Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Dodger season ends, off-season awaits

First of all, my apologies for the tardy post.

The Los Angeles Dodgers' miserable season finally ended with an 80-82 record. After being in the NLCS the previous two seasons, this season left quite the bad taste in the fans' mouths. We're not used to the season ending at the beginning of October -- at least, not for the last couple seasons.

Many fans knew the season was over by the trade deadline, but it's too bad management didn't see it the same way. But, it's time to look toward the off-season. It begins with Don Mattingly taking over for Joe Torre. Mattingly began coaching his first games in the Arizona Fall League this week. While I'm not exactly thrilled with the managerial decision, I'm willing to give him a chance.

This off-season, clouded by the McCourt divorce proceedings, will be interesting. It isn't likely the team will add much payroll but will the Dodgers trade some of their arbitration-eligible players? More specifically, will they trade Matt Kemp?

There were reports last week saying the Washington Nationals would be interested in Kemp if he were "made available." I truly feel Kemp will not be a Dodger come 2011, even though it would be a foolish move on management's part. If the Dodgers can get fair value -- which isn't likely -- then trading him would be less painful. I will have an extended look at Kemp and his trade value in a future post.

Also in future posts, I will breakdown the off-season as I did last year in a four-part series.

It's going to be an interesting off-season. General Manager Ned Colletti is going to have to get creative, which doesn't bode well for the Dodgers or their fans. We'll see what happens.

Check back soon for my off-season preview series. Comments and Twitter followers are greatly appreciated.

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