On top of the world…
Jonathan Mayo over at MLB.com (and MiLB.com, the minor league site) has his Top 50 prospects in baseball revealed and the best pitcher in baseball and fourth-best prospect overall is none other than Dodger lefty Clayton Kershaw. Andy LaRoche checks in at No. 33 and Scott Elbert, despite his injury, is at No. 36.
Of course, lists like this are clearly subjective — sometimes the projections come to fruition and sometimes they don’t. We’ve seen plenty of examples of both in the past, but nonetheless it’s a nice honor for Clayton to take with him as he heads into Spring Training. He’ll turn 20 a few days after reporting to Dodgertown…
Mayo adds two more stories on the topic: Breaking Down the Prospects and Sometimes the Prospects "Catch On." Both are interesting reads and Mayo has been a dedicated minor league follower for about a decade, so I do tend to value his opinion and those of the scouts he talks to more than most.
Inside the Dodgers 
Stay the course Ned!! The price they’re asking is WAY too high!
Go Dodgers!!
Cool…now don’t trade them! IMO, the Milledge deal is awful, and it seems like his attitude problems are what pushed him out more than his talent. Hmmmm…
agreed..the milledge deal would be a let down for any mets fan for sure. Wasn’t he “untouchable” sometime last year? Amazing how far his value has dropped..
With pitching such a valuable commodity and a current need of the Dodgers, we should be very pleased to have the top rated pitching prospect in baseball! Now please, Mr. Colletti, don’t dash our dreams of seeing him become a star for the Dodgers!! BTW, how did the Dodgers get the draft pick used to select Kershaw?
And since we need a new 3B and we have one of the top prospects, why not give him a chance this year? Let the Marlins keep Cabrera. To meet their demands would be so one-sided it would be ridiculous.
Milledge was vastly overrated. mostly because he played in New York. If our Young guys played in New York they media would be proclaiming them the next Murder’s Row.
Agreed, I really can’t believe all that the Mets received in return were Schneider and Church for Milledge. As Casino pointed out his stock dropped considerably, either that or as Jspelk said it was his ‘attitude’ that sent him out the door. Kershaw, Billingsley, Kemp, Martin and Loney are the homegrown core that MUST be kept together. Despite the temptation, at the end of the day if we have those players, it’s been a good day. Hopefully, LaRoche will be given the chance and will seize that opportunity at third base.
Dodgers: I know, its tempting to get a Miguel Cabrera but all the players Florida asks for are studds. I would like to see a line up of…
Furcal SS
Pierre LF
Kemp CF
Loney 1B
Martin C
Kent 2B
Laroche3B
Ethier Lf
Max I disagree. Milledge played decently in the show and he’s still very young. Always played well in the minors. He’s only going to improve and even if he’s just average he’s controlled by the Nats for 5 years. If he ever lives to potential the Mets will look like fools. I really do think this had to do with Milledge being a “troublemaker” in a veteran clubhouse. He likes rap music and high fiving fans, therefore he is evil in the eyes of the Mets brass. His image problems are being overblown (where have we seen this before???)
Likewise, the Twins told the Dodgers they had to have two of their top three young players – James Loney, Clayton Kershaw and Jonathan Broxton. The Dodgers, however, apparently have fallen out of the race because of the cost it will take to sign Santana to a contract extension.
nydailynews.com
I believe Kershaw can easily be better than Santana in the not too distant future.
As a long time fan I feel the Dodgers are at a fork in the road. One road leads to sticking to the young homegrown kids and hoping they will improve their skills, and carry on for years to come, and choosing the younger over the older veteran. Waiting for Kent, Furcal & Pierre to drop by the wayside, waiting for Abreu, Hu & Young to take their place. Waiting for prospects like McDonald & Kershaw to come along. Let’s hope that Don Matingly does a better job than Eddie Murray & Bill Mueller did. Let’s wish Joe Torre more Luck than Grady Little got. If they choose this road, I hope they stay the course without stopping off to pick up cheap material along the way. *****The other road, is looking at the team honestly, noting that pitching staff is average and the bull pen is one of the best in the game. This entire staff can do a lot better with a more offensive lineup, that can support them. Yes we have whole lot of players that I hope they don’t trade such as Martin, Loney, Kent,Furcal, Ethier, Kemp, Repko, Penny, Lowe, Billingley, Beimel, Proctor, Broxton, & Saito. When it comes to improving our offense and we have a chance to get a player like Miguel Cabrera and they want Matt Kemp in a deal, we take a deep breth and a sye and be men about it. When you feel you really wants something badly you can’t expect to get it without a sacrifice even if they include a pitcher everybody’s raving about. If you can’t, don’t worry, you’ll get over it. I personally don’t know what road they will choose. I’ll just go on and follow like a soldier.
There is a nice Dodger prospect entry at the truebluela blog where they report on Deric McKamey’s top-15 list for L.A. He cites Kershaw as having “Hall of Fame-type player” as the upside potential:
http://www.truebluela.com/story/2007/11/30/114848/97
Andrew and ToyCannon do a nice job over there.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/30/santana.update/index.html?eref=mostpop
Jon Heyman cannot be right about this:
“It is believed the Twins requested top pitching prospect Clayton Kershaw and outfielder Andre Ethier [for Johan Santana] but were rebuffed by the Dodgers.”
The Twins must have asked for more than that. Kershaw may have HOF potential, but Santana is nearly halfway there: 93-44, 3.22, 1381 Ks, 141 ERA+, 1.094 WHIP, 2 Cy Youngs and should have had three in a row instead of finishing third to Bartolo Colon in ’05.
Redfox, did some digging. The 2006 draft order found the Dodgers drafting #7 (Kershaw) based on their “poor play in 2005” (71-91 record in Tracy’s final season). They got the 26th and 31st picks (Mattingly’s son was #31) by losing Jeff Weaver to the Angels.
Fogey- Thanks for that link…pretty interesting. As for Santana, I would give McDonald, Ethier, Meloan, & DeWitt…but Kershaw is untouchable for me.
The Twins asked the Dodgers for Ethier & Kershaw for Santana and were Rebuffed. GOOD GOING DODGERS We Don’t need pitching that bad to give up this kid. But let me tell you something if it was for Cabrera, a deal like that would have been a steal for us. Miggy is worth it, but the damned Fish are greedy.
I’m really not as interested in Andruw Jones,– as much as I am in Miguel Cabrera, because we get hurt less for a dearly needed power hitting infielder.— But I’m supprised that the Dodgers haven’t approached him.
I doubt if anyone approaches Boras about Andruw Jones until the dust has cleared with Rowand & Cameron. That’s also the reason I doubt we’ll be able to get rid of Pierre… no one will want him until all the other CF’s are taken.
Fogey— that deal might have been nixed bc after this year, Santana is going to demand Zito money. AND do we really want to give a pitcher a 6-7 year deal at 20 per? Absolutely not. Good no trade.
Pierre, how can you say we get hurt less by acquiring Cabrera when we wouldnt need to give up anything to get Jones?
kahliforni, thanks for doing the digging and providing that info!
Very good question EWK216, It is almost equal either way. I think we lose Kemp if we go for Jones. If we go for Cabrera again we would have to offer Kemp. I consider Kemp the odd man out if we go for Jones, because the Dodgers will have him as a chip for Cabrera, since I’ve read he is perferred over Ethier. While already having purchased Jones. It would make Kemp more expendable. Getting Cabrera, I feel, we fill our need for a 3rd baseman at the same cost as for Jones. We really don’t need an outfielder so why risk making Kemp a 4th outfielder, if we don’t intend to go for Cabrera? Of course it would cost more for Cabrera, but it would be worth more if we don’t lose an outfielder. Of course I would like a replacement for Pierre, but I don’t think They want him in the deal for Cabrera. I look at 14 Dodgers that I wouldn’t want traded. It think Kemp is the one we lose either way, but of course I hold my breth when I think of Billingsley & Broxton.
I see your logic. I naturally thought that if we sign Jones its because JP is out the door– but i see what you mean….
What makes anybody think that either Cabrera or Jones will provide more power for us over the next five years than Kemp will? I don’t think that will prove to be the case, and the serious interest in Kemp by all clubs willing to trade something should be the clue for that. So, trading Kemp might be of an immediate advantage for a year or two while he is still developing, but in the long run that move will at least partly destroy the best chance to build a Dodger dynasty. Yes, there is a possibility of injury or Kemp not developing as expected, but the signs on Jones are that he’s already had a down year and on Cabrera that he’s a Saenz in development, meaning fat, slow and not too good a fielder.
I mean, Cabrera will definately provide more power than Kemp. He is a HR hitter. And i dont think you can base your decisions on other peoples beliefs, but that is neither here nor there. NOONE wants to replace Kemp with Jones. Only to replace JP with Jones.
EWK216: Boy, I wish we could send Pierre back, as “Damaged Goods”. ********MESSAGEBEARER: I look at it this way. I really like Kemp. I don’t want to lose him, I don’t care about that “childish stuff”, that some posters comment about. But from((((what I’ve been reading)))), unless I got it wrong, The Marlins are still looking for a CF and Kemp is the most wanted from us. I would love, oh how I’d love, getting Cabrera, without giving up Kemp but it doesn’t look like we could, (RIGHT NOW)to me.********I know how much you want a homegrown team. That has been my dream also, for years. But right now I am dissatified with our offense and I feel that the only defensive position we NEED to change(right Now) is 3B. To me, seeing Cabrera standing out there, for who knows how long, is driving me up a wall and I hope the Dodgers would do something about it. It’s more important to win, right now than building our homegrown team, which (((((I think))))) would take longer. Of course I don’t want to completely wipe out the future.
I hear you, Pierres, and it is a tough decision anyway you look at it. I guess I’m a bit hung up on these athletes that let themselves get out of shape once they’re established in the big leagues. I’ve expressed the same concern about Penny and Brox. I think that if both were about 30 lbs. lighter they might show more stamina and better maintained performance through the end of the season, instead of seeming to fold up in the last month or two. Where is our conditioning coach, or are these couple of people just beyond accepting some measure of control on themselves.
I would trade any one player (seriously any dodger player) for Cabrerra or Santana. It’s when you get into 2 or 3 or 4 that it becomes insane.
I could live with this…If the dodgers traded Kershaw, Pierre and Laroach for Santana and then signed Andrew Jones to play CF..we would be pretty good both short term and long term.
Or trade those three for Cabrerra and sign Kurodra and Jones.
but really I hope we do nothing via trades..
wont pay vlade
wont pay beltre
wont pay soriano
wont pay santana
The paper also reports the Dodgers are out of the Santana race because the team does not want to pay the extension despite the Twins seeking just two of these three players – Clayton kershaw, Jonathan Broxton or James Loney.
And I wont pay parking. McCheap.
regardless if you want the trade to go down, the man is a liar. he just talks and talks and talks about wanting to win but he is all talk.
The last game I went to live was Lima playoff game. The next one I go to live is WS game.
PULEASEE.. He is being a very good business man here. It has nothing to do with money, but length of contract. He isnt a liar, and this certainly is not evidence of that.
Did you not read the Depo quote posted the other day saying the strong push we made for Beltre? Vlad was before he owned the team. Soriano got a ridiculous contract. C’est la vie. You cant just spend money on bad deals to make up for past missed opportunities. I would never give a pitcher longer than a 5 year deal. Simple as that. I’ll overpay him, but i wont give him that long of a contract.
Check that, Vlad was his first year in ownership- he owned the team for like a month.. he should have signed vlad no doubt, but he isnt a liar. Not trading 2 great prospects for a pitcher that will demand a contract bigger than Zito’s is just being smart. deal with it.
It’s a bit of an overreaction Jungar…in other news
From Rotoworld: Of all the teams to sign Wolf…have I mentioned I hate the Padres.
Sources told FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal that the Padres and Randy Wolf are close to agreeing to a one-year deal.
There’d be no better place for Wolf, a flyball pitcher, to rebuild his value than Petco. He’s apparently picking San Diego over a return to Philadelphia. The Padres will likely continue to pursue Mark Prior and Matt Clement even after landing Wolf.
I don’t even think that report is accurate, the Twins have no need for Loney (well unless they move Mourneau to DH permanently) That just reeks of innacurate reporting. And even if it is true, I understand not wanting to make a HUGE commitment like that in terms of years and dollars. The payroll is over 100 million. Like it or not we aren’t going to spend as much as the Yanks/BoSox, but lucky for us we don’t have to because we play in a weaker league and will find a way to compete with our meager 100 mil + payroll.
Why couldn’t WE resign Wolf by the way??? On a one year deal he wouldn’t really block any of our pitching prospects and not to mention we have no leftie in the rotation as it stands. Letting him go the Pods… well we already know he win own us.
jspelk2, the Dodgers bought out Wolf for $0.5M rather than pay him $9M, so the Dodgers could have exercised the option at a net of $8.5M. IF Rosenthal is right (always an “if”), I wonder what the deal is. SD isn’t a noted overpayer, and they just signed Maddux for one year, $10M, right?
JUNGAR: Do you asks yourself if the Marlins want Pierre or Laroche? And that with Jones, what happens to Kemp or Ethier?
I think Wolf was a fall back option for the Dodgers in case we couldn’t sign Kuroda. This signing tells me the odds are pretty good that we’re going to sign Kuroda.
You need a 3rd baseman and you have the 33rd best prospect in baseball and he is a 3rd baseman. Duh! Ned, it is a no brainer. Your only mission is to unload Pierre and possibly get a quality starting pitcher.
You summarized it exactly right, jhall. Besides, we’ll still be paying Nomar about $9 mil. to play someplace, and I don’t think it’ll be first base.
Thanks Bear,
Good point.
Nomar is playing this year for his career. Good backup if LaRoche doesn’t cut it. I think he will.
Maybe if we don’t make any big trades or acquisitions, Kent will not come back and Nomar can play 2nd base.
Kent the Cancer.