The baseball season is more than 1\/3 completed, the weather is warming up, and pennant races are starting to shape up.\u00c2\u00a0 We are in mid-June; no longer can any player state that they are in a slump. Slumps don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last two plus months.\u00c2\u00a0 With that in mind we are going to take a look at who might be the most disappointing player at each position.<\/p>\n
Catcher: \u00c2\u00a0Jorge Posada, New York Yankees:\u00c2\u00a0 Yes I know Posada hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t picked up a catcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mitt all season, but still that is the position he qualifies for.\u00c2\u00a0 Posada has had a rough go of things, only this week has he raised his batting average over .200, perhaps he has finally put the fact that he is no longer a catcher behind him, and accepted that he will only be a designated hitter for the Yankee.\u00c2\u00a0 The average has come up of late, but Jorge still hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hit a HR in over a month, and if he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pick it up soon he could find himself replaced my minor leaguers Jesus Montero or Jorge Vazquez.<\/p>\n
Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins;\u00c2\u00a0 Kurt Suzuki, Oakland Athletics<\/p>\n
First Base:\u00c2\u00a0 Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins:\u00c2\u00a0 While it was well known that Morneau was coming back from a severe concussion that ended his 2010 season prematurely, no one could have predicted that it would still be affecting him this season, and that he must still take medication to control it.\u00c2\u00a0 Target Field also doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be agreeing with him as the dimensions are nowhere near as cozy as the Homerdome.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus now we hear that he will miss the next couple of games to deal with a wrist injury.\u00c2\u00a0 All in all this is looking like a lost season for Morneau and the Twins.<\/p>\n
Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Kendry Morales, Los Angeles Angels;\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Adam Laroche, Washington Nationals<\/p>\n
Second Base:\u00c2\u00a0 Dan Uggla, Atlanta Braves:\u00c2\u00a0 Was there any doubt that Uggla would be the winner at this position.\u00c2\u00a0 His first season in Atlanta has been an utter and complete bust.\u00c2\u00a0 He is batting .170 with seven home runs and 16 runs batted in, not the production the Braves were expecting when they acquired Uggla from the Marlins in the off-season.\u00c2\u00a0 What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the problem?\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playing in the same league and in the same division, not exactly a big culture change.\u00c2\u00a0 What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even worse now is that Uggla is getting regular days off as the Braves are trying anything to snap him out of this “slump.”<\/p>\n
Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Gordon Beckham, Chicago White Sox;\u00c2\u00a0 Brian Roberts, Baltimore Orioles<\/p>\n
Third Base:\u00c2\u00a0 Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays: \u00c2\u00a0Most people perceive Longoria as one of the best third basemen in baseball, some would even go as far as to say if there was a draft today and you could take any player in baseball to start a team, they would select Longoria.\u00c2\u00a0 Problem is Longoria went from 33 home runs in 2009 to 22 last season to only four so far this season, true he has battled injuries, but still the power outage is a concern.\u00c2\u00a0 OPS is also in decline, over .100 points since last season.\u00c2\u00a0 Might be time to find someone else to start your team with.<\/p>\n
Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Chone Figgins, Seattle Mariners;\u00c2\u00a0 Pedro Alvarez, Pittsburgh Pirates;\u00c2\u00a0 Ian Stewart, Colorado Avalanche<\/p>\n
Shortstop:\u00c2\u00a0 Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins:\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully a stint on the disabled list will give Ramirez and the Marlins time to figure out what is wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 HRam is only batting .210 with four HRs this season, while he had a slow start last year as well, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as slow as molasses.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps those 15 days off will enable HRam to relax at the plate and get back to mashing the ball the way he is capable of, lord knows there is many a fantasy owner who is praying for such an outcome.<\/p>\n
Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Derek Jeter, New York Yankees;\u00c2\u00a0 Rafael Furcal, Los Angeles Dodgers<\/p>\n
Outfield:\u00c2\u00a0 Shin-Soo Choo, Cleveland Indians;\u00c2\u00a0 Jason Heyward, Atlanta Braves;\u00c2\u00a0 Nick Swisher, New York Yankees:\u00c2\u00a0 Choo seemed to have everything going for him, he had a strong 2010 season, he was a part of the South Korean team that won the Asian Games in the off-season thus eliminating the need for him to fulfill two years worth of military service, and he was regarded as a top 10 outfielder by most pundits coming into the season.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he was arrested for DUI in early May and Choo seems not to be able to get over this.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps he is trying too hard at the plate trying to make the fans forget.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps he is just embarrassed and hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to focus on baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Either way he better figure it out and figure it out soon.\u00c2\u00a0 The Indians were able to win without any contribution from Choo for a while, but it has caught up with them now and they need his bat to start to produce.<\/p>\n
Heyward came up to the big leagues with quite a bit of hoopla but has yet to realize that potential.\u00c2\u00a0 Teammate Chipper Jones believes that Heyward needs to get on the field everyday even when not 100%.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a slippery slope as the last thing a player wants is a reputation for being on the trainer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s table rather than being on the baseball diamond.\u00c2\u00a0 This would not be the way he wants his career to get started.\u00c2\u00a0 His recent comments that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to return from the DL until he is 100% healthy certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help matters.\u00c2\u00a0 As Jones stated, 80% of Heyward is probably better than 100% of another player.<\/p>\n
The best thing to happen to Swisher this season may be the struggles of teammate Jorge Posada, mentioned above.\u00c2\u00a0 This has allowed Swisher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s struggles to go pretty much unnoticed but with Posada playing better of late it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now time to wonder if Swisher will also turn it around as he is only batting .216 with 27 RBIs, and five HRs.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a pretty big decline from .288, 89, and 29, the numbers he posted last season.\u00c2\u00a0 Also not the best timing as he has a $10.5 million team option for next season that looked like a no-brainer for the Yankees to pick up next season, but now seems unlikely if his hitting struggles continue.<\/p>\n
Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Jason Bay, New York Mets;\u00c2\u00a0 Vernon Wells, Los Angeles Angels;\u00c2\u00a0 Brett Gardner, New York Yankees<\/p>\n
Starting Pitcher:\u00c2\u00a0 Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals:\u00c2\u00a0 Someone has to explain to me how the Cardinals could possibly be in 1st<\/sup> place with just one win combined from Adam Wainwright and Carpenter, simply unbelievable.\u00c2\u00a0 Carpenter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ERA is over a run higher than last season and his WHIP has also taken a similar beating.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Swisher of the Yankees one has to wonder if the contract plays a part in this as the team also possesses an option of $12 million for next season that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been picked up yet.\u00c2\u00a0 There was some thought earlier this season that Carpenter could be traded if the Cardinals fell out of the race, Carpenter even stated that he would be open to such a move; that seems unlikely, however, but perhaps it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still playing into his psyche.<\/p>\n Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Phil Hughes, New York Yankees;\u00c2\u00a0 Roy Oswalt, Houston Astros<\/p>\n Relief Pitcher:\u00c2\u00a0 Matt Thornton, Chicago White Sox:\u00c2\u00a0 Really you could have placed just about anyone in the White Sox bullpen on this list in April, but Thornton gets the nod since he had the closer job.\u00c2\u00a0 “Had” would be the important word there as Sergio Santos finally grabbed the job by the throat and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look like he is giving it back, which leaves Thornton with his old role of left-handed specialist.<\/p>\n Dishonorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Joe Nathan, Minnesota Twins;\u00c2\u00a0 Fernando Rodney, Los Angeles Angels, Jonathan Broxton, Los Angeles Dodgers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The baseball season is more than 1\/3 completed, the weather is warming up, and pennant races are starting to shape up.\u00c2\u00a0 We are in mid-June; no longer can any player state that they are in a slump. Slumps don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last two plus months.\u00c2\u00a0 With that in mind we are going to take a look at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13522,9],"tags":[8111,471,514,631,13419,3709,13423,5191,778,5196,14803,777,14802,1498,756,1077,444,3698,2078,3234,775,1152,12702],"class_list":["post-14444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clearing-the-bases-fantasy","category-general","tag-adam-laroche","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball-season","tag-batting-average","tag-clearing-the-bases","tag-dan-uggla","tag-george-kurtz","tag-jesus-montero","tag-joe-mauer","tag-jorge-posada","tag-jorge-vazquez","tag-justin-morneau","tag-kurt-suzuki","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minor-leaguers","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-oakland-athletics","tag-pennant-races","tag-slumps","tag-target-field","tag-washington-nationals","tag-wrist-injury"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t