Friday, April 2, 2010

Repko's days as a Dodger are over

Jason Repko's strange career with the Dodgers has finally come to an end. After being with the organization since 1999, the Dodgers have released him.

The main problem for Repko has always been a couple of key factors: injuries and overpopulation in the outfield. It seemed like there wasn't a season that went by without him being hurt. Unfortunately, earning the tag of "injury-prone" did him no favors, especially as a reserve fighting for playing time.

Repko played in 129 games in 2005, but posted a meager .221 average. He then played in 69 games the next year, hitting .254 with 10 stolen bases. But, 2007 was washed out with a torn hamstring, and his Dodgers career may as well have been washed out too.

He seemed to have stuck around for so long because of his potential, as he did have good speed and played anywhere in the outfield. But his hitting was just never there. My one big memory of him was when he got called up from Triple-A to replace an injured Juan Pierre on June 30, 2008. Joe Torre hit him in the leadoff spot in Houston against Roy Oswalt.

Repko then went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, and he never seemed to recover.

There's always a chance Repko could be back on a minor league deal, but I would be very surprised if that happened.

The main outfield reserves are now Reed Johnson, Garret Anderson, and Xavier Paul. They looked to be locked in for Opening Day.

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