Manny Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano and Baseball's 7 Most Frustrating Players

Frustrating can take on different meanings. Who is frustrated? Why? This list will attempt to hit on some of the most frustrating players in history, from various perspectives. 

Some reading this will define frustrating in one way or another and therefore question why "so-and-so" missed the cut, and comments are always welcome, but looking back at history, these are the players that stood out to one writer as the most frustrating. 

Josh Johnson, the Ace That Never Was

To say "never was" for a guy who is 28 years old may seem a bit premature, but consider this, after a cup of coffee in 2005, he came up for good in 2006, going 12-7 over 31 games (24 starts) with a 3.10 ERA in 157 innings. 

Since then, he's made 30 starts just once. He has a career 2.98 ERA but in three of the last five seasons, he has managed less than 15 starts and reached 200 innings just once.

2011 was shaping up to be his best yet, when another season ended in injury, after just nine starts, with a 1.64 ERA and 0.978 WHIP. At this point, he's one of the five or six best starters in the game when completely healthy, but just as the Marlins are shaping up to be a contender, one can't help wondering if he will ever make enough starts to lead them all the way. 

Vladimir Guerrero, the Anti-Strike Zone

Vladimir Guerrero was one of the most frustrating players both for fans of his team, as well as opposing pitchers. 

For fans, they were doomed to late nights screaming "don't swing at THAT!" and then watching said pitch fly 400 feet. Despite the pleasant results (.318, 449 HR, .931 career OPS), the road to them has left fans on the edge of their seats for years.

For opposing pitchers, Guerrero is maddening because he lives off of so-called "pitcher's pitches." There doesn't seem to be anywhere to pitch this guy. He's hit home runs off pitches in the dirt, and tomahawked doubles off balls above his head.  

In 2011, Guerrero's OPS fell below .790 for the first time since his rookie year, and it may be close to curtains for the slugger, but no doubt anyone who has watched his career has been left with memories. 

Barry Bonds: Legend vs. Liar

For a lifelong baseball fan, perhaps nothing has been more frustrating than watching the most dominant hitter of the generation go down in flames. 

To say that the baseball home run king's legend is ruined might be an understatement. Bonds had 12 seasons of 28+ steals, including one over 50. He had 14 seasons of 30+ home runs, He led the league in walks 12 times, in OPS nine times, He won seven MVP awards. And we will never know how much of it was talent and hard work, and how much was the substances coursing through his enhanced veins.

It is also impossible to know how many of the pitchers he faced were also juicing at a time when some say as much as 95 percent of players were using some form of PED. Just the name "Bonds" will spark heated debates for the next 50 years as the steroid era begins to see its greatest on the annual Hall of Fame ballots and voters get to decide who is unworthy due to rumors and allegations.

It is tragically infuriating to see such a star tarnished, and baseball history robbed of one of its greats.  

Mariano Rivera, the One Pitch Wonder

Go ahead, steal his signs. It's going to be a cutter. And the next one? Same deal. Good luck. 

Mariano Rivera has thrown one pitch since 1995 and amassed MLB record 603 saves, 883 games finished, a 2.21 ERA and 0.998 WHIP and a record 206 ERA+. Add to that 42 postseason saves, with 0.70 ERA and 0.759 WHIP in 141 innings. 

12 All-Star Games... one pitch. Every other pitcher in baseball would be in serious trouble if the batter knew what was coming, but not Rivera. And for that, he is one of the most frustrating players to ever play the game. 

Carlos Zambrano, Self Control Away from Greatness

8-0, 1.58 ERA, 1.270 WHIP, 7.8 K/9...... that's quite a line isn't it? That's what Carlos Zambrano did after the All Star Break in 2010. 

From 2003 to 2008, Zambrano made 30+ starts every year. He was 91-51 with with a 3.39 ERA. Four of those years he posted a WHIP under 1.30 and in three of those years his K/9 was over eight. 

The talent is immense. And yet, due mostly to anger-management problems, he hasn't reached 30 games or 13 wins since 2008. 

This past offseason, Theo Epstein made the move to trade Zambrano to Miami. And new surroundings could be the fresh start Zambrano needed, with new teammates who he hasn't punched yet. This will be the last chance for Zambrano to fulfill his talent, as he is 30 years old and will soon be on the wrong side of his prime. 

Francisco Liriano, Jekyll and Hyde

Star light, star bright, which Liriano will we see tonight? At 22 years old, Liriano looked like the greatest rookie in the history of the league. He was 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA, 208 ERA+ and a 10.7 K/9 after 16 starts. 

There wouldn't be a 17th. Betrayed by his elbow, Liriano missed all of 2007 and hasn't been the same since. There have been flashes of the same guy, but rarely more than twice in a row. 

For example, in 2011, Liriano went five or less innings in 11 of his 24 starts, allowing four or more earned runs in 10 starts. He went seven or more innings eight times, including a no-hitter in which he issued six walks to only two strikeouts.

He ended up 9-9 in those starts, grabbing another loss in a September relief appearance. It's hard not to look at his rookie year and imagine what might have been, and at 28 years old, what could be. But its impossible to know which Liriano will take the hill on any given night. 

Manny Ramirez... Being Manny

Manny Ramirez is becoming a twisted version of Brett Favre. The man has failed two drug tests, claimed retirement twice and yet finds himself back in the headlines again this preseason, connected to several teams including the Oakland A's as a potential designated hitter.

Like Favre, Ramirez could have gone down as one of the unquestioned, and untainted greats at his position in history. From his rookie year in 1993 to the last season before his first positive test, Ramirez accumulated a career line of .314, 527 home runs, 1725 RBI, and a 1.004 OPS. 

He grabbed nine silver sluggers and 12 All Star appearances. He could have ridden off in the sunset and been welcomed back to Fenway Park for countless promotion days until the day he died.

Instead, Manny came back to the Dodgers in 2009, served a 50 game suspension and managed to put together a decent year. But then the wheels came off.

Another positive test, and another retirement later, he's looking for a third chance. Unfortunately, it is time for both Favre and Ramirez to limp off into the sunset with what remains of their reputations.