10. Andy Pettitte, P, Astros. Either age or his trick elbow may finally be knocking down this real standup guy.

9. Russ Ortiz, P, Diamondbacks (now an Oriole). He won't have to worry about the 100-grand bonus his contract calls for should he be World Series MVP. In actuality, he may be having the worst year of anyone in the bigs (0-8, 9.06).

8. Jake Peavy, P, Padres. On the verge of stardom, he's been taking a step back since the postseason last year. This year he's been no better than average (7-13, 4.51).

7. Geoff Jenkins, OF, Brewers. You wonder if he'd have been kept around this long if he wasn't the spitting image of Brett Favre. Seems like he's perennially a disappointment. This year's sickly stats: 10 home runs, .249.

6. Barry Bonds, OF, Giants. The dropoff is severe enough (his .488 slugging percentage is at least 200 points below every full season's since 2000) that there's a question of whether he'll catch Hank Aaron, even if he remains free and employed next season. "Might be all the stuff wearing on him, might be a little about age,'' our scout surmised. "He doesn't seem to be in a happy pursuit.'' Now there's an understatement.

5. Jason Lane, benchwarmer, Astros. "Has holes,'' said the scout. They were harder to find last year, however, when he hit 26 home runs. He has managed only 13 bombs this year while batting .211.

4. Todd Helton, 1B, Rockies. "If he was doing anything, the Rockies would be in first place,'' one NL executive said. Maybe Helton needs the helium put back into the air at Coors.

3. Mark Mulder, P, Cardinals. His dropoff is even more severe than that of former teammate Hudson (6.77 ERA for Mulder, 4.82 for Hudson).

2. Morgan Ensberg, 3B, Astros. No. 4 in MVP voting last year, the slide started in earnest in June (he had 17 home runs through May, three since). "You can just tell it's in his head,'' our scout said. Whatever it is, it's certainly not on the stat sheet.

1. and 1a. The Giles brothers, Brian of the Padres and Marcus of the Braves. Both have experienced power outages, and Brian doesn't look like a middle-of-the-order hitter right now. They have 20 home runs. Combined.

A-Rod's Kryptonite: Anaheim

It's a mystery what's happened to Alex Rodriguez this year, and it's just as big a mystery what happens to him at Angels Stadium. Maybe it's only coincidence, but he always seems at his worst there.

Besides the unspeakable performance in Anaheim last weekend (1 for 15, 10 Ks), Rodriguez was 0 for 9 with three whiffs and the infamous killer double play he grounded into in last year's division playoffs. And guess what? Rodriguez was pretty bad even in World Baseball Classic games played in Anaheim, going 0 for 5 vs. Korea, 0 for 2 with two walks in the elimination loss to Mexico and 2 for 12 overall (he had the winning hit against Japan in the game recalled more for bad umpiring). Since last year's playoffs he's 6 for 46 at the stadium formerly known as the Big A. (The Big A wasn't for A-Rod, obviously.)

Around the majors

Jermaine Dye has followed up his World Series MVP performance with an AL MVP-caliber season. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

• Jermaine Dye needs to be taken seriously in the AL MVP race, which would be a nice exclamation point after he won World Series MVP last year. Dye may not match David Ortiz for dramatics (Ortiz has been my choice from the beginning), but he has hit ninth-inning home runs against both Jonathan Papelbon and Joe Nathan.

• While Grover (Seattle manager Mike Hargrove) is almost surely a goner, Bill Bavasi will likely be back as Seattle GM. He's recently been given the go-ahead to promote/extend some of his people, a good sign for him.

• The Giants' sudden hot streak and surprising appearance in the wild-card race means the Mets can pretty much give up their dream of adding Moises Alou. The Mets would still like to find a right-handed bat, however.

• Alfonso Soriano is no fool. No matter the score, he keeps stealing. He is determined to turn the 40-40 trick he narrowly missed with the Yankees in 2002, when he hit 39 home runs and stole 41 bases.

• Buck Showalter looks like he still may have some power in Texas. Kevin Mench and Laynce Nix (not to mention Soriano), neither a Showalter favorite, are gone. And now Hank Blalock is on the block. So it would be surprising if Showalter paid for Texas' lack of a pennant push.

• Astros officials said they planned to resume contract talks with Roy Oswalt after owner Drayton McLane killed deals that would have sent him to Baltimore. (McLane didn't want the Orioles trading Oswalt to archrival Texas for Blalock and Thomas Diamond or John Hanks.) However, since they came so close to trading him, you have to wonder how contract talks are going with Oswalt.

• Two readers wrote that I missed the boat by not including A.J. Burnett on the list of the AL's biggest busts, and I agree. That Blue Jays ship wouldn't be sinking (to steal a phrase) nearly as fast if Burnett had pitched up to his $55 million contract.

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