Presenting Two Awards on Persistent Futility: The Culby and The Bondie

         The minimum innings pitched and minimum plate appearance requirements for ratio based statistical leaders mainly serve to ensure the most deserving player receives the award at the end of the year; that is, to prevent some hot-hitting September call-up from winning the batting title. The consequences on the low end of the qualified leaders list can be just as interesting, however. 

Rarely will a player spend an entire year in the majors getting regular at bats or innings despite a near replacement level performance. Young players will get sent to the minors and fall short of the minimum requirements, while struggling veterans will get a pity DL trip for something like shoulder fatigue, or just be outright waived. But the guys who hang around the entire season despite their persistent futility deserve recognition.

I present two awards to acknowledge those players who were not quite bad enough, and just durable enough, to fall short of their respective minimum requirements:

Charlie Culberson and Jeremy Bonderman

The Culby Award, given to the player each year who has the lowest batting average among those who qualify (502 plate appearances, or 3.1 per game). Although Rob Deer may be a more deserving namesake, this award is in honor of our very own Charlie Culberson, who somehow spent all of 2014 in the majors for the highest scoring team in the National League and finished with a .195 batting average and -0.9 WAR. Although he fell short of the necessary plate appearances to qualify, that .195 beat out qualified winner Chris Davis, and if offensive achievements by Rockies players are cheapened by Coors Field, then offensive ineptitude should be considered even more abysmal than it normally would. Hence, the Culby award.

The Bondie Award, given to the player each year with the highest ERA among those who qualify (162 IP, or 1 inning per game). This award is named for the very impressive Jeremy Bonderman, who never had a single season ERA below 4 despite 8 years of being an important rotation member for the Detroit Tigers, which included two opening day starts. 

Culbie and Bondie Award Winners since 2000

Let's break down the Culby/Bondie winners since 2000:

• The Culby winners are a nice mix of Charlie Culberson types (Punto, Barmes, Relaford) who were likely kept around for the gloves, and the usual power hitter/high K rate mashers. 

• The Bondie winners are a more diverse group, so it is harder to pinpoint a particular reason why they would have all accumulated the minimum required innings to qualify. The primary unifying factor is playing for lousy teams: only the 2001 Astros, 2011 Tigers, and 2013 Dodgers made the playoffs with the Bondie winner.

Two time Culbie winners, Carlos Peña and Nick Swisher.

• Jose Lima may seem like a worthy namesake for the Bondie award, as he is the only multiple-time winner since 2000, but he had several excellent years in the late 90s, including an All-Star appearance and 4th place Cy Young finish in 1999.

• An interesting absence of 2010s Rockies from the Bondie award winners. They did have two regular 2012 starters (Christian Friedrich and Jeremy Guthrie) who would have topped Ricky Romero's 5.77 had they qualified, but only Jeff Francis had over even 100 innings for the Rockies that year.

• There is decent all-star representation from both groups, as 5 of the 13 Culby winners have combined to appear in 9 all star games, while 8 of the 14 Bondie winners have combined to appear in 12 all-star games. Vernon Wells is the lone 3-time all star of either group.

• Tim Salmon is the only member of either group to win a major award, taking home AL Rookie of the Year in 1993.

• Nobody, at least since 2000, has made the World Series with either the Culby or Bondie winner.

The race for the 2015 Bondie award is going to come down to the wire. Teammates Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza have been going back and forth for the lead, but with Garza done for the year and Lohse relegated to bullpen duties, the door is open for a late-season surge. Drew Hutchinson is next in line, with his 13-4 win-loss record. Luis Valbuena and Adam LaRoche are battling for the Culby award, with Valbuena's .210 average currently holding a 1 point lead, but with neither a lock to get regular at bats the rest of the way, NL Rookie of the Year candidate Joc Pederson could make history by winning the Culby Award in addition to an actually prestigious award in the same year!

It takes a special type of player to win a Culby or Bondie award, and hopefully going forward these experts in persistent futility will get the recognition they deserve.