At this point baseball fans know Seattle’s Robinson Cano ended the 88th MLB All-Star game with a walk-off homer in the 10th inning. You know his teammate Nelson Cruz asked St. Louis’ catcher Yadier Molina to take a cell phone shot of Nelson and umpire Joe West. You know who was in Miami for the game, but what about the wannabes?

While Cano, a second baseman, was playing hero, another second basemen is having another horrible batting season. Los Angeles Angel Danny Espinosa has an on-base plus slugging of .513. The average is around .750. OPS combines on-base percentage (OBP), which measures the player's ability to get safely on base, with slugging percentage (SLG), which measures the player's ability to get hits, especially extra-base hits.

Fortunately for Espinosa he has a great glove.

Hopefully a middle infielder will contribute speed and get on base occasionally, thus producing runs. If not, their glove is essential. Kansas City’s Aleides Escobar—an all-star in 2015—is having the worst year of his career. His fielding is subpar. His OPS is .554. As tempting as it is to throw Chicago’s Ben Zobrist and his .673 OPS in here, between injuries, he has not qualified at any one position this season. Cincinnati’s Jose Peraza has, and his .611 posts Peraza at the bottom of the National League second sackers.

Atlanta’s Dansby Swanson represents shortstops with a .622 OPS. He also has 14 errors.

Hot corners? Not

The corner infield positions are different. Most MLB squads fill these slots with guys who can hit the ball hard. Let’s use Texas as an example. Third baseman Joey Gallo only hits .194, but 34 of his hits—including 18 home runs—have been for extra bases.

That slugging produces runs. Gallo’s OPS is .821, in spite of his poor average.

On the other side of the Ranger infield stands Mike Napoli. The first baseman is also hitting .194. Napoli only has 25 Extra Base Hits—including 18 dingers. The lack of other extra base hits drops Napoli’s OPS to .710, which is bad for his position.

The Yankee’s Chase Hadley is another. The third baseman has only hit four home runs and Hadley’s OPS is .706.

Philadelphia’s Tommy Joseph has struck out 76 times in the NL. Joseph doesn’t have many opportunities to score playing with the Phillies. His .779 OPS is respectable, it is subpar for the position. His teammate—third baseman Maikel Franko—boasts a .657 OPS. While these are two of the best hitting Phillies, it helps explain Philadelphia’s 29-58 record—the worst in MLB.

Take what you can get

Teams look for average, power, and speed when scouting outfielders. While some of the following have one of the previous attributes, all are in the midst of a bad campaign or full of potential, but their hitting hasn’t been up to par in 2017.

The American League has the worst hitting outfielders. Minnesota’s Byron Buxton ranks at the bottom with a .584 OPS. Just above him is the Royals’ Alex Gordon—a defensive gem—who’s OPS is .592. Gordon was an all-star in 2013 – 2015. Angel Kole Calhoun kicks things up a bit with a .697.

National League stolen base leader Billy Hamilton is the league’s most inoffensive hitter. While his 38 swipes are included in the statistic, the Reds outfielder's OPS is only .617. Although Carols Gonzales has the mile-high air in Colorado, the three time all-star's—including 2016—OPS is only .637 compared to a career .853. The Phillies’ Odubel Herrera fills out the outfield with his .685 OPS.

Team’s top interests behind the plate are defense and brains.

Offense is a second thought. The following is a list of some of the players who had the worst offensive statistics, according to ESPN. It is a tight race, but Rockies backstop Tony Wolters edges San Diego’s Austin Hedgers .676 to .677 to win/lose a nomination on the 2017 non-all-star team. Yankee Austin Romine barely qualified with at bats, 147 for this position, but New York likes his glove. Romine is in the conversation for playing time in spite of his .590 OPS.
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