Jack Cust
Out of the ten years that Jack Cust spent in Major League Baseball, the team he played the most games with was the Oakland Athletics. Cust came to the A’s in 2004, but his first season with the Green and Gold did not start off very well. He spent that whole year in Triple-A. Once he was granted free agency at the season ended, Cust decided to sign a Minor League contract with the San Diego Padres.
Despite spending all of 2006 in San Diego’s farm system with no sign of improvement, Oakland wanted him back for some odd reason. The A’s and Padres made a trade that sent Cust back to the Athletics. As their backup designated hitter, Cust got off to a hot start with six homers in his first seven at bats after returning to Oakland. However, he quickly declined from there.
Even though Cust had some timely hitting moments, he was a swing and miss type of hitter. Cust either hit homers or did not hit at all. In 2007, he led Major League Baseball in strikeouts. The very next year, he topped that feat by breaking the American League record for most strikeouts in one season. He struck out 197 times that year. In 2009, he led the league in strikeouts yet again.
Overall, Cust’s OPS was decent, but he just struck out too many times to really justify having him on the roster for long.
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