Yeah Baby! Torre, A-Rod, Dodgers!
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I never liked the hiring of Ned, a Giant to run my Dodgers. I liked Grady Little even less when he was announced and never warmed to him. I eventually gave Ned a break. Now we are headed for better times and warmer climes boys. The Dodgers are letting underachieving Little go and replacing him with the legend, Joe Torre.
That is amazing good news. Let's look at the Dodgerinos and see what they've got. The outfield has emerging Kemp, contact-hitting Ethier, and speedy Pierre who is switching to LF. He does not have a strong arm. I hated the signing of Gonzo. What does he bring? Clutch hitting, c'mon. Even on a streaky hitting team, I say let the kids play, like Delwyn Young, don't take away at-bats from your future. Still, the OF is in pretty fine shape. I am praying we don't make another expensive mistake and go after selfish Andruw Jones who will sacrifice defense, counts, team, his children, to go after home runs. Sure, we could use 40 bombs or so, but is he going to hit that in a parks like Dodgers, Petco and AT&T? Doubt it. Not with the pitching and pitcher's parks.
The IF is pretty good. I like Loney's glove and his potential. Nomar is a fan favorite and local yokel and you need an old guy in your line-up. Let him be it. Kent should be gone. Furcal is admittedly good though I am usually not a fan of former Braves or guys affiliated with that franchise in any way that's why I cheered the removal of attitude-plagued Wilson Betemit who was not a team player.
Ironically the weak spot on the Dodgers is at 3-bag. Hmm? A-Rod plays that position. Hmm? A-Rod gives the Dodgers their best player, he hits bombs, he can play decent D, is heralded as one of the best in history. Will McCourt fork over the money? He has to. He started out with stingy Beane-wannabe Paul DePodesta. Now he is talking the talk, he wants his Dodgers to be like the Yankees. Well, you got Torre, put your money where your mouth is.
A-Rod would work out well in a city like LA. He has the movie star looks, is damn talented, rich, and seems to collapse when it matters most. That's LA for you baby! We love overpaid underachievers here so come on in. Still, A-Rod dramatically improves our team. Let's hope McCourt pays up.
That will round out our infield nicely, you can move Nomar to second. Which leaves our pitching, a year ago supposedly our strength. I say go with Kuo as your left-arm in the rotation. Joe can inspire young guys to play well and I like Kuo over Wolf. Have Randy be the long reliever and ocassional starter. If you're keeping Hendrickson, okay that gives you a bevy of left-arms for a potential World Series against Boston or New York- what would be better than revenge against NY for all those World Series they beat us in, and for Torre. He would serve them the dish cold.
Otherwise, rely on Broxton, make him the stud, work on his mantra, his moxy, see Papelbon. Then, see if Schmidt is worth the dough and if not, ship him to Boston who will be short a starter soon enough and knows Clement is useless. Build around Chad Billingsley, the young guys, keep Lowe and Brad another year, they've been solid. Maybe the Dodgers can use another solid bullpen arm, maybe someone will emerge. Likely, someone will emerge.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Joe Torre Era!
