All Chump Team - Baltimore Orioles

[CBL-Commish]

C Fernando Lunar - key part of the Surhoff dump in 2000, he ended up only playing 97 games for the Birds with a .532 OPS.

1B Jim Traber - One of the few "promising" players on the 1988 team that went 54-107, he never could really hit and was always out of shape. It's a miracle the '89 team improved by so much with him on the roster.

2B Alan Wiggins - Not only did he never come remotely close to living up to his reputation as a great leadoff hitter he got while with the Padres, he did drugs, got into a fistfight with Cal Ripken Sr. during batting practice, and, sadly, died of AIDS.

SS Juan Bell - The heir apparent to Cal at short after they basically traded Eddie Murray for him in '88. They even moved Cal to 3B in the spring of '89. But he was clearly not ready for prime time, and ended up being traded after 113 games and a .170 average.

3B Ryan Minor - The heir apparent to Cal at third (this is starting to be a trend), but his complete lack of plate discipline did him in. Much hyped because of his basketball successes in college. He probably should have stayed with hoops. Now wandering around the indy leagues.

LF Jeffrey Hammonds - First round pick, consensus best talent in the draft, five-tool player. But he was constantly hurt, and they finally gave up on him after six underperforming half-seasons. Went on to screw up the long-term finances of several other franchises enamored with his "potential."

CF John Shelby - I thought he was great when I was 12 and was still impressed by running fast and the memory of a couple exciting baserunner kills in a pennant race. What I didn't know then was that he was a terrible hitter who contributed much to the O's mid-80s collapse. Traded to the Dodgers where, of course, he had a career year.

RF Albert Belle - yes, he hit pretty well for two years, but he spent the majority of his 5-year deal sitting at home collecting paychecks after his hip injury. Because of the insurance deal he was on the O's 40-man until 2003, absolutely wasting a roster spot.

P Brad Pennington - A real life Nuke LaLoosh. Threw nearly 100 mph, but he really, seriously coudn't find the strike zone. I'm not talking about Mitch Williams wild, Pennington was worse. 89 walks in 75 career innings. Had a minor league season where he had something like 140 walks and strikeouts in like 120 innings.

P Rocky Coppinger - Won ten games as a rookie in the '96 pennant race, but took David Wells conditioning tips waaaay too seriously, got hurt, and won one more game for the team over parts of three seasons.

P Jeff Robinson - Traded to the O's for Mickey Tettleton after the Mick had an off year. Tettleton went on to multiple productive seasons while Robinson was released after going 4-9, 5.18... which was better than his last season in Detroit.

Manager Ray Miller - as a manager he was a great pitching coach. Team went from playoffs to under .500, the clubhouse was a disaster, and Miller just blamed the failings on the players. Now he's back as pitching coach and doing just fine. Perfect example of someone promoted to their highest level of incompetence.

Looking at this list it's pretty biased towards the last 20 years. But that's probably because the O's were really good from the 60s through the early 80s, and pretty bad since, so there's a lot more chumps lately.