Bad.

Bad.

The word is simple. Three letters. The meaning also simple. Not good.

As much as the very best performances are celebrated, I would think it's also relevant to highlight the worst. Kind of a way of balancing things.

Here's a list of worst career ERA for each franchise. I think worst career ERA says a lot. How bad does someone have to be in order for the team to say "that's enough?"

The worst career ERA (minimum 500 innings pitched) for a team says to me, "This guy has some defined quality (despite the bad ERA) to keep him around. This interests me.

Plus I'm almost equally as interested in the worst as I am the best.

Here it is.

Arizona Diamondbacks: Brian Anderson - 4.52 ERA in 840.7 innings. What's interesting is who has the worst career ERA with 1000 minimum innings pitched. Brandon Webb - 3.24 (Well, when you're matched up against Johnson and Schilling, you're gonna come up third... and apparently last in this case; they've only had three guys in franchise history to rack up 1000 innings.)

Tampa Bay Rays: James Shields, 3.96 ERA in 554.7 innings pitched. Among pitchers with 500+ innings pitched, James Shields has a higher ERA than Scott Kazmir. That's it.

Florida Marlins: Ryan Dempster. 4.64 ERA in 759.7 IP. Highest with 1000 IP was Dontrelle Willis, who is the only guy to pitch 1000 innings with the Fish.

Colorado Rockies: Pedro Astacio. 5.43 ERA in 827.3 IP. He was pretty bad. 6.23 ERA in 209.3 innings in 1998. I think that's a record worst ERA in a 200+ IP season. I'll double check. Could also have the record for worst ERA during a 200 strikeout season too. (5.04 in 232 innings in 1999.) Pitching at Coors sucks.

Kansas City Royals: Chris Haney, 5.24 ERA in 625.7 innings. By the way; best ERA since the deadball era? Mariano Rivera (2.29). Second: Hoyt Wilhelm (2.52). Then Whitey Ford (2.75), Sandy Koufax (2.76), and.... Royal legend Dan Quisenberry (2.76).

Milwaukee Brewers: Dave Bush, 4.57

San Diego Padres: Sterling Hitchcock, 4.47

Seattle Mariners: Dave Fleming, 4.73

Toronto Blue Jays: Josh Towers, 4.93 ERA in 558.3 IP. Without the 8.23 he chalked up in his 62 innings in 2006, he's at 4.50.

Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals: Tony Armas, 4.45

Texas Rangers: Darren Oliver, 5.28

NY Mets: Al Jackson, 4.26

LA Angels: Bartolo Colon (!) 4.66... And there was a Cy Young Award in there. And he claims the highest career Angels ERA by sandwiching the Cy between a 5.01 ERA and two injury shortened 5.11 and 6.34 seasons.

Houston Astros: Wandy Rodriguez. 4.79. Actively on the Astros. Stay tuned.

Minnesota Twins: Joe Haynes, 5.53

(Philadelphia/KC/Oakland) Athletics: Nels Potter, 5.81. That's two 6+ ERA's and a 4.44. Then he cleaned up during WWII posting three straight sub-3 ERA's for the Browns. Career 3.99 ERA

NY Yankees: Hank Johnson: 4.84. (They haven't let Phil Hughes pitch enough innings yet.)

Detroit Tigers: Mike Moore: 5.90

Cleveland Indians: Jaret Wright, 5.50

Chicago White Sox: Jaime Navarro, 6.06 (The official scorers took it easy on him). The ChiSox also had a 1000 inning 5+ ERA guy, James Baldwin.

Boston Red Sox: Chuck Stobbs, 4.70

Baltimore Orioles; Daniel Cabrera, 5.05
St. Louis Browns: Jack Knott, 5.41

Atlanta Braves: Horatio Ramirez, 4.13
Boston Braves: Socks Seibold, 4.48
Boston Beaneaters (pre 1900) Jim Sullivan, 4.54

Cincinnati Reds: Herm Wehmeier, 5.25 (in 1087 innings!) This guy had three separate 100+IP seasons with ERA+ scores of 67, 74, and 73... then dipped to 60 in 80.3 IP

Brooklyn Dodgers (pre 1900): Dan Daub, 4.81
Brooklyn Dodgers (post 1900): Hal Gregg, 4.48
LA Dodgers: Darren Dreifort, 4.36 (that's $63M worth of bad)

Philadelphia Phillies: Les Sweetland, 6.33 (6.15, 6.58, 5.11, 7.71!, 5.04, Retired) career ERA 6.10
(and a 1.823 career WHIP)

Pittsburgh Pirates: Jimmy Anderson, 5.17

NY Giants: Clint Hartung, 5.03
SF Giants: Mark Gardner, 4,71

St. Louis Cardinals (pre 1900): Red Donahue, 6.00
post 1900: Jason Marquis: 4.60

Chicago Cubs (pre 1900): Willie McGill, 5.11 (101 ERA+...)
post 1900: Johnny Klippstein, 4.79

More bad ERA analysis to come!