With the season one-third gone now, it’s become pretty clear which players were only slumping and which players actually just suck at baseball. And yet on every team there is at least one player which for foolish reasons, whether it be an over-developed sense of loyalty, a case of GM-player man-love, a reputation for grit and hustle, or a bloated contract, the team just hasn’t been able to pull the plug on yet. In this post, we have a look at each team in the National League with an eye for the one player who really needs to be cut as soon as possible.

Dodgers – RP Guillermo Mota: This guy looks permanently broken: he gives up too many hits, he doesn’t strike enough guys out, and he walks too many batters. His WHIP is an appalling 1.79 and he needs to be shelved somewhere.

Giants – 1B Travis Ishikawa: The main job of a first baseman is to hit, so when your first baseman is the worst hitter on your team, you are doing something wrong.

Diamondbacks – CF Chris Young: Chris Young was supposed to be one of those guys whose power and speed would somehow make of for his complete lack of any ability to get on base.  Well, now you have a guy whose power and speed have fallen off, but who is even less able to get on base.  It is unbelievable that Young is still on pace for well over 500 at bats this season despite his .220 OBP. He needs to be working out his suckiness in the minor leagues.

Rockies – 3B Garret Atkins: I’ve been advocating that the Rockies trade Atkins for two years now, while there was still some perception that he was a good player, but they waited too long, and now he’s basically untradeable. Few players have benefited more from Coors Field than Atkins, and Atkins also had the benefit of his personal peak coinciding with the Rockies high profile Series run in 2007. But he was always an extremely inadequate defender at third, and now his bat has disappeared as well, even at home.

Padres – 2B David Eckstein: GM Kevin Towers calls David Eckstein the MVP of the team so far this year. He couldn’t be more wrong. Eckstein was only barely adequate defensively and offensively when he was at his peak about 5 or 6 years ago, and now at age 34, he’s pretty much got nothing left.

Cardinals – SP Todd Wellemeyer: Todd Wellemeyer shows that maybe there are limits to what pitching coach Dave Duncan can do. Kind of. Actually, it’s pretty amazing that the Cardinals have gotten as much out of Wellemeyer as they have, considering he was nobody’s idea of good starting pitcher material. But with Mitchell Boggs waiting in the wings, there’s really no reason to keep Wellemeyer around.

Brewers – 3B Bill Hall: Bill Hall couldn’t hit his way out of a paper bag right now. Sure, he hit 35 homers back in 2006, but he’s done nothing at all since then, and he still has no real position defensively. For some reason, Hall still has the image of a youngster who is still developing, but when you actually go look at his age you find out he is already 29 years old, and what you see, which right now is total suckage, is probably what he really is.

Cubs – RP Aaron Heilman: Heilman was once a highly touted prospect, and did manage to throw up a few good seasons, but it’s becoming more and more clear that he’s just not all that good. Nothing about his peripherals suggests that anything is particularly wrong. His velocity is the same as ever, as are his FB/GB rates, his home run rate, his K/9 rate etc., and his BABIP is a very modest .299. Heilman simply walks too many batters, posting an unsightly 6.26 BB/9, and until that changes (if ever), he needs to be in AAA somewhere until he can learn better control.

Reds – SS Alex Gonzalez: Gonzalez was once an elite defender at shortstop, which meant that his extremely weak bat could be somewhat justified, but now he is no longer anywhere near that class, and his bat seems weaker than ever at .209/.250/.302. He needs to be cut.

Erstad is still playing?

Astros – OF Darin Erstad: Yeah, I know, Erstad is supposed to be this super-gritty former football player (except he was only a kicker), but we are a decade removed now from his last actually good season in 2000, and I’m almost surprised to see that he is actually still on a major league roster. He’s hitting .137/.211/.196.  Why is this man still anywhere near a baseball diamond?

Pirates – OF Brandon Moss: Lots of people have mentioned how one good side of trading away Nate McLouth was that it has “cleared playing time for blocked prospect Andrew McCutchen.”  But hardly anyone mentions that one of the players who was allegedly “blocking” McCutchen is Brandon Moss, a corner outfielder who has been playing every day this season despite posting a .310 OBP and only a single home run.

Marlins – 3B Emilio Bonifacio: The fact that Emilio Bonifacio, who has no business being in a major league lineup at all, is actually batting leadoff for the Marlins, despite his .294 OBP, is an indictment of the entire Marlins coaching staff and front office.

Bonifacio whiffs again

Mets – C Omir Santos: It’s a joke that the Mets actually traded away Ramon Castro to clear a spot on the roster for this guy. It’s going to be fun watching as the numbers left over from his fluky hot start rapidly sink toward the Mendoza line.

Braves – OF Garrett Anderson: I laughed out loud when I heard that the Braves signed Anderson in the offseason, and I pretty much haven’t stopped laughing since.  The poor old guy has a .289 OBP to go along with a -15 UZR/150 in left field. At this point you could probably drag Bernie Williams out of the recording studio and run him out there for better production.

Nationals – CL Joel Hanrahan: You can anoint a guy your closer, sing the praises of his “live arm,” and run him out there in save situations as much as you want, but that doesn’t mean he is going to pitch like a closer, just because you really really want him to. In what may be the worst bullpen of all time, no reliever has done more damage in more high leverage situations than Hanrahan. His 1.90 WHIP (for an alleged closer!) pretty much says it all.

Phillies – P Chan Ho Park: Park has looked finished for years now, at least when you look at his peripherals. He managed to reinvent himself as a serviceable reliever in the pitcher-friendly NL West last season, fooling the Phillies into taking him on, but it’s kind of an understatement to say that his game does not play well in Citizen’s Bank Ballpark. The Park-as-starter experiment was basically doomed from the get-go, but ironically, Park has pitched even more poorly this year as a reliever than he did as a starter. This man should be enjoying his retirement somewhere, not getting thrown to the wolves every other night.

Late last night, the Brewers and Yankees resumed their earlier trade talks for Mike Cameron. If you’ll recall, the Brewers were reportedly hesitant to trade Cameron because he was a FOCC (Friend of CC). Now that CC is gone, Milwaukee is again looking for a deal.

In November, word was that the Brewers were looking at Melky Cabrera and Ian Kennedy. In this round of talks, it appeared all but certain that a Cabrera-for-Cameron deal would happen, conveniently sending CC’s buddy to NY along with the ace. But then another report surfaced that the Yanks wanted Bill Hall, too — another FOCC — and and the Brewers again suggested they receive some pitching, with the quality of said pitching influencing whether the Brewers would pay any of Cameron’s salary.

So then what happened? Well, according to Ken Rosenthal, the deal ground to a standstill when New York and Milwaukee couldn’t agree how much of Cameron’s salary Milwaukee would pay. Now, if you’re the Brewers and you’re trading Cameron and Hall in large part to dump payroll, isn’t it irksome to be asked to keep paying their salaries, even in part? And if your trading partner is the Yankees — who, if you’ll recall, just snagged the Brewers’ most coveted offseason target by offering him about $60MM more than the Brewers could afford — isn’t it a little bit insulting, too? “You really need to defray the cost of Cameron’s 10 mil salary, guys, because we just gave 161 mil to CC. Oh, and we’re trying to sign Burnett, Lowe, and Teixeira, too. I mean, our hands are really tied here. This recession is just killing us.”

But here’s the real punchline: the pitcher New York suggested? Kei Igawa.

Yowza.

One of the main themes going into this off-season was the abundant crop of centerfielders. As the weeks progressed, the list of available names began to dwindle – Toriii Hunter signed with Anaheim for five years and $90 million in November. The following month saw Andruw Jones head west for $36.2 million over two years and Aaron Rowand wasn’t too far behind, inking a $60 million deal over 5 years to put on a Giants uniform.

But I’m going to argue right here that the best free agent deal involving a centerfielder happened this past weekend – the moment that Mike Cameron and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed on a one-year, $7 million contract. This obviously does not mean that Mike Cameron is the best player among the centerfielders set to relocate. Rather, when we consider the size, length, and implications of the deal, the “bang-for-the-buck” factor could be very large indeed.

Cameron is far from a perfect player. Thanks in large part to his career .341 OBP, he’s never been known as a serious offensive threat. He’s still a guy capable of hitting 20 homeruns – especially now that he can leave Petco Park – but doesn’t have enough pop in his bat or the pitch recognition to make up for his propensity to strikeout. However, even as he enters his late-thirties, Cameron remains a top-flight defensive player, and this is where this deal makes a ton of sense.

In 2007, the Milwaukee Brewers led MLB in team homeruns with 231 and was 4th in total bases. One of the areas where they were extremely lacking, however, was defense. Rookie Ryan Braun was the poster child for this big-swing-no-glove movement in Milwaukee, but it wasn’t limited to just Braun. Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and Bill Hall were all below average defensively. When Geoff Jenkins becomes your most reliable outfield glove, you have a problem.

The Cameron signing goes a long way in improving this shortcoming. Not only will he patrol center very capably, it appears that Ryan Braun has been asked to move to left field now that Bill Hall is free to play third once more. So now, Cameron becomes a big defensive upgrade over Bill Hall who becomes a big defensive upgrade from Ryan Braun who now becomes a below average leftfielder. Got all that? Good.

Before I make it seem like this was an absolute no-brainer for Milwaukee, I do need to mention that Cameron will be suspended for the first 25-games to start the season for testing positive for a banned stimulant for the second time in his career, so until late April, he’s a total non-factor. With that said, I still believe that this deal will prove to be one of the best bargains this off-season that may ultimately allow the Brewers to keep up quite well with the Chicago Cubs in 2008.