So, there was some carping that the Mark Clear question was too hard, and no one could have guessed him. To put this in context, what prompted the question was me thinking about Clear the other day, remembering what ridiculous walk rates he had, and going to B-R to see how he compared to others historically, because I suspected he was one of the most extreme pitchers in history. Clearly, he was an outlier.
If I didn't know the answer to that question, Clear would have been on the short list. However, if you aren't at least in your late 30s, you may not have heard of Clear.
So this question should be easier...at the very least, the answer is a question I'm reasonably sure 95% of the folks here have heard of, at least...
Since 2000, there are 6 pitchers who have had a WPA of -1.0 or worse in a game. The worst was by a pitcher who had a -1.185 WPA.
Name that pitcher.
Your hint is that he has a Ranger connection.
No Googling, no going to B-R and looking the answer up, no looking up the answer and then posting it in the comments (as happened in the last trivia question thread, and seems to happen in at least half the trivia posts I do, for some reason).
Answer later today after the jump...
The correct answer is Hideki Irabu, and the blow-up he had against Anaheim on June 5, 2002.
Kudos to the folks who had the right answer. The WPA on FanGraphs for that game, incidentally, is different from B-R's WPA, for whatever reason.