With Erickson being a bust, Alveraz being both unlucky and not as good as last year, is it not possible to keep both Thompson and bring up another starter who could pitch both middle relief and spot start. If my memory is correct, back in the 70's and 80's pitchers like Fernando, Bob Welch, Hershiser, and I think Doug Rau all came up and initially pitched out of the bullpen and occasionally spot started. This preparation seemed to be helpful the following year when they became starters. This sensible trend also is followed less across the major leagues today.

Can we?

Oh wait. Mike Piazza....

So, we need another starter. Anyone have any ideas. Oswalt perhaps? And what would it take in prospects to get him? Would anyone be willing to give up Guzman for him?

Weaver, despite my jinxing him, did not pitch horribly yesterday all things considered. The strong six innings in frames 2-7 kinda sorta made up for the first. I still think he's primed for improvement.

Odalis Perez's declining K numbers are disturbing, but if his durability questions can be overcome, I'm optimistic about his chances for improvement.

Nevertheless, it does sound like DePo will need to acquire some pitching help at the deadline.

WWSH

Putting Derek Thompson in the rotation is a prime example of what this organization needs to keep doing: trusting the farm. I wouldn't trade Thompson for Barry Zito straight up, and Thompson was basically our fourth best Double A starter.

Ominous.

:)

Like Steve, I am anxiously awaiting the "separate post".

Young Nationals starter/long reliever Zach Day is available, though he's go to theal up a wrist injury. He has showed promise and good stuff at times, but has a bad r'ship with Frank Robinson and opposing batters both right now. Was recently sent to minors with 6 plus ERA. He was almost traded for Juan Encarnacion recently (also rumors re Preston Wilson). Reasonable chance he could rebound somewhere, I'd guess, though he's certainly not going to be the frontline starter the Dodgers and fifteen other teams want right now.

It's a different situation today: some of our minor league talent, if not our best guys, IS ready to help us, and I believe that we should be looking to these young guys as Dodger PLAYERS, not Dodger trade bait, bits and pieces that can be sent to contribute elsewhere while we get back more veteran rental players who are soon hitting free agency. Even Penny now sounds like he will bid us farewell unless we pay him more money than he is probably deserving of.

Izturis Fielding VORP: 1.8
Kent Fielding VORP: 1.7

Another argument for patience is that we're just not really that close to being a true world championship team. If we were just one player away, then it'd make more sense to give up a top prospect. But I think we're more like one player away from winning the division, and then maybe getting into the NLCS. Another solid starter would give us a pretty good rotation, but not a dominant one, and although I think the offense will be fine, "fine" is different than championship caliber. Giving up the next Juan Gonzalez for a NL West championship would be worse than unfortunate.

That being said, it does sound like DePo will make a move from the latest Dodger notes story, and that those moves will involve minor leaguers. How valuable those minor leaguers will be is the question we'll find out.

WWSH

Actually, Jon, Houlton tonight and Thompson might indicate that some of our top pitching prospects could spot start. Someone like Tiffany or Billingsley could very well give a few strong spot starts, much like the ones Thomposn has given, and what Jackson gave after his first callup. That could be enough to tide us over if Perez's injury isn't too serious. The 4 or 5 slots in the rotation may be a crazy-quilt patchwork, but it could still be reasonably effective, or, at least, effective enough.

WWSH

Tiffany is just in A ball right now, though, right? Asking him to contribute in 2005 is really asking a lot.

Also, I'd still not mind if we could get Helton. Perhaps there's some personal interest/bias on my part (but no inside info). As much as I like and rooted for the guy, I think it's clear now that Choi should be on the bench for awhile, especially after this post. I mean how many at bats does it take?

One thing is for sure, I think changes are a-comin'!!!

Choi, it should be clear from this post, is a good player who is a part-timer mainly because of an unexpected extraordinary performance by Saenz.

I see that Choi is good, but I also see that Saenz is better, even if it is unexpected.

If you take everything all the people that supported Choi were saying about giving him a chance, give him some ABs on both sides, etc, you could apply that now to Saenz. I guess 45 more ABs/PAs might reduce his fielding to less than Choi's, but it might also extend his VORP.. right? I guess, we should be happy to have the problem, but given the numbers above, I'd be playing Saenz more and Choi less.

Where have all the Dodger pitchers gone...
hahahahaha

...or should I say: Free Oswalt!

....as a final thought, maybe we should get Cora back to pitch. :-)

The "Lo Duca trade" pretty much came out of nowhere and I could see a similar type of thing happening again.

Tampa Bay (nothing of value)
Detroit (won't trade Bonderman)
Cleveland (will likely trade Millwood, but not Sabathia)
Kansas City (won't trade Greinke)
Seattle (may trade Piniero or Meche)
Oakland (definitely trading Zito)
Milwaukee (won't trade Sheets, may trade Davis)
Pittsburgh (may trade Redman or Wells)
Cincinatti (probably won't trade Harang)
Houston (may trade Oswalt and/or Clemens)
Colorado (nothing of value)

Of this set, I'd only really be excited about a couple of them:

#1: Roy Oswalt is a 27 year old certified staff ace and is signed through next year at a fairly reasonable $11 million mark. Other than some minor injury concerns, what's not to like?

#2: Kip Wells is a 28 year old pitcher who strikes people out. He would fit into the top of our rotation either just ahead of or just behind Lowe. He's pitching very well this year and making last year's performance look like an abberation. To top it all off, he's still arbitration eligible for another year.

guys that I wouldn't be thrilled with, but they could help.

"Tim, babe, how's everything? Great! How's the wife and kids? Great! Fabulous! Look, I'm calling to do you a favor. Your team's struggling. Let's be honest, you've got a lot of dead weight over there. Am I wrong? I want to help. Why? I love you, babe, you know that. Look, this Oswalt character, he's pretty shady. Very shady if you ask me. He's bringing you down. I'm willing to take him off your hands. You don't need pitchers. Pitchers are a dime a dozen. Pitchers don't win ballgames. You know who wins ballgames? Outfielders. Look kid, I wouldn't make this kind of offer to just anybody. What you need is a quality outfielder. Berkman? Tavares? They're done. Strictly yesterday's news. But I'm going to help you because I like you. We've got a guy who's just tearing it up out in Vegas. He's hitting, are you sitting down, .471. You heard me, four-seven-one. Last night he practically won the game single-handed. He went five for five with a home run and two doubles. Can you believe that? His name is Grabowski or something. Is that a baseball name or what? This kid is out of his skull. What? Well yeah, he's 29 but he's a kid at heart. He plays like a kid. I'm telling you he's a bona fide, pure outfield monster. And I'm going to let you have him for practically nothing. I'm telling you, I'm letting you rob me blind but I've got no choice. We've got no where to play him. Our outfield is full. You've got to take him. You'll be kicking yourself if you don't. I'm not going let that happen to my favorite GM. So you just send over that Oswalt guy and I'll put Grabowski on the first plane to Houston. What? Still not convinced. Tim, baby, you are a shark. I'll tell you what I'll do. You're worried about pitching. I really shouldn't do this. The boss'll kill me. Only for you, babe. I'll throw in one of our best young pitchers. I know, I'm crazy. His name is Buddy Carlyle. He's great, you'll love him. What's not to like about a guy named Buddy. So it's a deal? Great! I love you, babe."

If only it were that easy.

Okay, so, if we want Oswalt, what are we willing to give up for him? Remember that it took an all-star catcher with Heart-and-Soul and the premiere NL setup man (by reputation at least) to get Penny and Choi, and I consider Oswalt a better pitcher than Oswalt. If DePo wants to only trade minor-league talent for Oswalt, I can't see how it'd take anything less than a top-flight prospect or two--i.e. Guzman, Tiffany, or Billingsley.

Are we willing to give someone like that up?

After some thought, and Canuck's pointed prodding, I'm not willing to. In re: 31, actually, Fearing Blue, where I think we differ a bit is that although I think Oswalt would essentially give us the NL West title, barring catastrophic injuries, I don't think our offense is strong enough to make us WS favorites, even with a playoff rotation of Oswalt-Penny-Lowe-Odalis/Weaver. Saenz and Izzy will come down to earth, Kent is getting long-in-the-tooth, the injury specter still haunts both Drew and Milton, and Werth is unproven. Don't get me wrong, I think we'll be fine, but I mean fine as in contending as-is for the division title and doing okay in the playoffs. A judicious deal will put us over the edge to be NL West favorites, but I don't think even Oswalt would make us WS favorites. And I just think that our best prospects are too precious to be dealt away unless it gives us a decent chance to win the World Series.

In all due honesty, I think DePo will end up giving up bigger prospects to make a bigger deal than I might prefer. I still remember him making it clear before that unlike Dan Evans, he considers no prospect untouchable. He's actually acted a lot more like Evans than those words would indicate, but now that he has a big-league roster of his own doing, I think he will start trading from the farm. There's also the issue of public relations and fan pressure to take into account. For those reasons, I actually could see a top-flight prospect being moved for Oswalt, or a lower-tier one for someone like Zito, or perhaps a starter DePo considers undervalued (and thus less costly in prospects) and that is off the radar screen. I would prefer the latter two scenarios, but it's not like I really have any say in the matter!

WWSH

WWSH

Here's what I would consider trading for Oswalt:

Trade Adam LaRoche to Philly for Ryan Howard, since it sounds like there has already been interest expressed.

Trade Ryan Howard plus a second-tier pitching prospect, perhaps Thompson since his stock is currently up, to the Astros for Oswalt.

Now, let me explain why. First, adding Oswalt soon should give us a great chance of catching the Padres for the division title. Second, Oswalt / Penny / Lowe / Perez is a playoff caliber rotation, especially considering that Perez may not have to pitch much as the 4th guy. Third, our offense is top quality, even for the playoffs. We're currently around 4th or 5th in th NL in most offensive categories, and we play in the second most extreme pitcher's park in the league. Last, LaRoche is likely blocked by Guzman and we have 10-12 better long-term pitching prospects than Thompson.

Also, looking forward, there's only one pitcher who's going to be a free agent who could be considered in the class of Oswalt, A.J. Burnett. He'll likely make more than $11 million a year, with a long-term contract, plus he has injury concerns. And, the chance that we outbid the 15 or so other teams who will want him is really low. Add that to the fact that we may lose Penny to free agency, and you have a situation where we're going to be desparate for a rotation stopper.

http://tinyurl.com/8dej2

They do have to take one player from each team, though. Maybe we can send Grabowski.

And I think they need to work on the kerning also for the two digit numerals.

Brady Penny looks like this

3_____________1

That said, who's got the biggest need to stock their system with prospects?

http://www.minorleagueball.com/story/2005/3/16/104245/603

The Reds, Phillies, Tigers, Marlins, Mets, Yankees and Padres are all bottome tier. DePo could get any one of those teams feeling better about their futures in one trade. (Except Padres of course.) Harang, Lieber, Burnett, Mussina, Pavano, Glavine, Maroth and other #1s and #2s on those teams should be on DePo's shopping list. No point in aiming lower if we're going to part with any of our glorious prospects.

I think we actually have a decent collection of mediocre pitchers already, so I don't think some of the names like zito being thrown around very realistic, especially if you factor in what they will cost.

The only guy of interest that's been discussed is Oswalt, who would cost us two prime prospects. Depo would never do such a deal so I'd forget about it.

I could envision a Werth plus prospect(s) for Dunn scenario, but not for one of our prime guys.

I guess you'd have to watch every game and determine how many catchable balls are going into the new seats... has anyone been tracking this since day 1? I bet the ball club is, but I doubt they will be releasing the data.

As for Plaschke and names on the jersey... I think it was a bad PR move to go nameless in a year with so many new players.

In 1975 you could have projected much of the Dodgers' lineup and rotation for eight years.

The most encouraging thing about the Dodgers is that DePodesta has been given a number of difficult decisions to make, has not shied away from making them, and been right. I.e., letting Beltre go, letting Finley go, believing that LoDuca could be replaced . . .