GONZO’S LAST ACT AS A DODGER?I’m done with talking about this year, here’s the Game Recap & Boxscore

Bill Shaikin of the LA TIMES has this to say about the Dodgers season and the hot stove league today:

The Dodgers are a disappointment on the field, an embarrassment off the field. The general manager assembled a fourth-place team, with a payroll roughly twice as much as each of the teams that finished first, second and third.The manager befuddled players of all ages with his strategies and could not stop players from publicly pointing fingers at each other, even after a closed-door meeting in which he told them to blame him rather than one another.

THE OUTFIELD
I think it’s safe to assume that Matt Kemp will not be traded unless someone named Cabrera is involved.  It’s also safe to assume that Juan Pierre will be a Dodger next year.  The odds of him going anywhere are slim and none, and I’m OK with that.  LH is where I’m not OK - Ethier is a journeyman, at best and he will likely be moved.  You heard it here first - Ethier will play somewhere else next year!  We could do worse than Delwyn Yoing in LF, but I really like him as a 4th or 5th of - switchhitter and can play all 3 postions (CF in a real pinch).  There are other options, of course.  If Adam Dunn is a Free Agent, there will be a lot of teams bidding for his services.  He strikes out too much and will cost too much in my opinion, although his bat would look nice in the #6 spot.

My choice is to sign Torii Hunter to play CF and move Pierre to LF.  Look, you target a guy and then you go get him!  Get Hunter!  An outfield of Pierre in LF, Hunter in CF and Kemp in RF would be an excellent defensive OF.  Young and Repko would be the speedy reserves.

THE INFIELD
While Loney will be a fixture at 1B, the rest of the infield is subjevt to change with LaRoche, Hu and Abreu waiting in the wings.  I think it’s likely that Jeff Kent will return (there are 9 million reasons why), so Tony Abreu will be a super sub, filling in at 2B, 3B and SS.  The player is see being moved if Rafael Furcal who is in the last year of his contract.  I think HU is ready to play and it would not be wise to integrate two rookies at the Keystone Combination in one year.  Abreu’s time will come in 2009!

In my opinion we have Ethier, Nomar, Furcal and Lowe to offer as trade bait.  Add LaRoche to that mix if we could get a guy like Cabrera at 3B.  Personally, I think we should target Cabrera and just go get him.  Florida would need LaRoche to play 3B, so he’s part of that deal.  Ethier would also be another component.  Nomar, Furcal and Lowe would give us enough other prospects to entice Florida to move Cabrera.

Of course, Martinez and Saenz have to go.  Sweeney stays as a LH pinch hitter.   Young can play 2B in a pinch and we could do worse than Wilson Valdez as a sub with Abreu.

Catcher
Russ Martin - nothing more to say, except that we need to play him less.  That means we need a good backup.  I am going to throw something out there that may never happen, but it would be interesting - sign Paul LoDuca!  $8 MIL/2 YEARS!  Think about it!  Another team leader!  Let him retire as a Dodger.  He’ll be 37 next year - he’d be a solid backup.  Martin can play 3B and LoDuca can play 1B.

Roster
1.  Pierre
2.  Kemp
3.  Hunter
4.  Young
5.  Repko
6.  Cabrera
7.  Hu
8.  Kent
9.  Loney
10.Abreu
11.Valdez
12.Martin
13.LoDuca

That leaves us enough versatility to carry 12 pitchers.  I’ll discuss that tomorrow.  Oh, here’s the lineup:

1.  Pierre  LF
2.  Martin C
3.  Loney  1B
4.  Cabrera  3B
5.  Hunter  CF
6.  Kent  2B
7.  Kemp  RF
8.  Hu  SS

Powerful - 5 guys who can hit 30 HR!

DODGER NOTES:

Tony Jackson of The Daily News on C-Bill and next years’ staff.

Get Used to Seeing This About 30 Times Next YearJon Heyman of SI.com has this to say about the Dodgers:

Owner Frank McCourt is “quite upset” with the Dodgers’ performance down the stretch, according to a source close to the team. But while people in the front office are bracing for change, two Dodgers observers say they are fairly sure that GM Ned Colletti is “safe.” However, Grady Little could still be in a little trouble, according to those people.

Nobody is predicting that Little will be fired yet, but if he is, Dusty Baker could be a candidate for the job. Baker, a longtime Dodgers player, managed the Giants when Colletti was in the front office there. Baker is also close to Jeff Kent, who has the ear of McCourt’s wife, Jamie, the team’s vice chairman and president, if the Dodgers do decide to make a change.

The Dodgers’ clubhouse situation is dreadful, according to people close to the situation. The older players believe many of the top young prospects have shown them no respect. Some of those complaints have legitimacy. But one problem is a lack of strong veteran leadership since the defection of Greg Maddux to the rival Padres.

Little was known for running a cohesive clubhouse in Boston (that was supposed to be his strength), but he recently admitted that he was unable to bridge the generation gap that exists in the L.A. locker room, as Kent has recently aired the dirty clubhouse laundry in the Los Angeles papers.I think Jeff should give Jamie’s ear back!  Seriously, is Heyman serious, or is this just conjecture?  Who knows?

However, no matter what everyone says about him, I could see Dusty Baker as manager of the Dodgers.  Like we haven’t had arms blown out already.  How bad can he be?  Here’s the deal: Grady has lost the respect of the team.  He’ll not get it back.  He has to go.  If Ned doesn’t fire him on his own, McCourt may fire them both!

This I predict:

1.  Jeff Kent will be our 2B next year;
2.  Nomar and Gonzo will be gone;
3.  Furcal, Lowe, Penny - 2 will not be with the team next year;
4.  Martinez, Saenz, Hendrickson and Hernandez better be gone;
5.  We will sign 1 major free agent; and
6.  Whether Jason Schmidt comes back will determine our fate.

Who are the real players?  September batting averages/RBI (in order - highest to lowest):

1.  Loney .402/32
2.  Sweeney .347/0
3.  Kemp .350/8
4.  Kent .324/8
5.  Nomar .324/2
6.  Pierre .314/4
7.  Young .308/1
8.  Saenz  .273/2
9.  Martin  .270/7
10.Gonzo .260/11
11.Ethier .257/10
12.Furcal .210/4

Andre Ethier did his usual tank job in September to solidify his position in my Choke Artists Hall of Fame.  Jeff Kent only had 8 RBI (25% of that kid who hit ahead of him the past two weeks and behind him before that).

Here’s the summary of what happened to our bats in September:

1.  Martin was wore out by September, no matter what he said.  I’d like to see us get a better backup C, so that he could rest more.  Let him pinch hit in the games he’s out of.

2.  Kemp should have played every game like Loney

3.  Furcal and Ethier both tanked - we especially needed Raffy, but the September flameout was probably the result of playing with an injury all year.

4.  Kent and Nomar had good BA’s but weren’t “clutch.”

5.  We had an excellent BA with RISP, but that just goes to prove that figures do lie!  We really didn’t do it when it counted.

Our culture needs to change.  Loney is the real deal.  Kemp while more raw and more talented could be the Bison.  Martin is a stud (who needs to rest more).  If he could play 3B (he was a 3B 4 years ago) or 1B, then if he pinch hit he could come in so that we wouldn’t need an emergency C.

You May Be Seeing More of This Next Year

Grady Little indicates that the Dodgers are committed to a youth movement. “We know the course we’re on and we’re going to stay the course,” Little said of the Dodgers’ commitment to youth. “The course they’ve been taking since they won a World Series here in 1988 is not working. This course we’re on right now, we’re going to try to make it work.”

Ross Newhan calls for a full-fledged youth movement today in the LA TIMES - Great Read!

Like me, Vin Scully thought this team was playoff bound.  He’s surprised at what has happened.  Read the article in the Times.Dodger Notes:

1.  Abreu, Furcal, Kent and Penny are all done for the year.

2.  Matt Kemp has made great progress in the strikeout department.  Last year, he struck out once over 3 AB’s.  Now it’s once every 4.5 AB’s.  That’s progress!

3.  Russ Martin wins the Roy Campanella award.  Well Deserved.

I like what Martin said about speaking out in that he felt that to speak out you have to earn everyone’s respect first and right now, he’s still earning…

Of course, Matt Kemp wants to stay and he probably will, unless someone overwhelms Ned Colletti with a trade proposal.  That’s been the biggest problem with the Dodgers - when Ned is in trade talks with other GM’s they always ask for Kemp, Loney, Martin, Ethier, Abreu, Hu, Kershaw and Meloan and Ned has simply been unwilling to trade there developing players.  Therefore, he was forced to deal with junk and that’s what he got:  JUNK!  Hendrickson, Tomko, Hernandez, Gonzalez, Garciparra - ALL JUNK!

By the way, I have lost respect for Gonzo after his latest comment in the LA TIMES:
I’m not coming back,” said Gonzalez, 40, a clubhouse favorite and big league mainstay for nearly two decades. “You can write that down. It’s no secret.”

Classy?  No!  Sounds like a bush attitude - maybe part of the locker room divide!  Don’t let the doorknob hit you on the way out, Luis.

On the Kemp issue, Grady Little had this to say in the  LA TIMES: “He’s nowhere near the finished product, but he’s made a lot of progress,” Little said.

Dave Stewart blasted Kent (He’s Kemp and C-Bills agent): “I think the way Kent handled this whole situation is complete garbage,” Stewart wrote in a blog. “I wasn’t in that clubhouse, but chances are he didn’t say a damn thing all year long and waited until they got eliminated to criticize and cry like a baby.

I have come to the conclusion that Gonzo, Nomar and Kent may be bad for this team - the young guys evidently don’t respect them.