Think small? (and a Question of the Day)

I've been going back and forth on Santana or Cabrera, and this is what I have finally come to:

Let's trade for Cabrera over Santana. The Dodgers have had bad luck when it comes to acquiring pitchers, so let's go after the sure thing. Santana is good, but there always seem to be a pitcher with his skill set that comes along every five years. Guys like Cabrera are much more rare.

So here's the deal:
Trade LaRoche, Kemp and Kershaw for Cabrera. OR we can make it Loney, Kemp and Kershaw and move Cabrera over to 1B and play LaRoche every day.

I also say we sign Hunter over Rowand. He'll cost more, but he's also more reliable and has more power.

My Thanksgiving wish would be to see Juan Pierre wearing any uniform but the Dodgers' next season. Even if Colletti then fails to land another outfielder, I think the team would be better off. We all know Delwyn Young can hit. Kemp will continue to develop power, and if Ethier can continue to deliver the way he has the past couple of seasons, I think the Dodgers will be all right. Part B to that wish would be for Larry Bowa and the rest of Torre's coaching staff to lay down some serious discipline in the clubhouse next season, transforming Kemp into a passable fielder and good baserunner.

if we trade for these marquee players there is a chance we could win the division and a couple of playoff games for however many seasons we are able to keep them. their high price will limit our ability to maneuver in future FA markets.

but if we keep our young talent we have a chance for a dynasty. we have the core guys. we just need to bolster our bullpen and get a reliable 4th starter.

unfortunately ned's gonna continue to over spend dodger money willy-nilly on over the hill players. my god! think of all the money he's wasted that if used more wisely could have put us over the top. AAAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!

Scott True Blue... you gotta be kidding me! You prefer Andy LaRoche over James Loney?! LaRoche only hit .226 last year, and already has a history of injuries. Nah... James Loney isn't going anywhere, man.

Plus, if you trade Loney AND Kemp for Cabrera, you have added NOTHING to the Dodgers lineup. Add Cabrera's 35 HR. Okay, but now you have subtracted AT LEAST the 35 HR that Loney and Kemp can add. Plus, you've traded away Kershaw? Makes no sense to me.

And you can't pass up on a guy like Santana just because the Dodgers have had "bad luck." You can make an argument that the Dodgers have "bad luck" with position player free agents as well (goin way back... Darryl Strawberry and Fred McGriff, more recently with J.D. Drew, Bill Mueller).

i'm having problems believing all this bad press about kemp. is he really that bad to coach? or is the problem that we had a coaching crew that wasn't doing there job? i don't know kemp but from the interviews he didn't seem like a guy with an attitude problem. he was always saying the right things and giving his teammates props. maybe the blame should have been on little's crew not steping up and doing there job in teaching him the fundamentals. kevin kennedy kept mentioning on air that a coach should be assigned to kemp to help him out ... but it never happened. lets remember that he jumped to the majors straight from AA. what do you expect. i say lets give torre's crew the chance to work with kemp. and if that doesn't happen you could trade him next year. whats the rush?

BK-
My very first baseball game was the Roy Campanella memorial game in the Coliseum with 93,000 fans. When they turned out the lights and had everyone light a match it was magical.

I heard an interesting thing on tv today. A-Rod always gets criticized for not winning in the post-season but the last MVP to also win the world series was Kirk Gibson in 1988.

The best move the Dodgers could make this offseason would be to sign Aaron Rowand and put him in center field. This would give the team the flexibility to make a trade for either another pitcher or an impact bat.

The absolute worst thing the Dodgers could do would be to dump their farm system for 1 player. A 4 for 1 trade for Cabrera will not make the Dodgers a better team next year, and would significantly hurt the team in the long term. Kemp, Loney, Bills, and Broxton should be off limits for trades. If we need to trade young players and/or prospects for pitching or a bat, I would much rather see LaRoche, Either, and Meloan traded (and it would be nice if someone would take Garciaparra and Pierre off our hands). All Matt Kemp needs is some time and mentoring, and he will be a 30-40 hr/yr, 30+ SB, 300+ BA guy who also plays very good D. Players like Kemp are hard to come by. Give Kemp 3 yrs, and I bet he is as good as Cabrera. Why would it ever make sense to trade him and several other top prospects for 1 player?

I don't buy all the BS that has been written by Plaschke and Simers that Kemp is a bad clubhouse influence. The problem the Dodgers had last year was that there were too many over the hill vets who were blocking the progress of the kids. There was natural tension in the clubhouse between vets who were losing playing time, and kids who were taking playing time from them. The losing at the end of the year, and Grady's poor management of the situation caused things to come to a head. If personnel changes need to be made, then the Dodgers are better off going with the kids and dumping the over the hill gang. I want the Dodgers to complete for a title for the foreseeable future, and the only way to do that is to keep the best of the kids.

And by the way- Loney is a much better offensive player than Olerud, while Olerud is better defensively. Loney has been red hot the last two Septembers, and showed a lot of power late last year. With some time I think James will hit 20-30 hrs/yr while hitting well over 300 and playing solid D. A better comparison for Loney is Derrick Lee.

Scott..Loney is Olerud? Sorry my man...you are just parroting some stale drivel that sportwriters wrote before Loney came up this pats season.Try to think on your own. Your posts are just regurgetated sports columns that you post as your own 'thoughts.' Are you a kid? Your posts are very juvenile.

I’m absolutely amazed at how little vision some people have, not to mention how non-observant they can be. Case in point is the comment that LaRoche has more power potential than Loney. No doubt, LaRoche has real power potential. However, so does Loney (far more than John Olerud, who, since I live in NY, I saw play a lot for the Mets). Power is generally the last thing that comes to a hitter. Power is a combination of physical maturity and experience. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who noticed, but for those of you who were asleep, just thought you would like to know that Loney hit 9 of his 15 HR’s in September. The breakout we’ve been waiting for has already happened. And by the way, the balls he was hitting were not just making it over the wall. There were quite a few blasts that carried a considerable distance. And don’t believe it was just a fluke. Might be that in 2008 Loney will match or surpass Miguel Cabrera’s power numbers.
For those of you who think that Matt Kemp has an attitude problem, you had better take a close look Mr. Cabrera. Not exactly a model citizen. As for Kemp’s reaction to known malcontent Jeff Kent, it was just the reaction of a still maturing youngster to a veteran who should have known better. Whether he overreacted or not isn’t important. What is important is that it was put to bed (at least in public), and we heard nothing more from him. And let’s not forget, that our other troublemaker, Mr. Loney, also had a few comments of his own. So let’s get rid of Kemp and Loney, and hold on to our future (Mr. Kent).

Of course, some of you think that Matt Kemp is uncoachable. Clearly you weren’t watching the same player I was. Yes, he still has problems in the outfield, and yes again, he still goes fishing for some breaking balls. But from my observations, his pitch recognition showed a dramatic improvement from what it had been in 2006. How else did he manage to hit .342? The problem with promoting young players like Kemp to the major leagues, is that what would normally be perceived as the inevitable growing pains of development are displayed as deficiencies to the larger and more critical major league audience. Does anyone remember that before he stuck with the Dodgers, that Ron Cey played three full minor league seasons at AAA? Matt Kemp played A-ball in 2005 before advancing to the Dodgers in 2006. But still, some of you expect to see a polished major league player. In spite of his inexperience and lack of playing time at the MLB level, I saw a player whose pitch recognition improved dramatically from the end of 2006 thru 2007. Again, how else did he manage to hit .342?

Homeruns often come in bunches. Let Kemp play everyday, and his power streaks will come. Instead, on more than one occasion last year I saw Kemp get 2 or 3 hits in a game (once or twice it was 4 hits), and find himself on the bench the next day. Kemp has more power than Cabrera, all he lacks is playing time. And, as I’ve commented before, Kemp has something Cabrera will never have, blazing SPEED. And I’m a lot more confident that the athletic Kemp’s play in the outfield will improve, than I am that Cabrera’s defense will do the same.

If we could add Cabrera without subtracting Loney and Kemp, maybe that would make sense (depending on the actual details of the transaction). Then the Dodger lineup would present a formidable problem for any pitcher facing them. Pitching around Dodger hitters would clearly become problematical. Everyone would get better pitches to hit, and the result would be an offensive ripple effect that would permeate throughout the lineup. Remove Kemp and Loney, and Cabrera sees a lot less good pitches to hit.

If the Dodgers want more power, they have most of it already in-house. Kemp and Loney (we saw plenty of evidence in September) are on the verge of breakout seasons. Let them play everyday and you will see lots more power. Martin and Ethier are also likely to improve their power numbers. Get rid of Pierre (yes, I believe he can be traded if the Dodgers are willing to pick up a piece of his contract, and take very little or nothing in return). Then, if possible, sign one of the free agent centerfielders, and you have a significant increase over Pierre’s zero (0) HR’s in 2007. Even Furcal might add a few more HR;s if he’s healthy, and Nomar/LaRoche might combine for 15-20 HR’s at 3B. And I think there are alternatives at 3B other than Cabrera. For example, there has been speculation that Seattle is anxious to move Adrian Beltre to rid themselves of the last two years of his contract. Beltre’s numbers in 2007 were .276, 26 HR’s, 99 RBI. Throw in exceptional defense, and you have a significant improvement at 3B. I don’t know what it would take to pry Beltre loose from Seattle, but maybe it could be accomplished with a package that included LaRoche and Ethier. I would be willing to include Ethier in any such trade since I am confident that he could be replaced by Delwyn Young.

Also, as noted in an earlier post, if Cabrera and/or Santana were obtained by the Dodgers, the cost of retaining either one or both would be astronomical. In the not too distant future the Dodgers would be forced to shell out something in the neighborhood of $20 million/yr. for each of them.

Giving up our best prospects to obtain a single player (no matter how good that player may be), is to say the least, very shortsighted. In other words, it’s a return to the good old days of the QUICK FIX. As most of us know, quick fixes generally don’t work.

Also, as long as I’m taking up so much space with this post, I might as well comment on the earlier posts regarding regarding a potential move of Ethier to centerfield. In my judgment that would be a huge mistake. Ethier does a decent job at the corners, and he has a good arm. But in my opinion he lacks the speed and range to play centerfield. With Ethier in center I fear that there would be lots of balls falling in the gaps, and others making it over Ethier’s head.

And finally, regarding Clayton Kershaw. Whereas some of you have opinions as to whether or not he should be included in any deals, I have no such opinion. The reason is simple. I have never seen him pitch, and therefore have no firsthand information upon which to form an opinion. I simply to not know. I don’t know if he’s the next Chad Billingsley or the next Edwin Jackson. That’s one decision I’ll have to trust to management.

As much as I hate to say it, the Dodgers should have at least attempted to go after A-rod. With all the young talent, I don't think payroll would have been much of an issue for the next 3-4 years. I don't think much will be accomplished by signing Rowand.

I hate to say it, but we should have made some sort of attempt for A-Rod. Using the young talent around him, Dodgers would not have to worry about payroll issues for the next 3-5 years.

Bye-bye Torii... at least we won't have the Torre/Torii confusion thing.

Man the angles are getting all aggressive and stuff.

Can the Float play 3rd base?