A Three-Dog Day
Yesterday, former Dodger Willie Davis was honored at Santa Anita, where he loves to play the horses. Willie reunited with the team a couple years ago after many years away from the game and has done a great job of representing the team at events across Los Angeles.
Though I never saw him play, I’ve always heard amazing things about how good Willie was in his hey day and it’s great to see him getting some love these days.
And, if you aren’t excited yet for Spring Training, check out this article on ESPN.com by Josh Pahigian, particularly No. 9. For those inclined, tickets go on sale tomorrow morning for games at Holman.
And speaking of Joshs, a Dodger prospect that you don’t hear much about got some love on SI.com today. See more on Josh Bell (at right).
And finally, a couple of offseason report cards to look at on CBS Sportsline from Scott Miller and SI’s Jon Heyman.
Inside the Dodgers 
This might be a long shot, but what about trading Kemp and Penny to Chi Sox for Jermaine Dye? They now are in need of starting pitching and need a center fielder as well..
Also, the Mets need pitching.. although trading Penny to the Mets might hurt LA’s chances in the post season, if they make it. But they do have alot of bats that would look great in our line up.. Who would be a good fit?
What bats do the Mets have that would go well in our lineup? Delgado? Defensive liability. Beltran? They’re not gonna let him go for our entire farm system. Wright? That’ll be a long cold day in… Shawn Green? Been there, done that, he can’t hit anymore. The Chi Sox have 2 center fielders fighting over the position this year. Brian Anderson played brilliantly on defense last year for them and is favored to win the job. He spent a lot of the offseason working on his approach at the plate and on shortening his swing. The other guy, whose name I can’t remember, played CF for them at AAA last year and is supposed to be a real power-hitter. They don’t exactly need pitching, either. The reason that they’ve been willing to trade some of their starting pitching away this year is because of the great depth they have at the position.
Personally, I think a trade for Jacque Jones is much more likely. The Cubs are basically desperate for SP help and for a center fielder. Plus, they’ve been saying for the last couple months that they’d like to put Soriano in RF and trade Jones.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have Dye’s power, I just don’t see it happening. Additionally, I saw an article somewhere the other day that said they’re trying to work out an extension on his contract, which is up after this season.
Just a quick update rather than a new post. We’ve invited five of our non 40-man prospects to camp: Scott Elbert, Jonathan Meloan, A.J. Ellis, Chin-lung Hu and Tony Abreu. Thought you’d want to know.
Also, I saw the same article about Jermaine Dye and just to add some perspective, he’s apparently seeking similar money to Carlos Lee’s recent contract. — Josh
Willie Davis … Vin called him “3-Dog.” One of the deepest voices of any ballplayer. Tall and thin, left-handed glove with super-sonic speed — patroled centerfield with style. Very likeable, very laidback Dodger of the sixties. Had a tough WS versus Baltimore in 1966. Late in his career he became quite a better hitter than his earlier days. He is fondly remembered by all Dodger fans of his era.
Just a thought..
Another topic, Loney is #37 on this 75 Top Prospects list on Sports Illustrated..
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/01/19/prospects.partiii/index.html
I haven’t seen any other Dodger Prospects other Josh Bell. They have annouced from 75-31 so I am hoping a couple of the boys are in the 1-30 category… Adam La Roche, Chad Billingsley, Matt Kemp, etc..
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/01/19/prospects.partiii/1.html
Here is Loney
Echo that amat87 about Willie Davis. I did see him play and he was an exciting player with his great speed in the outfield and on the bases. It is too bad he will be remembered for the three errors in the 1966 series but he should also be remembered for a 33 game hitting streak in 1972.
Kemp is the big bat we need.. patience… patience….
willie davis once said, it ain’t my wife, it ain’t my life, so why worry. hard to think of a better outfield with the l.a. dodgers than tommy davis,willie davis and frank howard. as far as any trades go, we should not trade any of our very top prospects, not bills, kemp,loney laroche, and more.
if we trade for andrew jones, atlanta will need a centerfielder, give up juan pierre (signed for 5 years, and alot cheaper than jones_
we would have to give up more, but mid level prospects
like alexander(blocked by meloan, and d, young (blocked by many) should get the job done. I would rather trade henderickson, dressens or tomko, but doubt that altanta would want any of them.
altanta is on a tight budget,
has a very smart g.m. but having to get rid of jones, or loss him to free agenecy
we might be able to put togeter the right group, without giving up a ton of talent. I would not trade for Jones, unless he would already agree to an extension to stay in L.A.
Frank, not sure you saw it but Jones said in today’s news that he really wants to stay a Brave, even if it means less money !! Now that really surprises me because his agent is the dreaded BORAS !!! Jones said that he and only he will make the final decision and that he considers Cox a father figure.
I still say, stay with what we have and lets see what spring training brings us. Kemp had a pretty good Winter Ball, while guys like Kent, Furcal and Nomar are training hard this off season.
Keep the faith !!
Believe in the Kids !!
Go Dodgers !!
Gary, Jones may have got hold of the tape that Gagne, Drew and Maddox rehearsed their “wanna stay” speach from. That probably means he is easily available.
Point well taken Dave, except in Gagne’s case it was get as much as you can now because one doesn’t know if he can really come back to form and EARN the big bucks. Drew was all about position, age and ability. He’s at the point that he’ll never be at again, which was to be in a prime opportunity for big dollars over time. BTW He wasn’t really wanted by LA fans and I’m sure he felt that. And I might add he’s still not officially signed by Boston yet !!! Jones on the other hand is happy where he is !! He grew up in the system and they LOVE HIM !! My money is on him staying with the Braves.
Go Ned !!
Go Dodgers !!
im not buying the gagne getting the most money thing anymore. lets not act like this guy is struggling financially here, or i might just puke on my screen as im typing this. the guy was in multiple publications saying he has never felt this good in his life, and alot of teams were interested in him. teams are willing to take risks on injured players more than ever, with medical technology where it is at today. this **** about multi millionaires wanting to be SECURE is disgusting. i wanted gagne back but he is just a liar like the rest of the greedy disloyal baseball world, its a business. its just the nature of the beast.
I wonder what jones’es thought on taking less to stay in Atlanta means, less than soriano, or more, but still giving the braves a discount, at least in his mind.
going into spring training last year, we only had hopes that some of our prospects would be in L.A. I think the kid did well, and then when the vet’s stunk it up, the kids came in and played well.
hopefully this year the vets won’t stink it up as bad as last year, but I still think LaRoche will be a starter by June. Loney will keep getting more playing time as the year goes on. Billingsley,broxton and Kuo become stars. Martin becomes an all-star.
In the Minors Kemp develops
more and shows he belongs in
L.A. Hopefully some others like Elbert, De Witt, Abreu, Young, and Hu start knocking on the door.
with a next level of Kershaw, Mattingley,Meloan, Alexander,Orenduff,Greg Miller and others like Josh Bell coming up we have a great future, and won’t need big contracts likes like the Jone’es, to win and go farther into the playoffs.
Guess I am saying I would love a big bat, but If we
allow some kids to play,we have the farm system that rarely happens.With this many highly rated prospects we can be very good for 10 years, not just one.
I think Willie D has been the best center fielder to play in LA. The 3 errors come to mind, but that is not how I remember him. Remember that dinger in the allstar game?
I still do not see any crushing need for a big bat. If one presents itself, fine, but I see no reason to sell the farm to get one. There’s power sprinkled up and down the line-up, so why not go with what we’ve got. I like our chances.
My assessment agrees with a couple of postings directly above. I think we’re well set till possibly the July 31st deadline and at least through Spring Training and the early part of the 2007 season. Let’s see how the veterans Kent, Nomar, and Gonzalez perform after recovering from ailments at the end of last season and Gonzalez adjusting to the new team. We could reasonably expect 20 dingers from Kent and Nomar for the season. Let’s see what kind of improvement we can get from Martin and Ethier and what performance we get from a couple of the young guys in Spring Training. I think our pitching should be much improved with Schmidt and Wolfe added, and with Bills and Hendrickson/ Kuo going through Spring Training with us with expectations for improvement over the past season.
If the Dodgers get Jones, I’m pretty sure that it’ll be a trade deadline deal. If he blocks with his no trade clause, then I think he stays in Atlanta.
i dont think Jones is going anywhere. Torii Hunter will be there, but they are not in the same class as far as power. as we get closer to spring im starting to worry about those phillies. they might give the mets a run for that, braves got much better also. phils rotation is strong up top if Cole Hamels does anything similar to last year. add freddy garcia to that existing team and they are a contender. i like our staff over any in the NL though. its not gonna be easy, i just hope we can score em enough runs.
nice. sports illustrated has elbert number 20, laroche 18, and kershaw number 16, stating that kershaw could be the best of the draft. very encouraging.
I’m curious to know what Dodger prospects will be in the top 15?? Kemp?? Billingsley?? Who am I missing?
New Minor League Deal from The Denver Post via Rotoworld
The Denver Post reports that the Dodgers and Rudy Seanez have come to terms on a minor league contract.
The Rockies were also after Seanez, but they were making Dan Kolb their first priority. “I think the opportunities in Colorado and Los Angeles are similar. But we weren’t sure if Colorado was going to make an offer,” agent David Schwartz said. “He feels he will have a good shot to make their club.” Seanez will earn $700,000 if he makes the team.
rudy seanez huh??? might be a bargain if he can still get that fastball up around 93 95. do you guys think this is paving the way for a move by coletti? maybe tomko???
josh
what does it cost to sign low risk high reward players like Damian Jackson, Rudy Seanez. It just seems to me every club does this every year, think we have 5 or 6 hangers-oners going to Florida on the Dodgers.
For the most part they are offered jobs in the minors, throw a fit when they are cut, demand their releases to go to another team, and block playing time for our young prospects to shine.
They also take up playing time for the bench players whom we know need the conditioning time. Just seems that for the most part this is a waste of time and Money,
Money spend unwisely leads to higher ticket prices.
Frank, I think it’s a safe bet that Ned is collecting pieces that are needed in the marketplace and will deal them to a team in need. Our needs are not desperate enough that we couldn’t field a good team. But a team without enough pitching becomes desperate the closer opening day gets. The money is small and the return could be large. It also protect us from the dreaded Spring Training injuries that always come up. And as some have said, we’re a large market team, so we should act like a large market team. A little money for insurance players is smart front office baseball.
Keep it up Ned !!
Go Dodgers !!
I just saw the top 15 Prospects list on si.com… what happened to Matt Kemp?? Billingsley?? They weren’t even on the list of 75!! What’s up with that!
Billingsley and Kemp don’t really qualify as “prospects” anymore. C-Bill pitched more than the number of innings to be qualified as a rookie, which is 30, I think. And Matt Kemp had more than 130 plate appearances. That makes it so that next year cannot be the “rookie” year for either of them by MLB standards. I imagine that would remove them from “prospect” status.
how many spots do we have available for these invitees??? i thought we were pretty much set with infielders. i havent looked into the specifics yet, but what about the bullpen?
I still say Ned is loading up for a better angle at future trades.
Go Ned !!
Go Dodgers !!