The worst .300 hitter in history

Bobby Abreu posted a fantastic
"exactly .300" season in 2003
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Since 1901, there have been 179 times that a player qualified for the batting title while hitting exactly .300 on the season. Some of these were fantastic seasons--for example, in 2002, Alex Rodriguez batted .300 while leading the league with 57 homers and 142 RBI.

Other seasons, though, were not so special...
Here are the top 15 seasons by WAR among players with a batting average of exactly .300:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	BA	OPS+	Year	Tm	PA	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	OBP	SLG
1	Ron Santo	10.2	.300	153	1967	CHC	697	23	4	31	98	96	103	.395	.512
2	Hank Aaron	8.3	.300	177	1969	ATL	639	30	3	44	97	87	47	.396	.607
3	Alex Rodriguez	8.2	.300	158	2002	TEX	725	27	2	57	142	87	122	.392	.623
4	Eddie Stanky	8.0	.300	130	1950	NYG	691	25	5	8	51	144	50	.460	.412
5	Mickey Mantle	7.8	.300	158	1954	NYY	651	17	12	27	102	102	107	.408	.525
6	Lou Gehrig	7.6	.300	165	1929	NYY	692	32	10	35	126	122	68	.431	.584
7	Arky Vaughan	7.4	.300	134	1940	PIT	689	40	15	7	95	88	25	.393	.453
8	Bobby Abreu	7.1	.300	136	2003	PHI	695	35	1	20	101	109	126	.409	.468
9	Bill Bradley	6.6	.300	135	1904	CLE	667	32	8	6	83	26	75	.334	.409
10	Shin-Soo Choo	6.5	.300	147	2010	CLE	646	31	2	22	90	83	118	.401	.484
11	Johnny Evers	6.5	.300	144	1908	CHC	509	19	6	0	37	66	14	.402	.375
12	Jim Gilliam	6.3	.300	108	1956	BRO	701	23	8	6	43	95	39	.399	.396
13	Shin-Soo Choo	6.2	.300	136	2009	CLE	685	38	6	20	86	78	151	.394	.489
14	Babe Ruth	6.2	.300	194	1918	BOS	380	26	11	11	66	58	58	.411	.555
15	Jose Reyes	5.9	.300	115	2006	NYM	703	30	17	19	81	53	81	.354	.487

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/2/2012.

Shin-Soo Choo has two of the top 15 seasons.

Jim Gilliam's 1956 is an interesting case. Notice that he posted an OPS+ of only 108 despite that .300 BA. This was due to a very low slugging percentage of just .396. However, his WAR total includes 2.2 dWAR, which is why he makes the top 15.

Now here are the bottom 15 seasons as ranked by WAR:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos ▴	BA	OPS+	Year	Tm	PA	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	OBP	SLG
1	Walter Holke	-1.2	.300	84	1924	PHI	605	23	6	6	64	25	33	.330	.394
2	Bud Clancy	-0.2	.300	85	1927	CHW	514	21	2	3	53	24	24	.337	.373
3	Ralph Garr	0.0	.300	108	1977	CHW	574	29	7	10	54	27	44	.333	.435
4	Gerald Perry	0.2	.300	109	1988	ATL	595	29	1	8	74	36	49	.338	.400
5	Carlos Lee	0.3	.300	119	2009	HOU	662	35	1	26	102	41	51	.343	.489
6	Ernie Orsatti	0.4	.300	87	1934	STL	366	14	4	0	31	27	31	.353	.365
7	Ralph Garr	0.6	.300	107	1976	CHW	558	22	6	4	36	17	41	.322	.387
8	Starlin Castro	0.6	.300	100	2010	CHC	506	31	5	3	41	29	71	.347	.408
9	Shanty Hogan	0.7	.300	86	1929	NYG	353	13	0	5	45	25	22	.362	.388
10	Al Oliver	0.7	.300	111	1983	MON	664	38	3	8	84	44	44	.347	.410
11	Bucky Harris	0.9	.300	104	1920	WSH	592	26	6	1	68	41	36	.377	.381
12	Shawon Dunston	0.9	.300	96	1997	TOT	511	22	5	14	57	8	75	.312	.451
13	Carlos Lee	0.9	.300	126	2006	TOT	695	37	1	37	116	58	65	.355	.540
14	Doc Cramer	1.0	.300	94	1943	DET	651	18	4	1	43	31	13	.335	.348
15	Jimmy Wasdell	1.2	.300	114	1945	PHI	540	19	8	7	60	32	11	.346	.412

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/2/2012.

Walter Holke takes the cake as the worst of the "exactly .300 hitters" with -1.2 WAR and an OPS+ of just 84. Note that most of the guys on this list have low OBP and low SLG, leading to low overall production. Carlos Lee had -2.7 dWAR in 2006, really hurting his overall total.