So there's been talk recently about the shortstop position and what the Dodgers should do there.
Well, first and foremost, Nomar Garciaparra deserves the chance to continue showing the Dodgers he can handle short, which I believe, if he can stay healthy, he can.
However, we do know how injury prone Nomar is. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Nomar could find his way back to the DL by the end of the season, and if he does, we don't have any real good solutions at short.
Recently, a lot of talk centered around the Dodgers trading for Jack Wilson from the Pirates. I don't hate the idea as far as Wilson the player, but from what I've heard, Wilson likes the Pirates and the Pirates like Wilson so they aren't too willing to part with him. And that means if we want him, we can't just ship them any nobody and they send us Wilson as a salary dump. We'd need to send them something of value, and I definitely don't think the Dodgers should give up any real value for Jack Wilson.
Also, yesterday, Ken Gurnick of Dodgers.com noted in his game recap:
"After hearing constant rumors during the day that he was headed home to Detroit in exchange for Tigers shortstop Edgar Renteria, Lowe focused on outdueling Tim Hudson in a 2-1 win over the Braves..."
After hearing about a really bad possible trade with Cleveland that was vetoed a few days ago, now there's news of this. Again, what a ridiculous trade. How would giving up a solid part of our starting rotation for a shortstop who has not been hitting well at all this year help us? Would Renteria really help us win more games than Derek Lowe would? If we trade Derek Lowe, we are basically saying we are out of it and not looking to make the playoffs this year, and if that's the case, trade him for a good prospect, not a declining, older shortstop.
MLB.com has a section devoted to the trading block, and one specifically dedicated to middle infielders.
Here are some options I'd look at if we were to try and pick up a shortstop:
There is also David Eckstein. I like him as a player, but he's not great, and he's probably not a long term solution. However, he could be probably be gotten pretty cheaply. There is a question as to how much he has left but he might be worth a shot if it doesn't cost us much.
Cristian Guzmán is having a great season, and is still fairly young. The page says the Nationals might try to negotiate an extension with him, but if they feel they can't they might trade him. The Nationals, however, are one of those teams that enjoy building up themselves with prospects, so they might ask for a good amount from us for him.
The page also mentions Juan Uribe. I think Colletti tried getting Uribe before Berroa. He's not too bad. He's hit for power in the past, but he's got a pretty low average. He's pretty good defensively, and the page says that might be enough for the White Sox to keep him.
Also, Felipe Lopez. The page says he's making 4.9 million this year. He had one good year in 2005 and hasn't come close since, he's got ok speed. I think I'd only take him if he came really cheap.
Finally, from the page, Bill Hall. His stats have been sagging since his great year in 2006 so that might make him cheaper to come by, but I don't care for his complaining over playing time. There is also the question of if he can play ss, he hasn't since 2006, though he has been playing some infield this season. He still might cost a pretty penny, and I'm not sure if it's worth it for the Dodgers.
Now, thinking outside the box a little bit, there are two other options the page didn't mention. There is an issue however, and that is that they are both from NL West teams and there always seems to be an issue trading within the division.
In any case, the Rockies have four players who can all play in the middle infield positions: Clint Barmes, Troy Tulowitzki, Ian Stewart, and Omar Quintanilla. Quintanilla isn't too good a hitter, and the Rockies are high on Stewart and Tulowitzki, so I see Barmes as an option. He had a good year in 2005, has struggled a little since, but is making a good comeback this year, and is still young enough to be a long term solution at short for us. There is the question, though, of how much it will cost us and if we are willing to deal within the division.
Another idea from in the division might be Khalil Greene from San Diego. He's under performing this year, and many in San Diego are losing patience with him, which could make him a cheaper pickup. He's solid defensively, and can hit for some power, even in ridiculous Petco Park. The main issue is that the Padres don't have anyone to replace him. Therefore, we'd need a package that included a replacement ss for them, and we don't necessarily have that. We could offer them someone like Berroa or Maza just so they'd have someone (anyone) to play shortstop, but we'd need to give them a good prospect as the real meat of the trade, or possibly Chin-lung Hu and another prospect.
Ultimately, I want to see how well Nomar can still handle shortstop. So far, he's done well. The question is: for how long? The big dilemna comes around July 31st. If Nomar is still healthy, should we gamble and assume he can make it the rest of the season, or play it safe and add another shortstop? That's for Colletti to decide. And that worries me a little...
The Dodgers get their second excellent pitching performance of the series to get the win and take two out of three from the Braves.
Derek Lowe got the win, he's 7-8. Tim Hudson took the loss, he's 9-7. Takashi Saito picked up his 17th save.
Lowe was on his game today, he was working fast and getting ground balls (16 to be exact) and was perfect through six innings. Ultimately, he went 7 and 2/3 innings, giving up just one run (a hanging sinker that Jeff Francoeur hit out)
and striking out four. Jonathan Broxton finished up the 8th, and Saito pitched a perfect 9th to close out the game.
Offensively, the Dodgers did just enough to get the win today. Matt Kemp hit a homerun in the 6th inning of Hudson, and Andruw Jones had a big RBI single in the 7th to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. He now has three hits in his last seven at-bats.
The Dodgers, with the win today, have now won four straight series. They'll take on the Marlins who they swept in Florida a couple months ago.
The Braves exploded for the offense they were missing entirely yesterday and take the win from the Dodgers setting up the rubber match tomorrow.
Jair Jurrjens got the win, 9-4. Chad Billingsley took the loss, he's 8-8.
Chad Billingsley, following one of his better outings of the season, had one of his worst. He went 5 and 1/3 innings giving up six runs, five earned. Actually, when he left the game, he had given up four runs and had two runners to his credit on base, but in a sign of things to come, 
Ramon Troncoso allowed both inherited runners to score. He did, however, pitch a scoreless inning in the following inning. Joe Beimel, though, started the 8th inning, getting only two outs while giving up a run. Cory Wade came in to close the 8th, but surrendered back-to-back homeruns to Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann (his second homerun on the night).
The Dodgers offense, meanwhile, was unable to mount much against Jurrjens. They scored only one run on a check swing double by James Loney. They were able to scratch across two more in the 9th, but at that point, it was too little, too late.
The Dodgers will try to win the series tomorrow at 7:10 L.A. time. The Dodgers are 1-4 this season against the Braves so far.
There was a lot of talk recently about the attempts the Dodgers were making to obtain C.C. Sabathia from the Indians and ultimately why the Dodgers didn't acquire him.
In my opinion, it wouldn't have been a good idea to trade for Sabathia. As of right now, pitching is not our problem, hitting is, and almost all sources indicated that Matt Kemp was likely to be involved in the trade, along with a few other prospects as well. And that was just a deal for Sabathia...
Well, according to Tony Jackson of the L.A. Daily News:
"Dodgers owner Frank McCourt nixed a trade that would have brought Sabathia to Los Angeles, along with Indians third baseman Casey Blake and utility man Jamey Carroll."
This was a great call. First off, for Sabathia alone, the Milwaukee Brewers had to give up four prospects. Can you imagine how many players we'd have to give up for Sabathia, and Blake and Carroll on top of that?
Secondly, how could this trade have helped the team? We would have added Sabathia, who is an excellent pitcher, but he would have pushed someone out of our already crowded starting rotation, that has been doing very well recently. On top of this, we'd acquire Casey Blake, who will be 35 in August, and has seen his numbers decline the past few years, and frankly, wouldn't add much to our starting lineup. 
I'd rather see Blake DeWitt or Andy LaRoche out there. Also coming over in the deal would have been 34-year old Jamey Carroll. Carroll is a light-hitting (and I stress light hitting: 9 career hrs, .272 career average, plus not too much speed to speak of) utility infielder. What could Carroll give us that we couldn't already get from Luis Maza?
And to think, we could have given up some good prospects for that? I haven't agreed with too much Frank McCourt has done, but he gets some points in my book if he did, in fact, veto this trade. Now there's talk about what to do at the shortstop position, and whether or not there should be a trade. I'll write about that later.
The Dodgers got some excellent pitching to continue their hot streak and collect the win, they are now 6-1 in July.
Hiroki Kuroda got the win, he's 5-6. Jorge Campillo took the loss, he's 3-4.
Hiroki Kuroda pitched a great game for the Dodgers. He was perfect through seven innings before giving up a leadoff double to Mark Teixeira in the 8th. 
He then settled down and retired the next six batters to shut down the Braves the rest of the way on one hit. Kuroda was quick and efficient, he struck out six, but for the most part pitched to contact, making just 91 pitches to complete the game. Kuroda now has two of the three Dodger shutouts on the year.
Offensively, the Dodgers were able to put three runs on the board for Kuroda. The big shot came from Nomar Garciaparra, who hit a two-run homerun in the bottom of the 5th off a hanging breaking ball. Blake DeWitt also collected three hits and Matt Kemp also knocked in a run on a single to center to make up the five hits the Dodgers got in the game.
It's been a good start in July for the Dodgers, and they'll try to continue this hot playing tomorrow at 7:10 L.A. time.
The Dodgers take the rubber match of the series and have now won three series in a row.
Brian Falkenborg got the win, he's 1-1. Matt Cain took the loss, he's 5-7. Takashi Saito picked up his 16th save.
Eric Stults started the game and was shaky, giving up seven hits and two walks over four innings. He did, however, only allow two runs (one earned). Brian Falkenborg came in in the 5th inning to relieve Stults who got into some trouble and got out of the inning unscathed. Hong-Chih Kuo pitched two scoreless innings and Jonathan Broxton added a perfect 8th. Saito came in for the 9th and got into some trouble, giving up one run before setting down the Giants and closing the game.
The Dodger offense was pretty good throughout the game as well. James Loney collected three RBIs on two hits (both doubles) and Andre Ethier continued his hot hitting scoring two runs and knocking in one on three base hits. Collectively, the Dodgers had 10 base hits on the day.
The Dodgers will head home to take on the Braves tomorrow, and congratulations to Russell Martin, who was named to his second All-Star game.
I was out of town while the Dodgers took the last three games of the series against the Astros and the first of the series against the Giants. I got back to L.A. just in time yesterday to watch them lose to the Giants. I should go on vacation more often. I'll pick up with game recaps after today's game.
