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Andruw Jones glided to a spot in the left centerfield gap on Friday night at the Ravine, and plucked the ball out of the sky with his usual effortless grace. But while Jones’ ability to track a fly ball is still strong, Dodger fans have more than casually been questioning his worth to a franchise paying him $36.2 million over the next two seasons.

His once explosive bat and dynamic athleticism have fizzled, and he’s hit .170 with one homer and five RBI in 36 games. Jones has always been prone to the K, but he’s currently striking out at a frightening-even-for-him rate of once every 2.9 trips to the plate. His failures have been particularly pronounced with runners in scoring position, when Jones is hitting .036.

Though 112 at-bats hardly make a season, there are big (pun partially intended) reasons to be concerned, especially for a guy coming off a career worst season. First, Jones is seeing 4.44 pitches per plate appearance, a 0.68 increase over his career average, and continuing a trend that started last year, when Jones had the lowest BA of his career. Through 35 games, 59-percent of the pitches thrown to Jones have been strikes, not far off the league average of 62-percent. But Jones has only swung at 43-percent of those strikes (5 percent below average), has been swinging and missing or swinging and fouling balls off more frequently than the typical hitter, and putting fewer strikes in play.

Clearly, he’s seeing fewer good pitches, and missing those that he sees. One explanation would be a lack of confidence.

Through most of his career he has been known as a free-swinger, especially on favorable ball-strike counts. In the three previous seasons, Jones reached a 3-1 count 217 times and swung on 120 of them (55-percent). This season he’s swung on 41-percent of those same counts.

Without the confidence to hack at those pitches, he’s digging himself a bigger hole. Thus, giving the Chavez Ravine faithful more reason to boo him with a vengeance usually reserved for Raja Bell at

Staples Center. Unappreciative of his lack of fitness and a seemingly blasé attitude, on April 24, in the second game of a set against the Diamondbacks, fans heckled Jones as he jogged to his position, as he lingered a little too long in the box after a called strike three, and even after he made a put-out on a shallow fly ball.

That’s a pretty callous welcome for someone less than a month into his first season with the club, let alone a five time All Star and 10 time Gold Glove Award winner who, at worst, doesn’t short hop the cutoff man on a throw from center field like Juan Pierre.

However, the Dodgers signed Jones to upgrade their power numbers, not to add an impressive resume to their media guide. With Jones’ failures in 2007 still fresh, the two year deal bestowed upon him by LA is starting to look like wasted money. Perhaps two years seems like a one-night stand compared to what the Giants gave Barry Zito (7 years, $126 million), but it might be more disappointing.

Expectations for Jones weren’t any higher than those for Zito, but other than last season’s bomb and 2005’s 51 homer explosion (followed up by 41 in ’06), Jones has been extremely consistent. From ’98 (age 21) to ’04 (age 27) he never hit fewer than 26 homers or more than 36. He’s never put up great on-base numbers, but has a career OPS of .835, 56 points higher than the Major League average (.779).

Joe Torre has expressed the idea that the ’05 power explosion could have negatively affected Jones’ swing. He could be trying to pull everything in an effort to generate more power. Certainly that would play out in his mechanics.

Compare his 2008 swing with the 2004-05 version and his hands are slightly ahead of where they were and his left shoulder is now opening towards third base coach Larry Bowa.

By pulling his front shoulder, Jones is minimizing his plate coverage, and making outside pitches nearly impossible to reach. Pitchers are working Jones off the plate more often than ever to take advantage. In addition, his hands seem to be getting started a little too soon. He’s hitting .304 against fastballs, but his average dips below .220 against all off-speed pitches, including a dismal .198 against curveballs.

Whether his problems are psychological or mechanical, Jones’ decline, over the past season and a half, is troublesome, and part of a cycle of inefficiency. Because pitchers aren’t afraid to fall behind him anymore, they don’t give him much to hit early in counts, and don’t see the need to challenge with a good fastball. But as Jones gets deeper into at bats, he still seems to lack the confidence or pitch recognition to swing at anything less than a perfect ball.

As a 31-year-old outfielder, Jones’ career arc, at least offensively, is looking more like Ruben Sierra or Juan Gonzalez than Frank Robinson or Eddie Matthews. But Jones is a bigger star than Sierra or Gonzalez ever were, and not just at the all-you-can-eat buffet in right field.

Jones is still young and not so far removed from success, making a turn around still possible. But it will be an uphill climb, considering the expectations attached to him, and the fleeting patience for him to meet them.

Eric Patten is the Sports Editor for the Valley College Star. He has also worked as the Editor-in-Chief of the North Seattle Polaris, tracked NBA statistics for 82games.com and covered numerous college sports beats.

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