More on Nomar, and other items of great import

I totally agree with many of my fellow TRUE BLUE DODGER FANS commenting on this blog. Seriously, what in God's name is going on with this once proud top-shelf organization? Let's be honest... Colletti does not get it...it appears he is the wrong man for the job! Let me ignite this fire by tossing these logs. 1) The Pierre-factor deserves no further conversation because he does not give you the best chance to win! The GM's Pride should determine playing time. End of story! 2) Unfortunately, Garciaparra has aged too quickly and LaRoche is clearly another Mr. Glass. Nonetheless, the solution is not trading prospects because the organization has viable alternative from within (ex. Hu at third) 3)The Schmitt reality is a deep wound that clearly demonstrates Colletti's incompetence as a manager. Everyone knows that throwing money at a problem does not work. 4) Remember the moves of 2006 & 2007...signing Gonzo, letting Robles go, keeping Olmedo Saenz "The Rally-Killer", the panic of 07 when Drew opted out, the resigning of Graciaparra, claiming Loiaza, courting Torre while Grady was still manager, signing Bennet who was named in the "Mitchell Report" and countless other things.

I am sorry, but my patience is gone. I bleed Dodger blue like many of us who bother to read this blog and others in hope that the City can get a championship. If you accept my rant, you will agree that Colletti and the McCourts have demonstrated poor judgment and have committed rookie mistakes. Ned, my dear Ned, now is the time to salvage the situation by taking into consideration all the details. Honestly, the way things are going, we should not be complaining that the Angels of Anaheim claim to be from Los Angeles.

The problem with trading for any of the likely candidates at 3B is that we end up with another Juan Pierre like contract for a below average position player. I sure hope Ned does not make that mistake again. I still do not know if we have a long term solution to 3B within the orgainization but I do not believe that Helms, Inge, or Crede is an appropriate solution.
I know that I would prefer the Dodgers give Dewitt, Hu, Abreu, and LaRoche a shot before we get stuck with another Pierre situation.
It would be like Christmas if Ned would trade Pierre for a bag of peanuts. Does anyone else think that Gurnick has drank the kool-aid that Ned and Frank have provided?
This guy loves Pierre as does Tony Jackson.
I don't get it.
What do Ethier and Kemp have to do to prove they deserve to start? I get it that this is spring training. However, they both outperformed Pierre last year despite playing on an irregular basis.

Lex,

I've always felt that Gurnick was a house man. Never writes anything incisive, always agrees with management.

I agree that it would be a huge mistake to add another Inge-type guy (i.e. a player who would only muddy the waters without being a clear improvement over either Nomar or a healthy LaRoche), but I feel like if they were going to pull the trigger on a deal like that, theyd have done it by now.

If the price on a Crede type drops so low that they sacrifice nothing to get him, maybe you do it, but otherwise, I think they'll stay put.

BK

Bill Plashcke is still an IDIOT!

So let me get this straight, Ethier is playing lights out hitting .352 with 5 homers, Kemp .304, leads team with 15 RBI's, and Gurnick still writes that they should start Pierre who is hitting .200 just cause he's a veteran? WHY? I thought spring training was about proven yourself to the new coaching staff? Don't get me wrong I think every line-up needs a player like Pierre who has speed, and can steal a base but if you can't get on base which he hardly did last season, and can't seem to do it during this spring than what good is he unless you bring him in as a pinch runner, and c'mon just like Lex said what does Ethier has to do to earn the start? That boy is hungry...he'll eat the ball if you ask him to, he's ready. The way I see it...it's Pierre contract that has kept him still on the everyday lineup.

I'm not saying it's not going to be a tough decision for Torre to choose between these players, but being that this is his first year he holds no allegiance to anybody, so hopefully he'll choose the right player which shouldn't be Pierre to help the team win. And I don't think platooning players will be good for them either.

Garciaparra is done! At this stage of his career he is nothing more than a pinch hitter at best, and the only reason he's still wearing Dodger blue is because knuckle head Colleti gave him a two year contract. LaRoche is just too soft he's always injured.

How good is this Blake DeWitt guy?

I'm sure everybody knows this by now, but the Nomar situation is worse than initially reported.

http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080320&content_id=2447046&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=la

Ken Rosenthal has written about Mark Loretta as a possibility at 3rd. Not very expensive, certainly no slugger, but a good, steady player.

my thoughts about this spring so far:

they should try young at third.

ethier must start.

repko must stay on this team. i was right about jayson werth a long time ago (that he will bounce back great), im right about this.

leave chan ho in vegas. loiaza needs to start.

thats all for now.

I guess most of us have read the L.A. Times sports page this morning: Andre the Giant is hitting .352 AND leads the team in Home Runs. Pierre La Pew on the other hand is hitting .200 and has an on base percentage of .279. Nice work Juan. Torre said this is a tough situation. I don't know, it doesn't seem that tough to me. I guess it is if you don't want to show your boss he made a monster mistake by the 5 year signing disaster.I know baseball is a complex game ( thats why we love it ) but at a certain point I think you just have to go with what most people lack these days. Common Sense. And this experience issue is starting to wear a bit thin as well. It's not like Andre was playing little league last year. He would have more experience if they would let the guy play. We need runs . Give up the foolish pride Ned, You blew it, admit it and lets put the right guys on the field. Oh, by the way Nomars hand isn't healing so well but we all knew that was gonna happen.

Boy, I'm sure glad you are all bloggers and in no way associated with management. This is March and you all are ready to fire Colletti?! Remember, the guys you want on the field are the same ones he was smart enough not to trade. You don't win the pennant in April, let alone March. Let's trust that Joe and his staff will make the best decisions; or should they be fired also? If you all hate this so much, go root for the Angels.

Ned pretty much admitted his mistake when he brought in Andruw.

Hey dalegribel

Nobody here hates anything, in fact since we actually take our time to come in here and post our comments it actually shows to me the love and dedications these bloggers including you have for the Dodgers. We're just stating the obvious that's all. Ethier deserves to start base on the perfomance this spring. If you perform better at your job than one of your co-workers but yet he gets promoted and not you. I'm sure you'll be pissed. Give Ethier the start at least for a month and if he struggles than bring Pierre back in the starting line-up to see what he can do.

Hey dalegrible

freedom of speech is a beautiful thing. besides if we were all good monkeys what fun would this be. The answer is NOT rooting for the angelsThe old you don't win in april is a tired cliche. Maybe there is some truth to that but there is nothing wrong with starting out strong. Consistency is what gets the job done for the most part. I wish I was in management then we wouldn't have the Pierre issue .I was never happy with an ex-giant running the club anyway. I think maybe we need som more ex-giants on our pitching staff too. Huh?4th place finishes suck.

Actually a team can win or lose a pennant in April, May, June, July, August, or September, and sometimes March (season begins for the Dodgers on 3/31). Every game counts equally, no matter what month it's played. There's just more drama towards the end.

I do agree that we should allow Torre and his staff to make the final decisions (not much we can do about it anyway), and I do give credit to Coletti for holding on to our core of young players. Personally I find it tiresome to see the Ethier/Pierre comments over and over again, which is why I have kept out of it, just waiting for a decision from management. However, if other bloggers wish to continue commenting on the matter, so be it. Really, that's why this blog exists.

However, since I'm semi-discussing it right now, here's what I think. Based on his production and "experience" over the last two years, not to mention his power potential, Andre Ethier should be starting in left. Also, let's not forget his strong throwing arm. Suffice it to say, Kemp should be starting in right. If Pierre can be traded, that would be nice. If not, he will just have to accept the roles of fourth outfielder (maybe lower), pinch hitter and pinch runner. He won't feel any worse than Ethier or Kemp would if they had to do the same. He will still get paid, and would likely get an opportunity to display his wares in another city sometime within the next four years (the sooner, the better).

I mentioned in my previous post that games are of equal value no matter what month they're played in. I should have added, that since the very early season games are against division rivals, those games really count as two games in the relative positions of those competing teams. Same goes for any game against a division rival played anytime during the season.

The whole baseball adage goes: You don't win the World Series in April, but you can lose it. Getting out of the gate early is very important.

What I was going for is that due to the Pierre fiasco (yes I agree that I would trade him for a bag of balls) folks here are ready to fire Ned Colletti. One bad signing does not cost a man his job. In fact, the non-trades despite the pressures, are worthy of keeping his job. As GM's go, he is really too new to rate, but seems to be well in control and getting our beloved blue back on the right track.

As for the comments that a former Giant is running the team, what does his past employer have to do with anything? Do we also fire him for having worked for the Cubs and we all know they can't win? Should McCourt sell because he lived in Boston during the non-winning years. Look forward, not ahead and trust that those folks being paid to run this team are far smarter than any of us here.