As the Kansas City Royals enter the 50th year of their existence, it’s commonplace to take a deeper look into the franchise’s history and the gold and glory that comes with it. It’s easy to look at all the accomplishments and the positives that come with it. But it also can lead you down a dark tunnel, one that many refuse to even glance at.

When I saw this tweet, my brain started churning:

https://twitter.com/joeshyk/status/980914717018423296

Now, this is obviously a bracket for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but it tossed a question into my brain: who is the most mediocre player in Royals history? Has anyone really delved into that? Or has anyone even been brave enough to jaunt down that rabbit hole?

We could do a list of the best Royals of all-time, but we can answer that without even looking up any stats: George Brett is the greatest hitter and Kevin Appier is the best pitcher. See, simple enough?

We could even do a worst of all-time, but we all know that is Neifi Perez. Hey, the numbers might not back this up but I find it hard to believe that much of anyone will argue with Neifi being the choice. Sure, Dee Brown has less fWAR (-4.1 to Neifi’s -3.2) but Neifi was like that family member that just shows up on your doorstep and invites themselves to stay for a month. Then they just crash on your couch, watching reruns of ‘Family Guy’ the entire time. Sorry about the tangent but you get the point. When the only Royals player Sung Woo Lee has ever disliked is you, you are officially the worst. So Neifi, you officially get that honor. Congrats, I guess.

But what about mediocre? That doesn’t mean you are good or bad. It means you are…just there. Ordinary, average, middle of the road, run of the mill, pedestrian and probably forgettable. There have been a number of forgettable names that have put on a Royals jersey over the years, but it takes a special kind to be mediocre.

So when I decided to take this challenge, I needed to decide on my criteria. Initially I thought of making a bracket, if for no reason then so I could toss in a Jeff Reboulet here or a Dave Wickersham there (I’m not joking when I say that is not a made up name. Totally real).

Instead I decided to go with players who have a career 0.0 fWAR during their entire tenure in Kansas City. Nothing says ‘mediocre’ like a middle of the road number like 0.0. I thought about using wRC+ for batters and ERA+ for pitchers, but that wouldn’t deliver the true scope of mediocrity that I am looking for.

Since there was a decent amount of players who actually achieved this wearing the royal blue, I then went ahead and broke it down according to those batters with the most plate appearances and pitchers with the most innings while accomplishing 0.0 WAR. So let’s start first with the pitchers:

#3- Don Hood

Hood comes in third place for this ‘race of the mediocre’ as he pitched 114.1 innings as a Royal, with a respectable 2.99 ERA, 4.31 FIP, 3.78 K’s per 9, 2.83 BB’s per 9 in 57 games for Kansas City. Honestly, the only reason I even remember Hood is because I have his baseball card. He pitched for the Royals during his last two big league seasons, 1982 and 1983, while primarily pitching out of the pen.

Not only was Hood’s ERA pretty good, but he also posted an ERA+ of 137. So he actually was a decent contributor for the team but alas had a 0.0 fWAR, which left him on this list.  Just for posterity’s sake, he did put up 1.2 bWAR, so Baseball Reference does rate him a bit higher.

Hood might actually be a decent representation of forgettable, as I would bet it would be hard to conjure up many Kansas City fans who remember Hood’s time with the team.

#2- Blake Wood

Wood is a more recent contributor to the ‘House of Mediocre’, as he pitched for the Royals during the 2010-2011 campaigns, his first two seasons in the majors. Wood compiled an ERA of 4.30, 4.15 FIP, 7.01 K’s per 9 and an ERA+ of 97 over 119.1 innings.

Amazingly, Wood appeared in 106 games during that two year span and while Fangraphs has his WAR at 0.0, Baseball Reference once again has it a tad higher, at 0.9. Maybe the funniest part about this entire test is that Wood continues to be pretty pedestrian, putting up a career ERA+ of 95 (slightly below average) and an fWAR & bWAR of 1.0 over seven seasons. It’s easy to see now that Wood is a great fit as a mediocre former Royal.

#1- Jorge De La Rosa

The most mediocre Royals pitcher of all-time is someone who has been around forever and I’m sure a few of you don’t even remember his time in Kansas City. De La Rosa spent a part of the 2006 season in Kansas City after being acquired from Milwaukee (for Tony Graffanino) and would also spend 2007 in a Royals uniform. Over 178.2 innings, he would compile a 5.64 ERA, 5.57 FIP, 5.94 K’s per 9, and an ERA+ of 82.

Like the other two, his Baseball Reference WAR skews a bit higher (0.2) and it does feel important to remember that De La Rosa spent his first full season in the big leagues with the Royals in 2007. Since then, he has gone on to pitch 11 more seasons in the majors (15 overall) and is currently pitching for the Diamondbacks.

Maybe the best part of this project is seeing how these players have turned out and De La Rosa has continued down a path of mediocrity. De La Rosa’s career ERA+ is 99 and has accumulated 14.6 fWAR over 14 seasons, or a shade over 1.0 wins above replacement per season. De La Rosa proves that while being average could appear bad to some, it can also lead to stability in Major League Baseball.

Alright, so there are the mediocre pitchers, so now we shift over to the hitters.

#3- Butch Davis

I’m just going to be honest: I don’t remember Butch Davis. Davis was an outfielder that played in Kansas City from 1983 to 1984. In those two years, Davis made it to the plate 258 times, posting a line of .248/.285/.370  with 4 home runs and 30 RBI’s.

The weird part is that Davis actually had a really solid rookie year in 1983, as he hit .344/.359/.508 with a wRC+ of 135 over 130 plate appearances. Davis would plummet in ’84 though, hitting just .147/.211/.224 in 128 plate appearances.

Combined, this led to a wRC+ of 79, a fWAR of 0.0 and a bWAR of 0.2. Pretty average numbers for a player who ends up as the third most mediocre hitter in Royals history.

#2- Rudy Law

I do remember Rudy Law, as he was signed by Kansas City after the 1985 season to play in the outfield. In fact, Law was actually a pretty good player for the White Sox during the 1982 and 1983 seasons, almost even posting a 3 win season in ’83.

Law would appear in 86 games for the Royals in 1986, with 341 plate appearances. He would hit .261/.327/.388 with one home run and 36 RBI’s. He would also post a wRC+ of 95 (pretty average), which was actually on par with his 1983 season.

The biggest difference for Law appeared to be on defense in Kansas City, as his dWAR fell to -0.9 after being around average the previous few seasons. This led to the 0.0 fWAR and a 0.5 bWAR. While I do remember Rudy’s time in Kansas City, it’s easy to see how you could forget his short stay there as well.

#1- Brent Mayne

All of this middle of the road talent has led us to this, the guy who not only is the #1 most mediocre position player in Royals history, but the overall #1…and it isn’t even close. It only makes sense that the most run of the mill Royals player would be a guy that the team drafted in the 1st round back in 1989.

Brent Mayne would pull multiple tours of duty for Kansas City (1990-1995 and 2001-2003) and just looking at the numbers show how pedestrian he really was. Mayne would hit .244/.305/.322 with 20 home runs and 205 RBI’s in a Royals uniform. The honest truth was that Mayne was more wildly known for his defense than his offense, which also explains the career wRC+ of 74 and a 63 for his tenure in Kansas City.

So why does Mayne stack above everyone else? Most of the other players on this list had very brief careers as a Royal whereas Mayne would play nine seasons for our boys in blue. He would rack up 2200 plate appearances over 664 career games for Kansas City and no player on this list can even come close to those numbers while also posting pure mediocrity.

In those nine seasons, Mayne would have only four seasons with a fWAR above 0.0 and in 2002 he actually finished the season at 0.0! You’ve probably also noticed that throughout this experiment most of the players would put up a better WAR according to Baseball Reference than Fangraphs.

So in an ironic twist, it appears that Mayne’s fWAR (0.0) is actually higher than it is on Baseball Reference (-1.2). This obviously is because of how each site factors their wins above replacement, but it does show how Mayne’s value can shift according to what you are looking for.

If you watched the Royals during what I like to refer to as ‘The Lean Years”, you probably saw Brent Mayne play and you are probably completely agreeing with him ending up at the top of this list. The funny part is that while I am poking a bit of fun toward a list of mediocrity, Mayne is more proof that being average can actually be a strength. Mayne ended up with a 15 year career, got to appear in the playoffs in 2004 and racked up over $13 million dollars in his career. All in all, that speaks of a very blessed career for Mr. Mayne.

So there you go, the most mediocre players in Royals history. Now it’s your turn: who do you think should be the most mediocre? Who was your favorite mediocre player? Would you go by a different point of reference to determine an average player? Maybe break it down to decades? Let us know who you feel is an all-time mediocre Royal.