There is only one person on the entire planet who hasn’t come to grips with the fact that the Juan Uribe experiment has failed – and miserably. Fortunately for Uribe (but unfortunately for Jerry Sands, Tony Gwynn Jr., Elian Herrera, Justin Sellers, Josh Fields and millions of Dodger fans), it is the only person that matters – Ned Colletti.

Why Colletti continues to hang on to what is obviously his worst free agent signing since Andruw Jones rather than simply admit defeat and cut his losses with Uribe remains a mystery to all and does nothing but substantiate the belief that his insatiable ego continues to stand in the way of sound judgement and common sense. It is a decision that could very well cause Ned Colletti to forever be remembered as a lousy general manager as opposed to being remembered as a (potentially) good one.

Juan Uribe must have some serious dirt on Ned Colletti – Why else would Ned keep him? (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo).

The real mystery, however, was calling up hot-hitting Triple-A outfielder Jerry Sands to give Andre Ethier a questionable day off and then sending Sands right back down to Albuquerque three days later. I certainly understand that a roster spot had to be made available for returning utility infielder (not outfielder) Adam Kennedy, but to send outfielder (not infielder) Jerry Sands and his potentially big pinch-hitting bat back down to Triple-A instead of dumping useless infielder (not outfielder) Juan Uribe is yet another unbelievable and inexplicable Colletti blunder. What part of useless doesn’t Colletti understand?

All of this being said and to give credit where due, as painful and unpopular as Colletti’s decision to designate Tony Gwynn Jr. for assignment was, it was, in all honesty, the right decision and one that had to be made. Dodger manager Don Mattingly had already come right out and said that with the acquisition of Shane Victorino and with only 50 games remaining, he was going to play Kemp, Ethier and Victorino every day and not remove them from any games. As such, there was no reason to hang on to the weak-hitting Gwynn Jr. as a late-innings defensive replacement. Mattingly’s thinking is that (Lord forbid) should one of his outfielders get injured, Jerry Hairston Jr. could fill in as a temporary replacement. (Of course, having two very good center fielders on your roster is kind of nice, too).

It goes without saying that Sands will be called back up on September 1st when rosters expand, as will Tony Gwynn Jr. who (thankfully) accepted assignment to Triple-A Albuquerque after being DFA’d.

But what also goes without saying (by Ned Colletti, that is) is why he continues to ignore the obvious and refuses to unload Uribe. Even if the Dodgers do make it into the post season, does Colletti actually believe that Uribe deserves a spot on the playoff roster? I mean, come on now – let’s get real, Ned.

During a recent caption call for this photo on the ThinkBlueLA forum, the hands-down winner was “Which way is first base?” (Photo Credit – AP)

The bottom line is that Uribe is guaranteed $7 million for 2013 (plus an additional $1 million in 2014) whether he sits on the bench rotting and taking up a very valuable roster spot or if he is sent packing (à la Andruw Jones – another Colletti blunder whom the Dodgers are still paying $3.2 million a year for and will continue to do so through the 2014 season).

It’s time for Ned Colletti to quit prolonging the inevitable and do the right thing – or for Stan Kasten to replace Colletti with someone who will.