Wednesday, January 05, 2005 |
Shake, Rattle, And Role Players
He professes to have a grand plan, and if he is implementing it in fits and starts, enraging the New York Yankees one day and Dodger fans the next, at least he is unafraid of implementing it.Which leaves us back with Raul's comments of December 29. The Dodgers are indeed being deceptive about who they plan to keep and who they do not, and why not? With sharks like Scott Boras swimming the waters outside the Dodgers' front office, why should they announce their intentions, as Kevin Malone did in his tenure with the club? What strikes me as likely is that DePodesta had a dollar figure in mind for Beltre, Boras exceeded it with the M's contract offer, and that was that."Oftentimes the easy decision and comfortable decision is not the right one," DePodesta said. "You can come under an awful lot of criticism, especially in such a public role as this one. You have to stick to what you truly believe is right and at the end of the day hopefully you will be rewarded by the team's performance."
Sending off a good many architects of last season's National League West title team — Adrian Beltre, Shawn Green, Steve Finley, Jose Lima and Alex Cora — was part of the plan.
DePodesta turned down a proposal from Green two months ago to defer some of next season's $16-million salary in exchange for an extension because Green, he of the agreeable nature, fan popularity and sporadic power production, was not part of the plan.
DePodesta didn't return agent Scott Boras' last-ditch phone call the day Beltre agreed to terms with the Seattle Mariners because Beltre, he of a monstrous 2004 season after six years of inconsistency, was not part of the plan.
DePodesta signed outfielder J.D. Drew and traded for catcher Dioner Navarro because they are central to a plan that also includes other young players acquired in the last year — Milton Bradley, Jayson Werth, Hee-Seop Choi and Antonio Perez.
So, the Dodgers move to the acquisition of the underrated. Baseball America has justifiably castigated the Yankees for several years now over their weak farm system. Now, however, DePodesta hopes one of its charges, Dioner Navarro, is a diamond-in-the-rough. Is it possible the Yankees system may be at fault for suppressing some of the finer qualities of their minor leaguers? Wait Til Next Year thinks so, thanks to the club's emphasis on winning at all levels:
During his two month stay with the [International League AAA Columbus] Clippers, the eventual first-place club played 65 games. My beef with his handling stems from the fact that Navarro played only forty games in AAA, getting 136 at-bats when he could have had up to 221. Instead, Navarro’s playing time sometimes dwindled to every other day, preventing a rhythm that was surely somewhat behind his great outburst in AA a year ago. But hey, the 33-year-old catcher Sal Fasano needed time to boost the .701 OPS he had last year, or maybe try to make it to the Majors somewhere, since his career .215/.300/.390 line won’t be one to show the grandkids in years to come). Anything to preserve that all-important International League West Division Title I guess, one that they won by a 13-game margin I should mention.Wha-wha-what? This is the same philosophy that the A's use in their minors, and they -- so far -- don't seem to have a problem. But maybe we need to look at individual cases here. Navarro, for instance: starved for playing time, he fails to improve, and becomes a bargain. Upon such does DePodesta base some future iteration of the Dodgers, "some" because Navarro might not be ready for the show in 2005.
Will there be stability in the future? I begin to doubt it; looking at the names Tom posted as becoming Rule 5 draft eligible next season -- Joel Guzman, James Loney, Greg Miller, Jonathon Broxton, Andy LaRoche, Michael Megrew, Zachary Hammes, Matthew Kemp, Brett Dowdy, Jamaal Hamilton -- at least the first four of those are quality players, or could be passed off as such. The Dodgers aren't done yet, and with that shotgun pointed to DePodesta's head, trading them -- or getting them onto the 40-man roster -- becomes urgent. More of the former and some of the latter can be expected. The earthquake isn't over.
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