Uribe Channels Dodger Fan Sentiment: "I Don't Like The Way I'm Playing"

Debatably the worst off-season deal that Ned Colletti made this year was signing Juan Uribe to a three-year contract (the debate unfortunately is whether the Uribe three-year deal is worse than the three-year deal fo Ted Lilly, but that's another topic).

One could argue that the warning signs were already evident this off-season, that Uribe was always a rotund free-swinger that happened to catch some fame in the 2010 NLCS and parlayed a deal with an unsuspecting GM from there. But even still, Uribe's .204 batting average this year has the 31-year old batting almost 50 points below his career average, and Uribe's OPS+ of 59 is even worse than Marcus Thames' 2011 Dodger career--and we let Thames go weeks ago. Sadly, Uribe is still here, or at least as much here as a disabled list stint can be.

And Uribe, when reflecting on his performance, is at least realistic if not fully resigned:

Juan Uribe might be smiling in the clubhouse every day, but the $21-million infielder said he's hurting inside.

"I'm not happy with how I've played," Uribe said. "I haven't played the way I wanted to play. I haven't helped the team the way I would have liked. When you come to a new team, this isn't what you want to happen."

In the first season of his three-year deal with the Dodgers, Uribe is batting .204 with four home runs and 28 runs batted in in 77 games.

"It's been a tough year," he said. "I've never had to endure something like this. Whenever I start getting into a rhythm, I get hurt or something happens."

The latest something is a tight left groin that required him to undergo an MRI exam Tuesday. The exam revealed inflammation.

Uribe missed three games in late April with tightness in the same area. He landed on the disabled list the next month with a strained left hip flexor.

"In life, things like this happen," he said. "But I can't put my head down. I have to keep going forward. I have to continue to work hard. That's the only thing I can control." [Sax's note: not true, you could also control your calorie intake.] Uribe said he continues to try to make adjustments at the plate and that he hasn't given up on salvaging his season. "We still have two months," he said. "There's still a lot of baseball to be played. In baseball, anything can happen. I still have confidence in myself. That's important. When you think you can't do any better, that's when you're in trouble."

Hey, kudos to Uribe for the stiff upper lip and all, as well as for his honesty. But in this selling season, we should be looking to jettison Uribe, even if the offer is for a bucket of sunflower seeds. Yeah, his defense has been pretty good at third. But I can't take two more years of this guy flailing around at the plate, further exposing the Dodgers' lack of power that is also a burdened shared by James Loney, to be fair, but is exacerbated by weakness in left field and catcher as well.

Uribe's batting average hasn't been at .250 since April 29, for pete's sake. Cut bait.