Clay Buchholz and 10 Worst-Case Scenarios Becoming Reality This Season

At the moment, you could easily make the argument that Clay Buchholz is the worst starting pitcher in the major leagues.

Buchholz has made six starts this season. He's allowed no fewer than five earned runs in any of them, and he's allowed 47 hits and 19 walks in 32.2 innings of work. 

This is a worst-case scenario for the Boston Red Sox, as they needed Buchholz to be a third ace after Jon Lester and Josh Beckett. They needed him to be the same guy he was in 2010, and he simply hasn't been.

There are a number of teams around the league that know how the Red Sox feel. Numerous other teams have had to deal with some worst-case scenarios of their own this season, and it hasn't been fun for any of them.

Here's a countdown of the 10 worst nightmares that have become reality this season, ranked in order of how devastating they are.

10. Chone Figgins' Continued Struggles

When the Seattle Mariners decided to use Chone Figgins as their leadoff hitter this season, it seemed like a brilliant idea. Figgins was at his best when he was batting leadoff for the Los Angeles Angels, so perhaps a return to the top of the lineup would trigger a return to form.

Things looked good initially. Figgins started the year strong, and his batting average was over .300 on April 12. He looked much more like the player he was in Anaheim.

Since then, Figgins' batting average and on-base percentage have resembled countdowns. His average is down to .189, and his OBP is down to .250. His third season in Seattle is looking a lot like the first two, which is not a good thing for the Mariners.

The Mariners have acted accordingly. Per The Seattle Times, the Mariners have removed Figgins from their leadoff spot and demoted him to a utility role.

It's obviously worth noting that the Mariners owe Figgins $9 million this season and $8 million next season. His contract will go down as one of the worst deals in baseball history.

9. Tim Lincecum's Ineffectiveness

By the time the 2009 season came to a close, it was clear that Tim Lincecum was the most dominant pitcher in baseball.

He's dropped out of the discussion since then, and he's been anything but dominant this season. In six starts, he has an ERA of 5.68, and he's walked 17 men in 31.2 innings. He's walked at least four in each of his last three starts.

Lincecum has had one really good start this season, and that was when he allowed three hits and no earned runs over eight innings against a very bad San Diego Padres offense. Take that start out of the equation, and Lincecum has an ERA of 7.61.

Lincecum is dragging down a Giants starting rotation that has otherwise been very, very good. If he doesn't figure things out, it's hard to imagine the Giants making a run at a division crown in a very tough NL West.

8. Jose Bautista's Ongoing Slump

In the first half of the 2011 season, Jose Bautista was the best hitter in the world. He went into the All-Star break with a batting line of .334/.468/.702, and he had 31 home runs and 65 RBI.

Bautista went into a slump after the All-Star break, hitting .257/.419/.477 with 12 home runs and 38 RBI. It didn't seem to be anything major, but things are getting a little dicey in Toronto now that Bautista has picked up right where he left off.

Bautista does have five home runs this season, but he's batting .183/.313/.356. His .183 batting average is the sixth-lowest mark in the league among qualified hitters.

The rest of the Blue Jays offense has done a good job of picking up the slack, but Bautista is going to have to come alive if the Jays want to stay in the AL East race. It's shaping up to be one of the toughest races in baseball this season.

The good news for the Jays is that it was right around this time of the year in 2010 when Bautista started to explode.

7. Clay Buchholz's Struggles

Before the start of the season, the Red Sox's starting rotation didn't look very deep, but it did look strong at the top. Jon Lester and Josh Beckett are both dependable starters, and having Clay Buchholz back healthy after he missed most of 2011 was going to be a huge boost.

So much for that. Buchholz has been awful in his six starts this season, the most recent of which was a 3.2-inning beatdown at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

Amazingly, Buchholz has a 3-1 record. His ERA, however, is over 9.00, and his WHIP is 2.02. He's already given up 10 home runs in 32.2 innings. In 2010, he gave up nine home runs in over 173 innings.

Buchholz's -0.7 WAR is the worst in the major leagues among qualified pitchers, and it's not close. The next guy on the list is Ervin Santana, and he's at -0.4.

As a whole, Boston's rotation has not been good this season. Nevertheless, Lester and Beckett are both going to be fine in the long run, and Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard can both easily be demoted.

There's no clear answer to the Buchholz problem.

6. Jamie Moyer Is the Colorado Rockies' Best Starting Pitcher

When 49-year-old MLB veteran Jamie Moyer made the Colorado Rockies' starting rotation this spring, it was a great story. He was going to play at least another year, and the Rockies were going to have a living legend providing depth in their rotation.

They probably didn't figure that Moyer would be their best starting pitcher at this point in the season, nor was it something they were hoping for.

Moyer is the only Rockies pitcher who has lasted at least five innings in each of his starts, and his 4.01 ERA represents the lowest ERA of any Rockies starting pitcher. He is tied with Juan Nicasio for the team lead in innings, but Nicasio's ERA is nearly a run and a half higher than Moyer's.

Thus, it's no real surprise that the Rockies have the worst rotation ERA in the National League. This is a problem they're going to have to fix if they want to stay relevant in the NL West in the long run. Exactly how they're going to fix it, however, is anybody's guess.

5. New York Yankees' Starting Rotation Issues

On January 13, 2012, news broke that the Yankees had traded for Michael Pineda and signed Hiroki Kuroda as a free agent. With those two moves, their starting rotation went from being a weakness to being a strength.

Or so it seemed. Pineda has since been ruled out for the season with a torn labrum in his shoulder, and Kuroda has struggled to adapt to life in the American League. He's had some good starts here and there, but he hasn't been as a reliable as he was for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

There are other problems in New York's starting rotation. Ivan Nova has come back down to earth after overachieving in 2011, Phil Hughes has an ERA of 6.67 and Freddy Garcia was bad enough in his starts to get kicked out of the rotation.

A little over a month into the season, the Yanks are sitting on a rotation ERA of 5.54. Their offense is doing what it can, but the Yanks are looking up at three AL East teams that have gotten excellent pitching this season.

They won't be able to catch up unless their own pitching comes around.

4. Milwaukee Brewers' Starting Pitching

When Prince Fielder signed with the Detroit Tigers, it became official that the Milwaukee Brewers were going to have a much harder time scoring runs in 2012 than they did scoring runs in 2011.

However, quite a few people out there (myself included) still thought the Brewers had a chance to contend in the NL Central because of their starting rotation. It appeared to be the deepest and most talented rotation in the division.

So far, Milwaukee's rotation has been a complete bust. The Brewers have gotten only 14 quality starts all season, and their rotation ERA of 5.05 is the second-highest mark in the National League after the Colorado Rockies.

No one man is responsible for Milwaukee's pitching woes. Yovani Gallardo has an ERA of 5.79 and a WHIP of 1.65, Zack Greinke has a WHIP of 1.40 and Randy Wolf has an ERA of 6.68 and a WHIP of 1.82.

There's talent in Milwaukee's starting rotation. The guys with the talent simply haven't showed up.

3. Struggles of Miami Marlins' High-Priced Free Agents

The Miami Marlins went all in this offseason, giving out big deals to Jose Reyes, Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle.

Buehrle has been fine, as he has an ERA of 2.83 in six starts. He's fifth in the NL with 41.1 innings pitched. He's been everything the Marlins hoped he would be.

The same cannot be said of Reyes and Bell, who are combining to make $17 million this season. Reyes is hitting just .234 with a .317 OBP, and Bell has blown four saves and has been demoted as the team's closer (see Associated Press report).

You could see this coming a mile away, as Reyes overachieved in a big way in 2011, and Bell's decline as a pitcher should have been obvious to anyone who cared to look last year.

The Marlins, apparently, didn't think about these things. They just went ahead and spent the money.

2. Mariano Rivera's Torn ACL

The Yankees' rotation struggles aren't the only blow the organization has been dealt this season. The baseball gods also decided to punish the Yankees by targeting Mariano Rivera's knee.

As you no doubt heard, Rivera tore his right ACL while shagging fly balls during batting practice in Kansas City last week (see ESPN New York's report if this is news to you). He's likely out for the year, and his career may be over for good.

The Yanks have David Robertson and Rafael Soriano to fall back on, but their bullpen has gone the same way as their rotation. It used to be a strength, and now it's a weakness.

Rivera's injury is a psychological problem too. The Yankees are not used to worrying about having to tackle games without him, and now they'll have to worry about that for the rest of the season. To boot, Rivera is a pretty big presence in New York's clubhouse. Losing him for the season is a heartbreaker. 

Make no mistake about it—the Yankees have some obstacles to overcome this season.

1. Albert Pujols' Struggles

Albert Pujols finally hit his first home run on Sunday, and a lot of people are theorizing that Pujols may finally get on a roll now that that monkey is off his back.

Maybe so, but that doesn't hide the fact that Pujols' first season as an Angel has been an utter disaster.

Yes, Pujols homered on Sunday, but that one hit only raised his average to a mere .196. He hasn't had a multi-hit game since April 19. Just as discouraging is the fact that his on-base percentage is now down to .236.

Pujols has clearly been pressing this season, and it's been a strange thing to behold. And as he's gone, so have the Angels gone. They're 19th in MLB in runs scored, and they're struggling right along at 13-17 this season.

They better hope that Pujols is going to catch fire. They need him to if they want to get back in the AL West race.

Indeed, they need him to earn his money too. Pujols is only making $12 million this year, but there's up to another $254 million where that came from.

If you want to discuss what any of these worst-case scenarios have to do with the end of the world in 2012, we can talk on Twitter.