Andruw Jones' Weigh Gains Attention

Even though Andruw Jones is long gone and spending his time in the sun and fun of Los Angeles I can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. He remains part of my baseball inner circle. You know the one that you can totally trash but your friend the Yankee fan cannot. Like when I say something about Derek Jeter’s error my friend Niki gives me that look like, um…that’s Jeets you’re talking about. But she can totally talk about how he should not have thrown the ball into the first row of seats.

That’s Andruw Jones for me (and well the rest of the Braves organization and few select outsiders.) When my brother sent me this link to a Fannation post, I got a little upset. It was an excerpt from an LA Times article that basically said, Jones is fat, he’s not performing and he understands why people are upset but he just doesn't care. (Also the Tubby Jones title got me a little angry. No one calls Andruw tubby, overweight, yes, plus sized ok, but tubby, No!) Anyway, I then turned on Rome is Burning last night to watch him lambast Jones for strolling into training camp overweight and probably overpaid. But I think Jim forgot about last year, when Jones strolled into Braves training camp about 30 pounds lighter. It didn’t really do much for his stats in 2007, so what was the benefit of playing trim?

For me, I think it’s all mental. 2007 he was thinking about that big fat 10 year, $200 million contract he was getting at the end of the year and thought he had to pad his stats to make that happen. And in 2008, he’s thinking about redeeming his performance in 2007 while justifying the 2 year, $36 million deal he got from the Dodgers. Not to mention adjusting to new surroundings, fans, coaches, etc... If he could just stop trying so darn hard and just let everything go, I think he could get it back together, but I know that’s a lot harder than it sounds. I honestly don’t think he’s all of a sudden forgotten how to play baseball in a year and a half. Frankly in 2006 he had 41 homeruns and 129 RBIs compared to 2007 when he only had 26 dingers and 94 RBIs. But the real drop was in average, although let’s be honest, he’ll always be a free swinger. This year, he has barely any power numbers (1 hr, 5 RBI) and he’s not hitting for average.

The fact remains, he’s only 31, he should be in his prime, but he’s starting to trail off to the point where he can barely be considered a proper bench player. So for his sake, I hope he starts knocking a few out of the park and really show those LA fans what he’s made of. All he needs is a boost of confidence and maybe to play a few games against Barry Zito. Well maybe they can balance each other out.
(Photo:Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate