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I noticed Rotoworld's blurb on him today announcing his retirement, and I found myself shocked and reflective about Cairo's career. It spands just one year shy of my time playing fantasy baseball. I've basically never known a fantasy baseball world without Miguel Cairo. I say this, of course, not to reflect on a great career of a great player that helped me win many titles. Cairo certainly was not that, but I think his remarkable longevity for a player of his talent level is notworthy.
I most often associate 17 year careers with HOfers, not role players, so it got me thinking about who in baseball history holds the auspicious record of having the longest career and doing the least in terms of production (not in terms of quality, but quantity, counting stats; clearly anyone who sticks around that long won't rank very low in terms of whatever speciality has kept them in the league--BA, OBP, OPS, WAR, UZR etc). Using hits as the benchmark for hitters, Miguel Cairo accumulated 1044 hits in his 17 year career. That is 61.4 hits a year. That seems to me an impressively low mark for someone who managed to play MLB baseball for 17 years. So, I put forth to the pen, can you all think of someone who has played longer and produced less than Miguel Cairo (I'm sure there must be a few)?
I most often associate 17 year careers with HOfers, not role players, so it got me thinking about who in baseball history holds the auspicious record of having the longest career and doing the least in terms of production (not in terms of quality, but quantity, counting stats; clearly anyone who sticks around that long won't rank very low in terms of whatever speciality has kept them in the league--BA, OBP, OPS, WAR, UZR etc). Using hits as the benchmark for hitters, Miguel Cairo accumulated 1044 hits in his 17 year career. That is 61.4 hits a year. That seems to me an impressively low mark for someone who managed to play MLB baseball for 17 years. So, I put forth to the pen, can you all think of someone who has played longer and produced less than Miguel Cairo (I'm sure there must be a few)?
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