Otherwise, one more year of NedCo., and then maybe they can choose from White, Ng or Watson to replace him.

Everyone on this team has the potential to be the best defender in baseball at their position, except for Kemp and Loney (who could very well improve).

You really think Dewitt (at 3b) & Martin are great defenders?

I also think putting Frank Gutierrez in the OF is really banking on his OF defense making up for his anemic bat. Not sure thats a good wager.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/09/would-dodgers-t.html

"Beltre wouldn't mind staying in Seattle, but the Mariners need to hire a general manager and get on with rebuilding. Assuming they do, Beltre would love to come back to the Dodgers. 'If I'm available, I'd be happy to,' he said. 'I don't know what is going to happen. I'd be more than happy to come back to L.A. It's not under my control.'"

I don't agree with Andrew that the Indians need middle infielders. They simply need to flip flop Peralta and Cabrera. Cabrera was awesome for a middle infielder once he got straightened out posting an 820 OPS in the 2nd half and building on the promise he displayed in the 2nd half of 2007. I'd take him over any of our infield prospects considering he's only 22.

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/HDHV

If she gets the Seattle gig, good for her but I won't be upset she is not our future GM.

5 or 6 years at $100-110?

21 If Dunn goes for that cheap we should defenitely look at that route too. Than we may still have enough money for CC.

http://tinyurl.com/4dru38

Larry Bowa back to the Yankees?
http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/st/archives/2008/10/3_up_bowa_manny.html

Hey I thought that Pat Burrel was supposed to be a terrible outfielder. Just like Manny he didn't look that bad in LF to me. Is Dunn really as bad as the metrics say?

In the long run what Manny did may turn out to be the worse thing to happen to Dodger fans. The reality of what a great hitter can do will never be able to live up to the expectations of the post - Manny era.

But when you play 36 road games in the NL West, it can add up.

I like how one of the commenters on the blog said LA overpaid for Derek.

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/seattle-mariners.html

It makes no sense to me that he would add the Dodgers to a short list in one year and revoke it the next.

Scary. Offer him a big number. But only two years -- plus a vesting option to keep him hungry. Stick to it! If he walks, he walks.

Buy high on CC? Also scary. Offer a big number. For three years only with a player option for a fourth year. If he says no, he says no. How many buy-high contracts for No. 1 FA pitchers work out for the club?

Go with DeWitt at third, DeJesus at 2B and, if you can sign him 1 year with an option, which I think you can, Furcal at SS. Hu would be the utility guy, and a very busy one.

Eat most of the Pierre money, get a Single-A arm for him, move on.

Key point: Take the five draft picks for Manny (2), Lowe (1), Blake (1), Penny (1) and tell Logan White to have a party. Bust slot if White says it's worth it.

Retain the first-round draft pick.

Once the media shellacking ended, the Dodgers still would be able to sell a lot of tickets and win the NL West. With Andruw and Schmidt moving off they books in '09 they'd have a lot money to spend this summer and next offseason.

Big point: They would reseed a farm system that got them here in the first place but now is pretty thin.

Got to get that farm system rolling again. Young players might be more important nowadays with the more stringent PED testing.

For all the reasons we've discussed, that might be the right thing to do.

But there is no way that GM dsfan would survive the purge that will result after that team goes 77-85. You and Dan Evans would be able to meet at Starbucks as the two lifetime members of the "But I rebuilt the Dodger farm system!" club.

Just don't sit near the window, and be prepared to duck if a sharply dressed man with a pocket full of pens strolls by!

He has made it pretty clear that he's going wherever he gets the most money, which is usually a given when you hire Boras.

I hated the job I had before this one. Part of what I hated about it was that I was underpaid with respect to my experience and my peers. That knowledge hung over me and made all the petty things I disliked about the job even worse.

Money's not the only thing, of course. If I were offered a job for a 25% raise but it was in Olathe, Kansas, I don't know that I'd accept it. (Nothing against Olathe.) But a 150% raise and all of a sudden I'm learning about the finer points of America's Breadbasket.

Jason Schmidt might be able to salvage the last season of his contract as he reports "instant relief" after his second shoulder operation.

He had a 2nd surgery?

http://tinyurl.com/39s5sz

I can imagine him openly requesting a trade.

I can't imagine him having a smidgen of leverage to make that happen.

Time was that Juan would be lauded as one of the best players in the game. 200 hits a year!

But that world is gone, and now Juan has to figure out what the heck has happened.

It's almost enough to make ya feel bad for the guy. No, check that. On a human level, I do feel bad for the guy.... just not bad enough to say that he should be starting for my team.

Personally, other than the possibility of the O-Dog at 2nd, I'd rather have Crede or try to sign n' trade Penny for a guy like Blalock, than pay a guy like Ellis $7 million a year.

Then have DeWitt at 2nd I'm sure he will improve defensively after playing winter ball and spring training at 2nd. Maybe experiment with Hu/DeJesus/Abreu if needed as second options and/or utility infielders.

*Used loosely: the guy makes $9 million/year.

If you're just talking about picking up Penny's option, then trading him, that is of course allowed.

CC is about at the same point in time as Maddux was when Atlanta signed him away from the Cubs. He then won three straight Cy Young awards for the Braves. You might say CC is not in Maddux's class but I think you'd be wrong. I mean he is certainly in the same class that Maddux was at the time of his first free agent contract.

They both are coming off of a career best 160+ ERA+ free agent season. Maddux was 26, CC is 27. Maddux had piled up 1440 innings to CC's 1659 while being one year younger then CC. CC has had three staight elite seasons.

When Joe says he wants pitching and he gets CC, the fans may not care where Manny ends up. This one won't.

That is what I meant. Just an easier way of saying it within a sentence I guess.

I don't think (CC - Lowe - Manny) > (Lowe + Manny - CC).

I don't divide out my rooting interest for DePo guys, Evans guys, Logan White guys, Ned guys.

I agree, but isn't the general consensus that Derek doesn't want to be here?

As the power in baseball keeps dropping some GM will rationalize the need for Juan Pierre.

That's not really the point. You seemed to be saying, "If I enjoy watching a team, the GM couldn't have been stupid in putting it together." I don't buy that. For one thing, you might very well have enjoyed the team even more had Ned not thrown big dollars at bad players, and had either spent in on good players instead or not spent it at all and not blocked some of the kids.

Yes, in which case losing Manny matters. Which is not to say we should resign him, but still: fans should "care".

I wish i had been home for some of this series, and i hope i don't kick myself for missing the best dodger team i've seen, but all i know is that you could hear a pin drop in wrigley and citizens bank while the home team was down 2 or more runs.

so bravo dodger fans, alot of people here at smu form all over the country were impressed with the city showed.

I know...doesn't he realize where the housing market is at these days

Equals a fun year!

Maybe it will be the Rays that exploit him.

Shane Victorino playing CF is fun to watch.

And I guess as far as the first question, Ethier, Saito and Furcal are 3 guys this year who I enjoyed watching, Casey Blake had some big hits and home runs. And I have seen most of Nomar's big moments at Dodger Stadium outside of his catch against the D-Backs.

That's not intended to be a judgment, just an observation. Just about every player is going to have some "big hits" and make some "exciting plays" if given enough opportunities.

No one loves Ned, but there's a point where you're just looking to be negative and hyper-critical.

Lidge has better stuff than almost anyone out there, he's just mistake prone.

* - And some of these should lie more with whomever did the deepest player/risk evaluations of some, Jones and Schmidt in particular. Granted, its his watch and he should watch who he trusts. But I hate the one-guy-fall argument.

In fact, my bigger point was about Pierre and Ned, not the fans and Ned.

Hernandez's response:

I was there when Billingsley said what he said.

To me, it was pretty clear that he was putting the blame on himself.

I think this was just a case of a reporter (Nelson) not familiar with the team and the demeanor or style of the players she was interviewing. As such, this is the last I will speak of this (barring any future radio appearances by one A.Nelson).

Exactly. If the maximum enjoyment score a fan can have is 100, and if said fan initially experienced a score of 100, then said fan can still be said to be victimized by his/her GM's stupidity if said GM's stupidity resulted in said fan's enjoyment score falling to 99, even though 99 is still very high.

We are going to really need DeWitt to hit well enough to solidify third. If we cannot keep Manny, we are probably going to need to trade for an outfielder. Don't think we have enough to also trade for a third baseman.