Afternoon Baseball

ESPN.com - Mondesi loses Braves starting OF spot

This isn't a surprise, although perhaps it is surprising that he's only 34. But he's got a bad knee, supposedly from a quad tear last year (when he was busy quitting on the Pirates). To be honest, although he's a bit oddly sized (5-11, 225), he'll always be remembered as a player who was very good at times, but never broke through to the elite.
His lifetime averages (.273/.331/.485) initially compare to Joe Adcock (.277/.337/.485 from 1950-66). However, Adcock was top 10 in OPS 3 times, HR 5 times, RBI 3 times and Adjusted OPS 3 times. Mondesi was 9th in Adjusted OPS in 1997, and that's it. Granted, offense was more explosive in his era, but Mondesi's biggest achievements are only a 43rd all-time Power/Speed ranking and...top 10 in salary 5 straight years.

In fact, his current decline raises the question of the value of the five consecutive ROY the LA Dodgers had. Karros and Piazza were as good as expected, but Hollandsworth, Nomo and Mondesi couldn't even make it to their 30s without awful decline (not to mention Valdes and Park). Total playoff series won in a Dodger uniform: 0. WS won collectively: 0.