Hanley Ramriez

Oh, Hanley, you once were so talented and full of hope and life and the future. The Red Sox shipped your younger self out to Miami with Anibal Sanchez and a few others who don't really figure into 2011 for Josh Beckett. They threw in a few more players because your current team demanded that they eat Mike Lowell's contract, and they said OK. In the end, those guys combined to help Boston to the 2007 World Series over the exhausted Colorado Rockies who had ripped through the end of the 2007 series like a dream.
From September 16 to October 1st, they lost one time. The final game was 13 innings. The game before that was tied 1-1 until the bottom of the 8th, when the Rockies tacked on a 3 spot. In the end, they almost lost that 1 by allowing 2 runs in the 9th, but they won, and then they beat the Phillies 3 straight and the Diamondbacks 4 more games straight. From that point, it was a matter of waiting for the Red Sox to finish up the Indians in 7, and well, bodies get tired, and when streaks end, so does karmic energy that drives a season to something good.
And maybe that's what has happened to Hanley Ramirez who is currently out of the lineup since May 29th (a game he only played for 1 at bat). He's batting .210 for the year and the 4 home runs he hit aren't much. In the end, he is yet another player who once had so much value in serious decline. This is more of a sign of something scarier than The Year of the Pitcher Part 2 (mark my words).
According to Stephania Bell of ESPN (what, a female fantasy baseball player / writer? Can I possibly use this to my advantage to get my wife playing?!!):

Ramirez has been dealing with severe back pain and intermittent sciatica over the past week, and it appears ever more likely that he will make his way onto the DL.

In another blog, she quotes him as saying:

"I feel it doing anything. I can't even put my shoes on. To get up from bed I have to take 10, 15 seconds. I have to do everything slow,' Ramirez said. "That's the worst pain I've ever had in my life, in my career."

 That's not good for him, for Anibal Sanchez's hopes of winning a lot, for the Florida Marlins hopes of competing long term this year, and for the 8 fans of regular season baseball at Sun Life Stadium.
We can only hope that he gets better, and while he gets better, he chooses to come back a team player that we can all like and support again, so that when he eventually takes his 6 year $70million contract somewhere else when the Marlins decide to rebuild from scratch again (as they always do), we can feel good about him being the new shortstop (instead of Marco Scutaro or Jed Lowrie or someone less flashy and worthy of getting a $150million mega contract).

Jose Reyes

We talk a lot about rivalries here, and while I'm no Phillies fan spewing venom for the Mets, I really don't like any of the Mets. I don't know if I can say I really ever liked any of the Mets. No, it's not payback for Buckner's misplay in 1986, but I just can't say that anyone on the Mets is that great.
And while I'm not church religious (though I do point my finger to Heaven in thanks for the good things that I have been given and try to live my life in a way that would be what He wants), I know not to covet my neighbor's wife or my opponent's short stop.
And with that, I like Jose Reyes as much as I like a post-father in law fighting K-Rod, a slumping Carlos Beltran, an over-hyped David Wright, and a post Red Sox Jason Bay. That's to say that while I don't wish them will will, I'm just not moved by any of their stats or upsides to think that they represent anything worthwhile to the game of baseball - especially the game of baseball in Boston, which would mean mortgaging the future and paying big dollars to get them signed for a long time (and while we know Boston is more than willing to pay lots of little, they need to be more frugal and tighten their purse strings - especially those that would reach out to a shortstop like Reyes). And while it's not even real reaching out, the good folks at Bleacher Report have once again put smoke where there is no fire by saying that the Red Sox would give up on Jed Lowrie who has a .310 average with 3 home runs since replacing idiot move Marco Scutaro.
And if Boston is finally getting it together without Wacky Lackey and his DL stint (or time off to get his marriage together - whatever you want to call it) and with Carl Crawford finally getting out of the sub Mendoza basement from Hell as Adrian Gonzalez goes on a sick RBI tear, do we really need a Met with Attitude at short stop for a shot at post season glory?
Methinks not, but alas, when the Mets owner is trashing his team, we have to believe that there is something right in New York (not named Ike Davis). With that, we give you his classic one liners:
(on REYES)): He thinks he's going to get Carl Crawford money. He's had everything wrong with him. He won't get it.
(on BELTRAN): We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series. He's 65 to 70 percent of what he was. (didn't I call this the other day? I'm a genius, and I should be writing for ESPN).
(on WRIGHT): Really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.
So yeah... there is no love in New York... for the players or for Bernie Madoff who is even trying to play the ethical card by saying the Mets didn't know how they were screwed over by him. Yep... we believe, but that's not saying good things when the Mets (like the Dodgers) are looking to financially implode this year.
And while the fans in Philadelphia probably wouldn't care, let's just say that a part of baseball will die with this team sucking as bad as they are (just like in L.A.). And in a year of parity, that's saying something.