Hal's Dodgers Thread

[Halx]

Ok, so this season didn't end too well. We were expected to clean up the division, but we finished 4th. Why did it happen? Well, we lost Randy Wolf. I thought he was a great pickup when he was signed, and he pitched excellently. Then he was gone. Jason Schmidt was good on paper (I personally was thrilled) but apparently the dude has nothing left in the tank - and we stuck with him for a few more years. Then we had to wait half the season for Nomar to hit a home run. Not to mention I saw too many singles to center field that scored runners from 2nd because Juan Pierre can't even throw a fit.

Then there was the drama at the end of the season when Grady Little started giving the youngsters more play and Jeff Kent couldn't keep his asshole.. I mean mouth shut.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the team we had, but they just couldn't pull it together. The collapse at the end of the season was so complete that even Takashi Saito started giving up saves.

But all that is over. Now we're into the post season and the change has already begun.

WELCOME JOE TORRE! I hated you as a Yankee, but I think you're a far better manager than Grady Little. It was hard to hate Little because he was calmer than Phil Jackson, but his incompetence creeps up on you. Nobody outside of Boston (and their scattered fans) blamed him for leaving Pedro in. However, after watching this man make decisions on a daily basis, you realize how bad of a decision maker he is.

Next year will see Russel Martin, Brad Penny, Takashi Saito, Johnathan Broxton, and James Loney all on the All-Star team. Mark my words. James Loney is going to hit 30 homers and bat over .333, and he will win a Gold Glove.

Now, I hope my next update to this thread is to announce the arrival of Alex Rodriguez.

[Glory's Sun]

The Dodgers are an interesting team. They have good young talent and good veterans who, if they can stay healthy, could put a good playoff team on the field. I think Torre will help bring the young and old together, but I'm wondering just how much LA can afford to spend. They have to get some offense to go with the pitching they <i>should</i> have. Can they afford A-Rod?? I don't know. They probably don't even need that big of a bat to win the division.. it's a pretty soft division. I think all these idiots calling Colorado on a repeat should be shot. They got lucky.

Grady is a guy who is likeable but he just has a stupid bone in his head when it comes down to big decisions. It's like he wants to make that one decision that everyone calls him a genius for instead of doing what's best in the game at hand.

He was an idiot for leaving Pedro in and I'm glad he was fired.. Francona is 100x a better manager than Little could ever be.

[Average_Joe]

I am kind of confused about the whole "Joe Torre to the Dodgers" deal. If I ran the Dodgers organization and Joe Torre was available, I would try to get him aboard as well. However, when the first reports came in that the Dodgers were interested in Torre, Grady Little was STILL THE MANAGER. I don't know the whole backstory on this, but it seemed a bit disrespectful at the time. And then....the Dodgers don't fire Little...he resigns!?!?! What's up with that?

[Willravel]

The Dodgers are a very strong team, and I always enjoy watching them.

[Halx]

gucci, that's a good observation about Little.

I originally felt sorry for Little because of all the Torre talk, but I think his likability made it hard for the org to outright fire him.

[kutulu]

guccilvr:

I respect what you say here about the AL but you don't know the NL (especially the NL West). The NL West was be best division in the NL. It's a division where pitching owns. Virtually all of hte best pitchers in the NL are there.

The Dodgers will be interesting. Lots of young talent but they have a front office that is too stupid to give them a chance. Throw in the impatience of the LA market and you have an organization that makes moves too quickly (like firing DePodesta, and boneheaded free agent signings like Gonzo and Pierre).

They need to fire Colletti yesterday. The guy's moves make no sense at all. $20M for a manager? Are you kidding? What has Torre done on his own? Yes he won a lot but look at the talent and money he had to work with. He sure as hell didn't do anything for the Mets or the Cardinals. Seriously has he had a single win in his free agent signings?

They surely have the money to sign ARod and Colletti loves his veterans. If they do, it would probably give them the West. I'm hoping that ARod goes to the Cubs (that is, if he signs with an NL team). There is enough suck in Chicago for his effect to be minimized there.

[Halx]

Please enlighten me on what Depodesta did for the team. He traded LoDuca! Martin may be better, but he wasn't even on the radar. All Depodesta's moves came back to haunt us when we got swept last year.

[kutulu]

You really want to use the LoDuca trade to bash DePo? LoDoca was a 32-yr old overrated catcher. He traded him with a good relief pitcher (who has sucked ever since) with Encarnacion (salary dump, shitty player) for Penny who was only 26 at the time and has been one of your best pitchers since then. He was smart enough to let Beltre walk. He signed Lowe, Kent, and Drew (you may be bitter for him leaving but he was excellent for you), fooled the DBacks into taking Shawn Green off their hands.

What has Colletti done to improve the team? He signed Furcal (bust), Pierre (bust), Nomar (bust), Loiaza (probably a bust), Schmidt (bust), Gonzo (bust), Little (bust), and Wolf (bust). The only good player he brought in was Saito and that was the work of the org's Asian scouting team, not his.

[Halx]

Furcal, Pierre (am I saying this?) and Wolf are not busts. Wolf especially.. he just got injured, and you cant account for that. Furcal also got injured but does well despite it and Pierre hits for a pretty good avg. He's just not a CF. You can argue that Nomar is a bust, but he wasn't last year. Gonzo did his part as well. Loaiza was all we could do at a time when all of our talent was on the DL.

Anyways, LoDuca is not overrated. Where have you been living? He was a leader and a great hitter. There's probably a reason why Guillermo Mota hasn't done well since leaving the org and we didn't get shit for Green, which we should have.

I'm not saying Coletti is great, but DePodesta broke my heart.

[kutulu]

Furcal had a good 2006 but he was horrible all year in 2007 and he cost $13M.
Pierre doesn't get on base and when he does he gets caught stealing way too much. That will only get worse as he works his way through his $45M contract.

Be objective about LoDuca. Even for a catcher he's a below average hitter. You can check it here if you don't believe me. He had a good arm, pre-2004 but since then he hasn't been throwing out a lot of base stealers.

As for Green, it was a salary dump. You unload a costly player who is past his prime on a dumbass GM (Joe Jr from AZ). You don't get much talent back in a salary dump unless you kick in some serious cash. When AZ traded Green they had to kick in almost $6M and they still didn't get anything back.

Look at when ARod was traded to NY. They got back 2 years of Soriano but they had to pay $67 million.

[goddfather40]

I'm confused.

Is Joe Torre going to play third base? This better be the first of a few more moves by the Blue. They need power (like the Angels) desperately, to complement a solid core of young talent.

[troit]

Hate to say it but A-Rod will certainly be in a LA uniform next year...

[dylanmarsh]

If they do sign A-Rod, Andy LaRoche is a huge trading piece to solidify the starting pitching. I could see the Dodgers flipping LaRoche and Kershaw for the likes of Erik Bedard.

[Halx]

I'm convulsing with excitement right now. I know hiring Torre wont change the world, but I'm anxious to see how he does it. We'll get Don Mattingly as hitting coach too.

[Mondak]

Mattingly is super psycho when it comes to hitting. He obsesses about it constantly. He is still a student of the game and really understands the dynamics of hitting and the situations that a hitter will be in. He will be a real value to the Dodgers - although I think he is going to be "bench coach" instead of hitting coach. I think that means #2 behind Torre.

[QuasiMondo]

I dunno about this. I mean, one of the biggest criticisms Yankee fans had against Torre was his poor management of the bullpen.

Let's not forget that prior to the Yankees, he managed the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals, and his record with those teams was less than stellar.

I'm sure anything is better than Grady Little, just don't get too excited and expect him to be the second coming of Tommy LaSorda.

[RickB]

And congrats to Russell Martin for his bright shiny Gold Glove!

[Halx]

Dodgers add Andruw Jones! I love the pickup, but we needed a 3rd baseman more than a CF. This gives us some trade bait for one of those, or even a pitcher. I'm willing to give up Matt Kemp for an ace. For all the ability they claim that guy to have, he has the baseball IQ of a badminton player.

[kutulu]

I think Jones will more likely than not bounce back but damn, that is a lot of money for a 2 yr deal. What about Pierre? Is he being dealt or moved?

[RickB]

The LA Times is speculating that Pierre will be moved to left, leaving Ethier and Kemp in right. One of them might be moved. They're also looking at a Japanese pitcher named Kuroda.

[Halx]

The Japanese media is claiming that Kuroda is going to the Dodgers. I hope they don't give up on Bedard though. I'm not sure if I like the asian pitchers. They are very soft. Remember Ishii? That guy had this perpetual look on his face like someone stole his teddy bear. Pitched like it too. Granted, Saito is hardcore.

[Halx]

It turns out all these years, the Dodgers organization has not been letting me down. What I saw as an act of shitty managing was actually meant to get rid of their steroid users. Paul LoDuca and Guillermo Mota were traded because of it. Eric Gagne was allowed to walk because of it.

Wow. Damn.

[kutulu]

Wait a sec, why do you think it was because of steroids? Did you read that somewhere? DePo traded them at peak value for Penny, who was then given a contract extension. Penny has done really well for you guys and he is locked in on a contract that gives him WAY below market price for the next two years. Excellent trade.

[Halx]

AND they got rid of 2 steroid users.