Another Week, Another Dollar

So, another week has gone by without any substantial Dodger news taking place, at the GM winter meetings, no less. Well, I suppose that's not necessarily true. We did lose Randy Wolf to the Brewers for three years and about 9.25 million a year.

Now, you can debate whether giving that contract to Wolf to keep him would have been in our best interest or not, but what's become pretty clear is that, at the very least, arbitration should have been offered. Milwaukee was the 14th worst team in the league last year, so we would have been given their 2nd round pick, as well as a sandwich pick in between the 1st and 2nd round of next year's draft. There's a lot of quality to be found in those picks, especially when Logan White is running the draft.

But alas, no arbitration offered, no picks gained, and the farm system becomes harder to replenish. It's kind of amazing how this whole McCourts' divorce thing is not only finding ways to screw up the Dodgers in the present but the future as well.

Really, though, I feel like the worst part about all this is that there never was any real intention of bringing Wolf back. There were some reports about Wolf being open to returning to the Dodgers at two years for around 8 million a year. Whether these claims were valid or not, I don't know, but ultimately, I don't think it matters. I think the key to the claims is that Wolf wanted to remain a Dodger. And why not? We've had success (at least more so than Milwaukee). We've got a good young core. And, probably most important to Wolf, we're his home town team. He had reason to stay, and yes, he probably would have given us a home town discount. But again, I just get the feeling that we weren't having any of it.

So, that's where we stand. No Wolf. No draft picks. Nothing but memories of one of our best pitchers last year. Sigh.

...and even worse: no more "Hungry like the Wolf" jokes.

Meanwhile, in lesser news: Jamie Hoffmann was taken in the Rule 5 draft by the Yankees. The key here is that Hoffmann has to stay on the Yankees roster the whole season otherwise he is offered back to us. The Yankees have Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher on the roster for next season, as well as Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner, who serve as reserve outfielders and pinch runners. If the Yankees don't add a free agent outfielder, I could see Hoffman making it as the 5th outfielder. But let's be honest. They have a field of Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, Johnny Damon, and Hideki Matsui to choose from... The Yankees will buy one of them. Maybe two. Unless they ship off Cabrera or Gardner (or both), Hoffmann probably doesn't make it the whole season. Of course, then the question becomes: how willing are we to take on the added payroll of a Jamie Hoffmann?

Hoffmann is likely to demand a salary of at least six figures.

Elsewhere, the Dodgers tendered contracts to all nine players who were contract tender-able. Eight of those players pretty much compose the young core of the team, and there's also Jason Repko. What? Yeah, he's still with the team. Some people are upset we are still paying him, I don't care. He's like a remnant of the Dan Evans era. Keep him around. Meanwhile, the other eight players are in line for a big raise through arbitration. So, look for that to be one of the reasons given for our lack of free agent spending at the end of the offseason.

And finally!

The Dodgers signed Josh Towers to a minor league contract this week. Now, when I heard this news, I was happy for some reason. For a while, I couldn't remember why. Towers has had minimal success in the majors, and none really since 2005. He spent all of 2008 in the minors, and he made a couple appearances last year for the Yankees and was ok. Apparently he was pretty good in AAA for most of the year.

Basically, what I'm saying is, it's not a fantastic signing. Towers might make it as the swingman/long relief guy, but more likely, he'll probably come up from AAA to make a few spot starts sometime during the season a la Eric Milton. I mean, this is not a bad signing, but it's not lighting the Dodger world on fire.

But for some reason, I like Josh Towers. I looked him up, he's from Port Hueneme. That's round here. So, he's a local boy. I always like when we bring back local players. But that wasn't the reason I knew Josh Towers. I mean, there are a lot of players from the Los Angeles area. I don't know them all.

So, I kept thinking about it, and finally, it hit me.

Josh Towers was a very valuable part of the 2005 World Champion Dodgers... on my copy of MVP Baseball 2005. I won't delve too deeply into how good a game MVP Baseball 2005 was, but I will say that it was, and still is, the only baseball video game that I've been able to go a full season in. Most games, I'll start a season, make 30-40 games in and eventually lose interest. Not with MVP Baseball 2005. 162 games... and I'm pretty sure I went 162-0 over that span, too. And then I swept my way through the playoffs and won the World Series in 4 games. And Josh Towers was my number five starter that year. He probably won 20-something games that year. I don't remember how or why I traded for him, but I do know that he provided 30+ quality starts for an improbable championship team.

Josh Towers, Starting Pitcher, 2005 World Champion Dodgers

If that's not enough of a reason for me to be happy we signed him five years later, then I don't know what is...

Week Recap: 06/22/09 - 06/28/09

Wow. That was pretty bad.

Seriously, can we all agree this has been the worst week for the Dodgers this entire season?

They started the week pretty good, taking the first game from the White Sox. They then went on to lose the next two games. And with that, they lost their first series in a month.

But they bounced back, by beating the Mariners in their first game on Friday. They then, again, went on to lose their next two games.

And with that, they've lost two series in a row, the first time that has happened this season.

The Dodgers went 2-4 on the week.

Let's do Round 11 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:

COLD:

• Randy Wolf - 0-1 (1 start), 13.50 ERA (5 ER in 3.1 IP), 3 HR - Wolf's start this week was not so much a start as batting practice. He got lit up. Homeruns left and right. Not pretty for a guy who's become our 2nd starter.

• Cory Wade - 0-0 (1 game), 36.00 ERA (4 ER in 1.0 IP), 2 HR - Continuing to build on Wolf's start, Wade came into the game to give even more homeruns. And if getting lit up in a Wolf-like way wasn't bad enough, Wade got demoted to AAA later in the week. I don't know what it is, but there is definitely something missing in Wade's game, and unless he can get it back, there are going to be issues in Wade's immediate future.

• Ronald Belisario - No stats for Belisario this week, just a finger wag. Belisario got picked up early Saturday morning on suspicion of DUI. That is definitely a no-no. Joe Torre has apparently given Belisario a good talking to which I'm glad happened. Drinking and driving is probably one of the stupidest things you can do, and Belisario needs to know that something like this happening again won't be tolerated, regardless of how good he's been this year. I'd hope for some sort of apology from Belisario, but I'll be ok with just a quiet promise to never do anything like this again.

ROOM TEMPERATURE:

• Eric Milton - 0-1 (1 start), 7.20 ERA (4 ER in 5.0 IP), 7 Ks - What are you supposed to make of Milton's start? I was at the game, and frankly, Milton just looked hitable. He'd get two strikes, then leave one over the plate to be whacked. But as bad as that is, Milton settled down and retired the last 8 batters he faced in order. I just can't quite figure out how a guy who got racked in his first trip and a half through the lineup, pitched so well his 2nd and 3rd time through. Just odd.

• Andre Ethier - .167 (3-18), 3 HR, 7 RBIs, 4 BBs, 5 Ks - Yeah, given the lack of hits Ethier has had this week, he should be "COLD" but how can I bring myself to label a man "COLD" who had a 3-homerun game this week? Answer: I can't.

• Russell Martin - .238 (5-21) 1 2B, 3 BBs, 4 Ks - How's the first week been for the post-leg lift Martin? Eh. Better than some of his recent 1-hit weeks, but still not as good as you'd like to see out of your All-Star catcher.

• Hiroki Kuroda - 1-1 (2 games), 3.60 ERA (6 ER in 15.0 IP), 14 Ks, 0 BBs - Kuroda is in the same boat as Milton. What do you make of his starts this week? Here's a look at the lines: at CHW - 8.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 hits 9 Ks / vs SEA - 6.2 IP, 4 ER, 8 hits, 5 Ks. That same Chicago offense that ripped up Wolf and Wade was rocked to sleep by Kuroda. His game was even better than his line shows, with one of those runs being some-what of a gimme-run late in the 9th. The Seattle game was ok, but Kuroda had more than a couple innings of shakiness in it with an offense less potent than the White Sox. Again, just odd.

HOT:

• Clayton Kershaw - 1-0 (1 start), 3.00 ERA (2 ER in 6.0 IP), 8 Ks - Kershaw turned in his third straight quality performance, and he's doing it at just the right time. Who'd have thought that at this point, the rest of the starters on the pitching staff would be question marks, and the 21 year old half-rookie would be the most solid starter? As long as he keeps it up, I'm ok.

There we go. Like I said, not a great week for the Dodgers. In fact, a horrible week, with the only real bright side being Kuroda's first start, and Kershaw's start halting our small two-game losing streak. However, that's been followed up with another two-game losing streak.

And now Jim Tracy's red-hot Rockies are coming into town, looking to make up some ground in the NL West race.

If things weren't interesting enough, guess who's coming back at the end of this week just as our offense is dying.

Yeah, things are REALLY going to get interesting.

Week Recap: 05/11/09 - 05/17/09

Yeah, I didn't post for a week. Doesn't mean I wasn't paying attention.

Been updating my computer, working to get all my programs back and running, yadda yadda, so I didn't have time for posts.

But I'm here now, so let's do this.

This week, the Dodgers started and completed a 6 game East Coast road trip. And did pretty damn well.

They started out slow, losing the first game in Philadelphia to Chan Ho Park, of all people. They came back, however, to win the next two. They then went to Florida, where they split the first two games, but followed that up by winning the rubber game to take that series as well.

The Dodgers went 4-2 on the road trip. Oh, and by the way, they have the best record in baseball.

Round 6 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE? Already. Wow, time is flying by. Ok, here we go.

COLD:

• Rafael Furcal - .167 (4-24), 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 Runs, 2 Ks, 1 CS - As bad as Furcal has been this year, he's really hit a low this week. He's striking out, he's not drawing walks, and he got caught stealing. What happened to the Furcal of last year? He's got to turn it on at some point.

• Guillermo Mota - 21.60 ERA (4 ER in 1.2 innings, 1 game) - It seems like I'm picking on Mota. I mean, after all, he only had one bad outing this week (the 12-5 win at Florida, May 17th). But honestly, folks, this was just another bad outing in a series of bad outings. I mean, for God's sake. It's 12-1, 9th inning. All you have to do is get out of the inning so we can all go home. You get two outs. Alright, good start. 10 minutes later, you've somehow loaded the bases, given up a Grand Slam, and forced the manager to pull you. How can you mess up an inning so damn badly? Why is he still on this team?!

ROOM TEMPERATURE:

• Eric Milton - 4.50 ERA (2 ER in 4.0 innings), 2 hits, 4 walks, 3 Ks - So, Eric Milton made his first start in the majors since 2007, and how'd he do? Meh. He wasn't terrible, but he was by no stretch of the imagination, good. He was making way too many pitches, and for the kind of stuff he has, he was giving up way too many walks. He made 84 pitches (only 43 strikes) and was pulled before the 5th. But hey, at least he didn't give up a Grand Slam or something like that.

• Andre Ethier - .200 (4-20), 1 2B, 2 walks, 2 RBIs, 5 Ks, 1 SB - Ethier continues his luke-warmness. I feel like he's the Champ Kind to Manny's Ron Burgundy: "I need you. I'm a mess without you. I miss you so damn much. I miss being with you, I miss being near you. I miss your laugh. I miss your scent; I miss your musk. When this all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together." Ok, maybe it's not that bad. But Ethier has been hurting, and whether that's Manny related or not, I'd like it to stop. You hear me, Ethier? Stop it.

HOT:

• Russell Martin - .333 (6-18), 1 2B, 1 RBI, 3 runs, 5 walks, 2 SBs - Nice Martin, a 2nd week of "HOT" in a row. All I can say is, keep it up. Oh, and maybe, let's notch a homerun or two.

• James Loney - .308 (8-26), 2 HRs, 6 RBIs, 1 walk, 4 runs - Well, it took long enough for Loney to get out of the homerless category. And once he did, he came back for more. Sure, they were both in Philly, but I won't hold that against him. A homer is a homer.

• Casey Blake - .368 (7-19), 2 2Bs, 2 HRs, 5 RBIs, 1 walk, 6 Ks - That's actually quite a few strike outs for just 19 at-bats, but still, extra base hits and RBIs are good stuff.

• Mark Loretta - .500 (4-8), 1 2B, 4 RBIs, 2 walks - I just wanted to give Mark Loretta some credit for what he's been doing this year. He's been a solid pinch hitter and spot start all year, and this week was really a good microcosm of that. I can't remember a year when we've had a bench of this quality, and he's a big part of that.

• Clayton Kershaw - 1-1 (2 games), 3.75 ERA (5 ER in 12.0 innings), 14 Ks, 8 walks - Yes, those stats look pretty pedestrian, but if you've watched Kershaw, you know he has pitched better than his stats indicate. He was pretty hitable in Philly (a 5-3 loss, May 12th), but was almost the opposite of that in Florida (a 12-5 win, May 17th). 7.0 innings of no-hit ball only to finally give up a hit in the 8th, collecting nine strikeouts along the way. He's been up and down this year, but this was definitely an up.

• Juan Pierre - .407 (11-27), 4 2Bs, 1 3B, 5 RBIs, 2 walks, 4-5 SBs, 7 runs - Juan Pierre is a man on fire! I mean, he's playing like a man who's trying to prove he can still be a starter somewhere and that when a certain outfielder returns in early July, another team should take a flier on him. Yeah, a little long winded, and kinda a cheap shot, but what are you gonna do? Pierre's been go, and I like it. So good, in fact, he's started a grassroots movement. Yep, Juan Pierre is in BeastMode, and that's a good thing for us.

Ok, hopefully I'll get in some more posts this week than last week. We'll see.

3 game series against the Mets in L.A. starts later today. See you then.

Have We Found A Winner?

This race for the 5th starter is slowly starting to come to an end.

After already eliminating Jason Schmidt and Jeff Weaver as possible 5th starters earlier this Spring Training, Shawn Estes was eliminated early this week.

The big four contenders left were: Eric Stults, Claudio Vargas, Eric Milton, and James McDonald.

Stults (12.96 ERA in 8.1 innings) and Vargas (8.22 ERA in 15.1 innings) have had awful Springs so far. Stults has apparently had some bad personal issues off the field, but unfortunately, the fact remains, he's been really bad.

So it's really come down to Milton and McDonald. Well, both pitchers pitched today. Let's see how they did:

James McDonald - 3.0 innings, no runs, three strikeouts, lowered his ERA to 4.70. Not bad.

Ok, how 'bout Milton?

Eric Milton - 2.2 innings, six earned runs, raised his ERA to 7.27.

Wow Milton, you trying to catch Vargas there? This comes after Milton gave up eight runs (one earned) in his last appearance.

So were does that leave us?

Well, Pedro still hasn't signed anywhere. But other than that, it's starting to look more and more like we ought to turn it over to McDonald.

He's young, he's got some good stuff, and most importantly, he's our best option.

And I'm pretty comfortable with that.

The Band Might Not Be Reuniting

To update from my last post, Duaner Sanchez signed a minor league deal with the Padres, so that's that.

Joe Beimel has received some offers and he's going to decide soon where to head. I'd like it to be us, but if not, there are some other options, so that's that.

And Pedro Martinez wants a real money contract. Somewhere in the millions. This one is a little tougher.

Normally, I'd say forget it, but the more I look at the situation regarding our 5th starter, the more I start to get worried.

Here's the list of our possible 5th starters and their Spring Training's so far:

1. Eric Milton - 5.40 ERA in 11.2 innings
2. Jason Schmidt - 6.75 ERA in 4.0 innings (though Torre has said he won't start the year in the rotation)
3. Claudio Vargas - 7.15 ERA in 11.1 innings
4. Shawn Estes - 9.00 ERA in 8.0 innings

That's not pretty. Scratch that, that's ugly. Very ugly. It's Esteban Loaiza ugly (I'm talking stats, not the man himself, he's actually quite attractive).Maybe not.

Anyway, point is, Martinez might actually be our best solution right now.

As it is, it's looking like we'd have to depend on a Milton or Vargas for the 5th starter spot. Ok, fine, I'd be willing to accept they'd only be pitching once, maybe twice a week. How much damage can they do? It's an unpleasant thought (kinda defeatist), but that'd be the facts. Fine, maybe we can get by like that.

However, should someone go down due to injury (which is likely over a long season), I definitely don't want to have to depend on more than one of the above candidates. Can you imagine Vargas and Milton starting three or four games a week? (How about Estes? I shivered as I typed that.)

So really, maybe we should just give Pedro some money. Sure, we don't know if he can stay effective or even healthy for that matter...

But do you really want to live in a world where Shawn Estes starts 20 games for us?

EDIT: Beimel is going to the Nationals. 1 year, $2 million.

I'm In A Glass Case Of Emotions!

I don't know how I should feel about yesterday's Spring Training game (Dodgers beat the Rangers 13-7), featuring Jason Schmidt.

Is it good news that Schmidt made it through two innings without his shoulder falling off?

Or is it bad news that he gave up three runs in those two innings, including serving up a homerun?

Or is it even worse news for Claudio Vargas, who gave up four earned runs in his 2.1 innings of work. This included giving up three homeruns, one of which came to... ANDRUW JONES!

Eric Milton, however, went three scoreless innings in relief, lowering his Spring ERA to 3.12.

And Jeff Weaver has been pretty good this spring.

Things are heating up. This is just like watching a four-horse horse race for the 5th starter position.

Except all the horses are old and gimpy.

Offseason 2008: Dodgers Add Two More Pitchers

The Dodgers continued their trend of bringing back local boys who once pitched for the Dodgers by signing Jeff Weaver to a minor league deal.

Weaver made 34 starts for the Dodgers in both 2004 and 2005 and went 27-24 over that span and posting ERAs of 4.01 and 4.22 respectively.

Since then, however, not so good. He's only posted a sub-6.00 ERA once since then (15 games in 2006 with St. Louis).

Here's the worst part. He didn't even pitch in the majors in 2008. Not a good sign. What's worse? In nine games for Milwaukee's AAA team, he posted a 6.22 ERA. He was released by Milwaukee and ended up on Cleveland's AAA team. He posted a 6.07 ERA in 13 games there.

When you are getting lit up in AAA, your future in the majors doesn't look good.

So... uh... welcome back Jeff!(?)

EDIT: The Dodgers also signed Eric Milton to a minor league deal. Milton also didn't pitch in the majors in 2008, partly because he was recovering from Tommy John surgery and partly because he's not good. In any case, he's cheap enough, might as well give it a shot.