I was fixin to write a post defending Donny Baseball's controversial decision to keep the mistake-prone shortstop in the lineup despite his offensive and defensive mishaps.
Silly me, the stories covering the topic have already been written.
Eric Stephen at True Blue LA and Bill Plaschke at the LA Times both tell the tale from Don Baseball's perspective and I'm OK with his thinking.
I know the sabre kids pull out the numbers saying statistically Dee's the worst offensive player in baseball. Well that's statistics for you. In Saturday's game against the Angels Dee won the game for the Dodgers with his offensive prowess. He did in that game what only 10 or 20 other MLB players could even think of doing. So how does that make him the worst offensive player in the league. Nonsense.
Is he playing well right now? No. Has he even played an entire year in the majors yet? No. Is Dee the albatross around the Dodgers's neck that's, you know, kept them out of first place or from having the best record in baseball? No. Is Dee Gordon the biggest problem the Dodgers have as a team? Hell No.
I'm predicting he will be an All-Star. He'll get there sooner playing in the majors rather than for the Isotopes. With the Dodgers ramming into the wall of late my resolve would weaken and I'd have to probably move him to the 8th spot for just awhile. But Donny Baseball is going all in with the young man and I applaud that move. It might be a rocky trip but I believe it will eventually work out great for the Dodgers.
And an awesome thing happened in today's game. Dee bunted for a base hit. Not such a big deal except he did it by using great bunting technique. Up to now he's looked a little helpless. I read where M Wills has been spending hours with him working on bunting. If Dee became a great bunter all heck is going to break loose. Can't wait to see it.
How Far The Great Youk Has Fallen
When somebody first started asking me what it would take for the Dodgers to get their hands on Youk I said it would take way way more than you'd want to give up. As the scouting reports started panning Youk and he started lighting fires in the Red Sox club house the market bottomed out fast. Then he couldn't get above the Mendoza line.
So the White Sox got him for the Dodger equivalent of Ely/Sellers. I would have paid that with the guarantee in writing that Uribe would get cut upon completion of the trade. The marketplace is a fickle place. All the Internet GM's think it's easy and obvious. But if Youk focuses his anger and blows up for the White Sox the fans are going to storm Boston's management. But at this second in time he had to go. The Red Sox had no choice. Nobody was going to give anymore. What do you do? It's a hard business.
News Feeds Added
I think True Blue LA is the most informative blog pound for pound on the Dodgers anywhere in the Interweb. I believe Grantland contains the finest sports writing in the United States.. And Dodger Thoughts has it's own niche in Dodgerdom and I enjoy checking it out. So you can find headlines for each site on the right hand side of the page. These sites are well worth the effort and I recommend them all.
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