how bad is it?

really, really bad. take a look at the month of june in the NL, and who's the least productive everyday player? you guessed it.

the klown's brilliant slump has come at a bad time, of course, when the cubs are trying to make a deal to ship him out. but i doubt his value has really declined all that much for it. the klown is an extreme longshot at best now -- and every GM in the majors that's worth a shit knows it.

let's be clear: the klown has over 2000 major-league at-bats now. that's more than players like adam dunn, brad wilkerson, carl crawford, marcus giles and hank blalock -- all guys who have firmly established their major-league personalities. the klown has shown us what he's got. the chances of him being that one guy that metamophosizes in into a great player now, after all this time, are spectacularly small -- there are at least a hundred players who quietly crap out of the majors for every one that transforms himself into a good player after building such a record as korey has.

you would have to be a fool to give up more than equal current value for k-pat (which is, of course, very little). there is almost no "promise" left in a guy with 2149 ML plate appearances. he is what he is. that's a fact. and while i hope there's an idiot among the GM pool out there who thinks that, in spite of it all, that the klown is that one diamond in the rough, there probably isn't.

UPDATE: i happened to peruse the NL active career stats this weekend -- did you know that there are 222 active players with more than a thousand at-bats in the national league?

and did you further know that, of those players, those with a career obp less than korey's .299 who are on a major-league roster right now number just eleven -- tom glavine, henry blanco, alex gonzalez, greg maddux, pedro feliz, mike matheny, deivi cruz, eddie perez, luis lopez, juan castro, and cesar izturis.

note that, among the eleven, there are two pitchers, three catchers (two of whom are backups), two shortstops and four backup utilitymen. not a single outfielder, much less starting outfielder.