Reviled. Unwanted. Stuck in baseball purgatory since 2007, bouncing between the Majors and Triple A. Such is the plight of Oakland Athletic first baseman zone runs among AL first baseman (5) and tops in range factor per nine innings at his position (10.00). Those advanced metrics indicated a prowess in the field that his fielding percentage did not, and he was voted the 2010 Fielding Bible award as the game’s top defensive first baseman.

2010 Daric Barton was the quintessential “Moneyball” player – an undervalued asset whose true merit couldn’t be assessed through traditional stats. He wasn’t a superstar, but Barton had shown that he had the ability to be a competent player, especially for a franchise that was painfully short on skilled hitters.

Patient Hitter, Impatient Franchise

It still wasn’t enough. In brutal irony, the team that is credited with popularizing “Moneyball” couldn’t wait to dump Barton in 2011. He wasn’t off to a great start when the team eventually relegated him to the minors a couple months into the season, but his OBP was still .325, one of the better percentages on the team.

Yet the A’s stuck everybody else they could think of at first rather than give the job outright to Barton. Seven other players saw time at first. The most notable of these was Brandon Allen, whose WAR was -0.3 in 41 games.

The 2012 strategy remained the same, with the A’s throwing everyone at first base, hoping that someone would stick. Barton got fewer opportunities, and his power was all but nonexistent. He hit only one home run in 136 plate appearances, mitigating that pitiful performance by walking in 16.2 percent of those trips to the plate, once again helping him achieve a decent .338 OBP.

You can't necessarily blame the A's for looking elsewhere (who wants a first baseman who cant hit homers?), and their strategy seems justified by the discovery of batting runs stat calculates the number of runs above or below the major league average that a hitter contributes. Barton is at 15.0 in this category for his career, indicating that he's about average as a big league hitter. Sounds good, right?

Not so much. Runs from positional scarcity takes into account the average production at position to determine how many runs below or above average a player is worth. First basemen take a penalty because their production is better than other positions on average and in this stat Barton is -25 for his career, indicating that he's below average at his position.

Major League Baseball teams are smart. Any one of them could have claimed Barton off of waivers this year and didn't. That's probably a sign that Barton isn't a player any clubs think can help them win. He's above average on the whole, but he's below average at his position. And without positional versatility his value as a backup is limited.

If Barton played shortstop or catcher or second, he probably would have a much better shot to be a valued member of a number of organizations. As it is, he's a man that no one really wants.

It's a shame that a player with Barton's ability to draw walks and with his defensive skills keeps getting sent to the minors. It's unlikely he'll improve his power, but maybe he can. Or maybe one of the teams trotting out first baseman who can't get on base or hit for power (Giants? Marlins?) will eventually seek out a guy like Barton.

Until then, Daric Barton's odyssey through the baseball world will likely continue.

Matt Keith covers the Oakland A's weekly for numberFire. Contact him at mattlkeith@gmail.com or on Twitter @mattlkeith.