Is Mueller still under his initial contract...?

It was on Diamond Leung's blog.

http://tinyurl.com/yoxmfr

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=slanguage

The team price seemed awfully low to me when they bought the team, but I had no idea that it would be worth $600 million after only three years.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0711/mlb.worst.free.agent.contracts/content.1.html

Two are Dodger disasters (Dodger Boy days); Texas and Colorado each make the list twice as well. Also, one of Texas' "worst contracts" is Chan Ho Park...

Will Kershaw pitch at least one game for the Dodgers or Ned won´t let this happen?

Link: http://tinyurl.com/2kehqa

Never sign a fly ball pitcher to a big contract to play in Colorado.

Football, in my mind, is the exception when it comes to having a contract. And it seems amazing, frankly, given that the punishment football players get puts them in jeopardy every minute.

The NFL contracts are not all guaranteed, partially a result of having a union much weaker than the MLB players' union.

That is the second definition of "ankle," as in, "to hit in the ankle with a tire iron."

I tend to think that Gene Upshaw is one of the worst union negotiators in any industry.

22 unfortunately----yes.

35 - Well, obviously a sport where the minimum salary is $400k is remote from real life. But I certainly don't think baseball is some lone exception.

The only position the Dodgers could seriously upgrade at without A-Rod is CF, and that just isn't going to happen (without seriously downgrading LF anyway). The best way the Dodgers win this offseason is by not playing and saving their chips for 09 when Peavy, Santana, Sheets and Bonderman might be on the market.

Worst Case scenario: ugh

I'm saving your scenarios into the queue for recall. Those are well planned out.

Come back, Vinny, come back...

I guess I'm saying that given NedCo's history, I will consider it a miracle if two or more of Kemp, Laroche, Billz and Kershaw aren't gone next year.

If the stories are true, and McCourt stepped in to block Ned from making a big trade at the deadline, what does it say that the Dodgers finished fourth? Is McCourt now seeing the "error" in his ways-- namely, listening to Logan, Ng et al?

I know this is all speculation, but my gut says be prepared for a worsed case scenario.

I do not know if Miguel Cabrera will.

I am not sure why I am so fretful of the kids being traded for nothing. Nothing of the sort has happened so far (though some reporters have indicated that McCourt stopped a Texeria deal earlier this year).

http://tinyurl.com/yq4rhe

When Bonds, um, ankles the Giants, the only Giants who will hit better than a league-average catcher -- yes, catcher -- are Randy Winn, Lance Niekro, Nate Schierholtz, Dave Roberts, and Fred Lewis.

LAT'ed is when a comment is posted just before a new thread starts. Named after LAT because, well...

Don't worry, things like that and the mysterious unwritten rule are learned with time here. We are actually very much like a cult in some ways :-)

Now that the Marlins, for the first time, is actually shopping him, there is a reluctance to deal, almost hopefulness that the Angels or some other team makes a deal so we can save our kids.

I am not advocating the Kemp, LaRoche and Kershaw deal, that is too much but I do think that a deal sending 3 really good players could be possible and is something the Dodgers should seriously consider.

He has such a sweet glove though...

58
I do not like it either, thankfully it is just for a year.

I would venture to say there are key differences between today and other years when we attempted the "win now" philosophy.

1) The Pitching Staff is better now, top to bottom, than it was from 1999-2002.
2) In years past it was laughable to argue that the Dodgers were only "a player away." I think this time, the Dodgers can truly be just one player from being a serious contender.
3) The constant of the last few years was a solid bullpen. That can go a long way.
4) Even in a worst case scenario, the Dodgers will still have Martin and one of Loney/Kemp. That's pretty good to compete.

What njr is alluding to is that if NedCo goes for broke (which I don't think will really happen), the Dodgers will be very good for a couple of years but then sink into the same tank the Giants are in.

That's the cause for our DT paranoia.

I think everyone agrees with you, it's just who you define as "really good players", and whether they include are star young pitchers.

Beyond that I think the hope that someone else makes the deal is an implicit belief that Ned won't get good value for what he gives up, even if what he's getting back is Miggy.

I forgot to add this: there are some actual legitimate players worth shopping for this time around, as opposed to other years. Namely, they are A-Rod, A Jones, and M Cabrera.

Most sites I frequent have an equivalent to LAT'ed, by the way. What with the ease of posting a blog entry, it's not unusual for somebody or somebodies to be merrily responding to the previous post while the blogger is creating a New Post (thus NPUT, merely an initialization for new post up top--not an acronym; acronyms are pronounceable, initializations are not).

In this case, I think the above scenario happened so frequently to LAT that the phenomenon acquired his screen name as shorthand.

/end pedantry

I totally agree BHSportguy. But knowing my self I'm gonna be plenty upset that we traded 3 studs but Miggy Cabrera should even out my frustration & I'm sure with do time I'll be glad he is sporting Dodger blue.

Sometimes it took, sometimes it didn't. ;)

I feel like our farm system can restock itself with good pitching, but hitting seems to be much shallower and harder for our

I think we ALL do Marty but we have to give up something to get something. It's gonna be a fun off season I just hope NedCo doesn't blunder.

I don't know what I would do without this site during the day.

"...harder for our draftniks to restock"

Underline = place an underscore (_) immediately before and after text

® = type & followed by "reg" followed by ";" (no spaces)

© = type & followed by "copy" followed by ";" (no spaces)

™ = type & followed by "trade" followed by ";" (no spaces)

Not sure of the Mac™ commands for those symbols.

you know how to do accent marks Eric? for last names & stuff, that's the only think I don't know how to do.

Call me crazy but isn't Kershaw, LaRoche and Kemp much > Kendrick, Wood and Adenhart?

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_entities.asp

They see the Dodgers come to the table and they ask for more. Not really sure if that is reality or perception, but either way it's really annoying.

About 2 years ago Theo Epstein wanted Loney & another great prospect for David Wells, Yeah Theo sure thing.

Seriously...

No one wants to give up Kershaw, but you gotta give something to get something.

Don't know how I feel about that deal. I mean, we ARE talking about Cabrera here...I guess it all depends on what other moves would be made to augment....

And the difference between Kendrick and Kemp is that one projects as a very good corner outfielder with power/speed while the other may be a very good offensive second baseman but I don't think that equates to what Kemp could become.

let's say for sake of discussion we dealt eithier, kershaw, and laroche for miggy.

What do we do about that extra outfield spot now that eithier is gone? Does that open up the door for an Andruw Jones?

He did have an awfully down year, gotta figure he'll bounce back though...and while I don't want to give up our young players, a middle of the order that includes miggy, jones, kemp and loney sounds really, really nice.

118 Doesn't Uggla have range problems? And there's been talk that Hanley isn't a good enough SS and could end up in CF. Uggla 3B, Wood SS, Kendrick 2B, Ramirez CF.

I have the same feeling...and it's just so depressing.

Why this organization doesn't seem to be high on Kemp is absolutely beyond me.

Specially if A. Jones is in the market...

Kemp is projected to be a 30+ HR guy, those don't grow on trees, specially for the Dodgers.

An equivalent to LAT! An equivalent to LAT!! Well, I never!!!

Don't worry, grasshopper.

Or tall.

http://tinyurl.com/2gjs5j

You beet me to the punch Robert Daeley.

Apologies if this came up here before, but I don't remember it. Josh Rawitch posted this in the comments section of ItD:

Hu is back in Taiwan and getting ready to play in the World Games. He stopped playing in the AFL because of a slight hamstring issue but it was precautionary more than anything. The team knew that he would be playing in the World Games, so he was told to rest and prepare for the international competition.

That's some pretty good advice for all of us, I think... even if it does come from a Yankee.

My preference is to be patient and go with youth, but if I had to choose, I'd rather sign A-Rod than trade 2-3 prospects for Cabrera.

As far as prep prospects, I like...

SS Tim Beckham
CF Aaron Hicks
CF Isaac Galloway
RHP Gerrit Cole
3b Harold Martinez

Up to this point, Galloway has been all tools and minimal production. I would like to see him dominate his league next spring.

The Dodgers have outrighted reliever Chin-hui Tsao to Class AAA Las Vegas and are awaiting his decision to either accept the assignment or elect free agency. Tsao, if you recall, is represented by Scott Boras.

Knowing the Dodgers, it'll probably be another prep arm though.

Plus, LaRoche could be used as a 4th OF (thinking outside the box) if he's not included in a trade for pitcher. Santana seems like the prize, but I doubt the Twins trade Johan because with their pitching they have an excellent chance of winning their division in 2008.

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2007/11/710am_update_ir.html

Catchers (2)
Martin, backup TBD

Infielders (8)
Abreu, Furcal, Nomar, Hu, Kent, LaRoche, Loney, Valdez

Outfielders (5)
Ethier, Kemp, Pierre, Repko, Young

Pitchers (18)
Beimel, Billingsley, Brazoban, Broxton, Hendrickson, Houlton, Hull, Kuo, Lowe, Loaiza, Megrew, Meloan, Miller, Penny, Proctor, Saito, Schmidt, Stults

That's a total of 33, with likely Orenduff, McDonald & Paul to be added before December.

Tsao is also arbitration-eligible, but I assume that if he accepts his outright assignment to AAA then he would be back as a NRI for spring training. Is that the case? I'm not sure what his contract status would be.

1) Tsao is still hurt, and/or expected to be hurt for most/all of 2008
2) Dodgers need to clear roster space because of a planned series of moves (although I can't see how they couldn't just outright Valdez or non-tender Henrickson)
3) Colletti may lose a potentially productive player because of bad roster judgment/timing (not exclusive to Colletti of course -- Werth, Cody Ross, Victorino were previous examples of this)

Parsing that line, again, reminded me how weird Colletti can get. I'm pretty sure he was kidding, by the end of the quote, though it's a somewhat bizarre joke. Dane Cook-y. But when does the kidding start?

Maybe to young sports fans, the pending arrival of Dicky Barnett and the possible departure of Kevin Kiley are life-changing events. I know I paid close attention to who was doing sports talk at KABC when they ran it.

I'm still high on Kemp (not sure why everyone isn't) and think LaRoche has a chance to be a great third baseman both defensively and offensively. Note that he has struggled at just about every level after being promoted and then gone gangbusters. I'd rather see them spend $30M a year on ARod than give up all that and roll all the dice on Cabrera.

Hmm...

... about the Dodgers getting someone lame for more than it took for another team to get someone good... I remember the year the Dodgers traded for Mulholland, and the Giants got Schmidt... wasn't that both from the Pirates? I was like, hey, they didn't give much to get Schmidt, why didn't we get him? Maybe there's a rational answer to that.

... about the possibilities, someone mentioned two birds with one stone (and Monday is growing on me, now that they have Steiner, btw) so here's a two-fer:

Marlins need a CF. Here's the trade: Kershaw, La Roche and subsidized Pierre for Cabrera. Even after signing the extension, you have room for more salary for another OF.

... if the Dodgers don't get Cabrera, and sign A-Rod, keep all the prospects, because you're going to need them. Logan White is going to cost you more money, tho, in 2009.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/NickPiecoro/10440

The only person that bugs me is that dbacks fan that has to turn every thread into a dbacks thread.

Yep. He is such a smart alec too.

http://tinyurl.com/282v3b

Delwyn Young is out of options, so he pretty much has to be on the 25-man roster to start the season. Signing someone like Bernie would be pointless.

Year--Projected WARP
2007--7.4 (Actual 2007 WARP--11)
2008--7.0
2009--5.7
2010--4.6
2011--3.5

2007 notwithstanding, it makes me uneasy every time somebody says that A-Rod is in his prime. Could well be, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Discuss.

I am not saying Furcal is going to be worthless next year, but I'm glad we have Hu waiting in the wings.

>> The Dodgers' tentative itinerary next spring: Report to Vero Beach in mid-February, leave in mid-March for the China games, finish training at the Oakland Athletics' complex in Phoenix, play an exhibition against the Boston Red Sox in the Coliseum and possibly another at Dodger Stadium or in Las Vegas. <<

http://tinyurl.com/2n5obo

A few years of coaching little league would do alot of stat heads some good.

This way, McCourt can more or less sneak out of town and not call attention to the fact that the D's are leaving the most revered ST sight in the history of the game.

I, for one, would have liked to see them make a big deal out of Vero and all the Dodger history there, but I think McCourt somehow considers leaving as a negative he doesn't want to be associated with.

New post up top, or NPUT.