Thursday, December 27, 2007 |
Christina Kahrl On Western Division Deals To Date
Importing Kuroda might be the case of catching the kind of Carp you want to keep (he pitched for Hiroshima, so you can make a Blinky joke if you're not squeamish). Although he'll be 33, as Mike Plugh noted in November, he has a nice power assortment and might give us further opportunities to see the shuuto thrown in the major leagues. The price is a bit steep for someone who might only be around a fourth starter in the majors, but after last season's rotation shenanigans with Wolfs and Jumbos and Hendricksons and Tomkos, and with Jason Schmidt's availability in doubt, you can understand Ned Colletti's desire to get something done, and skip having to ponder the virtues of someone like Kyle Lohse.She also likes Kevin Towers' deals to bring in Mark Prior and Randy Wolf for little money and short contracts ("you can see this adding up to a solid rotation with some upside potential") while dissing the Jim Edmonds deal ("His range in center isn't just not what it was, it's well into “not good enough” territory"), and smiles on the "happy deal" between Padres and perennial Cy Youngster Jake Peavy.The other move of note is getting Andruw to yet another big-ticket short-term deal. While we bash on Colletti for a lot of things, he has been relatively good at taking this sort of chance, and it's a reasonable way to spend when you've got a fully-stocked farm system you don't want to scatter to the winds and a win-now agenda. Dodgers fans just wish he'd been similarly smart with Juan Pierre, and it's here that signing Jones creates that additional problem—what do you do with the monster mistake of the 2007 Hot Stove League? Already near-useless as a regular in center, Pierre's a disaster in the making for what he'll do to an offense in left. Ideally, Colletti will manage something semi-clever, like making Pierre a White Sock or a Marlin for the next four years, however much money eaten it takes to make it so, but the danger is that any gains the Dodgers make offensively by buying Jones after a down year will get handed back by playing Pierre in a corner while benching either Andre Ethier or Matt Kemp. You would think that an aggressive push to win the division and playing Pierre would be mutually exclusive, but after failing to learn that lesson last year, apparently Colletti needs another dose of the sledgehammer of certainty to convince himself he made a monumental error of judgment.
Finally, while it's sort of neat to see Bennett wind up with his eighth team in eight years, he's not an asset. Not that the Dodgers weren't already dead in case something bad happens to Russell Martin, but when an entirely punchless defensive specialist gets so week-armed with age that even the Cardinals lose interest, it's a bad sign.
For the Giants, "If you thought things were going to get better in San Francisco, guess again", sees "a lot of risk" in the myriad pitching signings (David Wells, Aaron Cook, Luis Vizcaino, and Mark Redmond) in Colorado, and wonders whether Arizona's trade for Danny Haren is "too clever by half". There's more — and mostly negative — on Seattle's signing Carlos Silva (though a career 3.57 ERA against the Angels may have something to do with their decision), and declares the Volquez/Hamilton trade to fall in that category of deals "that made/broke/saved/killed Jon Daniels".
Labels: angels, diamondbacks, dodgers, giants, mariners
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.