Lets be honest, there’s nothing worse than a team going out into the free agent market or making a trade and acquiring a player that is nothing more than a waste of flesh and a roster spot. Sure, the name may be there, but the effort and the talent sure as hell isn’t. After countless hours of deliberation in a dimly lit room with a pad of paper and a list of every Major League Baseball roster, I have compiled a team that may be the most overrated combination of players in baseball for the 2007 season. Keep in mind, some of these guys were good at one time (others have never been good) which is why I want to keep it exclusive to this season only.

C. Jason Kendall, Oakland Athletics. This guy used to be a stud in Pittsburgh. His knock against him was that he couldn’t swing the bat for power, and lets face it he still can’t do that. His problem now is that he just can’t swing the bat, period. Jason, that .194 batting average is really stellar. Along with that goose egg in the home run column and the fact that he’s only thrown out 19% of runners trying to steal, you have yourself a bonafide pile of shit and a shoe-in for this team.

1B. Richie Sexson, Seattle Mariners. Don’t let the power numbers fool you with Sexson. The only sexy thing about him is when he sits the bench. Sexson, who is currently sitting at a batting average of .200, has 45 strike outs and only 40 hits on the year. He’s a defensive liability, an offensive liability, and another lock for this roster. Hopefully he doesn’t end his season on another injury while he’s trying to check his swing.

2B. Craig Biggio, Houston Astros. Biggio will get his 3,000 hits this season, and that’s not overrated by any means. That piss poor fielding percentage he has (6 errors so far this year) and the lack of any resemblance of offensive consciousness, however, make Biggio a relatively easy pick. Hitting .220 isn’t good for a guy who is trying to figure out if he can piss people off by coming back for one more year. Take this as a calling and hang it up after the year. In a ballpark like Minute Maid with guys like Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman hitting around you, there’s not much of an excuse.

3B. Morgan Ensberg, Houston Astros. A teammate of Biggio, Ensberg is for all intensive purposes a steaming pile of crap. For how often his name gets thrown around in trade talks, Ensberg does nothing to further his cause and improve his game. A “power hitting” third baseman at Minute Maid should be clearing the fence at least 20 to 25 times a year, and unless Ensberg catches lightning in a bottle, I don’t see that happening. His .223 batting average is almost as disgusting as the eight balls he’s booted at the hot corner this year, and the fact that he’s nearly making $5 mill a year to do that is absolutely hilarious.

SS. Julio Lugo, Boston Red Sox. For the money the Red Sox invested in Lugo ($8.25 million), he hasn’t come close to proving his worth. As a lead off hitter, Lugo is hitting .213, lowest among shortstops in baseball, and has a laughable OBP of .274. His 17 stolen bases are a significant amount, but the problem that Lugo finds himself in is that he’s too busy thinking about kicking his wife’s ass again and not concentrating on his real job, which is setting the table for Man-Ram and Papi. His rbi totals are a direct result of that lineup, and his speed and fat contract are the only reasons Terry Francona continues to run him out there.

OF. Jay Payton, Baltimore Orioles. Payton is a guy, like Preston Wilson, who made a living in baseball off one great fluke year in Colorado. His flash in the pan in Colorado in 2003 has yet to prove that it was meaningful in a setting outside of that joke that they call Coors Field. Payton has bounced from San Diego to Oakland and is now pissing off people in Baltimore with his sub-par bat and his noodle of an arm. At least the guy plays hard, but that doesn’t seem to mean much anymore unless your name is David Eckstein.

OF. Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies. Like many of you, I’m still waiting for Pat Burrell to mature into the “talent” that he was supposed to be. Burrell’s problem is that he can’t put it together for a full season. This year, like every year he’s had in the majors, is no different. Burrell is one of those guys who will go deep three or four times in one week, and then for the next three weeks thereafter it will seem like he has a hole in his bat. Like Sexson, Burrell is striking out more than he’s hitting (45 to 41, I’ll have to keep an eye on this race between him and Sexson and see who finishes with more K’s) and his .224 average is about as unappealing as it gets. Until he turns into that power bat that the Phillies organization has promised us for the past six or seven years, Burrell will be a lock on this team.

OF. Brian Giles, San Diego Padres (Captain). Giles is the captain of this team for the simple reason that he’s tanked faster over the past few seasons than is humanly possible. Here’s a guy that, just five years ago, was a lock for 35+ home runs a season. I understand that the move to Petco Park had an effect on his power numbers, but lets be real here. Giles had 15 two seasons ago, 14 last year, and just one thus far this season. Power doesn’t evaporate. In Giles case, it might have had something to do with this. But I’m getting distracted from the real point here, which is his useless carcass in right field. His arm is below average, and even if he’s going to surrender power in favor of OBP and batting average, his .263 average last year and .276 this year simply isn’t gonna work, especially not for the price tag of just below $10 million a year.

P. Dontrelle Willis, Florida Marlins. I expect to catch the most amount of flak for this pick, but hear me out. Willis, despite his 7-5 record this year, hasn’t been the Dontrelle Willis we’ve seen in the past. His 4.74 ERA so far this season is a career high for him and the 11 home runs he’s surrendered so far this year are as many as he gave up for his entire season in 2005. His walk to strike out ratio is way up from what it has been in years past (41 walks to 59 strike outs) and opponents are hitting a very modest .280 against him. I love Dontrelle as a player, but lets not ignore the fact that he just hasn’t been that good this year. He’ll get his hype because he’s Dontrelle Willis, but his numbers aren’t what Marlins fans, or any fans, want to see out of a “staff ace”.