2006 John Cangelosi Award

With baseball's regular season over, it is time for me to give out the game's most prestigious award, the John Cangelosi award. It is named after the legendary John Cangelosi, the 80s and 90s journeyman outfielder who had possibly the worst defensive instincts in the history of baseball and had only speed going for him. He was the first player who I remember thinking, "Wow, this guy actually has some talent, but he is a horrible baseball player." So in 2003, I began naming Cangelosi Award winners. The criteria is to be a Cangelosi-type player. You need to have some talent but blow it by being stupid, a thug, having terrible instincts, etc. So as much as I would like to name Willie Bloomquist as the worst player in baseball, it's not his fault that he is on a major league roster. He does what he can with his poor skills.

The previous award winners:

2003: Alex Sanchez, OF, Milwaukee
2004, Ben Davis, C, Seattle/Chicago White Sox
2005, Sir Sidney Ponson, P, Baltimore Descriptions of all three's credentials can be seen from this link.

This year's winner:

Crazy Carl Everett, DH, Seattle

Carl Everett was long for this award. Always hated by his teammates for his erratic behavior and general assholism, Everett is most known for his, um, erratic beliefs. He doesn't believe in dinosaurs or the Apollo missions for instance. He is happy to slam on homosexuals at the first chance. He's also a big fan of corporal punishment of children. He played for the 2001 Boston Red Sox where he almost single-handedly tore the team apart. But he always had skills that helped make up for this. Until this year.

In 2006, he hit .227/.297/.360 with 11 HRs in 308 ABs. He might have just taken his fading skills into a dignified retirement but instead, he walked into Seattle manager Mike Hargrove's office and began screaming at him for not being in the starting lineup. This when he was hitting .229. A few days later, he was released. Despite his still existant left-handed power off the bench, no contending team came within a mile of picking of Everett for the stretch.

Also, and I think this is very important, Carl Everett is the first African-American winner of the Cangelosi Award. A true pioneer in crapitude. Considering Jackie Robinson's widow is still alive, do you think we can have some sort of ceremony to honor this amazing player?

Also in contention, Russ Ortiz, P, Baltimore (0-8, 8.14 ERA this year while raking in a mere $7.875 million), Josh Towers, P, Toronto (2-10, 8.42 ERA).