3-2 Changeup
07-14-2003, 11:04 PM
Maybe today's trade of Jeromy Burnitz to LA will squash this trade.
According to a report in today's Los Angeles Times, the Dodgers were recently involved in serious negotiations with the Red Sox to swap pitcher Odalis Perez for rightfielder Trot Nixon but decided their pitcher was too high a price to pay, write Jason Reid and Mike DiGiovanna. Now, however, they have found a player worth shipping Perez for: Brian Giles of the Pirates. Holding up the swap is the Pirates demand for two additional pitching prospects to accompany Perez, who is 6-7 with an ERA of 4.25.
Considering Giles prowess and relatively low salary through the 2005 season, their demand for prospects Edwin Jackson and Greg Miller in addition to Perez does not seem too outrageous at all. In fact, if I were the Pirates, I'd be asking a whole lot more for a player of Giles' caliber. The fact is, Perez is not having a particularly outstanding season and apart from 2002 has been fairly pedestrian. His strikeout to walk ratios are very good, but this is Brian Giles we're talking about here -- a player who is capable of cranking up an offense by a half-run per game all by himself.
In further pursuit of help for their substandard offense, the Dodgers have cast their eye to Newark, New Jersey. While this might be a little premature, the Dodgers are at the very least -- considering assigning a scout to follow Rickey Henderson of the Newark Bears with an eye to signing him. With Brian Jordan out for the year, Akilah Nelson of the Newark Star-Ledger writes that Henderson may be the Dodgers Plan B failing a trade for a player like Giles.
"At this point, we have not committed a scout to watching (Henderson), but we may be looking at that option not too far down the road," Dodgers spokesman John Olguin told Nelson. Henderson was last seen being voted the MVP of the Atlantic League All Star Game played in Nashua, New Hampshire -- a long way from the bright lights of Chavez Ravine.
Back on June 21, the Dodgers offense was struggling to keep up with the modest pace of 2002. In spite of that, they had forged a very good 44-29 record thanks to the most effective pitching in the league. They were averaging only 3.5 runs per game and their hope was that they could increase that output with the personnel on hand. Unfortunately, things got worse. For the next two-plus weeks, they averaged only two runs per game and dropped 13 of 15 games. On average, the pitching and defense allowed about a run higher during the slump than they had been before that down stretch started. However, had the team managed to come up with four runs per game, they would have won nine of the contests instead of just two. (Of course, if all teams were allowed to put up an average number of runs in every game instead of scoring them randomly, their records would improve. This is an extreme case, however.)
At this point, shortstop Cesar Izturis and second baseman Alex Cora could be replaced by just about any middle infielder you could dragoon off a Triple A roster. They are as close to two automatic outs as you are going to find on a big league team. Coupled with a batting pitcher and Adrian Beltran performing just slightly better than they are and you've got a Dodgers lineup that is giving away one heck of a lot of at bats. There is a tendency to blame a team's best players when things are not going well and there is no doubt that Shawn Green must bear a good deal of the responsibility for the offensive shutdown. But, apart from catcher Paul Lo Duca, there has been very little contribution from anyone in the lineup.
Is Henderson the answer? Is any one player the answer -- even the one-man wrecking crew that is Giles? No, and general manager Dan Evans has stated as much in the past. Even dropping a blue chip monster producer like Giles into a lineup this anemic and underachieving would not get the team to the level where it needs to be. If Henderson could play at the same level he did for the Red Sox last year, he would help the team absorb the loss of Jordan, a mid-level producer who was one of the team's better players this year -- which is not a grand compliment -- but he would not be the cause of a turnaround.
Before leaving the topic of Henderson, I would like to comment on something one often hears about older players not wanting to quit. It's often said that players should know when to quit and that they should never stay too long after the game has passed them by. On the other hand, we also often hear it said that players don't play for the love of the game anymore. Doesn't it make sense that some players will have to be forced to quit because they love playing so much? Henderson has shown at various times in his career that he can give this game much less than it deserves (I called for the Mets to sue him for breach of contract he was such a slacker for them his second year there). However, it would appear that he loves playing so much he is going to have be dynamited out of his uniform. Isn't that what we want from our ballplayers?
According to a report in today's Los Angeles Times, the Dodgers were recently involved in serious negotiations with the Red Sox to swap pitcher Odalis Perez for rightfielder Trot Nixon but decided their pitcher was too high a price to pay, write Jason Reid and Mike DiGiovanna. Now, however, they have found a player worth shipping Perez for: Brian Giles of the Pirates. Holding up the swap is the Pirates demand for two additional pitching prospects to accompany Perez, who is 6-7 with an ERA of 4.25.
Considering Giles prowess and relatively low salary through the 2005 season, their demand for prospects Edwin Jackson and Greg Miller in addition to Perez does not seem too outrageous at all. In fact, if I were the Pirates, I'd be asking a whole lot more for a player of Giles' caliber. The fact is, Perez is not having a particularly outstanding season and apart from 2002 has been fairly pedestrian. His strikeout to walk ratios are very good, but this is Brian Giles we're talking about here -- a player who is capable of cranking up an offense by a half-run per game all by himself.
In further pursuit of help for their substandard offense, the Dodgers have cast their eye to Newark, New Jersey. While this might be a little premature, the Dodgers are at the very least -- considering assigning a scout to follow Rickey Henderson of the Newark Bears with an eye to signing him. With Brian Jordan out for the year, Akilah Nelson of the Newark Star-Ledger writes that Henderson may be the Dodgers Plan B failing a trade for a player like Giles.
"At this point, we have not committed a scout to watching (Henderson), but we may be looking at that option not too far down the road," Dodgers spokesman John Olguin told Nelson. Henderson was last seen being voted the MVP of the Atlantic League All Star Game played in Nashua, New Hampshire -- a long way from the bright lights of Chavez Ravine.
Back on June 21, the Dodgers offense was struggling to keep up with the modest pace of 2002. In spite of that, they had forged a very good 44-29 record thanks to the most effective pitching in the league. They were averaging only 3.5 runs per game and their hope was that they could increase that output with the personnel on hand. Unfortunately, things got worse. For the next two-plus weeks, they averaged only two runs per game and dropped 13 of 15 games. On average, the pitching and defense allowed about a run higher during the slump than they had been before that down stretch started. However, had the team managed to come up with four runs per game, they would have won nine of the contests instead of just two. (Of course, if all teams were allowed to put up an average number of runs in every game instead of scoring them randomly, their records would improve. This is an extreme case, however.)
At this point, shortstop Cesar Izturis and second baseman Alex Cora could be replaced by just about any middle infielder you could dragoon off a Triple A roster. They are as close to two automatic outs as you are going to find on a big league team. Coupled with a batting pitcher and Adrian Beltran performing just slightly better than they are and you've got a Dodgers lineup that is giving away one heck of a lot of at bats. There is a tendency to blame a team's best players when things are not going well and there is no doubt that Shawn Green must bear a good deal of the responsibility for the offensive shutdown. But, apart from catcher Paul Lo Duca, there has been very little contribution from anyone in the lineup.
Is Henderson the answer? Is any one player the answer -- even the one-man wrecking crew that is Giles? No, and general manager Dan Evans has stated as much in the past. Even dropping a blue chip monster producer like Giles into a lineup this anemic and underachieving would not get the team to the level where it needs to be. If Henderson could play at the same level he did for the Red Sox last year, he would help the team absorb the loss of Jordan, a mid-level producer who was one of the team's better players this year -- which is not a grand compliment -- but he would not be the cause of a turnaround.
Before leaving the topic of Henderson, I would like to comment on something one often hears about older players not wanting to quit. It's often said that players should know when to quit and that they should never stay too long after the game has passed them by. On the other hand, we also often hear it said that players don't play for the love of the game anymore. Doesn't it make sense that some players will have to be forced to quit because they love playing so much? Henderson has shown at various times in his career that he can give this game much less than it deserves (I called for the Mets to sue him for breach of contract he was such a slacker for them his second year there). However, it would appear that he loves playing so much he is going to have be dynamited out of his uniform. Isn't that what we want from our ballplayers?