During an offseason filled with available pitchers and hitters such as: Soriano, Man-Ram, Aramis Ramirez and pitchers Barry Zito and Japanese import Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Los Angeles Dodgers may have been the surprise winners without having signed any of the following players mentioned above...
The Dodger GM Ned Colleti has been very closed to the vest about the his offseason moves, much like a master chess player, or even a fantasy baseball owner the hour before the draft starts... But he has done nothing but become one of the best GM's in all of major league baseball with some key acquisitions that make the Dodgers the team to beat in the NL West...
First off, the Dodgers were able to rid themselves of the enigmatic J.D.N.P Drew... (ie. J.D. Did Not Play Drew) amongst some confusion on why he would actually leave L.A. for Boston... It did appear that Colleti took that very personally because this move seemed to be precipitated by Bob Sugar a.k.a. Scott Boras... Now there has been some grumblings about a potential investigation into whether Boras and the Red Sox were involved in some tampering to get Drew to opt out of his contract with the Dodgers, but oh well, I think everybody that bleeds blue is glad that Drew is gone, even though that .280 avg., 20 HRs and 100 RBI will be missed... But if that move ends up landing us Manny Ramirez, I think that fans in L.A. and New York will vote J.D. Drew the MVP...
Secondly, the Dodgers decided not to sign Eric Gagne, I love Gagne for what he means to the Dodgers but having not pitched in 2 seasons is hard to justify paying the 10 million for him... Also, GM Ned Colleti retained the services of Takasi Saito to either close or set-up for the Dodgers for a very inexpensive $1 million, 1 year deal... However, there needs to be a decision made about whether to drop Joe "Mr. Glass" Beimel...
Then the Dodgers after not being able to land free agents Aramis Ramirez and Soriano to the Chicago Cubs they turned their sights to acquiring the speedy center fielder Juan Pierre... This move has been questioned with some moans and groans because Pierre, who was 2nd in the NL stolen bases, triples and led the NL in hits is not the power hitting outfielder that many believe was the reason why the Dodgers didn't march further into the playoffs... However, Pierre, a mainstay on all my yahoo! fantasy teams offers a upgrade from the geriatric Kenny Lofton who played old and looked old out in center last season... Plus, Pierre was signifcantly cheaper than Gary Matthews Jr. cost the Angels...
Shortly after the Pierre move, Colleti made the move to sign free agent lefty Randy Wolf from the Phillies... This move made me scratch my head a little... Even though this was a one year deal... This certainly meant the doom for either Greg Maddux or Brad Penny... But looking at the acquistion of Wolf by the Dodgers in the grand scheme of things, this would give the Dodgers 7 starting pitchers that give them some depth and a potential chip in a trade for that big bat that they need... In theory, the Dodgers could package Brad Penny or Brett Tomko along with a James Loney or LaRoche for Andruw Jones or Planet Man-Ram...
This week, Greg Maddux signs with San Diego Padres...
This move made me question why the Dodgers didn't make a more significant push to retain the Professor... But then I guess that was the domino that needed to fall before the Dodgers decided to announce that they have indeed agree with free agent pitcher Jason Schmidt... Which swung the pendulum to the Dodgers as being the favorite to win the NL West with the best pitcher available... This was a big blow to the rest of the division... First, the Dodgers took Schmidt from the Hated Ones and Schmidt looks like Drysdale against that weak lineup in San Diego... This gives the Dodgers the 1-2 punch of Schmidt and Lowe...
Dodgers sign, OF Luis Gonzalez to a 1-year, 8 million dollar deal to be the Dodgers left fielder at least to begin the year... I guess the big sticking point for Gonzalez was to stay in the NL West, and the prospect of having half of the fans in left field rocking a Gonzalez jersey, let's face it, most of all the fans in the left field pavillion have Gonzalez as a last name...
All of these moves have allowed the Dodgers to have some roster flexibility, depth and experience on the team...
Some fans will look at this offseason as only partially successful since the Dodgers did not land that Manny Ramirez or ARod or Soriano... But I think in the long run the Dodgers still set themselves up to be a contender this year without mortaging the future to overpay to acquire a bat... a la' the Angels...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
nice insight kid....my only question is...What is the thought process behind all the 1 year deals? Are the dodgers trying to keep their options open year to year to sign a monster? Does this weaken any chance of building team chemistry....thoughts?
Doing all these 1 year deals is so that we don't have to keep these old dudes forever. That was one of our biggest mistakes in the past, and we aim not to repeat it. If you look back at the 90's, GM's were willing to spend a fortune on players and give them multi-year contracts. The Dodgers gave Kevin Brown a 7-year contract when he was 33. Gary Sheffield demanded an extension, when he already had a multi-year contract that would have been paying him until he was in his late 30's. If we don't trade our farm of great prospects, the future is bright and we won't have to worry about team chemistry. Doing these one year deals is about winning now, and giving us a low-risk option as well.
Post a Comment