Andruw Jones Update

Last night, Andruw Jones took Joe Saunders deep to centerfield for his fourth home run of the season.  It was his 79th plate appearance of the season.  Last season, Jones hit three home runs in 238 plate appearances as a Dodger.

Last year, Jones was five for 58 with runners in scoring position, with all five hits singles.  This season, with runners in scoring position, Andruw is seven for 15, with a double and a home run.

Here's a look at Andruw's 2008 vs. 2009:

It's not as if Andruw is only killing lefties this season.  He has a 1.015 OPS against RHP, and a 1.052 OPS against LHP, with 41 plate appearances against each side.

The one bright spot for the Dodgers is that they get half of whatever Andruw makes this season, and he has an incentive laden contract.  He is already guaranteed $500,000, so the Dodgers get $250,000 of salary relief.  He is on pace for 380 plate apperances, which would net him another $150,000 in incentives.  He has many more PA incentives, essentially every 40 additional PA, The other reachable incentive (assuming of course Andruw doesn't win AL MVP or any postseason MVP awards) is $200,000 for comeback player of the year.

The Dodgers best bet is to root for Andruw to hit so well that he racks up 620 plate appearances, so they can take half of his extra $1 million.