There goes Andruw Jones, off to knee surgery on Tuesday and “6-8 weeks” off, an absence I believe will be considerably longer.

He now has an acceptable excuse for doing nothing to make the Dodgers better. The man is hurt, see? Just a tough break. Not at all a function of a guy whose career is imploding.

Now he goes off the radar until at least August, and maybe until 2008. But before he disappears, shall we reflect on the damage he has done?

The pain he has inflicted on the Dodgers, a team I follow closely, but also to my fantasy club, a team I follow even more closely.

If Andruw Jones had, after signing on for that $36.5 million, two-year stint, performed at a pace resembling last season’s — his worst as a big-leaguer, by the way — what would it have meant to the Dodgers and, just as importantly to my selfish purposes, to my fictive team?

A homer per week. Three runs scored per week. Nearly four run per week driven in. That’s what you get from a guy who hits 26 homers with 83 runs and 94 RBI — Jones’ numbers from 2007.

That may not sound like a lot, to the average fan, but it is. Both the Dodgers (and my team) are run-starved. Add a homer per week and four RBI to the equation (numbers Jones’ replacement, Juan Pierre, are never going to match) … and the Dodgers probably win an extra game every couple of weeks.

They might be an 88-victory team instead of the 83 or 84 they seem headed for.

And my team, instead of continuing its death spiral (5-14 the previous three weeks, 0-6 in the offing this week) probably is contending in our league because I have better pitching than do the Dodgers.

So, yeah, thanks for nothing — literally nothing — Andruw. (That’s what I consider two homers, seven RBI and .165 batting average in 133 at-bats. Nothing.) You proved the Dodgers’ signing of you to be a massive lost investment, one fans will be paying for for years. You probably will cost Ned Colletti his job, because he was the man who gave so much money to a player who clearly had no fire in his belly.

(Jones goes off-stage with this last final memory: Whiffing with the tying and winning runs on base to end Friday’s game.)

And you made a prophet of me when, with the 54th pick in our fantasy draft, I made you my No.1 outfielder. But not before saying, “I know I’m gonna hate this guy, but …”

I was desperate for a run-producer. I looked at the board and suddenly saw a dearth of outfielders who might hit 30 homers. And, like Ned Colletti, I rolled the dice. Disastrously.

Now, there is no need for Jones to rush back. He isn’t going to show up a day early. He’s fat, out of shape and probably already the most-loathed player in Dodgers history. He wants to get in the lineup right away … so he can hear those boos again?

The Dodgers don’t want him back quickly because his apparent sudden and perhaps irreversible collapse only points up the mistake Colletti made. On the disabled list, fans perhaps will be able to forget that big, fat mistake in center field.

And I don’t want him back. I won’t be tempted to keep a guy in my lineup who has killed my team … just because the only thing worse than that guy doing nothing, week after week, is to bench him in my fantasy world and then have him finally hit a little, and me not get those stats. That’s what you do with high picks. You play them and play them because you believe in them … and only the DL forces you to get on with your season.

Take your time Andruw. Don’t rush back on our account.