As everyone knows right now, the Dodgers have been one of the most underachieving teams in baseball right now. They have the 7th highest payroll in baseball this year. Here are their five highest paid:

1. Rafael Furcal (Making 15,730,195 this year and is expected to be out until the ASB, but was great when he was healthy earlier)

2. Jason Schmidt (15,217,401 this year and he was bad last year, even when he was healthy. He threw a bullpen session today, but he's been doing that for a while)

3. Andruw Jones (14,726,910...OK, next one)

4. Derek Lowe (10 million, had been good at times, has been bad at others)

5. Nomar Garciaparra (9,516,697 this year, has been hurt for most of the year)

While it's not their faults four of the five have been hurt, you seriously have to question what was going on in Ned Colletti's mind when these contracts were signed

Lowe was signed in the 2004/2005 offseason after he had posted a 5.42 ERA the year before, although he had come up big in the playoffs, winning the decisive games of all three series for Boston that year. But, Lowe was probably the 3rd best starter on that staff that year, behind Pedro and Schilling. My guess is that his postseason performance vaulted his status

Nomar and Furcal were signed after the 2005 season. Both had had a good season the year before. Maybe you can make a case for Furcal's signing. In 2005, the Dodger's main lead-off hitter was Cesar Izturis, who hit .257 with an OBP of just over .300

As for Nomar, he hit .283 in 63 games for the Cubs in '05. This was the year he tore his gorin (I believe that was the injury). While he hit .303 in '06, his performance had dropped since

Jason Schmidt's walks had increased from 46 in 2003, to 85 in 2005, and 80 in 2006. The number of hits, runs, and homers given up also increased. He was 34 in 2007. My guess is, he should have never been signed

And finally, there's Andruw Jones. We all know Jones's performance in 2007, in a contract year, when everybody seems to step up (ala Adrian Beltre) so I'll just move on

Of course, there's been plenty of other bad signings: JD Drew, Brett Tomko, Luis Gonzalez (Who is one of my favorite players, but not a good signing for the Dodgers), Brady Clark, Esteban Loaiza, David Wells, juat to name a few...

So, what would I do if I was in charge of the Dodgers? First, I would have a major salary dump, sort a Marlins-style firesale, trading or releasing many players

Pitchers to get rid of:
Derek Lowe. He's a decent 2 or 3 starter, and had pitched well this year, for the most part

Takashi Saito. He's been great the last two and a half years, but he's 38, and how much will he ask for when his contract expires?

Jason Schmidt. Injured a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't throw another pitch in MLB

Scott Proctor. Joe Torre overused him in New York and here

Hitters to get rid of:
Jeff Kent. He can still play, but he's 40. I'm trying to get a much younger roster, so he's got to go

Either Blake DeWitt or Andy LaRoche. Pick one and trade the other. Both are still young, you could get good value for either one. Myself, I'd take DeWitt, since he's done better at the major league level so far (Although neither one has played a lot in MLB, so it's way too early to make a definitive choice)

Andruw Jones. Never would have signed him to begin with

Mark Sweeney. He can't even do his one job, come off the bench and get on base. I'm not a fan of having a designated pinch hitter anyways

Angel Berroa. Couldn't play in Kansas City. That explains it all

So that's it. Thanks for taking the time to read all this. Feel free to comment with any ideas of your own!