Uribe, Hairston, Kennedy, Loney, Gwynn, Treanor, Herrera, Gordon, Abreu and DeJesus are all the same player. Yes, they are the same player in that all have 2 HR or less and most have a slugging percentage of below .400. The Dodgers can’t win with that many “Punch and Judy” hitters on the roster. They just can’t. There are really only two options:
- Trade your top prospects for aging hitters and gut the farm; or
- Take on salary that other teams can’t or won’t and trade mid-level prospects for aging hitters.
What does that mean?
OK, it means that the Dodgers could trade Juan Uribe and pay his salary, along with a mid-tier prospect (maybe two) for Kevin Youkilis if they pay ALL of his salary.
It means that you could trade James Loney for Carlos Lee if they pay ALL of his salary.
Youkilis and Lee will both be free agents after this season, but the moves will save both the Red Sox and Astros a lot of green. Guggs & Company were eager to overpay for the Dodgers. They could have their cake and eat it too with the above moves. Youkilis and Lee are not the players they once were. They are line drive gap hitters who could both be re-energized by joining a team with one of the best records in baseball. The Dodgers simply (easy to say) take on nearly $20 mil in payroll. They never had that luxury under Frank McCourt.
Now, I am looking 10 days ahead:
Kemp and Ellis come off the DL and Kennedy is DFA’ed while DeJesus is sent back to AAA.
Look at this lineup:
- Gordon SS
- Ellis 2B
- Kemp CF
- Ethier RF
- Lee 1B
- Youkilis 3B
- Abreu/Rivera LF
- Ellis C
That lineup won’t cost many players, just cash!
I like tonight’s lineup:
- Gordon SS
- Hairston 2B
- Ethier RF
- Abreu DH
- Rivera LF
- Loney 1B
- Kennedy 3B
- Ellis C
- Bills P
I am always scared when Bills pitches.
Everytime I hear the name Youklis I feel like puking.
If nobody can hit I say put your best defensive players in the line-up.
I am elated that James is starting. He’s hitting better than any of these other stiffs.
Dee has that “Dee”r in the headlights look but Donnie dumfuk keeps sending him out there. Can hardly wait for the off-season to see the heads roll.
if you completely reversed the order or shuffled it in any such order….it would not make a difference….
hell, have bills lead off…
Bobby Abreu = Junkyard Dog!
This team can really excite u and really bum u out. I’ve doubted this team before and they prove me wronge. I say it now the dodgers will sweep in Anaheim. Go blue
i am tired of the Junkyard Dog stuff now. A little bit was ok, but this is major league baseball. Professionals. It is just that the Dodger are on the edge of not falling apart altogether.
Billingsley needs to get his act together now. The Angels are barking up the place.
1. Struggling team
2. Picked to finish 3rd or 4th in the Pre-Season
3. Their MVP is on the DL
4. Best Record in NL
5. 2nd Best Record in MLB
I’d say that Junkyard Dogs is a Perfect description.
Anybody who likes a lineup with Kennedys’ name written in it likes an offense that is putrid by MLB standards…
Scoreboard!
Yep… scoreboard.
Bills is maddening some times. He is paid a lot of money to be good only part of the time.
Glad to see Haren is still struggling. He already has 72 pitches, so, we will see the bullpen for the second half of this game.
Lincecum with 3 earned in the first. That’s a good thing.
Gordon has 3 at bats in 3 innings and hasn’t sniffed first base. This OJT thing can be painful.
Bills with 51 pitches through 3. He might go 6 tonight.
Every W counts. Keep the lead until deals can be made.
Maybe it’s time to dfa bills
Billingsley is pathetic… PERIOD.. Year after year we wait for him to go to the next level and it’s plain to see that will never happen.. This organization has wanted him to be a #2 SP for 3-4 years and he is what he is– a #4 or #5 at best…
Bills is what he is: A number 4 – looks like a number 6 and sucks tonight!
it also donny fault..why leave him in ..how care if bill goes 5 inning.. that how we loose.
Maddening. Totally frustrating. I really hate bills. Garbage garbage garbage. I wish I could sock him in the face
who cares
TRADE BILLS NOW BEFORE I SMASH HIM IN THE FACE!
Bills for Youkilis.
Simmer down guys, the Dodgers are still in first place. Chill out. It will be OK.
How can you own the Dodgers, sell them and buy the Padres.
O’Malley is a worthless piece of $hit!
Hey, maybe he’s a plant. He could send us Headley and Quentin.
Disagree it’s mattinglys fault though. I think he’s doing a great job. It’s not his fault he has garbage. Tell Ron Washington this is ur team so deal with it. Tell Brian cashman u only have 20 mil to spend on players. Switch Ned and cashman switch Washington and mattingly. For the team Martty has been handed I feel he’s done a wonderful job. Just imagine if the dodgers had the same payroll as the yanks. Things would be a lot different. Y does Washington look like a good manager, cause he has the ownership that will get the pieces he needs for a championship team. I hope we have that now
That being said they r still in first and when I drink I babble just forgive me
Donnie T-BALL did it again. He has NO understanding of SPLITS and especially REVERSE SPLITS.
LHP on the mound
Kennedy hits .333 against LHP
Uribe hits .167 against LHP
So who does Donnie T-BALL send to the plate?
SOPHOMORIC
Will they break their EASY Button tonight?
Well At least the Dodgers do not have the same problems as the US Postal Service Team and none of their players is named Sandusky.
It could be worse.
Billingsley might be hard to trade given his large contract, and ineffectiveness. But perhaps there are some teams willing to deal. But if anyone is going to take Billingsley’s contract off the Dodgers hands, they likely wouldn’t surrender much in the way of talent, unless the Dodgers took a back a sizable contract in return.
And maybe Billingsley could be effective out of the pen. It’s been a long time (2007) since he showed a 97 mph fastball in relief, so there’s no guarantee that he could do that today. But it might be worth a try.
As for the Dodgers offense, it’s simply inadequate. How many times have we seen the Dodgers score early, only to go into the tank for the rest of the game. Tacking on runs is something this team doesn’t do well. Even with the return of Kemp and Mark Ellis, this team still needs productive bats at the corners and in left field. Don’t know if that can be done in what appears to be a difficult trade market. Could be that filling those spots, and adding some pitching, might have to wait until the offseason, when the Dodgers ownership may be in a stronger position to flex their financial muscle.
Chad Billingsley and Andre Ethier Debut’ed in the same season, 2006. Bills has been worth 17.8 WAR and Ethier worth 18.3. Ethier has been good, no denying that. But Billingsley has been just as good. He even put together two season at 4.5 WAR, which is Elite level. I don’t suppose he would do that every year, but anything over 2 WAR is acceptable, though I would expect and hope something in the 3-5 range.
He had a bad outing tonight against some of the best hitters the majors have seen all year. He certainly isn’t Kershaw, but asking for him to be DFA’ed without saying nil about Uribe is just plain ignorance. Uribe, who swang at a 3-0 pitch and then went on to strike out. There are greater problems with this team than Bills and he isn’t among them. Uribe, Kennedy, Gordon, Loney, to name the ones on the field, and the replacement level (at best) performances of Mattingly and Colletti off the field.
Just for the sake of argument, Ron Washington is a bad manager.
Nuh uh .His team has best record in MLB
Well, that was ugly.
Uribe swang at a 3-0 pitch? Man, I would have liked to seen that. But, that is the pitch he most likely to hit and look what happened. Tell me again why he is even in there.
Watched Arizona win last night. Keep an eye on those guys. On paper, they are actually better than they were last year. Once they figure that out they will put together a good run. Midgets within 3 and we are going to their house after the Angels are done with us. Could be a difficult stretch…. you think?