I'll probably start doing this every few weeks, because it makes me feel better to point out the ineptitude of those who are significantly more talented and wealthier than me. But we're going to look at the players at the bottom of the FanGraphs WAR leaderboard to see which guys have cost their teams the most in the first few weeks of the season.
We'll start off the the King, Astros outfielder Carlos Lee: -1.0 WAR
Yup, El Caballo has cost his Astros a win in value during the team's first 14 games. And hey, that performance only cost the team $1.6M! Both DRS and UZR are in agreement that his defense has been awful so far (I know, I know.. sample size.), his contact rates are down, his strikeouts are up, his walks are down and he has just one double on the season in 57 plate appearances. I suppose that's how you post a -0.73 RAR (Runs Above Replacement) per game. Luckily, he's only due $55.5M through 2012. Oh, wait, that's a bad thing.
Marlins left field Chris Coghlan is the same story, just a hell of a lot cheaper. Bad defense, increased strikeout rate, sub-4 percent walk rate, zero power (no extra-base hits yet, which is kinda sad) and a low BABIP. Put it all together, and he's been only slightly better than Lee, at -0.8 WAR for the year. He's obviously not going to get benched in favor of Brett Carroll, but they'll need him to get going to keep up with Philly and Atlanta.
White Sox left fielder Juan Pierre has been extra Juan Pierre-y this year, with 12 singles, 6 steals, only 3 strikeouts and a whole lot of nothing else. Add in some poor defensive numbers, and Pierre's got a -0.6 WAR so far. It's really, really time for him to move to the bottom of the order, and honestly Andruw Jones need to be playing every day in some form, he's looked good so far this season (4 HR in 40 PA, .467 wOBA on the year).
Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay hasn't been much better than Pierre, and it wouldn't surprise me if Brett Wallace made his way to Toronto soon. My favorite Overbay fact of the day? His hit total and his wRC+ mark for the year are the same number, a lowly 7. Oh, and speaking of sevens, Overbay's fWAR for the year so far? -0.7 WAR. At this pace, even if the Jays don't want to bring up Wallace yet, Randy Ruiz or Edwin Encarnacion could end up manning first before long.
Indians third baseman Jhonny Peralta was seen as a potential trade candidate coming into the season, but he's certainly not making things easier for Cleveland with his suckfest so far this season. He has a home run and a nice walk rate, which is more than the other guys can say, but he has just 6 hits so far this season and his defense has graded out really poorly. He's still a good bet to bounce back and retain some trade value, but this start is really going to bring down his season numbers. He's already posted a -0.6 WAR, which isn't going to get anybody excited. In fact, it might scare some people.
Other names at the bottom: Adam Jones, BAL (-0.6 WAR), Gregg Zaun, MIL (-0.5 WAR), Hunter Pence, HOU (-0.5 WAR, gotta love that Astros outfield so far!), Pedro Feliz, HOU (-0.5 WAR, keeping track? That's a -2.0 WAR from three of their more highly-regarded every day players. No wonder they've looked so bad.), Drew Stubbs, CIN (-0.5 WAR)