by By Chaz Scoggins, chaz@lowellsun.com , Lowell Sun

Indians -- It's hard to believe that less than two years ago this team tied the Red Sox for the most wins in the major leagues with 96 and Eric Wedge was the Manager of the Year. Now Wedge looks like the next candidate for a job with the Mets, another terribly underachieving team.

The Indians were only a .500 club last year and needed a strong finish just to break even, and this year they've never been in the AL Central race at all.

It hasn't helped that the front office hasn't shown a lot of patience and traded away some talented players like CC Sabathia and Casey Blake. But the Indians still have far too many talented players in their prime years to be this bad.

Cubs -- After two straight NL Central championships, including a 97-win campaign last year on the 100th anniversary of their last World Series title, the Cubs have struggled to play .500 ball this season. With three division titles in this decade but no World Series appearances, long-suffering Cubs fans expect and deserve better.

Like the Indians, there's too much talent on this team for the Cubs not to be contenders. Maybe it's the Milton Bradley factor.

Jason Giambi -- It looks like the Yankees were wise not to re-sign him. Returning to Oakland, where he rang up such impressive offensive numbers that the Yankees gave him $117 million for seven years, Giambi has been a bust.

He has 11 homers. But a .200 batting average and .380 slugging percentage? Of course, he was on steroids back in his halcyon days but off them was still a reasonably productive hitter for the Yankees last year.

Andrew Bailey -- The former Lowell All-American has vaulted from obscurity to post a 4-1 record with a 2.09 ERA and eight saves for the punchless Athletics while fanning 57 batters and allowing only 29 hits in 47 1/3 innings. Everybody who remembers seeing Bailey pitch in the NECBL for Lowell please raise your hand. I thought so.

Vernon Wells -- What happened to this guy? He's only 30 years old and for the last two-plus years he's played like he's 40. Wells is hitting .252 with eight homers, 37 RBI, and a .403 slugging percentage for the Blue Jays.

Jeff Francoeur -- The Red Sox salivated over this guy before the 2002 draft but didn't get him. Now it's doubtful they'd want him. After he hit 48 homers and knocked in 208 runs in his first two full seasons with the Braves, Francoeur has gone backwards. Hit hit .239-11-71 last year and is hitting .245 with a .341 slugging percentage and just five homers in 77 games this season.

Russell Branyan -- Despite tremendous natural ability, by the time he was 32 at the end of last season, it didn't seem likely he'd ever figure it out and he'd be nothing more than a fringe player his entire career. Eight different major-league organizations thought so as Branyan hit .230 and fanned 797 times in 2000 at-bats from 1998-2008, hitting only 20 homers and driving in 40 or more runs once.

And then he suddenly put his game together with the Mariners. Branyan is hitting .295 and slugging .593 with 20 homers and 45 RBI in 71 games.

Alfonso Soriano -- We always knew pitchers could get him out at crunch time, especially in the post-season. But now they're getting him out all the time. Soriano is hitting .223 for the Cubs with a .411 slugging percentage and just 32 RBI, although he's on a pace for 30 homers.

Russell Martin -- After establishing himself as one of the games best offensive catchers by averaging .285-14-77 in his first three years with the Dodgers, Martin has slipped to .250-1-23 in 72 games this season.

Jhonny Peralta -- After hitting more than 20 homers in three of his first four seasons and looking like a perennial All-Star, the Indians shortstop is hitting a weak .257-4-34 in 71 games this year.

Cliff Lee -- The reigning AL Cy Young winner who went 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA last year got off to a rotten start in 2009. He's pitched better lately, but with a 4-7 record and 130 hits allowed in 114 innings, it's still a disappointment.

Jason Bartlett -- In his first 449 major-league games Bartlett clubbed exactly 11 home runs with a .276 average and .362 slugging percentage. That so, he was still voted the Rays MVP when they won the pennant last year, although he hit just one homer with 37 RBI in 128 games.

And all he's done this year is hit .357 with a .552 slugging percentage with seven homers, 16 doubles, and 36 RBI in 60 games. Who could have guessed the 29-year-old Bartlett would ever be that productive? Not me.

Daisuke Matsuzaka -- After winning 33 games in his first two years with the Red sox, including an 18-3 record in 2008, it appeared Dice-K was still nowhere near reaching his ceiling. Instead he's in the cellar, allegedly injured, with a 1-5 record, an 8.23 ERA, and a staggering 59 hits allowed in just 35 innings.

Scott Kazmir -- The Rays' lefthander has been a rising star for years, going 47-37 with a 3.61 ERA for mostly bad clubs and fanning 783 batters in 723 innings. Who could have foreseen this year's disaster? Although he spent some time on the DL, Kazmir is 4-5 with a 6.79 ERA in 11 starts.

Zack Greinke -- Maybe we shouldn't be surprised, not after Greinke pitched scoreless ball in his final two starts of 2008, went 4-1 with a 2.18 ERA in September, and finished the year with a 13-10 record and 3.47 ERA for the Royals.

But after spending time on the DL in 2006 because he couldn't handle major-league pressure and being inconsistent when he did pitch, it is a surprise the way Greinke has exploded on the scene in 2009 with a 10-4 record, 2.00 ERA, two shutouts and five complete games, and 120 strikeouts with just 19 walks in 121 innings.

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