A week long conference followed by a week long bout with the flu kept me from writing much the last two weeks, so I'm a little behind on baseball news.
The new Hall of Fame ballot was released today and it's fairly mundane. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd vote for any of them to be in the HOF. All were obviously good to great players (but usually great for a short length of time) but none really jump out at you as HOF material. Someone will probably get voted in but I wouldn't be surprised if none were.
The free agent signing season has started as well as the first half of the trading season (between Christmas and New Years not much gets done). A lot of the experts and "insiders" keep talking about the signings and trades the Dodgers need to make. Hopefully Ned Colletti isn't listening to any of them.
The idea of trading Kemp, Loney, Billingsley, Kershaw, LaRoche, or even Ethier, is abolsute lunacy. If the Dodgers trade Kemp it will almost immediately rank with when the team tried to "hide" Roberto Clemente in their minor league instead of keeping him safe by bringing him up to the majors. In that story the Dodgers front office seemed oblivious to the fact that Branch Rickey, who has left the Dodgers to become president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, probably had every minor leaguer in the Dodger system memorized. If they trade Billingsley or Kershaw it would almost immediately become the worst trade in the team's history, ranking right up there with the Pedro Martinez for Delino DeShields mess.
The Dodger needs, in my opinion are fairly simple. They need back end rotation help. Their #4 and #5 starters last year were horrible and as a result the team never had a winning streak over five games and were constantly in the bullpen. If Kershaw is ready to jump to the majors, then one spot is filled. I don't think Estaban Loiza is the answer either, but he probably gets a chance in the spring.
The same experts keep talking about the Dodgers needing a center fielder. That would be OK if they were also talking about Juan Pierre being sent somewhere else, but the rumors are signing a center fielder and moving Juan Pierre to left. Perhaps I'm missing something here but I wonder how many clubs would like the following starting line up:
1B James Loney
2B Tony Abreu (hoping that Jeff Kent is traded before the season starts)
3B Andy LaRoche
SS Rafael Furcal
LF Andre Ethier
CF Juan Pierre (but insert Jason Repko if he is recovered and has a good spring)
RF Matt Kemp
C Russell Martin
Starting Pitchers: Chad Billingsley, Brad Penny, Derrick Lowe, Clayton Kerhsaw (?) and TBD
Relief: closer: Takashi Saito, Set Up: Jonathan Broxton and Jonathan Meloan
Trading any of these young players (who aren't very expensive yet) would be silly at this point. The Dodgers were only eight games out of winning the NL west (and into late July still had the best record in the entire NL). A swing of +10 to 15 will make them a division winner. That's not all that hard to imagine since the 4-5 starters last year only won 6 games between them.
Hopefully, the Dodgers can unload Jeff Kent and get him away from their clubhouse. Nomar Garciaparra is under contract this year, but he should be a utility player, not a starter. Luis Gonzalez has said that he'd like to resign because of Joe Torre being the new manager, but it is far more likely that he has figured out that no one is going to offer him a $10 million per year contract. The Dodgers don't need Gonzalez and should not resign him.
The trade rumors about Miguel Cabrera have quieted down thankfully. The idea that the Dodgers would trade four of their top prospects for one player is absurd. I would consider Kemp, Billingsley, Kershaw or Loney, individually to be equal value to Cabrera. Cabrera is a great hitter, but his work habits and discipline seem to be a question (his weight is also a concern) and he's only at this point slightly above average as a fielder.
It should be interesting up through Spring Training. So far Colletti has not made any trade moves or stupid free agent signings (Chan Ho Park may still be serviceable in middle relief), I hope it stays that way.
Posted by Narnia3 at November 26, 2007 11:20 AM | TrackBack