Thursday, January 29, 2009

Bowa Boner.

To quote Boner himself:



"I'm going to tell you something. If Manny doesn't sign with us, we're in deep trouble. Deep, deep, deep trouble...We're going to be lost without a guy of that caliber a hitter in our lineup...There's two places I really don't want him. The other place is Anaheim because we'd have to read about it every day. If he goes to the Giants, the Giants have definitely improved their ballclub, and if they put a hitter like that in the lineup, they'll be the team to beat I think."

"Manny is sort of that constant in that lineup," Bowa said. "With the kids, you don't know what you're going to get."

I agree that Manny was impressive last year and that "the kids" underperformed. But, between Martin, Loney, Kemp, and Ethier, we know pretty darn well that they are good enough to be on any starting roster in baseball. The worst thing for the Dodgers right now is crochety old dudes who think "young kids" are ruining the game because they get paid more. While I enjoy Bowa's feistyness and "giddyup", I hate that he is officially "the old guy that finds a reason to hate everyone".

What's more is, before Furcal went down, "the kids" were part of a team that hosted the 3rd best offense in all of baseball. Cenrtainly Manny is better than the alternative (Pierre or Dunn), but to suggest that we are nothing without Manny is absurd. Without Manny, right now, we are a better team than last year. Furcal is an upgrade at short, if he is healthy. Blake is an upgrade at third. Dewitt is an upgrade at second. Pierre, surprisingly, is an upgrade in left, over having Jones in center.

I'd certainly welcome Manny if he wants to come back. But 2 years 45 million is a very generous offer and he should consider taking it before it becomes 1 year 17 million. At least he isn't Bobby Abreu, who will likely sign for 1 year 5 million.

The main concern for this team is the starting pitching... and the bullpenn. Why Guillermo Mota? I could see signing him for half a million with incentives, but he really isn't worth more than what McDonald, Elbert, Stults, or Troncoso will be able to do. I just don't see the value of adding a guy like with little value for so much money. Why not just resign Beimel? I just don't get the signings.

Considering the starting pitching: I guess only Randy Wolf is left... or Braden Looper. Looper is older and perhaps more reliable and a better pitcher. Wolf has pretty good K ratios which will bode well for the weak Dodger defense. In reality were looking at adding two starting pitchers. Why not sign both. Put Looper in the pen when we don't need him until April 25th and use Wolf as the 4th starter. Not the best situation... but not terribly horrible either.

Bills
Kershaw
Kuroda
Wolf
Looper

Broxton
Kuo
Wade
Mota
Troncoso
Elbert
McDonald

I have no problem with that.