Recent Dodger updates: Kuroda, Loney, Renteria, Dotel trade

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.

Mattingly to replace Torre and Dotel trade

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Friday Don Mattingly will in fact succeed Joe Torre as the Dodgers' manager, starting in 2011.

I'm suspect of this move for one main reason -- Mattingly has been an assistant under Joe Torre for quite some time. My fear is Mattingly picked up some of Torre's terrible habits, namely the mismanagement of the bullpen and pitching staff overall. That is Torre's biggest flaw as a manager and it'd be easy for Mattingly to follow suit.

I'm willing to give him a chance as Dodger manager, but Tim Wallach, the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate manager, would have been my No. 1 choice.

It seems the Dodgers are lacking fire from the top. I mean, the last "fiery" manager the Dodgers had was Tommy LaSorda. Glen Hoffman? No. Bill Russell? No. Davey Johnson? No. Jim Tracy? No. Grady Little? Certainly not.

I'm not saying Wallach would be an Ozzie Guillen-like manager (in terms of fire), but at least it would show the Dodgers not being afraid to try something new. However, they are, in a way, trying something new, as Mattingly has no managerial experience at any level. He is going to manage in the Arizona Fall League, so that's a start.

The plan was for Mattingly to succeed Torre as manager when the two came to L.A. three years ago, but my enthusiasm for the move dwindled in that time.

We'll see what happens. The Dodgers have yet to recover from not hiring Mike Scocia when they had the chance.

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Dodgers ship Dotel to Rockies

Octavio Dotel was traded to the Colorado Rockies on Friday for a player to be named later.

What can be said about this? This is flat-out a moronic move. Ned Colletti has made some bad moves in his time, but this one could eventually take the cake.

So the Dodgers traded James McDonald -- a guy who could have done the same, if not better than Dotel in the 18 2/3 innings he pitched for L.A. -- and their 2009 No. 1 prospect in Andrew Lambo for a player to be named later? That's absolutely brilliant. No wonder the Dodger minor league system is so incredibly thin.

Dotel is ineligible for the postseason roster, so the return is going to be quite minimal.

To think, the Dodger roster decisions are going to be made by a guy who made this trade for the foreseeable future. That saddens and infuriates me as a Dodger fan.

The initial trade was baffling, so what does that make this? It's called incompetence.

The Dodgers' ownership issues are a big problem, but the biggest problem may lie right under that Ned Flanders-esque mustache in the Dodger front office.

Forgive me for this rant, but there's really no eloquent way for me to sum up this move.

It's a frustrating time to be a Dodger fan and there appears to be no bright spots in sight.

Dodgers acquire Lilly and Dotel

In a baffiling, yet unsurprising move, the Dodgers have acquired LHP Ted Lilly and INF Ryan Theriot from the Chicago Cubs for INF Blake DeWitt, RHPs Brett Wallach and Kyle Smit. The Cubs are picking up $2.5 million of the remaining $4 million of Lilly's contract.

We all knew it was coming and there's ample reason to be upset.

First of all, Lilly, while a solid starter, is not a difference-maker. I've been saying for a while the Dodgers should just stand pat. Apparently Ned Collettii & Co. think Lilly is going to be the guy who helps the Dodgers make up a 4.5-game deficit in the wild card and 7-game deficit in the NL West.

Lilly's velocity is down (86.1 MPH average on his fastball -- sixth-lowest in the majors), but is still posting a 3.69 ERA and 1.14 WHIP, despite a slightly increased BB/9 ratio (1.8 in 2009, 2.2 in 2010) and a decrease in K/9 (7.7 in '09 to 6.8 in '10) and BB/K (4.19 in '09 to 3.07 in '10) ratios.

Theriot is a utility infielder with a decent .284 batting average. And that's about it. He has a 69 OPS+ (league-average is 100) and a negative Wins Above Replacement rate of -0.8. He adds absolutely nothing and does nothing better than the guy he was traded for -- Blake DeWitt.

As if trading DeWitt for Theriot wasn't bad enough, the Dodgers also traded a solid RHP pitching prospect in Wallach. He is the son of former Dodger and current Dodger Triple-A manager Tim Wallach. I had Brett rated in my mideseason top 20 after having him rated No. 26 after last season. A 2009 third-round pick, Wallach was 6-0 with a 3.72 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in Low-A as a 21-year-old (22 in December). He had a ceiling of a No. 3 starter, or basically what Lilly is right now. He was making a strong push for my top 15, but the Dodgers felt the need to trade him for another middle-of-the-rotation starter.

Smit is enjoying his first bit of success in the minors this season, with a 2.35 ERA between High-A and Double-A (three innings in Double-A). He's 22 and is likely slated for middle relief, if he makes it to the show.

Grading the trade: D
- This is precisely the type of move I did not want the Dodgers to make -- nor did they need to make it. Lilly is a minimal upgrade to the rotation and will not help this team reach the playoffs. And despite being a Type-A free agent after the season, the Dodgers, based on their recent history, are not likely to offer him arbitration, which means no draft pick compensation. The DeWitt-for-Theriot swap makes zero sense and losing Wallach in this trade is not good.

The Dodgers also traded RHP James McDonald and OF/1B Andew Lambo to the Pittsburgh Pirates for RHP Octavio Dotel and $500,000.

WHAT?! Are you freaking kidding me?

I'm sorry, but this trade makes no sense. The Lilly/Theriot acquisitions made more sense than this.

Kenley Jansen was the bullpen arm the Dodgers needed -- and they didn't have to give up any prospects to get him.

Colletti has done it again. McDonald has had his ups-and-downs with the Dodgers, but he has been really solid out of the bullpen. Lambo was the Dodgers' No. 1 prospect at the beginning of 2009. While he dropped in the rankings (was No. 6 at the end of last season and No. 11 earlier this month in my rankings), he still has potential and was one of the best pure hitters in the Dodgers' system.

Dotel strikes out a lot of hitters (10.8 per 9 innings), but he has a 4.28 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and 3.8 BB/9 (which is actually down from 5.2 in '09). He's a decent reliever, but definitely not worth McDonald and Lambo.

Grading the trade: F
- This trade is atrocious. Dotel is a mediocre reliever who got a premium return in trade. Hell, the Dodgers gave up more for Dotel than they did for Lilly! This is just frustrating. But hey, they got another proven veteran to come out of the bullpen, right? He's going to help the Dodgers make the playoffs. ARGH!