Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Payroll

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/los-angeles-dodgers.html

According to Cott's baseball contracts the Dodgers have, roughly, 88 million locked up for the 2009 season. I am estimating 5 million each for Ethier, Martin, and Broxton. I think Martin and Ethier will get more than 5 and Broxton less, but in the end were talking about less than 2 million each way. So the payroll is currently between 82-94 million range. Still far less than last year.

And while we are still not using our resources to the best of their abilities (Dewitt at second?), we still have enough cash free to sign Manny. But we also need at least one more starter. We are still 28 million below what we were at last year, but given the decline in the economy, I am to assume that we will be somewhere in the 110 million range.

A guy like Andy Pettitte must be on the dodgers radar. At 10 million next year I'll take him over having Sheets, Perez, or Garland all of which have significant draw backs and multiple year contract requests. Garland might be the pony of the group. He would eat innings at a terrible cost. Perez would be a nightmare watcing because he walks everyone. And Sheets is just another Jason Schmidt in the making. He's missed significant time 3 of his last 4 years. He's been effective, but what we need is someone to eat innings (be healthy), be effective, and also not cost us more than one year.

Randy Johnson right?

Wrong.

Anyway, Pettitte should be the only one on the Dodgers list. If we could trade Jones and eat some of the salary then great. But I'd rather just send him to Albuquerque and hope he figures it out.

Hopefully after signing Pettitte we still have enough money to make a run at Manny for 2 years and 45 million again. Backload the contract so we can pay him more when Jones and Schmidt leave.

By 2010 Martin, Ethier, Broxton, and Bills will all qualify for a bump. It's only going to get harder from here on out. I hope Ned gets fired!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Just spitballin here...

So, cut me a little slack.

Jason Stark has come out and said that the Dodgers are interested in signing Adam Dunn. Surely not to play left field!? While Dunn is a power threat I still think Manny would be needed in our order. So Loney would have to go... for a starting pitcher! But who?

I've expressed my interest in Bedard already. If we signed Dunn and Manny, we'd also have to shed some payroll. Naturally no one would want to take on Jones or Pierre all by themselves. I think we'd have to pair either of them up with Loney and Hu and take on a mediocrely bad contract.

Something like this really hamstrings the process, so Ned better have something lined up before signing Dunn. I think if he were actually going to sign Dunn he would have done it already. I think this is just a scare tactic. Manny will sign eventually with the Dodgers and take 22-25 million over 2 years with a third option. I like the direction this is going for the Dodgers. I wouldn't mind if we signed Dunn to play first and traded Loney for a decent starting pitcher while also ridding ourselves of Jones or Pierre. Could you imagine the lineup?

Furcal
Martin
Dunn
Manny
Ethier
Kemp
Blake
Dewitt
P

Not too bad. Plenty of power and OBP at the top and some clutchiness/veteranyness/potential at the bottom. I like it. So that means its not going to happen. I still don't like have Casey Blake but whatever.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Better options at SP.

After some excessive research (on youtube) I could see a possibility of the Dodgers plunging into the international market. While it can be argued that Ned has hamstringed the farm by not spending any money at all on international players, whoever is scouting the japanese market is clearly doing a great job. To say we need more of it is an understatement.

Takashi Saito and Hiroki Kuroda could possibly get some company with either Kenshin Kawakami or Koji Uerehara. I like both pitchers. Both have decent K rates and go deep into the season. Both supposedly have similar traits to Kuroda as "big game pitchers". If we could sign either of them (or both... unlikely) for a similar contract to Kuroda I'd be happy with it. Considering our optoins are now limited to :

Pedro Martinez
Eric Milton
Oliver Perez
Ben Sheets
Randy Wolf
Andy Pettitte

I'd rather take the international route as well.

So... there goes that.

Johnson is off the table. Thanks to the giants I can hate a player that is easy to hate. The official Red-Arse will be pitching for the Orange and Black next year throwing his 45 year old 90 mile an hour fast balls to Dodger hitters not likely named Manny Ramirez.

The Dodgers largest hole is still in the rotation. Even if we don't sign Manny we have options that could play reasonably well in left field. A Juandruw Pones monster in left/center would be a nasty thing to see. It would also be an abomination to have to settle with a 4th and 5th starter giving us laegue average or less quality because McCourt couldn't drop the cash on decent players. The well is drying up fast. And if Ben Sheets is still eyeing Texas our option shortens to .... gulp... Andy Pettitte.

Over the last 4 years he has been a little more durable than I would like to remember, but he hasn't been very effective. And at 10+ million dollars being called Randy Johnson Lite at a fraction of the cost isn't very reassuring.

While the talk around the net is about Manny being freed up for the Dodgers and literally no one else, the Dodgers largest hole is still in the pitching staff. Who else is there.

I had conversations with my brother concerning Eric Bedard. I suppose my main concern is that if he couldn't handle the big lights in Seattle, what would enable him to settle down in LA and become the lights out pitcher of 2007? Surely we'd be able to get him without giving up anyone on our current 25 man roster. I'd send Hu, Miller, Orenduff, Repko, and another throw in. I doubt that would get it done, but you never know? Naturally it would be a temporary fix. But Hu is only going to be a caddy to Furcal/Dewitt up the middle and finding someone to replace him shouldn't go any further than our own farm system.

The main reason why I would consider Bedard is because, 1. was good last year when he wasn't hurt, 2. he is canadian. I could only assume that he and Martin would get along well enough to overcome the "playing in the big city" effect.

Miller, Orenduff and Repko are nothing that the current team wont miss. Getting any kind of value for these 4 would be a great coupe. I doubt, again, that Ned would pull off such a deal and I figure he could only be thinking that something like this could only be done by sending Kershaw over. It sounds so illogical it makes sense. Not to me... but when I put my "Colletti-dunce" hat on it all lines up.

Before we can address Manny we need one more starter.