In light of a recent post on Fangraphs that detailed the disastrous 2009 season of Brian Giles, I thought it may be interesting to jump in the Astro-TimeMachine to take a look at the 2008 campaign of Michael Bourn. Now, this may be a little painful for the young or the overly-squeamish, so paper bags and take signs will be your friend.
This is indeed a strange worldfor those of us who have witnessed Michael Bourn's 2009 performances. Just a year prior, Bourn hardly ever walked (7.3% of total plate appearances), did not hit much for extra bases (19 for the entire season), and as a result had a sub .600 OPS.
In all of MLB last season where did Michael Bourn rank in various offensive categories? Well, in terms of distance from last:
| Stat Category (Value) | Rank |
| OBP (.288) | Last |
| OPS (.588) | Last |
| wOBA (.276) | Last |
| WAR (-.1) | 5th to Last |
| Value ($-.4) | 5th to Last |
That value stat tells us that he was worth -$400,000 to the Astros last season. Essentially, if you consider his salary that season, he had a net value of -$796,000. Luckily for Bourn, a number of players on the list of least valuable players in 2008 had big enough contracts to compensate for their meagnerness in actual value to their teams. So Kevin Millar, Ken Griffey, Jr. and others: a big thanks, courtesy of Michael Bourn.