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Friday, October 07, 2005 |
Gagné Starts The Offseason Cage-Rattling
Normally, it's this time of year that players -- and here I'm thinking of jerkazoids like Gary Sheffield -- start complaining about teams not spending enough money on them, in an attempt to shake down management in the media. As we've seen lately, Arte Moreno has the Times fairly eating out of his hands; that and a winning team of late keeps the Times at bay. Across "town", Frank McCourt has retained the services of Sitrick & Company, a public relations firm specializing in tough sells. McCourt, who came into town on a wave of bluster and an aloof, Rotarian, gee-whiz, Chamber of Commerce attitude, completely refused to answer the myriad questions about his purchase of the Dodgers, making plenty of people even more skeptical about the quality of the hands the team had apparently been steered to by News Corp. So unsurprisingly, he has a rougher go of it, especially with the Dodgers coming off their worst season in over a decade.
But this time, the cage-rattling isn't by a self-serving player, but Eric Gagné, and the demand is that McCourt and DePodesta bring in some quality players this offseason, no excuses.
"You need to add a 40-home-run guy and a guy who hits .310, that's two hitters," Gagne said. "You need to re-sign Jeff Weaver, the innings he gives us are priceless.All of which is pretty incredible, considering that the Dodgers did, in fact, spend a boatload last offseason, committing $36M over four years to Derek Lowe, and $24M over three years to Odalis Perez. J.D. Drew, the guy who has a frequent passenger card with the ambulance company, got $55M over five years including a one-way player opt out in the second year! That is to say, if Gagné's metric for success is spending, I would point him to his own lovely contract, keeping him, his family, and Scott Boras in the dough to the tune of eight million dollars for eight saves and thirteen innings pitched. I submit that while Gagné is understandably upset about the recent losing season, at the same time, the pressures that caused the Dodgers to sign Darryl Strawberry and pray now awaken. It is in everyone's best interest to see that they don't cause further damage, for as roughly as Fox treated the team, at least the Dodgers mostly had winning records under their addled tutelage. The prospect of becoming the Mets is a real one if people start panicking."The Dodgers make money. The fans show up. You have to give back. As a business, you have to make money. But you have to take risk to make money and in baseball that means paying for players."
Informed of Gagne's comments, McCourt said he was disappointed that one of his players chose to go to the media rather than to him with concerns. But he emphasized that he has authorized DePodesta to spend what it takes to put a winning team on the field. DePodesta is in Italy for his sister's wedding and was unavailable for comment.
Comments:
Maybe an opening salvo by Gagne to signal a desire to possibly leave the Tracy-less Dodgers?
# posted by 
: 10/07/2005 01:37:00 AM
: 10/07/2005 01:37:00 AM
One could also read it as Boras talking through a more acceptable mouthpiece. Team's down? Time to spend more money on Boras clients (of dubious merit)!
Unfortunately, I can definitely see that. Why bring up noodle head Weaver, you know? Oh wait. He's a Boras client! Great . . .
My hunch, though, is that Gagne may be looking to get traded next season, if the team doesn't suddenly become successful again. Most of his old teammates are gone. He was apparently a Tracy guy. He seems anxious about the ownership. And so on.
My hunch, though, is that Gagne may be looking to get traded next season, if the team doesn't suddenly become successful again. Most of his old teammates are gone. He was apparently a Tracy guy. He seems anxious about the ownership. And so on.
# posted by : 10/07/2005 10:22:00 AM
: 10/07/2005 10:22:00 AM
With school out for the summer on the Dodger Forum, the posting activity as slowed down quite a bit. So when Gagne's comments in Times were posted, many responded to them like it was a rally cry to charge the Front Office and let them know how frustrated they are.
"Has Drew or Choi ever really done anything for the Dodgers, like Gagne has...........Besides, those guys (Drew/Choi) aren't really LA Dodgers. They're mercenaries. They haven't been here from the beginning, like Gagne. They came in under the new regime."
What can I say to those kind of quips, but....Wow !
Thomcat
"Has Drew or Choi ever really done anything for the Dodgers, like Gagne has...........Besides, those guys (Drew/Choi) aren't really LA Dodgers. They're mercenaries. They haven't been here from the beginning, like Gagne. They came in under the new regime."
What can I say to those kind of quips, but....Wow !
Thomcat
# posted by : 10/09/2005 12:20:00 AM
: 10/09/2005 12:20:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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