The Dodgers officially re-signed Hiroki Kuroda on Monday to a 1-year, $12 million deal. The deal includes a base salary of $8 million in 2011 and $2 million deferred in both 2012 and 2013.
As previously stated, this is a fantastic move. The Dodgers' No. 1 through No. 4 is good enough to hang with any 1 through 4 in baseball.
Deferring $4 million allows the Dodgers to have some payroll flexibility this off-season.
Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts wrote a nice piece on the Dodgers and deferred payments.
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Some folks are saying James Loney is the player the Dodgers are most likely to part with on the trade market.
I'm a Loney fan. Despite his poor ending to the 2010 season, I think he still has real value on this team. His glove is great and has saved the Dodger infield many errors in his time at first base.
Instead of jettisoning him, the Dodgers should look to upgrade power at another position such as left field, third base or second base.
Dan Uggla is beginning to make a lot more sense. Ken Rosenthal tweeted the Braves were talking to the Marlins about a deal involving Uggla and inexplicably 2010 all-star Omar Infante and left-handed pitcher Mike Dunn.
If that's all it could take to get Uggla, the Dodgers need to be on the phone to Miami STAT. The Dodgers would have no problem topping that package, as I outlined in my trade targets post a 11 days ago.
In retrospect, that might even be too much to give up for the offensive-minded second baseman.
It might not matter, as the Braves appear primed to acquire Uggla, says Braves' beat writer for MLB.com.
It'll be interesting to see what the actually deal is. Short of the Braves trading Freddie Freeman or Julio Teheran, the Dodgers could likely top any deal the Braves propose.
Update: Well, apparently the deal was just finalized and it is Infante and Dunn for Uggla. What an absolute steal for the Braves. Sigh.
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ESPN's Enrique Rojas tweeted saying the Dodgers would be interested in Edgar Renteria for their second base opening.
My initial response: "Jesus no."
Seriously. What good is a washed-up veteran who has played exactly zero games at the position. His postseason clutchiness might be too much for Ned Colletti to pass up, which is sad and maddening for Dodger fans.
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The Dodgers chose 26-year-old Double-A outfielder Anthony Jackson as the player to be named later in the Octavio Dotel trade.
Now, I wasn't expecting much in return for Dotel. But Ned Colletti, by trading Dotel to Colorado in September, must have said to himself, "How can I make this deal even worse?"
Well Ned, you found a way. And a 26-year-old Double-A outfielder isn't going to make up for the loss of James McDonald and Andrew Lambo.
As I said in my post about it in September, I don't mind trading guys like McDonald or Lambo, but the return needs to be at least somewhat good.
The Braves stole Uggla. The Dodgers couldn't have made a better deal like that?
ReplyDeleteThey could have blown that deal out of the water. The same thing could be said about every other team in baseball.
ReplyDeleteWhy Florida seemingly settled on the first deal is beyond me.
Uhm......"The Dodgers' No. 1 through No. 4 is good enough to hang with any 1 through 4 in baseball." Are you kidding me? You really have your own blog and you would say something as idiotic and UNTRUE as that??? You really have some games to watch because....your picthing is no where near up to par with most teams even in your DIVISION, much less all of baseball.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, leave it to a Dodger fan to spew blue crap that's not true out into the world of baseball. So here it is: Giants have everyone beat, Phillies are a threat to most OTHER teams besides the Giants, Yankees are pretty high up there as well as Colorado. Now, to say that the Dodgers could even hold their own for more than 2 innings is more than laughable.
You should probably stick to keeping your thoughts in your head, as any other course of action such as this "blog" is just disastrous, I must say.
Go Giants, World Champions
Lol, gotta love those self-indulgent Giant fans. Win a championship, yet it still isn't enough.
ReplyDeleteA 1-4 of Kershaw, Billingsley, Kuroda and Lilly, whether you want to believe it or not, is good enough to hang with most 1-4s out there. The numbers don't lie. And this was written well before the Cliff Lee signing in Philadelphia, which obviously has a better 1-4 than LA or 'Frisco.
Leave it to a Giant fan to come and talk crap on a Dodger blog. Whatever makes you happy, Anonymous.