Snake’s Take: Offseason Brings Options and Post-Season Hopes!

Today is January 1st 2008. What a great day, a new year, a new slate, a new season for the LA Dodgers. Some may not realize just how close the season is. Tentative schedules show the first spring training game is scheduled for February 28th. That means as of today, there is only 59 days until Spring Training! With that said, lets recap what the Dodgers have done, and how that shows a chance for success for the Dodgers in 2008.

The LA Dodgers didn’t really do a whole lot this off season. They really only brought in three people. But those three people are going to equal success for the Dodgers in 08. First was the hiring of Joe Torre. Dodgers wanted Grady Little’s head on a silver plater after the 07 collapse. Many didn’t see it coming but that is exactly what the management did. Then to replace him they signed one of the best managers in the game in Joe Torre. Now it is true that one can look at his career record and see a lot of problems, and one could argue that Torre wasn’t as good as people thought, that it was the Yankees. I mean just look at the talent that they Yankees had. But that is where Torre helped them get over the hump. Also, lets face it, Torre is better than Little as a manager. Torre also commands a certain amount of respect, which should take effect on the whole team, thus getting better performance out of the squad. That move alone automatically gave the Dodgers a B- in the off-season. I highly doubt there will be a huge collapse that could be attributed to Torre’s managerial skills that we all witnessed in 2007.

Next came the signings of two players that should help the team immensely. Andruw Jones had a rough season in 2007, but his defense was still there. After seeing Juan Pierre’s horrid defense in CF last year the Dodgers needed a change. They looked in the direction of Andruw Jones who needed a change of scenery. It just seemed like it was an equation that worked out perfectly for the Jones and the Dodgers. He will provide a great change in CF defensively, and if last year was indeed a fluke for him offensively he will be the power bat the Dodgers have needed for several years.
With this signing, it also will help Juan Pierre. With him playing so bad in CF I do think, and so does Joe Torre apparently, that Pierre would be a better fit in LF. There is less room to cover out there, and with his amazing speed, he should be able to be a better outfielder. Pierre can still run the bases well, especially with the tandem of him and Rafael Furcal. Now some might argue that we have too many outfielders that deserve a starting position out there. Yep, that is true, but it gives the Dodgers more options. It gives them speed, and power options with Pierre, Kemp, and Ethier. These guys are fairly interchangeable on the corners of the outfield and depending on the situation, or team we face, we keep one on the bench until he is needed for power or speed and then substitute him in when Torre thinks we need him. For example, if we need more power for a game the we can keep Pierre on the bench. But lets say the game is tied in the 9th and Nomar Garciaparra happens to get on first base with 2 outs. He can’t run all that well, but Pierre can, the Dodgers can pinch run by brining in Pierre. Maybe Pierre steals second and the next guy gets a double to win the game. There are a plethora of options that having four outfielders can bring us.

The last guy the Dodgers brought in was Hiroki Kuroda, a starting pitcher from Japan, who is supposed to be the big name coming out of Japan. I already stated my opinion on him earlier this off-season. I am sticking to my guns on that opinion. I hope I am wrong, but I no longer think we should trade our outfielders for another starting pitcher. I do think that he will help our team, but our starting Pitching will still be a problem for us this season. We only currently have two quality starting pitchers in my mind. Kuroda will help us by maybe being an average pitcher for us, and then filling a starting spot that would be taken up by a worse pitcher. I still like to not even think Schmidt will get on the field, and if he does hopefully he will be effective. This is what we currently are looking as our starting rotation.

1. Penny
2. Lowe
3. Billingsley
4. Kuroda
5. Loaiza

Hopefully Schmidt can take Loaiza later on during the season, but only starters one and three are going to win a lot of games for the Dodgers this season. It would be nice to have been able to get Johan Santana but the options that would take away from the team this season, and maybe next as well, would hurt us too much. All in all we are going to be more powerful offensively this season, and in the long run of this season, Kuroda may not be that bad of a signing. It would be better than not doing anything at all.

These moves will help the Dodgers be faster, have more options, better both offensively and defensively. All around the Dodgers have improved. They really did everything they have needed to do so far except get a 3rd baseman. But maybe that isn’t the Dodger’s fault. The Dodgers are re-armed and have readied up to go on into this season as a major contender to get far into the MLB playoffs. The off season isn’t over yet, things could change in the next 59 days, but even if it doesn’t the Dodgers will be ready to go far into the post-season.