Apparently, a character's worth is measured by how many asses he kicks.
The most wasted character to me is Yamcha, simply because, aside from the baseball episode, absolutely nothing good ever happened to him.
* Get his ass kicked repeatedly. Yamcha never even got the chance to pass the first round, always being the first to get his ass kicked by having the misfortune of fighting either the winner of the tournament (Kame Sennin and Tenshinhan) or literally God himself.
* Get killed by a Saibaiman. What a disgraceful way to go. At least, the others got to die through honorable sacrifice against an opponent as powerful as Nappa. Yamcha got killed from behind by a weakling.
* His girlfriend dumps him because he was cheating on her, despite the fact she had no problem flirting with every prettt boy she met (even when she was Yamcha's girlfriend). The one who replaced him is the guy who used to work for Frieza, allowed Nappa to kill her friends, slaughtered entire villages of Namekians, sadistically murdered a guy in front of her, and is a huge jerkass in general. Seems legit.
* He doesn't even get invited to fight Frieza and its soldiers. Heck, the guys picked Kame Sennin over Yamcha, despite the fact that the latter outclassed the former since back in Saiyan Saga. Not even his friends respect him.
Even in the baseball episode, he still some s**t. Bulma says Yamcha is only good at baseball. As if dumping him for a jackass wasn't enough. Oh, and he gets injured several times by people way out of his league. Its surprising that he's still alive !
Poor guy can't catch a break.