Trevor Hoffman now a Brewer

While the dodgers need bullpen arms, and good ones at that, I am glad the FO didn't pay Hoffman to play for the blue. There is a pole on one of the sites asking if hoffman is goinng to be the Brewers' missing piece, thats hilarious!

They weren't outbid, they offered a reasonable contract and lost to another of the many ridiculous offers being made this offseason. Hoffmann, while still a quality reliever, is nowhere near what he was 5-7 years ago. Now TH has chosen money over living near his family and having a reasonable chance to get back to the playoffs. The Dodger money is better spent elsewhere.

Broxton can now go to spring training clearly knowing his role. Kuo is there also if overworking Big John becomes a problem. Kuo, Wade, and even Troncoso, all demonstrated their abilities to set up last year. The bullpen is not the issue. If they can get Mota for the right price, then bonus.

What should worry us is that it appears injury question mark Ben Sheets may be under consideration to take the #1 starter spot. If he can stay healthy, what a great acquistion it would be, but we said the same thing about Jason Schmidt three years ago.

Without Sheets, the rotation currently looks like Billz, Kuroda, Kershaw, MacDonald, and Stults/Schmidt. In three years, we may look at that and say WOW, but today it looks young and inexperienced. Instead of gambling on 3-4 years of Sheets, a 2 year or one + option on Pedro Martinez might yeild a bigger payoff. One for consideration, if the Blue want to join the party of sick contracts, then make an above market offer to bring back Lowe. Truly, after CC, he was this year's best pitcher on the market and the scary part is that he will probably stay in the NL.

Do we really know that the Brewers outbid us on Hoffman? Everything I read says that the offers were "similar." Could he have chosen Milwaukee because they don't have anyone to close (whereas we have Broxton), so he would be guaranteed to be the closer regardless of how well he's pitching?

Now there's something every team wants: a sullen Manny Ramirez, annoyed by the fact that the market for him just isn't what it used to be. He turned down two years from the Red Sox at a guaranteed $40 mil, would have won another World Series with them in 2008 had he not asked out, and now where is he?

Whatever team signs him at this point is going to have Manny being Manny for the duration of the contract. He'll sulk and complain and loaf his way through half a season until another team tires of his antics and complies with his request tot trade him to a contender. Like the Mets.

Yesterday it was stated that the Blue offer was at $5 mill, and the Brew signed him for $6 guaranteed plus $1.5 in incentives. That does seem a little steep to me, and I'm actually not sure that any closer is worth that much; I'd rather play the Beane game and "create" a closer, then trade for above-value if need be...

But I actually suspect that Hoffman's decision came down to this: his dad was an usher in anaheim, almost all of his career has been with a team that considers the Dodgers their primary rival... dude has bought into the fact that he's been rooting against the Blue his whole life. Maybe he felt a little weird about putting on that uniform. If that's the case, hey, so be it. In a way, I respect that, cuz I felt a little weird about the idea of rooting for him.

We need to:

1) Determine exactly what it would require to sign Sheets. See how far into incentive-land his agent is willing to go.

2) Make another serious, earnest, better-than-market-value offer for Lowe. Torre needs to call him directly and explain in no unspecific terms how crucial he is to the Blue. C'mon, Joe, yer boy needs to know you care.

3) Sign one or both of the above.

4) Fill in a little veteran closer depth (Saito--incentive-based contract?), but trust that some youth will come through. If you're going to be weak in one area, middle relief is the best spot to suffer.

5) Stay the course on Manny. He will sign for two years....

6) But be ready to pounce if somebody else offers Dunn a contract and Manny still won't sign at that point.

7) Offer free parking at the Ravine next year as a show of good-faith to the fans. (thanks to the column by Erskine for that idea)

Word.

Why doesn't anyone just admit these are no longer the Dodgers. Just like Macy's they're closing shop and when sales appear in mid July they'll see about coming out and checking out the goods. The leadership is non-existent, the money is not there, the team is made up of hopefuls and the direction is listless. When did major league cities start having teams that decided it was not worth playing until the trading line came near. Why doesn't any media call the Dodgers on clinging to the hopes of their youngsters and not looking to win any longer from the start of the season until the end with top quality talent. It saddens me that the media is so wek and ineffecitve in their representatilon of the community. These were our Dodgers..now the writers have drunk the Cool Aid and baseball as we knew it.. the winning way...is .

Show's what I know.
I guess in this tough economy the extra 2 mil will come in handy if the Dodgers indeed offered him 4 mil. And more if he makes his incentives.
That's showbiz....

pk - I am with you on Manny.

The way I look at it, Manny's unprofessional behavior may actually help him avoid a big paycut in the next few weeks. The market for good hitting, weak fielding corner outfielders has absolutely collapsed this winter. Based on the other outfielders that just signed recently, I don't see how a case can be made that the market dictates a price of even $15M/year for Manny. But I think the threat of an unhappy Manny (and unhappy fans) are going to lead the Dodgers to overpay by putting the original contract back on the table. It's sad to see this type of behavior rewarded. I hope that I am wrong on this and that all teams will refuse to offer anything above true market value, but I know there is always some sucker that is going to overpay.

I'm guessing that the deal-breaker was when the Dodgers offered to pay Trevor with 4 million dollars worth of food vouchers redeemable only at the concession stands at Jamie McCourt's 50 new little league ballparks

Dude... did we really want Hoffman?

Dodgers just signed 15 to minor league contracts. Luis Maza and Yancey Brazoban are once again in the organization. 10 pitchers, so MAYBE they have some decent role players coming out of this. All they need is a Dunn or a Manny, and they will be decent.

Is Frank McCourt a legitimate owner? The record is clearly on being highly leveraged, week on baseball vision, shallow in his approach to fans in the cheap seats and clearly inept at understanding a major market. Is Ned Colletti a legitimate GM? The record is also clear on being unqualified, unprepared, unable to acquire big name, big talent before a season begins to have a chance of playing well as a team the entire season and not in a chunk from July to September. Are the fans legitimate fans? Unless the people rise up, complain, cut off season ticket purchases, don't buy team apparel and stay on the sidelines there will be no real change...they are ready to sit back and see what happens July 31 since apparently in LA that's when the season begins. Check the status on pro football...when the large market team becomes a living and breathing small market entity the only thing left is to become the Montreal Expos.