Over the past couple of weeks the LA Dodgers infield has taken shape quite nicely.
3rd Base - Casey Blake
Shortstop - Rafael Furcal
2nd Base - Blake DeWitt
1st Base - James Loney
Catcher - Russell Martin
Utility Infielder - Mark Loretta
Signing Rafael Furcal for three years this past weekend was big for a team who might go into the season without a bonafide power hitter in their lineup. The outfield even looks decent for a National League team with Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier most likely starting and Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones fighting it out for starts in Center Field. Word on the street is that Andruw Jones has lost a lot of weight and is back in shape...
As nice as it is to have Rafael Furcal back playing shortstop for the LA Dodgers this is still a team without a legit power hitter and a legit number one starter. Chad Billingsley is not an ace... at the most he's a number two or number three guy in the rotation after what he showed last year in the playoffs against the Phillies. But he can always get better because he's still young but right now mentally he doesn't seem to have what it takes to be a number 1. It'll be interesting to see what Hiroki Kuroda can do this season when pitching out of the number one or two spot in the rotation. I was pretty impressed with what he was able to do in the playoffs. But unfortunately there's no aces left on the market so the Dodgers are going to have to live with picking up a veteran to fill in the back end of their rotation. Chan Ho Park could also fit in here but the Dodgers are going to need a big upgrade to their rotation if they plan on competing in October.
Another position the LA Dodgers haven't settled is the closer spot with Takashi Saito not having signed yet. Broxton will never be a closer so you can forget about him... Brian Fuentes of Colorado and Trevor Hoffman of the San Diego Padres are out there and both would do well here if Takashi Saito doesn't come back.
So the LA Dodgers are without an ace and without Manny and while they may be good enough to win the National League West, this team isn't built to win a World Series as it stands right now and when you play in Los Angeles you play to win the World Series.
Regardless of how the team stands now and regardless of whether or not they sign Manny you have to give the Dodgers credit for something...
The LA Dodgers have been rebuilding basically since the McCourts bought the team and they've somehow managed to stay in contention in what seems like pretty much every year. I mean last year they were within a few outs of the World Series and they went into that year with basically the same team they have now with the execeptions of Derek Lowe and Takashi Saito.
I don't think it would be too crazy to think that the Dodgers going into the season as is have enough talent to win the National League West and they can go out and get a bat in the middle of the season and an ace when they can probably better asses what their needs may be if they don't sign Manny Ramirez. Almost seems like it's a better plan then throwing too much money at Manny and having him dog it because he feels "underpaid."
With Teixera signing with the Yankees, most baseball analysts are thinking that the Dodgers chances of signing Manny have dramitically improved and now you almost have to admit that the Dodgers have played this whole Manny thing perfectly and even more so if they end up signing the guy.
I gotta tell you I hate and love the way the McCourts run the LA Dodgers. The McCourts are very savvy business people and if you had to give them a grade for running the Dodgers as a business I would struggle to give them anything other then an A.
And then by the same token a good chunk of the time it just seems like they don't have their hearts set on winning at all costs... you know like the New York Yankees who just spent $160 million for C.C. Sabathia and then $82 million for A.J. Burnett and now $180 million for Mark Teixera all because they didn't make the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. You just can't help but feeling shafted sometimes by having miserly owners who won't break the bank to win. Luckily for us Dodger fans our beloved LA Dodgers play in a division that has been atrocious the past couple of years and is ridiculously weak and were it not for that these Dodgers would be mediocre and we'd be blue in more ways then one.
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