I read that last night and was glad I wasn't drinking coffee or else it would have been Danny Thomas all over again.

Why not put Izturis at second, Kent at first, and Nomar in left?

This seems to make more sense defensively and offensively.

All of this begs a second question:

If you hit Furcal/Izturis first and second, who hits third? Kent or Drew?

I sense Nomar in left is a dead issue. I'm more curious if Nomar could ever play second base or back up at shortstop at this point. Or is he a glorified Olmedo Saenz?

I think Olmedo Saenz is a glorified Nomar Garciaparra at this stage.

I love Cesar Izturis to death. But it's probably time he moves on. As long as Kent and Furcal stay healthy there is no place for Cesar. This outfield talk makes no sense to me.

JD Drew is primed for a monster year.

Jose Cruz appears healthy. He's a solid bat. An above average hitter and fielder.

Jason Repko is primed for a breakout season.

Kenny Lofton possesses a knack for getting on base, has great speed, and carries with him veteran leadership fron the left side.

Ricky Ledee can spot start.

The Dodgers have 2 young studs who will be ready by mid season in Guzman and Ethier.

And don't forget about Jayson Werth.

5 - Izturis is still a good player. His offense is questionable but his defense provides value. If he can handle multiple positions depending on what the situation calls for, then he can be an asset.

Given that the Dodger roster is incredibly brittle, it would be nice to have an uber-utility guy (provided he comes back healthy).

Not that I will be heartbroken is he does move on, but I think it is premature to say that it's time he moves on.

I read in a dodger notes article on dodgers.com that grady said he wants to get izturis in games as quickly as possible, and the first thing that came into my mind when i read that is a trade.
The question that i'm asking myself is this:
Do the dodgers have a trade partner in place, a team that desperately needs a legitamate shortstop(not a robles type) and that's why grady is anxious to get izturis into games.

Im not as comfortable moving Cruz to fifth (and putting Loney in 2) because Cruz is obviously benefiting from having Drew and Kent batting behind him (which he actually said helps him). If he's comfortable there, and will tend to give him more fastballs, and he's done well there in two games (even though it's a small sample), I wouldn't mess with it until it stops working. Yes, Loney could benefit as much from having protection, but I think right now our 1-4 seems to be quite productive.

What's with the LA hail and thunderstorm in April?

Glorified Olmedo?
Nice and maybe very close to accurate. They would probably hit the same against LHP but I think Nomar will spank RHP at a higher clip then Olmedo and Nomar has better footwork at 3b and 1st from what I've seen. They are both fragile, both line drive hitters with good but not great power. Nomar could probably spot Olmedo 1st base and still beat him around the bases.
Think how strong the bench could become if Loney was to actually make a case to become the starting 1st baseman against RHP. Nomar would be the RHH platoon, could play 3b, and pitch hit. Izzy could play CF, SS, 2nd and Ramon Martinez could go bye bye. If Izzy's offensive problems were rooted in his arm problem and he could hit like he did in 2004 and April/May of 2005 we'd have a very valuable Figgins clone without the stolen bases just like you said. I'm not advocating Loney become a platoon player but in his 1st year I think it would be obvious that either Saenz or Nomor can pummell LHP while Loney will struggle to be average at best against them.

1 And that's the perfect song for when Baez enters the game (to pick up a thread from the previous post). The swing version of "Danny Boy" that Danny Thomas used as the opening and closing themes of his sitcom. They could have a silhouette of Baez like Thomas' appear on Diamondvision, too.

If having Izturis learn the outfield is a way to keep him on the team so that Ramon Martinez can be jettisoned, I'm for it.

As far as possible trading partners, Alex Cora started at short for the Red Sox last night.

7 I hope so. The danger for the Dodgers is that they allow his value to dwindle to through putting him in a bad light. They need to get him out there, show that he's healthy, and get other GMs thinking about there new Gold Glove shortstop (tm).

Given that he's a streaky hitter, and that his real value is as a defensive wonder at short, I don't think the super-sub idea is the best way to showcase him.

And I say all this as a big Cesar fan, but knowing that there are 2 things that Cesar is not:
1. a leadoff hitter
2. better than Furcal

Grant unto Cesar that which is due unto Cesar.

Also, I love Cesar, but his value plummets drastically if he's not being played at SS, where his defensive abilities can make a significant difference. If you put him at 2b, 3b or OF, he's like womack, offerman or roberts (respectively), except without the speed.

Confidential to coachjpark:

Glad to see a Whitney grad making a name for himself. 1000 tickets! I would have taken you up on one of those if I still lived in LA.

Sean C.

Bronson Arroyo just homered. Rumors that Jeff Weaver had been traded to the Cubs for the day are not yet verified.

Cesar and cash for a left-handed backup OF.

If Izzy is healthy and can play SS the Twins have to be our trading partner. They can't expect to contend with the White Sox and Indians with Castro as the SS. Castro has never hit while Izzy has 2004 and April/May 2005 on his resume.

11
The RedSox started Cora but Alex Gonzales is their SS and he is every bit as good with the glove as Izzy is and he's got some pop.

Izzy has plenty of speed he just can't steal bases.

Mark, in case you didn't see comment 551 in the previous thread, you are banned from commenting on the site for a week.

11 Izturis to the BoSox for Choi perhaps?

Now please excuse me while I duck & cover.

This is a somewhat random question, but relevant with all the injury discussion:

Does anyone know if baseball players use the soon-to-be-banned leggings that NBA players are using? If they really help, we can put Nomar in a wetsuit.

---

I was listening to the game on 980 last night and noticed after Baez got the save that "I Love LA" didn't play. Anyone have any word on this? (Anyone care?)

I think all of the GM's out there know what izturis can do defensively at ss.
And all the GM's need to know is if his arm strength is o.k., and i think they can find that out wherever he is playing for the dodgers.
And i believe the dodgers don't want to showcase him at kent or furcal's positions because you are taking a couple of our better players out of games to insert izturis just to show case.
We have a hole in the outfield right now and izturis isn't the solution, but since we have a hole in the outfield right now its the best place to insert izturis for showcasing.

And when i say a hole in the outfield its assuming repko is the 2005 version of repko, and lofton well nevermind, been there done that.

Wait... wasn't it just a few weeks ago that the rationale for Izzy @ 2nd was to not strain his arm?

Let's try Izzy out at catcher. That way we can get rid of Alomar!

I'm with Jon's "file this news away and not even concern ourselves with it for a while" suggestion here.

But it seems, as others have said here, that if they want to trade him, they'll want him at short; if they want him to fit in and help the team in whatever way he can, there's the versatility idea (OF, 2nd etc). So... we'll get a better sense of what their plans are then.

'til then...

The most ironic thing about Nomar's current abdominal injury is that he was (is?) the posterboy and centerpiece for that book called "The Core" where this trainer basically pushes workouts and conditioning regiments centered around building your "core" abdominal area. Every workout is built around strengthening your body from stomach area and out. He mentions Nomar all over his book as his main "claim to fame." So in theory, if Nomar was using those workouts and him as his trainer, his core/abdominal area should be rock solid.

Bonus morning post up top.

I think our situation with Izturis is quite a mess, a Catch-22: We can't trade Izturis for anything even remotely worth having unless we play him, and play him more than just a little, but if we play him we are taking playing time away from a player or players with a greater likelihood of being productive than Izturis.

17 - Not sure, but is Jason Bartlett good enough that they wouldn't want to block him with Izturis? Otherwise, I agree, Minnesota is the way to go.

They don't have much in the way of lefty-hitting OFers though. Jason Kubel is the only one on the roster right now.

teams that could be interested in izturis:

nationals
twins
royals

eh thats about it.

27
I think our situation with Izturis is quite a mess, a Catch-22:

Just waive him. Problem solved.

if you waive him, i think you have to eat the rest of his contract.

29 Izturis would be real upgrade at short for the Nationals (Royce Clayton, ex-injured Cristian Guzman), but you do have to shudder for Nationals fans at what Jim Bowden might offer for a gold-glove AS shortstop who hit as well as Izturis did for the first six weeks of last season.

20-I to was puzzled that we didnt here "I love L.A." by Randy Newman. I get pumped up when I here that song after a Dodger home win.

Ryan Church straight up for izturis.

The song played.

yay griffey homered. i hope he has an awesome year.

Good heavens -- Arroyo w/a two-out walk to load the bases. "Jason Grabowski, please have your principle report immediately to the Great American Ball Park."

29 - The Royals have Berroa and they would never eat Izzy's contract.

I think a good way to handle Izturis might be to send him back from where he came. Within the next couple weeks the historic incompetence of the Jays infield is apt to make even Riccardi think about a defensive upgrade.

38 Berroa is, for all intents and purposes, the worse shortstop in baseball. He doesn't get on base, he's a terrible fielder, and he has no power.

20 and 33 I was there, and Randy played, and it was a seriously pumped-up moment, given all the nice developments -- Penny, Loney, Drew, Seo (until he faltered, he was awesome) and Baez.

Last night's game reminded me of when I lived up north in the 70s and went to games at Candlestick. A small, fierce crowd, dressed for winter, dodging the weather. Paid attendance was 36,000, but the actual couldn't have been more than 22k.

39 - Berroa has a higher career OPS, batting average, slugging percentage and OPS+ than Izturis. He is also millions cheaper.

berroa isnt that cheap..
06:$2M, 07:$3.25M, 08:$4.75M, 09:$5.5M club option ($0.5M buyout)

compared to izturis..
06:$3.1M, 07:$4.15M, 08:$5.45M club option ($0.3M buyout)

42 - Still a little cheaper, which is a big deal to the Royals, but your point is solid.

More importantly, from where did you pull that salary info?

columbus catfish roster is set i think. do minor league teams only carry 25 players as well?

http://columbuscatfish.com/roster.html

there are a lot of international pitchers on there. im curious to see how they do because i particulary havent heard or found info on a lot of them.

draft picks from 2005 that are on the catfish:
ivan dejesus
sergio ISOpedroza
brent leach
adam godwin
andrew locke

salary info

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/

Does anyone know how Izturis feels about Grady's comments? It seemed that Izturis was slow to accept the idea of him playing 2nd, how is he going to take to the idea of playing in the outfield?

I always assumed that when he gets off the DL he would play enough SS to convince other teams that he's healthy and capable, at which point he is traded.

I could see him going to the Cubs if/when Dusty gives up on Ronny Cedeno. Boston, Washington and Minnisota could be possible.

44. what is pedroza doing in lowA, i thought he'd be on his way to Vero Beach? I thought he could challenge Kemp's homerun record.

pedroza hit .207 and struck out 58 times in 179ABs in low A.

the dodgers probably think he should show consistent contact skills for him to move up.

the question is, where the hell is josh wall?

45 - www.hardballdollars.com is also very good.

45 & 49 - Thank You

42 - The Royals still would not want Izturis as things stand right now. Berroa - despite being an unproductive player - is signed. The Royals are more concerned about getting Huber, Butler, and Gordon ready then seeing where their starting pitching stands. Unless the Dodgers want an ailing middle reliever or Mark Redman in return (please say no), then I don't think the Royals are a good fit.

Of course, this could all change tomorrow.

48 Extended spring? Or maybe they want him (and Steve Johnson) to wait until Ogden to pitch competitively

But what do you do with SS? Rivera and DeJesus are very similar players. Who starts?

C: Apodaca
1B: Sutherland
2B: DeJesus/Rivera/Mitchell/Soto
SS: DeJesus/Rivera
3B: Perez/Mitchell
OF: Godwin, Locke, Pedroza
DH: Perez/Mitchell

Rotation? Leach and...? Wade? Pfeiffer? Arias? One of the international guys I don't recognize? Shouldn't Meloan be at Columbus?

51. The other problem with trading Izturis to KC is that the Royals are unlikley to give the Dodgers anything terribly usefull. Its not as if theyll trade billy butler or even chris lubanski for izturis, and after their top 5-6 prospects their isnt much left that would be worth trading izturis for.

52. I guess Meloan is in Vero Beach, perhaps as a reliever. I think BA liked Arias, but not sure if his role was settled yet. The 2005 draft seems to have created lack of minor league talent that we're seeing in low-A ball. Hopefully the foreign talent can make up for some of that (Rivera, Soto, Apodaca) and the 2006 draft should help.

54 Meloan isn't on the Vero roster either

55 The rosters looked kind of incomplete to me. It looked like a couple of the teams had a ton of pitching, while other teams were kind of bare.

Jacksonville only has one catcher. They just don't seem complete to me thus far.

55. hope hes not injured

31 Regarding waivers and salary, I believe that a team making a claim on a waivered player must pick up his contract. However, if a player clears waivers with no claims they become a free agent, and their former team is on the hook for any money still due to the player.

56 Jacksonville's roster has 2 catchers, Ellis and Cresse. Vero's however only has one, and 9 infielders. Included on the roster are the recently released Matt Paul, and the retired Brian Pilkington, so they don't appear final. I sure hope Meloan isn't hurt, and this could explain why Wall isn't on the Columbus roster

59 Thanks.. I mixed up J-ville and Vero.