Editorial: More On LaRoche

Because I can't really let anything go, I had a couple more notes about yesterday's trade.

I made the point in my last post about LaRoche's 152 major league at-bats with us and how that is hardly anything. Well, another thought came to me. 93 at-bats came last year when LaRoche played under Grady Little for the Dodgers. As far as the current manager, Joe Torre, he saw only 59 of Andy's at-bats. Well, here's my issue.

Apparently, those 59 at-bats were enough for Torre to determine that LaRoche wasn't worthy of playing 3rd for the Dodgers. However, Torre has given Mark Sweeney, (MARK SWEENEY!!!) 67 at-bats. And yet, Sweeney remains on the roster for the Dodgers.

So, therefore, 59 at-bats were enough to determine whether or not one player could be the 3rd baseman for the team, but not nearly enough to figure out that Mark Sweeney can't bat .200 to save his life.

I guess Mark Sweeney provides a veteran presence or something... or maybe he gives the team a lot of "professional at-bats." That's a phrase that I've gotten real tired of. Mark Sweeney might strike out 21 times in 67 at-bats, but he really looked professional wailing away at strike three.

I mean, is the only reason he's on the team because he's turning 39 in October?

One other note, Diamond Leung of the Press-Enterprise noted:

Logan White spoke with Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris, and he said LaRoche was excited to go to Pittsburgh. Asked if White was sad to see LaRoche go, he said, "Not at all."

I'm glad LaRoche is excited to go to Pittsburgh. I'd be, too. You want to go where you feel wanted...

Anyway, there's been some reaction to this. People are unsure of what White meant by it. Well, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts went the extra step:

I asked Leung to give the context of White's response, and Leung replied that White meant in terms of "Look who we got back."

Interesting. I got a couple of other things from the quote as well. And while I might be reading too much into this, here's some other things he could have meant:

"I'm not going to say something to undermine my boss Colletti even though he ignored my advice about keeping LaRoche... 'Not at all'."

Or "It will be good to see LaRoche succeed in a starting role and prove me to be an excellent judge of talent... 'Not at all'."

Or even, "When this move backfires in Colletti's face and he's fired, I can give you a good candidate to replace him... 'Not at all'."