Well I was wrong. I thought it unlikely that the Dodgers would actually be able to pull off a major acquisition. But I'm not sure a team has ever hated a 28-year-old former super star so much that they were willing to give him and his once reasonable contract to a team for a pitcher like Nate E. and a No. 25 prospect.
Did any one else think that would happen? No.
And then I didn't think the Dodgers would botch the Dempster deal where at one point they had all the leverage. Guess they got greedy and over played their hand. The result being a gaping hole in the starting rotation going into a stretch run. Dumb. It has to be obvious to them at this point that they've screwed up the starting pitching.
Shane Victorino? Sure. That was logical and the level of transaction that usually happens. Brandon League. A little surprising. Usually you go for results rather than tools for the playoff run. League certainly has stuff. But not sure he knows where it's going currently. Choate. He is what he is and the Dodgers didn't have any of those.
Gave up EO. That hurt but had to happen given the situation. Lindblom. Think everyone had checked out of that hotel. Josh has a live arm but shows no real pitching skill as yet. It's quite possible he's as good as he's going to get. The rest were prospects outside the Top Ten List.
Bottom line. Two gigantic dark holes filled. Bullpen improved. Starting rotation degraded.
Prospects are so overvalued it's pathetic. How about the 2008 Top Ten Prospect List. That would be: Kershaw, LaRoche, Hu, Elbert, DeWitt, Withrow, McDonald, Meloan, D. Young, Pedro Baez. I can only imagine who was 11th through 20th. Yeah let's not trade any of those guys because, you know, maybe 15 percent of em are going to be good. Note. Nobody thinks Zach Lee is the second, third or fourth coming of Mr. Kershaw.
Hanley looks strong, fast and an adequate fielder at third. He's going to walk some. And he's going to hit a few game winners. But he's an undisciplined hitter who likes to hot dog a little. If he adds just 40 points to his stat line numbers he'll justify his contract. Maybe not even that due to the dark hole nature of third base in the major leagues. But please don't mistake him - at all - for Manny. And it may turn out he doesn't justify his contract if left to his way of doing things.
There are only two players that can carry the Dodgers to the playoffs: Kershaw and Kemp. The two true super stars currently on the team. They both have to do what they did last August and September. For Kemp that means hitting 7 or 8 home runs a month and basically bludgeoning the opposition in a way that allows the rest of the offense to follow right behind him. And Kershaw has to be as close to a sure thing as possible. They both did it last year.
So all the angst about what the Dodgers have or don't have is fine but it really doesn't matter. You can make a strong argument that the team is significantly improved over last year but so what. What matters is if Kemp and Kershaw can lead like they have in the past.
If they can't the Dodgers won't win it's as simple as that. If they can anything is possible.
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