Kansas City Royals All-Time Worst 25 Man Roster

Oct 15, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; The outfield scoreboard displays the Kansas City Royals as American League champions after game four of the 2014 ALCS playoff baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals swept the Orioles to advance to the World Series. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Starting Catcher – Dennis Paepke

Chances are, if you cannot catch, throw or hit, then you will have a very short major league career. That turned out to be the case with former Kansas City Royals catcher Dennis Paepke.

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A part of the inaugural 1969 Royals squad, Paepke spent portions of four seasons with the Royals, with the majority of his time coming in 1971. Although he only appeared in 80 games, it may be fair to wonder how he received even that much playing time, given his career .183/.229/.249 batting line. He had only two career home runs and 14 career RBI, all of which came during that 1971 season.

Defensively, Paepke was not anything special. His 33% caught stealing rate seems impressive, but was 5% lower than the major league average at the time. He cost the Royals two runs in his 46 games behind the plate, and was even worse when put in the outfield, where he cost the Royals five runs in 18 games.

A player who should have been a minor league depth piece, Dennis Paepke’s career highlight was being part of the trade that sent expansion draft pick Hoyt Wilhelm to the Angels. Aside from that, Paepke was quite forgettable.

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