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.

Unless you’ve watched a Mets game lately, you’ve probably never heard of Omir Santos. Prior to 2009, Santos had only amassed 10 plate appearances in the big leagues, all coming in 2008 with the Baltimore Orioles.

But he’s not exactly a young prospect. Santos has spent parts of 9 seasons toiling away in the Yankees system (spent time in every level from the NY-Penn League to the International League) and is now 28 years old. When Brian Schneider went on the DL earlier this season, the catcher Santos was called up from AAA-Buffalo to back up Ramon Castro.

However, a strange thing happened. In his first start on April 19th, Santos collected two hits. In his next start, another. And another. Then on April 27th, Santos connected on a pitch from Anibal Sanchez and sent the ball into the left field stands for the first ever grand slam in Citi Field history.

And Mets fans were hooked.

Santos was the antithesis of what Met fans had gotten used to out of the catcher’s spot since Piazza’s decline. He ran out groundballs with no regard for creaky catcher’s knees. He was faster than Castro and Schneider both on the bases and behind the plate. To top it off the guy is batting .300 and slugging .500 since his call up and has hit in 3 of 9 ABs with RISP.

But I find it odd how many are fawning over this guy after 42 PAs. I honestly don’t recall anyone bringing up the fact that Omir Santos has never been good as a professional baseball player at any level. His 3 years in A ball produced a .236/.285/.307 line. His 3 seasons in AA was a .257/.297/.360. And 3 more years in AAA showed the same thing: .256/.311/.325. No matter where he went, Omir Santos was a bad hitter.

So which am I going to believe? The 42 PAs he’s gotten so far this year or the 9 years worth of past performances that prove the guy can’t hit professional pitching?

Metsblog.com (the premier site for Mets fans) ran a poll earlier today asking its readers to vote for one of five potential scenarios once Brian Schneider is healthy enough to return. Only 7% of over 4300 voters thought the Mets should send Santos down to AAA, meaning 93% thought that this guy was worthy of at least a bench spot and 13% wanted the Mets to just keep three catchers on the 25-man roster. That’s insanity.

Look, this is one of those situations where I hope the numbers are wrong. I’d be delighted if Santos can keep this up. But if this guy can’t OPS .650 in nearly 2500 PAs in the minors, how can we expect him to do better in the big leagues? I really am glad that Mets fans have found someone they want to root for. God knows that’s been a difficult thing over the past couple years. But I’d suggest that we don’t get our hopes up with Omir because I don’t think it’s in the cards, people.

But lucky for us, we still have Wright, Reyes, Beltran and Santana – all guys who won’t let you down (unless your expectations are just incredibly ridiculous).