HB to Joe Torre and we all know GA gotsta GO!

Happy 70^th Birthday to Joe Torre! I don’t usually give out HB’s but considering he is the oldest Dodgers manager, I figure that needs recognition.

Now, we go to Garret Anderson and how awful he has been this season. As the player who Steve Garvey's career numbers were most similar to, we are not bashing his career. I have ran into trouble when talking about Jeff Kent, Ken Griffey Jr., Nomar Garciaparra and other characters whose current level of play is not representative of their career but criticism directed towards them is considered a slight on their reputation. THIS Garret Anderson THIS year blows.

GA will remain at the expense of Xavier Paul. Ned and Joe just think there is something about Garret. He is this year’s left-handed Mark Sweeney. That is an insult to GA because he is not THAT bad (Sweeney hit .130/.250/.163) but I am okay doing that. GA doesn’t walk anymore (2.1 BB% when he’s never previously been below 3.5% in a season), he strikes out too much (23.4 K% when he’s never been above 17.5%), his power is gone (.095 ISO when he’s never been below .106) and he doesn’t create runs (25 wRC+). He’s toast and we know it now. Anytime Ned wants to get over his newest veteran man-crush, it would be great.

The problem may be that the Dodgers really don’t have, by definition, a replacement-level outfielder. The problem currently is that they have a -1 WAR outfielder in Garret Anderson. How many of the Albuquerque outfielders could take his place at this moment? Probably any one of them but it remains doubtful that GA will get canned, even for 27 year old left-handed former D-back farmhand Trent Oeitjen, until after Reed Johnson comes back. Once he does, a decision might be made but I don’t see him getting moved until the end of the month at least. The monstrosity known as GA will probably remain, doing just enough to appear like he is contributing.

***Bullpen implosion intentionally ignored***

Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs