Sunday, December 6, 2009

Zoilo Versalles, 1967 Minnesota Twins

Poor Johnny Mize. First he's compared to Miguel Dilone and now Zoilo Versalles, a man who did what Mize never could - win a Most Valuable Player Award (the result of an embarrassing 1965 vote that saw Versalles perservere over his more worthy teammate Tony Oliva). The mighty are known to fall from grace, though. Versalles saw his career quickly disintegrate after winning the the MVP. While he turned in a merely-bad 1966, Zoilo completely fell apart in '67, while the cache of his recent MVP kept him in the lineup full time. As a result, Versalles became the only player to ever score 60 or more runs with an on-base percentage of under .250. The fact Versalles could accumulate 63 runs (if only incidentally) with a slash line of .200/.249/,282 was more a testament to Mangers Sam Mele and Cal Ermer's willingness to give him 626 plate appearances than anything else. Mercifully, Versalles was traded to the Dodgers the next year, and bounced around between the Padres, Indians, Senators, and Braves before retiring after the 1971 season.

Record:
60+ runs, .250- on-base percentage

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