Is It Too Late for Me to Learn to Throw Lefthanded?
'Cause I'm game, considering the potential for substantial financial gain. Not that blogging isn't treating me well (thanks, as always, to our L.A. Times overlords), but I'm still a few tax brackets away from Mark Hendrickson, and I'm interested in moving up. I could live on the three mil the lanky lefty will get next season. And if the Dodgers get the Ken Ravizza version of Hendrickson, they can live with three mil, too. Given the price of pitching these days (sobering thought coming here, just to warn you), it's not all that bad an investment for the Blue. But if Congress doesn't soon pass a law mandating that all parents who don't force their kids to throw lefthanded be brought up on child abuse charges, I'm calling my representative.
In other news, Grady Little's homespun dugout interviews will be a fixture for at least a couple more seasons, it seems. This move I like. Little has the perfect temperament to handle the mix of young and old players the Dodgers will field this season, and the potentially younger group in upcoming years. He may not be the strongest in-game manager baseball has to offer, but he's not the worst, either, by any stretch. On the flip side, he's a strong manager of people and players. Over a 162 game season, that's big.
BK
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BK, you summed up Little pretty well.
Maybe with the criticism of his stratigizing, Little will focus a "little" more on that this season. Players are supposed to improve. Why not managers as well?
Hard to believe a guy could pitch like Hendrickson last year and get a million dollar raise.
Baseball is a fantasy land...
Posted by: Andy B | January 16, 2007 at 12:10 PM
Yeah I can't believe Hendrickson stayed on the team let alone got a raise. The only explanation I can see is that they'll keep him for bait trying to land a bat on the line, and that's not real probable. I really can't think of anything else!..Maybe we can start saying "Game's finished and the dodgers lost"..
Posted by: Hugo | January 16, 2007 at 01:30 PM
I have to admit, I just don't get it! Hendrickson's ERA and W/L ratio ought to be declared the Hendrickson Line (think Mendoza Line). First, I was amazed at what they put out for Wolf when they had Aaron Sele with better numbers last year being paid 1/7th as much and he's still sitting in the cold. Maybe there is something to these "brilliant baseball minds" that isn't so obvious to us mere mortals! My guess is they're either pulling a real fat one over the heads of the McCourt regime or there is a well used "dart board" in the think tank of deep thought and decision making.
I'm on the fence with the Little decision. He's a definate improvement over his two predecessors, but still too indecisive (or slow to act), which cost the Dodgers more than a few losses last year. But then isn't that what he'd become famous for before he came to LA.
Long live the Blue Sox...ur uh...Dodgers, yeah yeah dats dah ticket!
Posted by: Dodger_Fan_Since_'74 | January 16, 2007 at 02:07 PM
I'm still not convinced that the Dodgers' apparent lack of power is really that big of a deal. With a healthy Kent, I expect his HR totals to increase. I also expect some of the other Dodger hitters like Ethier, Martin and Betemit to increase their HR totals by modest amounts. I expect the Dodgers to improve their HR totals by upwards of 20 homers next season. And if they don't increase their HR totals, they have the speed and contact hitters to manufacture additional runs anyway.
As for Hendrickson, I think his $1M raise is an indictment on the folly of MLB's arbitration process in general. The fact that the Dodgers gave him that ludicrous raise to avoid arbitration proves that.
I seem to recall that arbitrators rule in favor of the player some ridiculous number, like 86% of the time. If the process was truly impartial, you'd expect to see that number to be much closer to 50% over a very large sample size.
My $0.02 (after taxes)
Len
Posted by: Len Penzo | January 16, 2007 at 04:08 PM
I can't argue with the Little extension, although I'm not really a fan of Grady. The guy at the very least held the team together last year, and with lots of new faces in '07, he can probably do the same again.
The worst thing the Dodgers could have done would have been to fire the manager without a suitable replacement, and the second worst thing would have been to have a lame duck manager flail through a long season with lots of ups and downs.
Let's get ready for pitcher and catchers to report, already!
Posted by: Makoto Ueno | January 16, 2007 at 05:55 PM
Sure wish we would go after Joe Girardi instead of Little.
Posted by: Jim | January 16, 2007 at 09:07 PM
BK- I am with you regarding the comment on Grady Little. He seems unflappable and level-headed, the perfect combination for a manager working with a lot of young guys. Also (and sorry if I am late with this, great job by you and AK on the article about the NFL playoffs for ESPN magazine.
Posted by: Tim H | January 17, 2007 at 05:54 PM
Tim-
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it (and don't apologize- it's never to late so say we did something well, hahaha).
BK
Posted by: Brian Kamenetzky | January 18, 2007 at 09:26 AM