Thursday, December 06, 2007

Dodgers break their piggy bank



Let me make this crystal clear. Signing Andruw Jones to a two year 36.2 million dollar contract was not a good move. Sure it makes a splash, but ultimately throwing huge money at overrated players will drown your team. You'd think the Dodgers would have learned.

They've signed floundering veterans before. Jason Schmidt for two years comes to mind. How'd that work out? The Darren Dreifort deal is one of the most notorious but that was before the current administration. Then there were two Scott Boras clients like Andruw Jones. Kevin Brown and J.D. Drew, and Dodger fans couldn't be more elated when the two were run out of town.

Andruw Jones was a superstar. The emphasis is on the was.

As ESPN's Rob Neyer said, "
Sure, Jones was a great player for a few years, mostly because of his stellar defense. But while he's still a Gold Glove-quality center fielder, his defense has slipped and will only slip further. Meanwhile, fundamentally he's never been a truly great hitter. Now past his prime, Jones' career hitting stats -- .342 on-base percentage, .497 slugging -- are merely good, and he's finished higher than eighth in MVP balloting just once in his career. And again, he's past the age at which we would expect him to get better. So that's where the market's at: $18 million per season for good players."

In a recent poll of 15 AL GMs, 14 said they'd go with Torii Hunter over Andruw Jones. The other said he'd take either.

Jones stats last year fall short of underwhelming. The only thing worse than his .222 average was his .311 OBP. He had a career worst 26 home runs, not counting his rookie season.

In his book, Jayson Stark labeled Jones the most overrated centerfielder of all time.

Though Hunter is making $18 mill a year also, he did sign for five years. However, he had a very good season, hitting .297 and winning his seventh gold glove award in centerfield. He, unlike Jones is in good shape, and most importantly doesn't appear to be declining.

The Dodgers signed an overweight, underachieving, and fading star to a contract where he makes $18 million a year. Moreover, one of the Dodger rising young outfielders (Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier) will either have to take a back seat or will be involved in another trade.

Furthermore, Jones has struck out at least 100 times in every year he has been in the major leagues. He's a rally killer. While the Dodgers had guys like Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra, and James Loney who rarely struck out, you can add a guy to the lineup who will be feast or famine. And judging from the direction his career is heading, it'll be more famine than feast.

You just know Jones, Schmidt and Boras all sit around with umbrella drinks laughing about how great Ned Colletti is.


And then also:
Check out the Clippers playoff chances.
Not looking too good. More importantly, the Bobcats chances aren't much better, so it looks like I'll be $20 richer at the end of the season. Thanks Todd.


Plus:
Thanks for listening ESPN. The Worldwide leader is giving more airtime to Mercury Morris, who apparently raps.
I promise you this is hilarious. Someone get this man a variety show.

Must read: Northridge basketball is off to its best start in 19 years.

So much to talk about:

This post is already too long, but I will mention that I am excited about how the Lakers played last night. Overcoming a monster 51 point effort by Allen Iverson, digging to win despite foul trouble for Kobe and Lamar, and executing late in the game. The 111-107 win on the road in a the second of back to backs was a joy to watch.

As always an updated Lakers +/- (through 19 games)

Fisher +45
Kobe +42
Turiaf -16
Odom +11
Mihm -21
Walton +76
Bynum +78
Farmar +49
Radmanovic +113
Brown -5
Vujacic +15
Crittenton -13
Karl +5
Ariza +10

Up Next: Sunday vs Golden State 6:30 p.m. PST

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heres what I dont get. Why Roman you are never satisfied with what the Dodgers do? We are going to get Schmidt (Roman says: hes too old). We are going to get Bedard (Roman says: I dont want to trade Kemp). We are going to get Jones (Roman says: Too much money and hes old? ITS NOT YOUR MONEY & THERES NO CAP!!!!). Well, what do you want them to do? GM isnt that easy! Real baseball is not like fantasy baseball. You cannot sign Arod and Puljos or a top tier player, they dont automatically reset in the draft and they arent always available. You have to work with what is available at that time and what you can afford. It was either Rowand or Jones (THOSE WERE THE ONLY TWO GUYS FOR A CF POS WORTH THINKING ABOUT) So we went with Andruw Jones who is 33, yes, but he has had some decent years behind him and the Dodgers are looking for some of that success. Even if he doesnt hit well, us Dodger fans are used to players not hitting. Plus the guy has 10 gold gloves, cant knock that. Worse case scenario, he bats .250, 20 HR and is a gem in the field with a much better arm than Pierre, then in 2 years we sign someone else. With that signing looks like Pierre is out and we can make a trade (could be a bad trade) But it doesnt matter if its bad, maybe well grab a couple minor leaguers for a guy who cant hit the ball out of the infield. Or maybe we can actually rip another team off or find someone off waivers like Mehmet Okur. All im saying is its not that easy to sign and make trades, its not fantasy baseball. Its real money with real people. You deal with the money you have and with who and what is out there that wants to play on your team.


Im out . shout out to Chris Kaman who once again outscores Pau Gasol.

roman said...

Or you can not gamble with $36 million dollars, actually make a trade that's worthwhile, where you're not going to have increase parking prices to $50, and not relegate the young stars you've been grooming to the bench.