the Giants (4.3%) had the best shot of snagging a Wild Card berth. However, for any of you cheering for chaos, the Reds (2.3%) host the Mets, the current six seed, for three games this weekend; Cincinnati began the series five games behind New York.
We won’t be answering any questions about the playoff race today, but we do touch on a couple of players on contending teams. Before we get to them, though, a few quick things: First, thanks to Meg Rowley for putting together last week’s mailbag while I was on vacation, which I spent in Toronto watching baseball! My dad and I had never been to Rogers Centre before, so we decided to check another ballpark off our list. Also, FanGraphs is hiring a full-time prospect writer. For more information, check out the job posting here. Finally, I’d like to remind all of you that while anyone can submit a question, this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com.
Matt is the associate editor of FanGraphs. Previously, he was the baseball editor at Sports Illustrated. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Men’s Health, Baseball Prospectus, and Lindy’s Sports Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ByMattMartell and Blue Sky @mattmartell.bsky.social.
Love the post about the “worst ever”..I do think you missed one, who is also more recent & is certainly worse than Doug Flynn, IMO:
Pat Rockett, who I have mentioned in a few Sunday comments. SS for ATL from 1976-1978, who combined Mario Mendoza like hitting with terrible fielding like few ever have.
Link to his Fangraphs page: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/pat-rockett/1011092/stats?position=SS
-5.0 fWAR in 459 PA’s is quite impressive..bWAR has him at -5.5.
He did have a cool mustache, so that partly makes up for it,right?
Many years ago I came across a very Web 1.0 webpage that was something like 20,000 words on the worst rock band of all time. He limited it to bands that I think either had a platinum record or hit #1 or something like that, because he argued you can’t truly be the worst if no one knows who you are.
(He wound up selecting Motley Crue, which I agree with, they were terrible)
By that logic, the worst position player of all time is the following at each of the following PA levels, with 1962 to the present to make it more manageable and to ensure we have 162 game seasons and to get expansion:
5000 PAs: Neifi Perez (-3.3 in 5510)
7000 PAs: Alfredo Griffin (-1.0 in 7331 PAs)
When you play a bad player that much, it seems like the award should be for Worst General Managing.
Agree on Motley Crue. I am, unfortunately, the exact right age to have liked them in my teenage years & they were actually my first concert on the “Theatre of Pain” tour.
In looking back, their albums would have 1-2 “good” songs & the rest were just awful. & “good” song(s) would be the single(s)- LiveWire, Looks That Kill, Home Sweet Home, Girls, Girls, Girls, Dr.Feelgood, Kickstart My Heart..Those might be their only “good” songs (You could argue for Too Young To Fall In Love or a couple on the Dr. Feelgood album, but, their 1st 4 albums were mostly terrible). No decent deep cuts with these guys.
Not surprising from a group that was basically 4 raging alcoholic/cocaine/heroin addicts…& they’re still touring & were playing baseball stadiums a couple years ago on a tour with Poison/Def Leppard. (They closed the show in Detroit & were so bad that fans were walking out)
Amazing they’re all still alive, while Prince, Whitney Houston, George Michael & Michael Jackson have all passed.
In retrospect that whole wave of glam metal was a mistake. Motley Crue, Skid Row, Poison…I kind of feel like there was an entire cohort of bands that took the wrong lessons from Alice Cooper.
Are Def Leppard and Van Halen considered part of that group? I kind of feel like Def Leppard was one of the bands they were copying, and I didn’t see Van Halen in that category at all.
There are a lot of metal bands that I don’t like that I at least understand, because the best metal guitarists hold up against the most technically accomplished guitarists in any rock genre. If I listen to something like Slayer or Pantera, I think “this is not my cup of tea but these people are unbelievably talented.” I did not have that experience listening to Poison.
Disagree with a blanket statement of glam or “hair” metal was a mistake…depends on your classifications, but a number of groups were good/excellent, the issue was the decade of decadence, by the late 80s, some truly awful bands were getting major airplay because they fit in with the trend, hello Nelson Bad English, Danger Danger, Trixter, Nitro, etc.
Poison is mostly too commercial for my ears, and Motley Crue to a lesser degree, Skid Row were legit though, self-titled was commercial but a good offering, Slave to the Grind slays.
Van Halen and early Def Leppard don’t fit the bill, Leppard from Pyromania on yes.
Interesting take with Slayer and Pantera, what is it that is “not my cup of tea?” Music generally too intense for your liking?
Mostly it’s the vocals that make it not my cup of tea. I like more melodic music, so power metal is usually my favorite.
But the best thrash metal bands all very good at what they do, I can admire it even if it’s not my thing.
(I’m not a “real” metal fan, I but when you need something fast or heavy nothing else hits the spot like it)
Humorously (to me in this context) I can’t stand most power metal because of the vocals. If you’re interested in exploring a bit, and aren’t already aware, you can check out some 90s Swedish bands generally dubbed as “the Gothenburg sound” which while still using “cookie monster” vocals were fairly melodic and incorporated some “clean” vocals as well. If you want to go even more popular, check out early “killswitch engage” albums. They exemplify the “heaven and hell” vocals approach, though you’re still not going to get away from the “death” metal singing.
Yeah, some of those bands WERE really good, but, the ones you mentioned (& others) were just big because they fit the scene & the record companies promoted them & got them to write 1-2 love songs each record that would get radio airplay..
SkidRow, as you mention, is a good band, Slave to the Grind was a great thrash album.. Cinderella is a good blues band, Tesla is a good rock band. Scorpions were a good band. We saw Bon Jovi a couple of years ago, they were really good & more of a rock band, but, in the 80’s got pigeonholed in that “hair” metal genre.
Van Halen was NOT a part of that. Were earlier & had Eddie Van Halen, who was a genius. Def Leppard probably was, but, again, I think more talented. Hysteria was intentionally a “pop metal” album, they wanted a metal Thriller. There other stuff was better.
Van Halen (DLR-era) was undoubtedly an influence on the movement, but not really part of it, though you could probably make an argument for Sammy Hagar. Scorpions also predated it (started in mid-60s?) and probably spanned a few genres if you count their early work (and you should – Lonesome Crow is a great album). I saw them in ’84 with Bon Jovi opening (before they were popular). I saw Skid Row opening for Aerosmith (yes, that show with the bottle throwing). I probably saw a few others just by virtue of being alive in the right (wrong?) era. Not really my cup of tea, but there was some talent mixed in here and there.
Alice Cooper is a tremendous front man and a pioneer in his world. So very well respected. And an outstanding human being. I smile every time he is mentioned.
Maybe I’m just a bigger rock and heavy music fan, but Shout At The Devil is solid to good end to end, and is generally regarded as such by people doing ratings. Agree though, Crue is overrated by popularity versus quality of output.
There are probably a few more decent songs that I didn’t mention (Title track, Red Hot), but, still not that great, IMO. Still probably their 2nd best album..because Theatre of Pain & Girls, Girls, Girls are terrible.
I’ve thought Vince Neil may be the luckiest guy alive. Not a good singer, IMO, & didn’t write much of their songs (mostly Nikki Sixx), but, because he’s a good looking blonde guy he’s had this long career..Add in that he killed a guy drunk driving & didn’t even go to jail for it.
Yes to Theatre of Pain, Girls Girls Girls and Vince Neil.
RIP Razzle.
“He argued you can’t truly be the worst if no one knows who you are,” made my day. Thanks.
I read something the other day where someone said that Sparky Anderson was one of the best managers because he shifted Pete Rose to third base and got George Foster into the lineup everyday. I’m sorry, but benching Doug Flynn is the obvious move. And benching Doug Flynn because you have Joe Morgan, Dave Concepcion, and George Foster is blindingly obvious.
You would think the Mets were intentionally trying to be bad. Doug Flynn had the third most PAs on the Mets between 1977 and 1981 while slashing .234 / .264 / .292. Among second basemen with at least 1000 PAs for the same team in that stretch, he had the second lowest batting average and the third worst slugging percentage. He had more ground out double plays than he had doubles. He was caught stealing twice as often as he had successful stolen bases.
You didn’t even need to look at his .264 OBP to know that he was a black hole on offense, much less any modern stadium-adjusted stats. But he had 2269 PAs for the same team. Among players with at least 2000 PAs for a single team in that stretch of time only two players had lower batting averages than him. One hit a bunch of home runs (Wayne Gross) and the other was literally Ozzie Smith at shortstop. Same with slugging percentage. You had to wear either a literal or metaphorical blindfold to ignore how bad he was at hitting.
If we need to pick an artist with rock/metal tags, roll with Limp Bizkit, Crue at least have redeeming moments, though yes, overrated.
Neifi does better, not good :), with other sources on his defense, allows Pete Suder to make a run for the money at the 5k PA level.
Not the worst, but wanted to mention a player that was well regarded during his playing days. Total Zone defense is giving him a lot of credit, where others are not, Baseball Projection has Vince Coleman comes below replacement level for his career!
Just WOW on Pat Rockett, I like your definition best here.