Andruw Jones 2009

Andruw Jones was beyond awful in 2008, batting .158 will little power and striking out at an incredibly high rate. Normally I'd be tempted to blame a hidden injury for performance this bad, but he had a very bad 2007 as well, so it's unlikely that he would have kept an injury hidden for so long. I suspect there's been a real (and steep) decline in his skillset over the past several years. It appears that he's likely to sign a minor league agreement with the Texas Rangers for 2009. If he does make the team, that's bad news for Nelson Cruz owners in traditional leagues, since Jones certainly isn't going to be taking much playing time from Josh Hamilton. However, those of us who play in daily leagues will still have the luxury of confirming whether Cruz is in the lineup each day before playing him. Now we just have to hope that Texas' management realizes that Jones is no longer a good enough fielder to be heavily used as a late inning defensive replacement.