The Dodgers chock full off their season of mediocrity (wait, you mean the season is still going on?) passed on CC Sabathia. According to multiple sources (including Ken Rosenthal http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8328148/Notebook:-Will-Dodgers-ever-make-a-move??CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=3498) the ace pitcher could have been had for middling prospects that were not contributing at the major league level. Granted this is all here-say, but it is a rumor for a reason, and the big problem here was not Ned Colletti (for once). It seems as if frank McCourt vetoed the trade for strictly financial reasons as the Dodger payroll would have increased by $7-9 million this year with the addition of Sabathia, Jamey Carroll and Casey Blake had the trade gone through. I don’t even know where to start with this. This is the same moron who tosses $19 million to Andruw Jones, $16 million to Jason Schmitt, $9.5 million to Nomar Garciaparra and he is terrified of a trade that would increase payroll by $9 million? Granted he would have tried to sign CC to an extension and what not (and that would be about $25 million/year), but this is for the best pitcher in the game, not to mention a platoon player (who can play short) and a 3rd basemen. Everything the Dodgers wanted all in a package, and he vetoes it. It’s go to mean something when other teams won’t take on any of your high paid players because all of your high paid players are broken down and useless. So instead of moving towards a winning franchise, McCourt seems to love to meddle in mediocrity because we are dumb enough to keep going to games and to watch a bunch of turds in Dodger Blue “play baseball”. The best part of this trade was that we would keep ALL The high end prospects and could unload all the crappy players (Schmitt, Lowe, Nomar, Andruw, Kent) after next season and it would all be good. We are not a small market team, but apparently that is how the owner sees it. He is ready to try and turn Dodger stadium into a revenue service year round with his renovations and he is willing to increase prices to watch crap on the field but unwilling to make any moves of consequence to make the team actually look professional.
The worst part about all of this, is that the rest of the league is starting to view the Dodgers as a joke (and they are right) and do not want to deal with them because the front office is a mess. The last time all of this went down FOX owned the team and we got trading of Piazza and the trading of Sheffield for magic beans. McCourt was taking steps in the right direction, but the Dodgers constant pulling out (and that is good in some scenarios) of trade agreements and restructuring deals is pissing not only other GMs off, but pissing me off too. The way I think about it now is like playing a baseball videogame. Remember when you’d trade for star players, you would see what the computer would be willing to accept, and then back off from the trade and then slowly, continually offer crappier and crappier players just to see how badly you could fleece them? This seems to be how the Dodgers operate. Negotiations went from CC Sabathia for Matt Kemp. No wait, CC Sabathia for Juan Pierre. No wait, CC Sabathia AND Casey Blake for Juan Pierre. No wait, CC Sabathia and Casey Blake for Juan Rodriguez (gardner). No wait, CC Sabathia, Casey Blake AND Jamey Carroll for Juan Rodriguez and Kim Ng (Dodger’s Assistant GM). No Wait, CC Sabathia, Casey Blake and Jamey Carroll for some of the warm CA sun. No wait, CC Sabathia, Casey Blake and Jamey Carroll for some warm Siberian sun.
The Dodgers refuse to put a winner on the field because their front office is in total disarray with two sides having different views on where to go, and neither side seems to be heading towards “winning”. I think to myself why would anyone want to come to play for the Dodgers, and I really can’t think of a reason anymore. Their franchise is an embarrassment to Los Angeles, their front office is a joke, and nobody in the front office seems to be able to evaluate talent. If Frank McCourt is going to veto every trade that Colletti puts together (and let’s face it, odds are vetoing is probably a good idea) then why even have a GM? Why not just have a position called McCourt’s special assistant to scroto-anal relations? Because that’s where the Dodger GM seems to be spending most of his time. Just fire him, and while you’re at it, fire yourself. My friend and I constantly talk about, if we had to do it all over again, we’d be Angel’s fans. Although now that seems like choosing between rotten apples and rotten oranges.
Keywords: Andruw Jones, Casey Blake, CC Sabathia, Cleveland Indians, Frank McCourt, Jamey Carroll, Jason Schmitt, Jeff Kent, Matt Kemp, Milwaukee Brewers, Ned Colletti, Nomar Garciaparra
