The Worst Players in Baseball, All-Star Edition

This is the third installment of “The Worst Players in Baseball.”

The MLB All-Star game is in two weeks.  Naturally, everyone and their brother will give you their thoughts on who should be All-Stars.  Well, we wanted to do things just a little different.  We’re giving you our thoughts on who should not be All-Stars.  Mediocrity ensues after the jump.

Every All-Star squad needs a coaching staff.  With that in mind here are our coaching staffs:

AL MANAGER: Eric Wedge, Cleveland. The Indians are an AL worst 31-48 in 2009. They have lost 8 of their last 10, and were just 5-13 in interleague play, which the AL dominated, by the way.

AL PITCHING COACH: Carl Willis, Cleveland Indians. We know why the Indians are the worst team in the AL.  They are last in staff ERA, their bullpen has only converted 13 of 26 save opportunities, and they’re also near the bottom in walks, stirkeouts, HR allowed, wild pitches.

AL HITTING COACH: Jim Skaleen, Oakland Athletics. The A’s are last in average, OPS, HR, near the bottom in runs scored.

NL MANAGER: Manny Acta, Washington Nationals. The Nationals are the worst team in baseball.  They have won just 9 road games.   In a division where the first place team is just 4 games over .500, the Nationals are 17.5 behind.

NL PITCHING COACH: Steve McCatty, Washington Nationals. The only team in baseball that has more blown saves than saves, the only NL team with an ERA over 5.

NL HITTING COACH: Jim Lefebvre, San Diego Padres. The Padres are last in average, runs scored, doubles, and singles.

Now, on to the teams

Here is your AL All-Star Squad:

C: Dioner Navarro, Tampa Bay Rays. A year after making the All-Star squad, he joins us this year as the worst catcher in the American League.  In 61 games, he is hitting just .212, and has walked just 6 times.

1B: Jason Giambi, Oakland Athletics. He’s hitting just .197 with 10 HR.  His OPS is .705, the lowest of his career.

2B: Jose Lopez, Seattle Mariners. 10 Errors, walks only 4 percent of the time, hitting just .259, OPS of .710

3B: Mike Lowell, Boston Red Sox. He’s on the team because of his porous defense.  A fielding percentage of .952, which is a career low for him.  His zone rating is -8.0.

SS: Orlando Cabrera, Oakland Athletics. Hitting just .247 with an OPS of .605; 12 errors in 76 games; zone rating of -7.6

RF: Jose Guillen, Kansas City Royals. Another guy who makes the team because of defense.  He has more errors than assists, which is never really a good sign.  His zone rating is -14.3, which is a result of his greatly diminished range.  On top of that, he is hitting just .255 with 8 HR and 33 RBI.

CF: Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays: His OPS is 100 points lower than his career average, and despite not committing an error this year, his range has declined sharply, resulting in a zone rating of -20.

LF: Ben Francisco, Cleveland Indians. He’s hitting .227 with 5 HR.  His OPS is .662

DH: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox. His struggles have been well documented.  However, he did turn it around somewhat in the month of June, hitting 7 HR.

SP: Fausto Carmona, Cleveland Indians. 2-6, ERA of 7.42, 41 BB 36 K in 60 2/3 innings.

RP: Kerry Wood, Cleveland Indians.  Has converted only 9 of 13 save opportunities, ERA of 5.47.

And here is your NL team:

C: Jason Kendall, Milwaukee Brewers. His slugging percentage is .275, and he has 8 extra base hits in 68 games.

1B: Casey Kotchman, Atlanta Braves. 2 HR in 223 ABs at a traditional power position.  Yikes

2B: Kelly Johnson, Atlanta Braves. We strongly considered Skip Schumaker because of his defense, but Johnson gets the nod, here.  He’s only hitting .216 in 66 games.  He hasn’t driven in a run since June 13, and hasn’t homered since May 24.

3B: Garrett Atkins, Colorado Rockies.  He’s hitting .227 with 6 HR in 66 games.  Considering he plays in the most hitter friendly park in baseball, these numbers are worse than they look.

SS: Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia Phillies. Somehow, he is in second place in All-Star voting among NL Shortstops, and is clearly a sign that some baseball fans have no clue what’s happening on the field.  Anyway, he is hitting a mere .207 with an OPS of .572.

RF: Brian Giles, San Diego Padres. Last month, we predicted that he would eventually come out of his slump.  We’re still waiting.  He still hasn’t reached to Mendoza line, hitting a paltry .191.  He has struck out more, and has had troubles with fastballs.

LF: Alfonso Sorians, Chicago Cubs A lot of people think that the leadoff batter is a good indicator of how the offense as a whole is performing.  This year, the Cubs have struggled a bit offensively, and not surprisingly, their leadoff hitter, Soriano, has struggled to get on base.  His OBP is .296.  He does have 14 HR, but most of those are solo HR, as he has just 32 RBI.  The Cubs should consider dropping him in the order, where he would be more valuable than he is now.

CF: Willy Taveras, Cincinnati Reds. Speaking of leadoff hitters who don’t get on base, it’s Willy Taveras.  His OBP is only .281, and he just went through a phase where he went an entire week without getting on base.  Another fun Willy Taveras stat: he did not walk once in the month of June.  By comparison, Mariano Rivera drew one walk.

SP: Josh Geer, San Diego Padres. Usually, it’s not a good sign when a pitcher gives up more runs than strikeouts.  Thus is the case of Josh Geer.  In 77 2/3 innings, he has given up 49 ER and just 42 K

RP: Brad Lidge, Philadelphia Phillies. Last year, he was a perfect 41-41 in saves.  This year, he has already blown 6 in just 20 save opportunities, and his ERA is over 7.