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.

Week 11 of UmpBump.com’s fantasy league has come to a close and some trends have come and gone, while others are here to stay. Alejandro lost for the first time in 6 weeks, Paul stays on top edging a few half games more over the rest of the pack, and Utley’s Firm Quads keeps adding to his league-leading 44 moves. The mystery of the week however is the whereabouts of one caitlin grace who managed to pull off a draw (a tie!!) with Swamp Dragons even though she has zero roster moves, and hasn’t altered her line up or rotation in a while.

Alejandro: I knew it! Well, all good things must come to an end, so my winning streak is now over. Though it was good while it lasted, it exposed a major weakness in my team: streaky hitters. My offense went down the tubes this week with all of my “studs” taking a leave of absence in production. I mean, how can I lose to a team with Casey Blake, Placido Polanco, MIke Lowell and Christian Guzman in the infield, and an injured Manny Ramirez? Well, you start with horrible performances by Dan Uggla, Connor Jackson, AJ Pierzynski, Hanley Ramirez, etc, etc, etc. I only had two players with an .OBP higher than .500 this week, and only one of them fits into the “hot” category. My pitching gave me a fighting chance at overcoming the eventual 7-4 defeat, but a particularly disastrous week by one Todd Wellemeyer (a football-score-like 21.60 ERA) did me under. But you wanna know how bad my team was? I actually won in the ERA stat this week, which means Box89RowKKSeat14 caught my Center Field Stud at the wrong time. Ania, you got away this week! Hot: Carlos Lee, Josh Beckett (yes, Lindsay, 1w, 9ks, and 2.77 makes him hot), Tim Lincecum (Mr. Reliable), Kerry Wood. Not: The rest of ‘em.

Paul: In the kind of battle that will forever be compared to the one at Helm’s Deep (I hate myself sometimes), I took on the mighty forces of 2nd-place Utley’s Firm Quads (Scott). Having only been three games ahead going into last week, I began to wonder if my reign atop the standings would come to an end. But Hazzah! ElDuquesInjuryReport squeaked out a 6-5-1 victory. Offensively, there really wasn’t a star, but the players had enough decent performances to carry me through. On the pitching side, Ted Lilly and C.C. Sabathia combined to pitch 29 2/3 innings and gave up only 6 runs while striking out 29 guys and winning all four starts to boot. And I feel like we as a people aren’t doing enough to recognize the work of Justin Duchscherer this year. He’s not going to keep putting up Cy Young numbers, but he’s more than a solid option who deserves attention. Hot: Kevin Youkilis, Ted Lilly, C.C. Sabathia, Justin Duchscherer. Not: Jhonny Peralta, Shane Victorino, Chris B. Young, George Sherrill, Ryan Franklin.

Coley: Sooze and I battled to a tie this week. But we also exchanged a few players. And, I daresay I got the better end of the deal. I sent her Carlos Pena, Jorge Posada and Jay Bruce in exchange for Jack Cust and Mark Teixeira. I love this trade because my team’s OPB needed a boost and Cust is an OBP machine. And I desperately wanted an upgrade over Pena at 1B, and Teixeira fits the bill. Moreover, Tex is a notorious second-half player who’s in a contract year and I expect big things from him as the season winds down. Sure, it hurts to give up on Bruce, but my outfield was stacked (and remains so with the addition of Cust). And I was going to cut Posada anyways. In other news, Rich Harden has been stellar since I traded Todd Helton for him last week, knock on wood. Also Chone Figgins came off the DL and replaced Scott Rolen at third. And Dice-K is getting ready to return to the mound. Things are looking up. Hot: Harden, Brad Lidge, Vlad Guerrero. Not: Benjie Molina, C.J. Wilson, Brett Myers.

Sarah: I took some crap on our league message board this week for leaving Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte on the bench, only to have the two of them both turn in stellar outings. But what was I supposed to do? Last week I sent Pettitte out against the Royals, only to have him get shelled, and Roy Oswalt has been screwing the Somerville Green Sox all season long. As it was, I won, but only 7-5. And in the end, though I lost out on K/BB and strikeouts (by two whiffs!), I did win ERA, WHIP, and Wins. And on the offensive end, there’s been no hotter hitter over the last couple of weeks than JD Drew. He contributed three homers and a .500 OBP to the Green Sox last week. Hot: Drew, Troy Glaus, Matt Cain. Not: Johnny Cueto (what to do, what to do?!), Vernon Wells, Matt Kemp.

Standings (games behind)

1. Paul – ElDuquesInjuryReport ( – )
2. Scott – Utley’s Firm Quads ( 4.5 )
3. Doug – Swamp Dragons ( 5.5 )
4. Alejandro – Center Field Stud ( 9.5 )
5. Sarah – Somerville Green Sox ( 13 )
6. Bryan – Pirates in ‘08! ( 23 )
7. Kirk – Montefusco’s Revenge ( 24.5 )
8. Ania – Box89RowKKSeat14 ( 25.5 )
9. Coley – Crunkball All-Stars ( 29 )
10. Larry – croutchyoldman ( 29 )
11. Sooze – freebase my balls ( 35 )
12. Caitlin – caitlin grace ( 35.5 )

Sarah: Another frustrating week for the Somerville Green Sox, as my torrid offense fought Doug’s ridiculous pitching to a 6-6 draw. Yes, I won all the offensive categories and his Swamp Dragons took all of the pitching categories. It may be time to begin to start to think about maybe pondering whether it’s a good idea to consider the possibility of perhaps making a trade. But I’m not sure. Hot: Ryan Braun (six HR!), Ian Kinsler (4 steals!), Troy Glaus (finally!). Not: Xavier Nady (time for him to cool off, I suppose), Rickie Weeks, Carlos Guillen, everyone on my pitching staff.

Paul: My team looked to be in trouble earlier this week. As of Tuesday, ElDuquesInjuryReport was tied with team caitlin grace (for the life of me, I can’t remember the owner’s name) 6-6 and the younger members of my ball club were beginning to doubt if the team’s four-week winning streak was going to come to an end. Sensing their timidity on the field, the veterans in the clubhouse decided to call a players-only meeting. Now I wasn’t in the room when it happened, but there were lots of yelling. Trevor Hoffman was going on about rah-rah this and ho-hum that. Frankly, it didn’t sound like English at all. Then Kosuke Fukudome uttered some inspiring words of encouragement, but only me and Hiroki Kuroda understood what he was saying. And then the whole-thing degenerated into a “whose head is bigger” contest between Thome, Dunn and Holliday. Anyway, the meeting clearly worked as the squad had a true team effort the rest of the way en route to an 11-0 thrashing. Hot: David Wright, Adam Dunn, C.C. Sabathia, George Sherrill. Not: Greg Smith, Jim Thome, Edwin Encarnacion, Huston Street.

Alejandro: Although I’m on vacation, my team is going to work, putting together another impressive week with a 8-2 victory over croutchyoldman and catapulting to 5th place(!). Again, Dan Uggla has proven quite a find in the waiver market, keeping up the hotness (though I’m not sure how long he’ll be able to sustain it). But really, this week it was the usual suspects providing all the offensive prowess. Carlos Lee in particular, (2 HR, 5 RBI, and 15 Total Bases). But I have to pat myself (cautiously) on the back, for my two starters whom I picked up from the FA pool have turned in impressive numbers and results. Todd Wellemeyer picked up a win, struck out 5 and held a miniscule 1.29 ERA; Vicente Padilla did his part too, getting a win, striking out 8 and having a competitive 3.29 ERA. Gavin Floyd also rebounded from last week’s disaster in Anaheim, notching the win, striking out 3 and going ofer in the ERA department. Alas, not all my pitching pickups were winners, as Mark Hendrickson got tagged with 4 runs, ballooning his ERA to 7.20. Not good. Even with Hendrickson’s suckage, my pitching did all the heavy lifting this week, earning me 5 out of my 8 wins. I have to give honorable mention to Kerry Wood, who also rebounded for a strong week with 3 saves, 5 Ks and a 2.45 ERA. Hot: Dan Uggla, Chipper Jones (.400 baby!), Carlos Lee, Todd Wellemeyer, Vicente Padilla, Tim Lincecum, Kerry Wood, B.J. Ryan. Not: Mark Hendrickson, Hanley Ramirez, Emil Brown (cooled off, one more week and he’s gone), Connor Jackson.

Coley: Every week is a good week to own Josh Hamilton. But this week the Rangers’ CF was especially prolific, to the tune of 3 HR, 10 RBI and 20 total bases. Anchored by Hamilton, my offense came alive (12 HR, 46 RBI and 112 total bases). But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough, to overcome Pirates in ‘08! (43 runs, 21 HR, 58 RBI, 145 total bases). What can I say? Alfonso Soriano is on a roll. Hot: Josh Hamilton, Brandon Phillips, Jered Weaver, Dice-K. Not: Brett Myers, C.J. Wilson, Johnny Damon.

Standings, with games behind:

1. Paul (ElDuquesInjuryReport) (0)

2. Scott (Utley’s Firm Quads) (4)

3. Bryan (Pirates in 08!) (11.5)

4. Doug (Swamp Dragons) (13)

5. Alejandro (Center Field Stud) (15)

6. Sarah (Somerville Green Sox) (16.5)

7. Kirk (Montefusco’s Revenge) (18.5)

8. Larry(croutchyoldman) (20.5)

9. Ania (Box89RowKKSeat14) (22)

10. Sooze (freebase my balls) (28)

11. Caitlin (caitlin grace) (30)

12. Coley (Crunkball All Stars) (31)