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I hope the title is self-explanatory. Let the punditry commence!
The Easternmost in Quality...the Westernmost in Flavor!!HONEYGOLTZ MUST GO!!!!!!!
Poor fella, he has no ideaHere is my suspected roster after the World Series ends
Starting pitchers
Kuroda
Billingsley
Kershaw
Haeger
Relievers
Broxton
Sherrill
Troncoso
Belisario
Kuo
Elbert
Leach
McDonald
Schlichting
Catchers
Martin
Ellis
May
Infielders
Loney
DeWitt
Hu
Furcal
Blake
DeJesus
Outfielders
Ethier
Kemp
Ramirez
Paul
I suspect that Ned and Co. will add Javy Guerra, Alberto Bastardo, Kenley Jansen, Pedro Baez and Scott Van Slyke to the roster. Gotta think that Wade and Repko will not receive a contract come December. That leaves nine spots on the roster to fill. Will not be shocked to see Ned resign Padilla and offer arbitration to Hudson, Wolf and Belliard on the hope that all decline. Garland is an easy decision - he isn't worth $10 million and seeing as how the Snakes on the hook for his buyout, it is a no-brainer.
I also feel that resigning Mientkiewicz and Ausmus (in some capacity) is a distinct possibility. Seeing as how the FA market is not particularly exciting, I don't see us as players. Maybe a run at Beltre and Sheets (Ned's forte, discount shopping), but we will likely pass on Lackey, Holliday and Bay.
But, I am betting we will be busy in the trade market. I think we will make a run at Halladay and explore other second base options. IMO, Martin, Billingsley, McDonald and Loney, are our big trade chits. Doesn't mean all will be traded, but I see each being in play.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night...The disappointing end of the season is still too fresh and I'm burnt out. It's hard for me to get into thinking about off season moves right now.
"I know, everybody funny, now you funny too."ocmike24:HONEYGOLTZ MUST GO!!!!!!!
That goes without saying. While we are at it, I wouldn't mind seeing Torre retire a year early. I think that it is high time for Donnie Ballgame to get his managerial feet wet. If Torre does retire, we can say goodbye to Bowa. That would be okay with me, he has worn out his welcome, IMO. I would surely love to see either Ausmus or Hough as pitching coach and seeing us keep Duncan and Howell as coaches. If this all comes to pass, we will need a hitting coach, bench coach and third base coach. I know who I would love to see in those positions, but that runs to speculation and it all could be a moot point if Torre is in it for the money.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night...Babe Herman:The disappointing end of the season is still too fresh and I'm burnt out. It's hard for me to get into thinking about off season moves right now.
One nanosecond after the last out, I was already thinking of next season. Mind you, spent last night ranting and raving about Torre, Honeygoltz, Martin, etc..... It was very cathartic.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night...Agree with mike, Dodgers need to fire Honeycutt.
All our young pitchers looked scared in this series and the Phillies' hitters capitalized on it.
They basically sat on top of the plate and dared our pitchers to throw inside and our pitchers responded by giving up a lot of walks and/or hitting the batters when they did go inside because they didn't know how to pitch inside.
The Phillies hitters' did major damage capitalizing off walks and hit batsmen.
Yes, the ERA and BAA of the team was great but the high amount of walks given up and inability of starters to go deep into games illustrates that the Dodger pitchers nibbled too much and did not pound the strike zone.
They need a pitching coach like Dave Duncan who can teach them to pitch inside to establish dominance over the outside corner and keep hitters guessing and, frankly, intimidated about getting a fastball in their earhole.
This pitching staff will take the next step when they hire a real pitching coach.
Until then, I'm afraid the Phillie hitters will just utilize the same formula on our pitchers next year.
The pitching is good enough, stuff-wise, to be MOST teams, but obviously not good enough to beat teams with good, aggressive hitters like the Phillies.
grabarkewitz:Here is my suspected roster after the World Series ends
Starting pitchers
Kuroda
Billingsley
Kershaw
HaegerRelievers
Broxton
Sherrill
Troncoso
Belisario
Kuo
Elbert
Leach
McDonald
SchlichtingCatchers
Martin
Ellis
MayInfielders
Loney
DeWitt
Hu
Furcal
Blake
DeJesusOutfielders
Ethier
Kemp
Ramirez
PaulI suspect that Ned and Co. will add Javy Guerra, Alberto Bastardo, Kenley Jansen, Pedro Baez and Scott Van Slyke to the roster. Gotta think that Wade and Repko will not receive a contract come December. That leaves nine spots on the roster to fill. Will not be shocked to see Ned resign Padilla and offer arbitration to Hudson, Wolf and Belliard on the hope that all decline. Garland is an easy decision - he isn't worth $10 million and seeing as how the Snakes on the hook for his buyout, it is a no-brainer.
I also feel that resigning Mientkiewicz and Ausmus (in some capacity) is a distinct possibility. Seeing as how the FA market is not particularly exciting, I don't see us as players. Maybe a run at Beltre and Sheets (Ned's forte, discount shopping), but we will likely pass on Lackey, Holliday and Bay.
But, I am betting we will be busy in the trade market. I think we will make a run at Halladay and explore other second base options. IMO, Martin, Billingsley, McDonald and Loney, are our big trade chits. Doesn't mean all will be traded, but I see each being in play.
I can't believe I forgot Slappy. The thing is, I think he is very tradeable now. Paul is definite upgrade both offensively and defensively, and with Slap's contract entering reasonable status, I think we can move him without eating millions. I would not be surprised to see him playing for Doofy or back in Florida.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night...Honeygoltz has already practically ruined Billingsley. If I'm Kershaw, I hold out until he's fired before he ruins me too.
Poor fella, he has no ideagrabarkewitz:One nanosecond after the last out, I was already thinking of next season. Mind you, spent last night ranting and raving about Torre, Honeygoltz, Martin, etc..... It was very cathartic.
I was ranting about the house saying firing wasn't good enough for Bud, he should be executed. The Redhead thought that was a little much.
Poor fella, he has no ideaOne of the biggest things I want to see addressed this off season is the something done about the awful umpires. The post season was an absolute disgrace. I've seen better umpiring by volunteers at my 10 year old's rec league games. The ones in the post season are supposed to be the best of the best and they couldn't even get basic calls correct or come close to being consistent behind the plate. I won't even get into the bias towards Philly and NY. That pretty much speaks for itself.
But, we all know nothing will be done about it. Selig will ignore it and hope all the talk just goes away.
Yeah, Honeycutt absolutely sucks at instilling confidence in our pitchers.
Instead of them being confident and trying to own the plate, they all looked intimidated in this series and really got flustered when they were not getting the call on the outside corner.
I absolutely hate the mound presence of Broxton, Billz and even Kershaw at times.
These guys need a pitching coach who can teach them to be more confident and intimidating.
Like I have said before, ALL the great pitchers pitched to both sides of the plate and the best pitchers owned the outside corner by keeping batters off the plate by throwing inside.
Honeycutt was NOT that type of pitcher and now he's teaching our kids the same things he did.
Honeycutt needs to go.
My offseason wish list:
Really, the rest of this team is pretty sound. It just needs a little more seasoning, a better pitching coach and an ace.
www.shmolnick.comHere's a decent look at our 2010 payroll ...
http://www.truebluela.com/2009/1/14/720656/dodger-payroll
The problem that we all saw coming is arbitration this year. Even with Schmidt off the books, we lose a lot of wiggle room due to raises. We did slash our payroll last year - significantly, but the actions of the McCourts over the last year or so, coupled with this pending divorce really make me question whether we can resume our payroll level of 2008.
I agree that we need to offer arbitration to Wolf, Hudson and Belliard as the cost of their arb awards compared with their performance and the potential draft pick if they decline makes this a no-brainer. Our needs as I see it now are as follows:
1.) ACE - we need someone to push our incumbent starters down a slot and make the whole rotation better. We also need someone that can actually PERFORM in the playoffs. I don't think Billz is broken. I agree that he was injured and I look for better things in 2010. Pencil Kershaw in with the expectation that he will be near the same as last year or BETTER. Kuroda is a reasonable middle/back end starter and we have a nice couple options to sort through in ST to fill the 5-hole. We need someone to take the ball on opening day and it can't be Randy Wolf.
2.) POWER - while the improvement of Kemp and Ethier has me elated, the decline of Russ Martin and the stalling of Loney's career are seriously frustrating. Blake is a fine player, but he cannot be counted on to play the whole year - especially if Loney is at 1st. What can we do about Manny? While, I agree that he might reinvent himself in a contract push, I cannot ignore how much he disintegrated at the end of this season and in the playoffs. Every game, we're lucky to score runs amounting to half of our total hits, whereas the Phillies and others continually cashed in on our mistakes and sometimes had more runs than hits. We need some offensive efficiency. This doesn't require an entire team overhaul, but I don't see how we can start next year with Blake AND Loney on the hot corners - that's just not enough. I'm fine with a defensive-minded 2B and C, but we can't sacrifice that much power and production on the corners. We need another offensive threat.
We clearly had a good team this season ... good overall staff, excellent pen, deep lineup, great defense (minus belliard). Those two MAJOR elements I listed above are what held us back in my opinion. We were all hoping that Billz or Kershaw would take the reins, but they didn't. We all thought we had our power bat in Manny Ramirez, but we didn't. We have to do something about it or the results will be the same next year if we're lucky!
The mad scientist formerly known as ngrossI think that first we should see what will happen with the McCourts' divorce. I think that the Dodgers won't make a move until all this is settled which sadly seems that it will carry on for a while.
JamesMiranda:I think that first we should see what will happen with the McCourts' divorce. I think that the Dodgers won't make a move until all this is settled which sadly seems that it will carry on for a while.
Sadly, you can't wait for something like this. It could take through next season. Only if they were openly amenable to negotiating and settling, could this move any faster and I have seen no signs of this to-date.
The mad scientist formerly known as ngrossJamesMiranda:I think that first we should see what will happen with the McCourts' divorce. I think that the Dodgers won't make a move until all this is settled which sadly seems that it will carry on for a while.
Being quite familiar with divorces (cough cough), I can tell you that the McCourts' will drag on for a year or more. There is no way that they will let those proceedings interrupt the team. If that were to happen, McCourt would be killed in the press, and we know Frankie doesn't like bad press.
www.shmolnick.comJamesMiranda:I think that first we should see what will happen with the McCourts' divorce. I think that the Dodgers won't make a move until all this is settled which sadly seems that it will carry on for a while.
Yeah, I'm worried that this situation will end up being a crutch the entire off season.
In terms of how to address our issues ... honestly, I have no clue.
It seems like Lackey is the only good FA SP option out there. He is a great pitcher, with post-season success and a great approach. He's also VERY injury prone and judging by what he has supposedly turned DOWN from the Angels, he'll be wanting quite an enormous contract.
Roy Halladay is still out there and should be available this winter. If we can't coax Toronto to take a package of young players, giving up Kershaw is NOT allowed. I could see us giving up Billingsley, but ONLY if we retained someone like Wolf. I could get behind a Halladay, Wolf, Kuroda, Kershaw, McD/Haegar/Lindbloom/Elbert rotation. But that is definitely adding payroll.
I haven't done a full analysis of available players except to know that I want nothing to do with Beltre, unless he is free, and that I want Adrian Gonzalez - BAD. I would gladly toss SD Loney AND Russ Martin for Adrian Gonzalez. Would they do that? I dunno. If we could acquire a major bat like that it would really make an enormous difference and maybe even improve on Manny ...
Furcal
Kemp
Gonzalez
Ramirez
Ethier
Blake
DeWitt
Ausmus
Sign me up.
I have much more thinking to do on this subject, but that's where my head's at currently.
The mad scientist formerly known as ngrossgrabarkewitz:Gotta think that Wade and Repko will not receive a contract come December.
There's no reason to let Wade go. Repko's been around long enough that he's out of options, but Wade has only 1 year of service time.
Mike Scioscia's tragic illness - the blog! For Dodger analysis, reviews, and hilarity.yes, i agree i want A Gonz pretty badly as well
From Keith Law's chat today:
Ryan (madison,wi)
Who says no: Fielder for Kemp?
Klaw (1:35 PM)
Dodgers. With howls of derisive laughter.
Mike Scioscias tragic illness:From Keith Law's chat today:
Ryan (madison,wi)
Who says no: Fielder for Kemp?
Klaw (1:35 PM)
Dodgers. With howls of derisive laughter.
HAHAHAHAHHAHA ... let me add to that.
The mad scientist formerly known as ngrossThe priority for the Dodgers this offseason is acquiring a top of the rotation starter. Period.
I posted on a Toronto board the idea of trading Martin, McDonald and Elbert to Toronto for Halladay and some seemed receptive to that.
In all honesty, if they took that offer, I would be all over it.
Martin is going to start getting pretty expensive now. Wouldn't shock me to see him get $5 mill in arb this offseason.
Meanwhile, he has regressed big time offensively and somewhat defensively.
Dodgers can go out and sign a free agent catcher or see if A.J. Ellis can win the job.
Mike Scioscias tragic illness:From Keith Law's chat today:
Ryan (madison,wi)
Who says no: Fielder for Kemp?
Klaw (1:35 PM)
Dodgers. With howls of derisive laughter.
I want what Ryan is smoking.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night...Die-Hard Dodger Fan:The priority for the Dodgers this offseason is acquiring a top of the rotation starter. Period.
I posted on a Toronto board the idea of trading Martin, McDonald and Elbert to Toronto for Halladay and some seemed receptive to that.
In all honesty, if they took that offer, I would be all over it.
Martin is going to start getting pretty expensive now. Wouldn't shock me to see him get $5 mill in arb this offseason.
Meanwhile, he has regressed big time offensively and somewhat defensively.
Dodgers can go out and sign a free agent catcher or see if A.J. Ellis can win the job.
That sounds more than fair. Halladay is on the last year of a one year deal and he is not going to give a hometown discount. I think we could even get him for just Billingsley and a minor league arm - I am thinking Ethan Martin. Ricciardi should've jumped at the offers he received this summer. The only way we deal Martin is if we get a young catcher back. Martin for Santana won't fly unless we add a player or take on a salary.
The one plus is that we don't have a lot of holes to fill and we can fill a couple of them, in house, if we so choose. Second base, I suspect, will be a dogfight between DeJesus, DeWitt and Hu with DeJesus likely the winner due to his glove and speed. We could stand pat on our starting pitching and go with a rotation of Billz, Kershaw, Kuroda, Padilla and either Lindblom, Haeger or Elbert as our fifth starter. First base is Loney's unless we can get Gonzalez without losing Gordon, Withrow or Lambo.
I think Heyman is right, we have too many nice guys on this team. Maybe it is Joe's influence, but aside from Blake, Padilla and Belliard, we didn't exactly have a tough group. Adding someone with a no-shit attitude would probably help immensely.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night...Die-Hard Dodger Fan:The priority for the Dodgers this offseason is acquiring a top of the rotation starter. Period.
I posted on a Toronto board the idea of trading Martin, McDonald and Elbert to Toronto for Halladay and some seemed receptive to that.
In all honesty, if they took that offer, I would be all over it.
Martin is going to start getting pretty expensive now. Wouldn't shock me to see him get $5 mill in arb this offseason.
Meanwhile, he has regressed big time offensively and somewhat defensively.
Dodgers can go out and sign a free agent catcher or see if A.J. Ellis can win the job.
Your choices on the FA market are Molina(s), Miguel Olivo, Brian Schneider and Jason Kendall. Kendall would add a toughness to the Dodgers, but his best days are way behind him. Molina the Svelte, while likely a Ned favorite, is a Type A and not exactly nimble behind the plate. Olivo has some offensive potential, but there are huge questions on whether he can handle a pitching staff and his defense is barely better than Martin's. Schneider is just old and broken down.
I suppose we could take a flyer on the 38yo Jason Varitek, but I doubt he has anything left. Our best bet is the trade market if Ned does intend to deal Martin.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night...grabarkewitz:That sounds more than fair. Halladay is on the last year of a one year deal and he is not going to give a hometown discount. I think we could even get him for just Billingsley and a minor league arm - I am thinking Ethan Martin.
Torgy, if we made that deal I would have an absolute heart attack... what a steal that would be for Toronto.
Mike Scioscia's tragic illness - the blog! For Dodger analysis, reviews, and hilarity.Count me in on the Lackey bandwagon. It's wwwwwaaaaaayyyyy too early to give up on Bills. If you guys truly believe that Honeycutt should be fired for his handling of the staff (specifically Bills), we should allow someone the opportunity to fix the guy we all penciled into the top of our rotation for the last two years.
Lackey wants Burnett money...and 5/80 doesn't sound ridiculous for what he does. Lackey, coming to the NL, would certainly be insanely good in the short term. I'd rather trade players (Loney, Martin) for power (Gonzalez, Fielder) than pitching. IF we traded Martin, we'd need a C via trade too because, as Grabs described, the free agent bin is barren.
MSTI, what do you think would be a fair offer from the Dodgers for Halladay, then?
Not being confrontational, just curious.
IMO, its an overpay, but the Dodgers need an ace to get to the next level.
I don't want to deal Billz and I don't think McDonald and Elbert would be enough to get Halladay from Toronto.