2B: Dan Uggla, Braves. It may be easier to find the second basemen who aren't disappointing, so this is saying something. Uggla, who doesn't bring much with the glove, has been awful with the bat, hitting .179/.241/.316 in his first year as a Brave and his first year under a five-year, $62 million contract. A sharp uptick in his groundball rate, at the expense of line drives, appears to be the culprit. There are real reasons to be concerned here; as a class, second basemen tend to age rapidly in their early thirties (Uggla is 31) and Uggla doesn't have a broad skill set to begin with. If he can't hit for an 800 or better OPS, he's a replacement-level player.
SS: Hanley Ramirez, Marlins. Ramirez was one the short list for "best player in baseball" two years ago. After an off-year in '10, he's collapsed in '11, improving his walk rate seemingly at random while doing nothing else at the plate. He's recently cited a back problem and may head to the DL to give it a rest, and you almost hope that an injury -- rather than some inexplicable loss of skill at his peak -- is responsible for a .210/.306/.309 line. Ramirez, who was blasted for not hustling last season while nursing an injury, may have tried too hard to stay in the lineup this year rather than cop to the back problem.
