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Also ...
A Season in Savannah (Stanford Magazine)
Five Questions: Los Angeles Dodgers (2005) (Hardball Times)
Rick Monday (Baseball Analysts)
Baseball's Odd Couple (Baseball Prospectus)
Five Questions: Los Angeles Dodgers (2006) (Hardball Times)
Five Questions: Los Angeles Dodgers (2007) (Hardball Times)
Dodger home record: 39-30 (.565)
When Jon attended: 5-3 (.625)
When Jon didn't: 34-27 (.557)
Dodgers at home: 745-600 (.554)
Jon attended: 293-233 (.557)*
Jon didn't: 457-374 (.550)
* includes road games attended
Current Roster with Estimated 2008 Salaries
(updated March 28)
Most figures are estimates (some are wild estimates) but will be updated as information comes in. Corrections welcome.
More contract details here.
Starting Pitchers (5)
$12,300,000 Hiroki Kuroda
$10,000,000 Derek Lowe
$9,500,000 Brad Penny
$7,000,000 Esteban Loaiza
*$500,000 Chad Billingsley
Total: $39,300,000
Bullpen (6)
$2,000,000 Takashi Saito
$1,925,000 Joe Beimel
$1,125,000 Scott Proctor
*$500,000 Jonathan Broxton
$500,000 Chan Ho Park
*$400,000 Hong-Chih Kuo
Total: $6,450,000
Starting Lineup (8)
$14,100,000 Andruw Jones
$13,000,000 Rafael Furcal
$9,000,000 Jeff Kent
$8,500,000 Nomar Garciaparra
$8,000,000 Juan Pierre
$500,000 Russell Martin
*$400,000 James Loney
*$400,000 Matt Kemp
Total: $53,900,000
Bench (6)
$875,000 Gary Bennett
$600,000 Mark Sweeney
$424,500 Andre Ethier
$391,000 Delwyn Young
$390,000 Chin-Lung Hu
$390,000 Blake DeWitt
Total: $3,071,000
Disabled List
$12,000,000 Jason Schmidt
*$400,000 Tony Abreu
*$390,000 Andy LaRoche
Total: $12,790,000
Also Paying ...
$1,000,000 Brett Tomko
$750,000 Odalis Perez
$540,000 Yhency Brazoban
$500,000 Randy Wolf
$487,500 Jason Repko
$135,225 Rudy Seanez
$100,000 Mike Lieberthal
$50,000 Ramon Martinez
Total: $3,562,725
Working total: *$113,268,725
*Rough salary estimate
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Baseball Toaster runs on some experimental software called Fairpole. It's still under development.
For more information, please visit the Fairpole blog, or read the FAQ.
Whether Dodger manager Jim Tracy's hyperbolic and brittle comments about a possible trade (I doubt that any reporter had the optimism to suggest that the Dodgers could procure a "savior.") are meant to convince himself or his players, these facts remain:
No, the Dodgers do not need to tear their team apart.
No, the Dodgers should not empty out what's left of their farm system.
Yes, the Dodgers should make any trade that can improve the team, short-term and long-term.
I've identified the players whom I see as the most likely acquisition candidates. They come from contending teams that are poor in the Dodgers' No. 1 strength: relief pitching. (This includes a team like Minnesota, whose bullpen is decent, but might use another reliever to push Johan Santana into the starting rotation.)
In most of these cases, a Guillermo Mota and a prospect of decent promise might suffice in a trade. In the case of a team like the Yankees, they might actually want the more expensive, name reliever like Paul Shuey - and might ask that the Dodgers take a Jeff Weaver in return. And for the superstar players, the Dodgers would probably have to ask themselves if they could part with Odalis Perez.
The big guiding principle: the Dodgers must make sure they acquire a player who can rake right-handed pitching.
Here are the teams, with their bullpen ERA:
Cincinnati, 5.42
Kansas City, 5.04
Toronto, 4.91
Boston, 4.89
St. Louis, 4.60
Pittsburgh, 4.57
Minnesota, 4.43
Florida, 4.39
Chicago White Sox, 4.12
New York Yankees, 3.96
Here are the players, with their at-bats, home-run totals and OPS against righties:
Skipping Rocks
These players aren't battle or media-tested, but might be useful:
Aaron Guiel, Kansas City, OF: 49, 2, .894
Howie Clark, Toronto, UT: 40, 0, .930
Making Waves
Flawed? Yeah. And yet every one could bat cleanup on the Dodgers.
Aaron Boone, Cincinnati, 2B: 236, 12, .847
Frank Catalanotto, Toronto, UT: 248, 6, .877
J.D. Drew, St. Louis, OF: 124, 8, .984
Jose Guillen, Cincinnati, OF: 150, 13, 1.095
Jacque Jones, Minnesota, OF: 212, 9, .860
Kevin Millar, Boston, 1B/OF: 174, 8, .969
Doug Mientkiewicz, Minnesota, moveable 1B: 164, 3, .872
Trot Nixon, Boston, OF: 179, 8, .993
Cannonball
Hard to imagine that teams in the playoff hunt would give these guys up, unless they are really stupid or really forward-thinking:
Carlos Beltran, Kansas City, OF: 156, 9, .932
Brian Giles, Pittsburgh, OF: 151, 6, .945
Mike Lowell, Florida, 3B: 236, 16, .922
Closing thoughts:
1) No one from the Yankees or White Sox seems like a viable target for the Dodgers.
2) With Brian Jordan and Dave Roberts gimpy, it would seem to make more sense to acquire an outfielder now, rather than worry about benching Adrian Beltre.
3) With 10 legitimate candidates on the table plus three superstars, it's hard to believe that there isn't one trade out there that could help both teams, and therefore be made.
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