McDaniel: The strange, legendary times of Mike Maksudian
From Rachael McDaniel at Baseball Prospectus on August 29, 2018:
There were 23 different players who recorded regular-season plate appearances for the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays. Of those 23 players, 22 of them recorded at least one hit. The regular lineup featured future Hall of Famers Roberto Alomar and Dave Winfield having All-Star seasons, but even the pinch-hitters and role players managed to make something of their extremely limited playing time. Rance Mulliniks, injured and in the final season of his career, recorded a walk and a hit in his three plate appearances; in eight trips to the plate, Domingo Martinez managed five hits. Even perennial bench-dweller Rob Ducey eked out a solitary hit over his 21 plate appearances that season.
However, there was one player among that group of eventual World Series champions who went to the plate three times for the Blue Jays that season and never once reached base. His batting line stands alone—a perfect, empty .000/.000/.000.
That season was his first in the major leagues, and his last for the Jays. He would go on to play a grand total of 31 more games in the big leagues, accruing 0.2 WARP over the course of his eight-year professional baseball career. He also became the center of a controversy surrounding players hugging each other, survived a midseason stabbing at a bar in Edmonton, and devoured at least one live locust (and possibly a small lizard). His name was Mike Maksudian, and on that team full of All-Stars and legends, his career might have been the strangest one of them all.
Read the full article here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/42338/defensive-indifference-the-strange-legendary-times-of-mike-maksudian/
Originally published: August 29, 2018. Last Updated: August 29, 2018.