Josh Beckett Leads 5 National League Players Who Need a Big Week

Both Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett are perceived to be liberated by escaping the media circus and clubhouse turmoil associated with the Boston Red Sox. 

Yet Gonzalez was already having a decent, though not spectacular season, in Boston. Beckett is having the worst season of his career with a 5-11 record and 5.23 ERA in 21 starts. He's the one who really needed a change. Will wearing Dodger blue and pitching to National League lineups provide a fresh start for him? 

Another player who needs to turn himself around is Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen. His season doesn't compare at all to Beckett's as he's having the best year of his career and is a favorite for the NL MVP Award. Yet he's slumped badly in August and is pulling his team down with him. 

Those two players lead our quintet of National League players who need to have a good week. Others on the list are fighting season-long struggles and need to break out in order to stay in the lineup.

How they perform over the next seven days could affect the fortunes of their respective teams as well as their individual prospects for the rest of the season. 

Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates

For most of the past two months, Andrew McCutchen has looked like the favorite for the National League MVP. 

However, an August slump has put that front-runner status in jeopardy. The Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder may still draw strong support due to the belief that the Bucs would be nowhere near contention in the NL Central if not for McCutchen's play.

But what if the Pirates end up losing out on a playoff spot because of McCutchen's struggles? 

As of Aug. 27, McCutchen is batting .234/.342/.330 with two home runs and 12 RBI. That follows up a July during which he hit .446/.510/.739 with seven homers and 15 RBI. 

With the Pirates sliding down the NL Central and wild-card standings, a good performance against the Milwaukee Brewers this past weekend would have been timely. But McCutchen hit 1-for-11 (.090) with four strikeouts in the three-game series. However, he did drive in two runs. 

McCutchen's slump has also given Melky Cabrera the major league lead in batting average again. If McCutchen can't overtake Cabrera's .346 average, MLB will face the awkward scenario of awarding a batting title to a player who's been suspended 50 games for PED use.

The MLB offices might be rooting as hard for McCutchen to return to form as the Pirates and their fans are. 

Dan Uggla, Atlanta Braves

During Dan Uggla's seven-year major league career, he's typically started off slow and then heated up with the bat as the season progressed.

This season, the Atlanta Braves second baseman has taken the opposite path. Uggla hit .271/.361/.424 in April and posted an .874 OPS in May. He compiled 11 doubles, eight home runs and 31 RBI during the season's first two months. 

Since then, however, Uggla's performance has taken a significant downward slide. In July, he batted .115/.281/.179 with one homer and six RBI. His August numbers have shown improvement, but he's still batting .195 with a .703 OPS as of Aug. 27.

In the first six games of the Braves' nine-game road trip, Uggla hit 2-for-19 (.105) with only one extra-base hit. That follows a three-game performance against the Los Angeles Dodgers during which he batted 0-for-9. 

As the Atlanta Journal Constitution's David O'Brien wrote, Uggla's continuing struggles have given Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez no choice but to "pick [his] spots" and bench his second baseman for certain games.

With the acquisition of Reed Johnson, Gonzalez can play him in left field and move Martin Prado to second base. He told Fox Sports' Tim McCarver that one thing he learned from last September's collapse is that he stuck with slumping players too long and should have made changes sooner. Though Gonzalez didn't name Uggla as an example, he may as well have. 

Bryan LaHair, Chicago Cubs

Bryan LaHair was an early-season sensation for the Chicago Cubs, breaking out to a .390/.471/.790 triple-slash average in April with five home runs and 14 RBI. 

LaHair hit a combined .242 in May and June, but that April explosion made enough of an impression for him to be named to his first All-Star team. With a .286/.364/.519 average to go with 14 home runs and 30 RBI, that looked like a solid choice.

Since the All-Star break, however, LaHair has spiraled into a deep slump. As of Aug. 27, he's batting .152/.256/.236 with one homer and four RBI. That led Beyond the Box Score's James Gentile to label LaHair a "flash in the pan," alongside other half-season breakouts like Jonny Gomes, Hee-Seop Choi and Chris Shelton. 

Had LaHair not slid so badly, perhaps Cubs president Theo Epstein could have moved him to a team looking for first base or corner outfield help like the Dodgers or Indians. Instead, the Cubs are stuck with LaHair, forced to watch him struggle through the rest of what initially looked like a promising season. 

LaHair was moved to the outfield to accommodate the call-up of first baseman Anthony Rizzo. But he's now lost a starting outfield spot as well and the Cubs might be wondering if LaHair is a part of their immediate future. 

Trevor Cahill, Arizona Diamondbacks

For the Arizona Diamondbacks to stay in the NL West race with the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, their starting pitching needed to be as strong as it was last year.

Unfortunately, that starting rotation hasn't performed up to that standard. One of the chief culprits down the stretch has been Trevor Cahill. In August, Cahill is 0-2 with a 5.14 ERA in five starts. 

In his past two appearances, Cahill has given up a combined eight runs and 15 hits over nine innings. Those two outings extended his winless streak to five games. 

According to Fangraphs, 62 percent of his batted balls have been ground balls this season. Though he's been a ground ball pitcher his entire career, that's the highest rate of Cahill's four major league seasons, giving the D-Backs' defense plenty of fielding chances. 

The D-Backs have the fifth-best defense in the NL, according to Fangraphs' Ultimate Zone Rating. That may be adding some shine to Cahill's numbers. While his ERA is 3.99, his FIP (fielding independent pitching) number is 4.12, indicating he's getting some help from his defense. 

Cahill's next start is scheduled for Friday (Aug. 31) against the newly augmented Dodgers. If he can get clubbed around by the Marlins and Padres, what might the quartet of Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Andre Ethier do to him? 

Josh Beckett, Los Angeles Dodgers

Of the four players who were traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers in this weekend's mega-deal, no one probably needed a change of scenery more than Josh Beckett.

The 32-year-old right-hander had grown tired of the Boston media meat grinder while the Red Sox and their fans became weary of his lackluster pitching.

In his past three starts, Beckett allowed 18 runs and 21 hits in 16.1 innings. During those three games, he gave up seven home runs while striking out 10 batters and walking seven. 

Much like his former team hopes this deal hits the reset button for their disappointing performance, Beckett gets a chance for a fresh start with his new team and a different league.

As ESPN's Jayson Stark pointed out in a recent column, pitchers that moved from the AL to the NL over the past five years had seen their ERA drop by almost half a run (from 4.07 to 3.51). 

Is a turnaround going to be as simple as pitching in the supposedly weaker NL for Beckett? 

Diminished velocity is the reason behind his recent struggles. According to ESPN Stats and Info, he's lost almost three miles-per-hour off his fastball over the past three seasons. Some believe an over-reliance on the cutter is the reason for the dip in his velocity.

Whatever the reason, Beckett's rate of 6.6 strikeouts per nine innings is the lowest of 12 major league seasons. Additionally, he's allowing 9.3 hits per game, the second-highest rate of his career.

Returning to the NL by pitching at Coors Field in his first Dodgers start could be a rough introduction back to the senior circuit.

Follow @iancass on Twitter