Randy Johnson to San Francisco

Johnson would have been a mistake for the blue. He simply no longer has the stamina to be effective over a long season. His second half performance last year was preceded by a lengthy stay on the DL, which meant that he was well rested coming into his strong finish.

The only place I can see Johnson being effective for the entire season would be out of the bullpen, which I'm sure he would never agree to. He might get off to a fast start in the rotation, but will begin to wilt as innings add up. This is simply not the Randy Johnson of old. There are better uses of $8 million.

I would like to see the Dodgers pick up a still productive veteran starter, but do not have any preferences, since I haven't seen any of the available ones lately. As things currently stand, I'm confident that James McDonald is capable of filling one of the open rotation spots, with the other spot being filled via free agency, a trade or even in-house. It's an area of concern, but, I believe, also manageable.

The Big Unit would be better off turning his big cold left shoulder on his gnats teammates. We don't want a guy just looking for 300 wins. I like Randy Wolf...see him all the time at my local Sushi place. The surgery he had last season seemed to work. Give him a 2 year deal! Where's Manny? Enough already...sign him and lets get going!

A guy with the incentive to "just win 5 games" may not be a motivational beacon.

This is a potential addition where BK and I have disagreed. I wouldn't have been "upset" had the Dodgers brought in The Unit, but I wasn't really into the idea, either. Given the Dodgers' luck of late getting production from guys either past their prime (Maddux, Kent, Nomar) or injury prone (Schmidt, Furcal, Nomar), I just get the willys at the notion of bringing in a dude who's both. I just KNOW RJ would be hurt his entire time in Blue while sucking down 8 mil (to throw out a figure). It may be totally irrational on my part, but that's just how I feel.

AK

I wouldn't be against bringing back Wolf, when healthy he pitched decent enough for a mid to back rotation guy.

I still need a bigger sample size of James McDonald...Edwin Jackson burst on the scene in a similar way and we all know how that worked out.

I think with things playing out the way they have so far, Its time for Colletti and Lowe to suck it up, put their egos aside, and find a reasonable 2-3 year deal for Lowe. Obviously his market was not nearly where Boras OR Colletti initially projected, and i still think this is a good fit for both player and team.
This is just a far fetched dream...Obviously this makes too much sense to actually happen and I'm sure the sides won't even talk. I never understood why both sides seemed so against returning to the dodgers in the first place..

GET MANNY DONE. If we don't sign Manny at this point, esentially being his only real option unless he's cool playing for the Nats, this is an EPIC failure on our part. Kudos for not bidding against ourselves, but now its time to make some sort of bid. I say bump things $5mil to an even $50mil over 2 years and he's ours. If we make the same offer again Boras will take it as a slap in the face.

AK
Surely there is some mistake. The potential for you to disagree with BK is so small, I just can't hardly beleive it. Have you been in the sauce?HaHa. Actually, it really doesn't matter as it is probably 50/50 that he gets hurt or performs. As for me, I would have left RJ on the table. I am with BD, lets bring in another kid or a solid starter. Even via trade. BD, don't get too excited as I still feel that Manny is the way and a run at Lowe.

Package

This is a signing that I would have backed (well, after we signed CC in a perfect world). In his absence I would take a stab at Randy Wolf (2 years max), offer 1/6 to Penny, try to get Lowe back one last time, or even a low offer to Pedro, and if all that fails, stand pat with the rotation.

I hope there's better choices than Jon Garland. He was serviceable with the run-scoring Angel machine. But I can't have Garland pitch for the offesnive-challenged Dodgers and give up 5 runs in 5 innings of work. When I was a kid, I would take a Jon Garland-like 4.90 ERA baseball card, cringe it, and attach it to my bicycle wheel spokes with a clothespin to create a ra-tat-tat sound!

Ohio Vic,
Good points on last thread but I think Tex's negotiation and Manny's are at different stages of the negotiation. You were worried about Boras not coming back to the Dodgers once an offer is secured from another team.... as VA BlueBlood points out, "this would be foolish on Boras' part".

In Tex's case, Boras already shopped tons of offers and pushed teams to the limit... Boston and Angels publicly declaring themselves out of the race... 5-6 teams were bidding on Tex and had offers out there... this is the end part of negotiations... Boras was playing all sides... now in our example, Manny has NO offers and once one comes in, Boras will not automatically take it w/o seeing if there is someone else (Dodgers here) who might be able to top it... it's just not smart negotiating to take the first offer, even if it's a great one... unless of course it's the offer they publicly been saying they would take, 4-5 years at 100 million+??!! Now if an offer like that comes along, end of game... but I think most are secured that that offer will not come from anyone.

It seems obvious that Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones broke the Dodgers bank. No way would they have made the playoffs with out Manny and now their squandering that Godsend who significantly off-set the non-performers noted herein. So the Dodgers are paying $30 million next year, again, for nothing. To be sure the JS/AJ disaster would sour any organizations stomach for high-dollar FA signings but, hey, life goes on. I happen to think Manny, even at $20 million +, is not only low-risk (i.e. injury or protracted slumps) but due to his impressive fan appeal actually makes money.

Seems like Brad Penny has found a new home with the BoSox. I wonder how long his durability will last?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Arw5uqT4dl4FFSPcjj1GUzIRvLYF?slug=txredsoxpenny&prov=st&type=lgns

Here's a link to an article reporting the Dodgers contact with Dunn's agent.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3798366

I like Dunn's power and high OBP, but not the strikeouts. I also worry that his high walk total may indicate the same passivity at the plate that used to drive me crazy watching J.D. Drew strike out looking with regularity. However, as with any player I haven't seen on a regular basis, I will withhold judgment, and if he signs with the Dodgers, I'll make up my mind as the season progresses. Suffice to say, I'd prefer Manny, but also believe that the Dodgers can win without him if they can generate consistent power throughout the lineup.

One other caveat concerning Dunn is that his presence in the lineup will make it heavily lefthanded (Loney, DeWitt, Ethier, and Dunn). However, the presence of Mark Loretta will give the Dodgers another option at 2B against tough lefthanders. Also, since perhaps two-thirds of all pitchers are righthanded, it's not all that bad. I also believe that there is a paucity of quality lefthanders around the league.