Hitting stats for St. Louis Cardinals pitchers in 2010 were already presented in the earlier article, “Wainwright repeats as Allen Watson Award winner”. Chris Carpenter’s .288 OPS brought up the rear as the worst mark by more than 100 points for those Cardinals pitchers with at least 30 plate appearances.

Against righties, Carp was absolutely terrible with just five hits and no walks in 65 plate appearances for a .191 OPS. His only home run and all four RBI were accrued in his 19 plate appearances versus left-handers, making for a .650 OPS. Further, most of his 2010 success was experienced while hitting eighth (.479 OPS versus just .126 when batting ninth).

In originally selecting the award’s namesake, I first had to unearth the worst yearly performance with the bat by a pitcher in team history, post-1900. Of the hundreds of Cardinals hurlers with at least 30 plate appearances in a season, only two posted a .000 OPS.

They are Vicente Palacios in 1994 and John Fulgham in 1980.

To break the apparent tie, I dove into the specifics.

In his season of futility, Fulgham, in his second of two career MLB seasons, had exactly 30 plate appearances. He had three sacrifices, therefore had only 27 official at-bats. He fanned 17 times, but managed to score once.

Palacios had 36 plate appearances in 1994 and also had three sacrifices. He struck out 15 times, but also ground into a double play. Palacios did not cross home plate.

Therefore, Palacios broke the close tie as having the worst hitting season by a Cardinals pitcher since at least 1900.

Here are the worst ten in team history, courtesy of the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia.

Here are those who would have been the Palacios Award winners over the last decade plus one year. Note that Carpenter is the only name listed twice, let alone three times. Fortunately his pitching keeps him coming back.

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To select the award’s namesake, I first had to unearth the worst yearly performance with the bat by a pitcher in team history, post-1900. Of the hundreds of Cardinals hurlers with at least 30 plate appearances in a season, only two posted a .000 OPS.

They are Vicente Palacios in 1994 and John Fulgham in 1980.

To break the apparent tie, I dove into the specifics.

In his season of futility, Fulgham, in his second of two career MLB seasons, had exactly 30 plate appearances. He had three sacrifices, therefore had only 27 official at-bats. He fanned 17 times, but managed to score once.

Palacios had 36 plate appearances in 1994 and also had three sacrifices. He struck out 15 times, but also ground into a double play. Palacios did not cross home plate.

Therefore, Palacios broke the close tie as having the worst hitting season by a Cardinals pitcher since at least 1900.

Here are the worst ten in team history, courtesy of the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia.

Rk	Worst OPS pitcher	Yr	OPS
T1	Vicente Palacios	1994	0.000
T1	John Fulgham	1980	0.000
3	Ron Taylor	1963	0.063
4	Bob Purkey	1965	0.084
5	Jose DeLeon	1991	0.087
6	Bill Doak	1913	0.095
7	Bill Doak	1923	0.104
8	Curt Simmons	1965	0.109
9	Paul Dean	1936	0.118
10	Mike Morgan	1996	0.121

The 2009 hitting data was already presented in the earlier article, “Wainwright wins 2009 Allen Watson Award”. Todd Wellemeyer’s .256 OPS brought up the rear as the worst mark for those pitchers with at least 30 plate appearances.

Here are those who would have been the Palacios Award winners this decade. Wellemeyer’s 2009 mark would not have been worst in eight of the last ten years. Anthony Reyes‘s .154 OPS in 2007 was the lowest qualifying mark since 2000. Chris Carpenter is the only name listed twice – in 2005 and 2006.

Year	Worst OPS pitcher	OPS
2009	Todd Wellemeyer	0.256
2008	Kyle Lohse	0.238
2007	Anthony Reyes	0.154
2006	Chris Carpenter	0.254
2005	Chris Carpenter	0.211
2004	Jeff Suppan	0.156
2003	Jason Simontacchi	0.289
2002	Chuck Finley	0.250
2001	Dustin Hermanson	0.206
2000	Garrett Stephenson	0.162