The signing of Juan Pierre is now official and while it’s clear on this blog and others that it hasn’t been lauded by many of you, I sure you hope you will all give him a chance to win you over. I’m sure there are more moves coming, so let’s wait until we see the finished product before everyone judges the 2007 team.

I guess the one thing I’m surprised is how much everyone seems to be stunned by the price tag compared to other players around the league. I think that you have to look at each free agent market separately and not compare them from year to year. Putting Soriano’s contract aside, if Gary Matthews, a 32-year-old, is a $50 million player over five years and he’s got a career average of .263, a career OBP of .336 and only 78 homers and 315 RBI, I think that’s an indication of what it costs to get players on the open market this offseason. And if the reports are correct and he was offered four years with comparable annual money by the Giants, I’d certainly rather him with us than playing for our rivals.

I also think that when you talk about hard workers, it’s hard to cast that aside as just something nice to have. We’ve all seen players over the years who, once they sign a big contract, they’re not nearly as motivated (with the exception of a walk year). With Pierre, we’re not only getting a very talented leadoff man in his prime, but I don’t think we’re going to have some guy dogging it five years from now. Plus, with the way the market has currently been going, who’s to say that five years from now, $9 million won’t be a bargain for a leadoff hitter.

My final thought has to do with Matt Kemp, who many believe gets hindered by this signing. While I think most people agree that he’s still got some seasoning left in the minors, he’s actually played as much, if not more games in right field during his career than in center field. So maybe, when Pierre wins his second world championship, Kemp will be playing alongside him somewhere. Maybe not, but only time will tell.

Yesterday was obviously quite busy for us, with the Nomar deal coming to a close and all of the reports about Juan Pierre. Before I get into him, I’m happy to report that the Dodger family will have some new members this year, as Nomar and Mia are expecting twins and Jason Repko got married over the weekend (Nomar and Mia were actually there, as were the Tomkos). I talked to Jason the day before the wedding and he was really excited (though admittedly nervous). I have to say that you’d be hard pressed to find a more genuine guy in the Major Leagues and I’m very happy for him and Traci.

As for Pierre, while it seems opinion on the blog is split on him, I’ve got tons of people from around the league telling me (unsolicited) what an incredible guy he is and from my perspective, I hope that we’re able to finalize this thing. A few things I’ve noticed in researching him:

– Led the National League in hits last season with 204 and has finished in the Top 3 in that category while topping the 200-hit plateau in four of the last five seasons. Since 2001, he has registered 1,182 hits, the second-most in baseball behind Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki.

– Has finished first or second in the National League in stolen bases in each of the past six seasons, including a career-high 65 steals in 2003. His 318 thefts since 2001 lead all Major Leaguers and his 325 career swipes rank seventh among all active players.

– Last year, set a career high with 32 doubles and matched his career best with 13 triples for the second consecutive season. Pierre did not commit an error in 384 total chances in center field.

– Has paced the NL in games for the past four seasons, as he has played in 497 consecutive games dating back to 2002, the second-longest streak in the Major Leagues behind Miguel Tejada (918). Over those four seasons, Pierre has also been the hardest player in the league to strike out each year and is the leader in that category among active players, fanning just once every 16.5 at-bats.

– One of the top bunters in the game, Pierre has ranked second in the Majors in bunt hits in each of the past four seasons after leading all of baseball in that category in 2001 and 2002. Since 2001, he has logged 135 bunt hits, 50 more than Alex Sanchez, who ranks second during that period. Pierre also has 72 sacrifice bunts during that span, the second-most in the Major Leagues behind Omar Vizquel.

And here are a few quotes I found from people online:

His baseball coach at the University of South Alabama, Steve Kittrell, recalled an incident about Pierre’s continual desire to work at his game.

"We were in Starkville, Mississippi for a game, and I was letting the guys sleep in one morning because we didn’t play until three o’clock in the afternoon. I went out to get some coffee at 6:30 a.m. When I got back around seven, there was Juan, standing outside his room and swinging a bat. Just dry swinging," Kittrell said. "He was the hardest-working player I ever had at South Alabama.”

Third base coach Rich Donnelly, back when he was with the Rockies, said this:

"He puts 62 bunts in play and beats out like 28," Donnelly said of Pierre. "That’s 28 hits on your average. This guy is a nonstop worker. In 22 years in the big leagues, I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as he does."

Those are some pretty bold statements who have seen a lot of guys come and go during their time. As a person who values hard work above just about any other quality, I’m pretty impressed by the things I’m hearing about Pierre.

Today would have been the 85th birthday of Roy Campanella, who was born on Nov. 19, 1921 in Philadelphia, PA and died in 1993 in Woodland Hills, CA. As you all learned earlier this year, the Campanella Award will be given out annually to the most inspirational Dodger, as voted on by his teammates, ensuring that his legacy lives on forever in the Dodger organization, though he obviously already cemented his spot in the team’s lore long before this season.

It’s been a few days since our last post, as I have been out of town and am currently posting this from the Indianapolis airport, where I just heard that the Cubs reportedly gave Alfonso Soriano more than $130 million over eight years. While I’m not sure whether fans would have liked us to spend that much money on him (or anyone), from my perspective that’s a heck of a lot of dough for one player. But, it’s all about supply and demand and obviously there has been a huge demand for his services. Only time will tell whether it pays off for Chicago.

My congratulations also go out to BIll Mueller on his retirement and we welcome him to the front office. While we all would have much preferred to be watching him play on the field this year (and he certainly would have wanted that, too), I do believe that he’ll be a big benefit to Ned and his staff throughout the season. And of course, we’re also on the verge of getting Nomar’s deal done, according to Ned, so be on the lookout for more news on that front early this week.

In response to the questions about the Vin Scully web chat, here’s what I can tell you about how the questions are selected. When you guys put them into the system, they’re routed through a central person at MLB.com headquarters in New York for profanity, etc. Then, I see all the questions on my screen and try to choose as many different questions from as many different people as I can. While you’re right, sometimes I will pick the same person more than once, I do try to vary it as much as possible.

The best suggestion I can give you guys is to put your questions in early because I do believe I see them in order of submission. If there’s a bunch of good questions up front, I might never even see the ones at the end, so log on early, get your questions in and then add others throughout the chat.

That’s it for now. Hopefully we’ll have more news tomorrow.

With all the craziness that is this year’s free agent pool (read this great article by Yahoo’s Jeff Passan), there’s nothing quite like hearing Vin Scully’s voice during the fall or winter and I had the honor of actually hearing his voice during the live web chat he did yesterday with the fans. Everyone else probably could hear his voice in their heads through the words on the screen and I’m glad so many people got to participate. At the end, we still had tons of questions, so our sincere apologies that he couldn’t answer them all.

The morning was filled with stories about Spring Training, from the Arizona Republic locally in Phoenix to the L.A. Times, Daily News and a few in the Vero Beach Press Journal, including this opinion piece by Ray McNulty. Though Ray says Vero Beach will never be the same without the Dodgers, he acknowledges that a move really does make sense, as he has in his previous columns. In fact, while the traditionalist in me has always loved everything about Dodgertown, I think the first time I realized that a move really was the right thing to do came when I read a column of Ray’s last year that was similar to today’s. Anyway, there’s a press conference today at 3 p.m. in Arizona, so be on the lookout for the press release once it’s posted to the website.

Also in today’s papers was Bill Plaschke’s story about Joe Beimel, which I thought hit the nail the on the head. Joe clearly understands the ramifications of his actions and was, at least in my opinion, a model citizen throughout the year. Having him back next year will be a boost to the team and I’m hopeful that he’s able to sort through his personal issues with the help of those of us in the organization and his family and friends.

That’s all for now. Ned and his staff are still in Naples, trying to land us a big bat or two, a pitcher or two and other complimentary pieces. Here’s hoping they are successful in laying the ground work for a great offseason.

An article in the Arizona Republic came out today that says the Dodgers’ continued talks with the city of Glendale are picking up. The story is pretty much accurrate and there should be more information tomorrow coming from the us. Beyond that, unfortunately there’s not much I can tell you right now but I didn’t want to ignore the obvious.

Other good reading for today is Jill Painter’s feature on Don Newcombe in the Daily News. The story has a quote that refers to him as a living legend and it’s the perfect description for him. One of my most prized photos from my time at the Dodgers is a shot of me as an intern in 1995, standing beside a World Series trophy while shaking Newk’s hand, which completely dwarfed mine. I consider it an honor to know him and for any of you who have met him, you probably agree.

The L.A. Times has a good online Q&A between Steve Henson and…himself. It’s actually theoretical questions he poses and does his best to answer them for the readers, and it’s only available online, not in the actual paper. Obviously this is one of the things the Times is trying to do to enhance their coverage and along those lines, I have to say I’ve really enjoyed Jerry Crowe’s new Page 2 features called the Crowe’s Nest. Today’s was about the guy in the Stanford band who got run over during "the play" against Cal, but they’ve ranged in subjects dramatically and have all been really interesting reads.

I liked one fan’s idea of a contest for the Top 10 prospects in the organization, but I’m afraid that on something so subjective, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer. While I definitely think you guys should debate those players’ value here, I’m not sure that it’s fair to award someone a prize for thinking the most like Baseball America.

And a final thought on Spring Training in response to one of the comments on yesterday’s post. All fans should certainly know that the organization and the McCourts truly do understand the history and tradition that goes along with Vero Beach and Dodgertown. I’ve never met anyone who visited there and didn’t immediately understand the importance and value of those things. As die-hard fans, you should rest assured that serious consideration is put into every decision made here with the ultimate goals remaining the same – championship baseball year in and year out; the best fan experience in all of sports; and a renewed commitment to the community here in Los Angeles. If we reach all of those goals, I truly believe that every Dodger fan – both inside the front office and in the stands – will be happy in the long run.

First off – NL Rookie of the Year voting is in and three Dodgers were among the top nine vote-getters. Andre Ethier tied for fifth, Takashi Saito was tied for seventh and Russell Martin finished ninth. Our sincere congrats go out to all the people who signed them, developed them, coached them, marketed them, publicized them and helped them attain these honors. Balloting can be found here.

As most of you know, the GM meetings start today in Florida and are a precursor to the madness that is the Hot Stove League. While all GMs have been in touch with each other and players’ agents throughout the past few weeks, getting them all in one place makes a huge difference in moving the process along. It also coincides with the start of teams being able to throw dollar figures at free agents who weren’t their own, so the rumor mill really picks up here. But, don’t expect a ton of guys to sign in the first week – there’s no incentive to going early, so they all try to wait it out and see how the market plays out.

This event is not covered by the media in the same way that the Winter Meetings are, though there are definitely reporters who go out there to write about it. The real show comes Dec. 4-8, when the lobby of our hotel in Orlando becomes a place for impromptu press conferences by player agents while the team execs huddle away in their suites upstairs. It’s quite possibly the most exciting and most boring four days of the winter, as there’s a lot of rumors, a lot of standing around and of course at times, some major announcements.

We also have our PR meetings at that time, where we get together with our counterparts around the league and discuss the best practices of each teams and the issues facing the industry.

As a department, we’re currently putting together the 2007 media guide, which obviously takes up the bulk of the winter time. If any of you have copies and have ideas for new things that you’d like to see included, please pass them along. While I can’t guarantee they’ll be in there next year, I’m interested to know what you’d like to see. It’s become far more than a media guide and actually, we’ll probably start calling it an Information Guide, as other teams have done, because it’s not only the media who uses this.

Well, we’ve all had a little bit of time to let all this settle and read the morning coverage from around the country. Bill Plunkett, who originally wrote that J.D. was staying back in September, had this to say in the OC Register. In the Daily News, Tony Jackson gives his version of the story while the L.A. Times had two articles – one news story by Bill Shaikin and an opinion piece from Bill Plaschke. Even a writer in Philadelphia weighed in on the situation. Other stories include the Riverside Press Enterprise and dodgers.com.

As for me, I’ve obviously followed the coverage quite a bit. It’s certainly interesting to hear everyone’s take and I really got a kick out of one caller last night on AM 570 saying that he read about it on the Inside the Dodgers blog. We’ve certainly tried to be the very first place where you can get Dodger news and hopefully some of you were the first to know about this yesterday because you’ve been keeping up with the front office blog throughout the winter.

Having had some time for the news to settle, I think it’s safe to say that no one over here thinks that J.D. was being unfair in opting out of his contract. That was obviously his right and more power to him and his agent if they can get more money, which they probably know they can do or they would not have exercised it in the first place.

If anything, I think there’s just some disappointment in how it all went down. Given J.D.’s end of the year comments, it was our belief he’d still be here and that he was very happy. He’s certainly entitled to change his opinion during the month of October and obviously he did. Maybe had there been a heart-to-heart between him and the team before that, things might have been different, but they weren’t, so we move on. I know that Scott Boras likened this situation to us not picking up Eric Gagne’s option, but something tells me he might have been a little bit perturbed if we had been saying all year that we had planned to pick up Eric’s option and then when the time came to actually file the paperwork, we changed our minds.

At the end of the day, we can’t really judge J.D. until we’ve been in his shoes. And I really don’t think there’s a way to judge this transaction until we see the others that follow. Maybe this allows us to get another free agent or trade for someone with a big salary and even bigger talent. Maybe it opens up the door for James Loney (or another young player) to play right field and he outperforms J.D. There’s just no way of knowing, but that’s the fun part about baseball.

We only know one thing for sure – this will certainly make the offseason more interesting.

Today we learned from Scott Boras that J.D. Drew has decided to opt out of the final three years of his contract with the Dodgers. This certainly surprised most of us in the organization, given his previous comments to the contrary, but apparently there was a change of heart.

When Bill Plunkett first wrote that J.D. would not be going anywhere, I remember congratulating him on the "big scoop," given that most of us considered it a given that he’d be returning in 2007. Here’s the article in the Orange County Register from Sept. 27:

Drew plans to stay around

DENVER – Going, going…nowhere.

The five-year, $55 million contract J.D. Drew signed with the Dodgers after the 2004 season included an opt- out clause, allowing him to end the relationship after two seasons.

But Drew said he is happy in Los Angeles and has given the clause so little thought he doesn’t even know the specifics of how he would activate it. Drew will have a brief window at the end of the World Series to exercise the opt-out clause.

“I don’t plan on (using) it,” he said Tuesday. “I’ve enjoyed my time living in Los Angeles. That’s what it was there for – to make sure (wife) Sheigh and I didn’t come all the way across the country (from their native Georgia) and get stuck in a situation we didn’t like.”

Drew said the clause has hardly come up in discussions with his agent, Scott Boras, since the original negotiations. He couldn’t imagine any reason for his opinion to change between now and the end of the season, prompting him to use the opt-out option.

“You know what – I don’t think so,” said Drew, who also has a limited no trade clause. “Ultimately it’s my decision, and we’re happy where we’re at. We love our house in Pasadena. My wife is happy. She’s made a lot of friends in our neighborhood and with the other players’ wives. That’s really the thing that was nerve-wracking about it (free agency) for me.

“At some point, you make those commitments and you stick to them.”

Considering his injury history, it’s unlikely Drew could do better on the market this winter than the three years and $33 million the Dodgers have committed to him.

—

That’s all we know for now, but it’s safe to say he won’t be back in blue in ’06. Keep an eye out on the site for more information in the form of an article from Ken Gurnick.

I just realized that I never posted the winner of the last contest we had during the season. More than 100 people gave their picks on the NLCS, ALCS and WS and out of all of them, only two people picked the Cardinals to win. Both had the Cardinals beating the Tigers and only one person had the Cards in five games – nephesh1@yahoo.com. So congrats to that person, who will get four baseline seats to a 2007 game. Here were the other choices from the rest of you. We’ll be in touch with the winner shortly and congratulations on being the lone person willing to pick St. Louis.

Popping up on the site soon should be a few announcements. One, we’ve resigned Ramon Martinez for next year, with an option for 2008. I think anyone who watched the team regularly saw how valuable he was because of his versatility and he was also a very positive presence in the clubhouse.

Second, there have been some promotions in the baseball operations department, including Logan White, who is now the Assistant GM, Scouting. Among the other key people in baseball ops whose titles have now changed (and their new titles) are: Vance Lovelace (Special Asst. to the GM), Tim Hallgren (Director, Amateur Scouting), Chris Haydock (Assistant Director, Player Development), Ellen Harrigan (Assistant Director, Baseball Administration), Luchy Guerra (Assistant Director, International Player Development), Bill McLaughlin (Manager, Scouting), Jane Capobianco (Manager, Scouting and Administrative Travel) and Adriana Urzua (Coordinator, Minor League Administration). We’ve also hired Toney Howell, who was with the Brewers as a pro scout, to be a Special Assistant to the GM. Our sincere congrats go out to these people, who have worked very hard and deserve some recognition.

Also, Clayton Kershaw was named the Player of the Year in the Gulf Coast League by Topps and Minor League Baseball while James Loney was named by Topps to the Triple-A All-Star team.

That’s all for now…