Eric Hosmer

*"Eric Hosmer sucks"*

*--Slackbot*

**Eric Hosmer** is a Major League first baseman, formerly with the Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres and currently with the Boston Red Sox. He has been the repeated object of jokes in the Slack due to his poor play and oversized contract, particularly in #dynastybaseball. He was the inspiration for the Slack's first Slackbot command.

## In #dynastybaseball

Hosmer was drafted by Kyle in the 7th round of the inaugural draft to much fanfare. Following the first season, upon inheriting Kyle's team, Ruthvik expressed dismay at owning Hosmer and placed him on the trade block on 11-9-18. Throughout the 2019 season, he offered Hosmer up in various trades, but Sahil's and Slackbot's negative comments scared off potential buyers.

On August 1st, in his first message back in the channel after taking a break following the Tanking Scandal, Cam proposed an end to the Hosmer Slackbot along with other disparaging comments about players, as he believed it discouraged trading. On the contrary, Ruthvik said that his team had still received offers for Hosmer. The proposal fell flat.

On 5-18-20, Ruthvik attempted to build interest in Hosmer by mentioning his 99 RBI from the previous season. Sahil drowned out the praise by calling the Hosmer Slackbot several times in a row.

On 7-28-20, Ruthvik finally was able to trade away Hosmer. He packaged Hosmer along with Joe Musgrove, Justus Sheffield, and two draft picks in exchange for Dylan Carlson, Jose Abreu, and Jhoan Duran. The Slack was largely shocked that Hosmer had been traded, as he was one of just 6 players drafted by that franchise who were still on the team.

Hosmer got off to a hot start in 2021, and the channel took notice. Ruthvik declared the Slackbot to be outdated, while Sahil claimed it was too early in the season to do so. Following a cooldown, Erik placed him on the block on June 7th. On June 13th, Erik once again announced that Hosmer was on the trade block. Three days later, Erik sent Hosmer back to Ruthvik alongside Dylan Moore in exchange for future Cincinnati Red Tommy Pham. The team was 4-4-1 prior to acquiring Hosmer and 4-10-1 following the trade. Additionally, Erik was 5-3-1 with Hosmer and 11-3-1 without him.

Hosmer was released unceremoniously and with no comment on 3-19-22. Yuki added him on April 12th of that year.

Kyle's drafting of Hosmer made the Elite Eight of the initial Defining Moments Tournament and the Sweet Sixteen in the second edition.

## Slackbot

On 3-30-18, less than two hours after the Slack was created, Cam created the Hosmer Slackbot. A way of testing Slack's features and functionality, the Slackbot took the input "Hosmer" and replied with "Eric Hosmer sucks." It was the first of many Slackbots. The following day, further responses were added to the library by Zane, and on October 12th Max Brill added several more.

Additionally, when Slack allowed quotes to be displayed while the webpage loaded, "Eric Hosmer" was included by Cam Cain as a loading screen quote. After this feature was disabled in 2019, Gregory Severin added an "Eric Hosmer" reply to the Hosmer Slackbot as a small homage.

### Responses

* Eric Hosmer sucks
* Eric Hosmer posted a .351 BABIP in 2017, far above his .316 career BABIP. Did someone say "fluke"?
* Before his 4.1 WAR 2017, Eric Hosmer posted a -0.1 WAR in 2016.
* Eric Hosmer has a career -17 DRS. (initially -24 at time of creation)
* Eric Hosmer posted a -1.7 WAR in 2012
* Eric Hosmer has more negative fWAR seasons than Scooter Gennett.
* Cheslor Cuthbert had a higher fWAR than Eric Hosmer in 2016.
* On April 7th, 2018, Eric Hosmer misplayed a 20 foot popup, causing the Astros to win on a walk-off.
* Avisail Garcia hit one more homer than Eric Hosmer despite playing in 64 fewer games.
* Eric Hosmer's 2018 wRC+ of 95 ranked 104th out of 140 qualified hitters.
* Eric Hosmer's 2018 GB% of 60.4% was second-highest in the major leagues and the highest mark of his career. Since debuting in 2011, Hosmer has increased his groundball rate nearly 11 percentage points.
* Eric Hosmer has more negative fWAR seasons than Jason Vargas.
* Eric Hosmer struck out a career-high 142 times (21%) in 2018.
* Eric Hosmer has more negative fWAR seasons than Yovani Gallardo.
* Eric Hosmer has more negative fWAR seasons than Josh Tomlin.
* The San Diego Padres paid Eric Hosmer $21M in 2018 to play below replacement level.
* Yoan Moncada, who led the majors in strikeouts in 2018, had a higher wRC+ than Eric Hosmer.
* Every leg of Domingo Santana's .265/.328/.412 2018 triple-slash was better than Eric Hosmer's. Santana was demoted to AAA on June 23rd, 2018 for poor play.
* Eric Hosmer has actually been pretty good in 2020
* Eric Hosmer.