Monthly Archives: October 2007

So, What the Hell Is Going On Here?

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Buster Olney has an update to yesterday’s Girardi rumor in his blog today:

The silence from the Dodgers’ front office has been deafening on the matter of their manager. Left a lot of messages at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, and only one was returned, and not from the Ned Colletti, the Dodgers’ GM. A lot of questions linger for Colletti. Among them:

1. Is it your intention to fire Grady Little if you have a chance to hire Joe Girardi?

2. If the answer to Question 1 is yes, and you can’t hire Girardi, are you still going to fire Little?

3. Have you spoken with Joe Torre, or intermediaries to him, about possibly being your next manager?

What we wrote Thursday is that Girardi may have a developing opportunity with the Dodgers if he doesn’t get the Yankees’ job (and the guess here is that he will get the Yankees’ job).

After talking with sources yesterday, what I strongly believe — but don’t know for certain — is that it is the Dodgers’ intention to fire Little and replace him with Girardi, if they have the opportunity.

The Dodgers certainly had a whole lot of chances to come out Thursday and say unequivocally that Little’s job is safe for 2008. They have not done so, to date. We’ll see if they do so today.

Buster’s not wrong – the lack of a response from Chavez Ravine is pretty surprising to me. I originally thought this whole rumor was mostly coming out of Girardi’s camp, pressing the Yankees to choose him by showing his services are in demand elsewhere. But if that were the case, then Colletti would have quickly come out and said, “that’s ridiculous, I’ve already said Griddle’s coming back in 2008 and that hasn’t changed.”

But Colletti’s said nothing. Hear the silence so loud, indeed. I wouldn’t be opposed to Girardi replacing Griddle, but what I’m really wondering about is what happens if Girardi does indeed get the Yankees job. What then? Will the Blue still look elsewhere for a manager? Will Little be so upset about possibly having the rug yanked out from under him that it will make working relationships impossible?

We haven’t heard the last of this story, that’s for sure.

Oh, and can we please knock off the Torre rumors? Please? I don’t even like seeing it in print. Type. Internet ink. Whatever.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

Managerial Rumors a Go-go

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t1_joe_girardi.jpgWow, an actual… rumor?

First brought to my attention by intrepid reader Morgan, we’ve got fur flying here that if the Yankees choose Don Mattingly or Tony Pena as manager over Joe Girardi.. Girardi might be managing the Dodgers in 2008.

Or he might be the bench coach.

Or none of this could happen.

Let’s sort this out. ESPN’s Buster Olney is reporting that Girardi could have “a developing opportunity” with LA in 2008. We’ve got MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick saying nearly the exact same thing, while also suggesting the “opportunity” may be in the front office or as bench coach. Finally, we have the Newark Star-Ledger reporting the same, except with the added twist of not even being able to spell Girardi’s name right. Good reporting, guys.

And then we’ve got FOXsports.com’s Ken Rosenthal advocating that the Blue should hire Joe Torre and providing five reasons why, while starting off his article with an admission that there’s no proof to validate this rumor whatsoever. Which, shut up, Ken.

So what does this all mean? Let’s be clear – all anyone is saying is “sources say.” So there is no evidence that this is anywhere near happening, or even that this isn’t just posturing by the Girardi camp to press the Yankees into choosing him. What I’m most interested in is finding out if Colletti is actually losing patience with Griddle, because he’s been nothing but completely supportive of the yokel publicly. But if you read this blog at all, you know we’d clearly support a Grady-less future – but would a Girardi future be a brighter one?

Girardi, as most people know, coaxed 78 surprising wins out of a $14 million payroll in Florida in 2006, won the NL Manager of the Year Award, and was then.. fired, after a disagreement with owner Jeffrey Loria. Well, that’s a bonus right there: Loria’s an ass.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

All Work and No Play Make MSTI… Something, Something.

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Well folks, as it tends to do, real life has gotten in the way of blogging a little bit. But let’s be honest – there’s less than nothing going on in the way of Dodgers news right now, anyway.

But not to worry. We’ll be pushing forward with our ’07 wrap-up this week tumbleweed(finally!), and then we can get on with looking towards ’08 and finally fire up the Hot Stove.. as soon as the godforsaken playoffs actually end. Can you believe we’re still competing in the 2007 season? Doesn’t it feel like the Dodgers stopped playing about 3 months ago? I suppose in some sense, they did. But it’s not like the Blue didn’t play any role in this; more than one Rockie, when asked what the real turning point of their season was, identified the sweep of the Dodgers on Sept. 18 – particularly the home runs off of Broxton and Saito, which just does not happen. Good times. Can we get a playoff share out of that?

As for the World Series, I predict: Red Sox 4, Rockies 1, feet of snow 2. Love the Rockies story and all, but I’ve got to think the 8 day layoff really hurt their momentum. Half the reason they were able to do what they did is that every game was a do-or-die since the beginning of September; and now they’ve been chasing snowbunnies for a week while the Sox were playing do-or-die games in the ALCS. Feel free to comment with your predictions!

Oh, and a happy first birthday wish to our compadres at Sons of Steve Garvey. Also, congratulations on having the huge, brass, Saturn-sized cojones it must have taken to decide that starting a Dodgers blog in the middle of October, the absolute deadest time of year for Dodgers news, when it’s almost a struggle to find worthwhile things to discuss, was a good idea. Just kidding, guys. Cheers! Here’s to the terrible twos.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

OMG JOE TORRE OMG

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Over at Dodgers.com, Ken Gurnick felt the need to explain that Joe Torre won’t be coming to the Dodgers in 2008 now that he’s a free agent. (Sidebar: as you may or may not know, I live in New York City. Do you have any idea how many TV stations covered his press conference today live? By my count, eight: ESPN, YES, SNY, MLB.com (live on the internet), and the local NBC, FOX, ABC, and CBS affiliates. I didn’t even check CSPAN or the Food Network, but I’m sure they were discussing Torre’s impact on Canadian Parliament and lemon quiches, respectively.)

Anyway, first of all, thanks to Mr. Gurnick for taking a story that absolutely didn’t exist (Torre to torre.jpgLA? Where has this come up anywhere except for in the recess of his mind that says “uh-oh, I have a deadline coming up”?) and giving me something to populate this blog with.

Second of all, much as we really, really, don’t like Grady Little, I really didn’t want to see Torre in Blue either. Torre and Little are actually very similar types – pretty good at managing people, and pretty rotten at managing baseball lineups. It’s pretty common knowledge that Torre ruins bullpen arms by picking the 1 or 2 guys he trusts and using them 8 days a week – what do you think would happen if he got his hands on Broxton? No thanks. We’ve already got a laid-back, players’ manager who makes questionable lineup decisions. No need to make a lateral move.

Besides, all due respect for what Torre’s accomplished in New York, it’s pretty obvious that he was helped out just a little by all the, you know, talent. People forget now, but he was regarded as a pretty mediocre manager in his stops with the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals – St. Louis actually fired him in mid-1995, before he took the Yankees job. You know why? Those teams sucked. Do you remember the late-70′s Mets? Of course you don’t, because the reason the mid-80s Mets were so good was because they were able to take players like Strawberry and Gooden in the first round, thanks to their terrible finishes under Torre. This is a guy, who in 15 opportunities before going to the Bronx, finished in first exactly once – and he just happened to have the best player in the league on his 1982 Atlanta team, 26-year-old NL MVP Dale Murphy. Then he goes to a team who just happens to have Jeter, Rivera, Posada, etc. etc. entering their primes and look at that, all of a sudden he can manage. Amazing what talent can do, isn’t it?

Oh, and the most depressing part of Gurnick’s article? This:

Colletti selected Little over four other candidates — Jim Fregosi, John McLaren, Manny Acta and Joel Skinner. Since then, McLaren has become manager of the Seattle Mariners, Acta was hired to manage the Washington Nationals and Skinner is rumored to be in the running for the vacant Pittsburgh Pirates managing job.

I would kill up to nine people to somehow get Manny Acta. Not only did he guide a Nationals club that most predicted to be historically bad this year to a 4th place finish with under 90 losses, well, just read this. This is exactly the kind of guy I want leading my team. This guy gets it. Griddle does not.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

Official Position on: Alex Rodriguez

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First off, quick site business: Big doings around here lately. Thanks to our friends at BaseballThinkFactory linking to the Pierre article, we broke our one-day high for hits the other day. On that same thread, we also broke the site record for comments, mostly by our blue-blooded brethren at the Big Blue Wrecking Crew.

So powered by CHJ stealing my thunder, and with apologies in advance for the shoddy Photoshopping…

There’s a chance that one of the ten best players of all time may be available this offseason, at the peak of his abilities. Not only that, he perfectly fits the Dodgers needs – he’s a third baseman, which is a hole that we just have had an impossible time filling, AND he’s a fantastic power hitter, which is without question the biggest issue in this lineup. Plus, he’d just cost money, not our tasty tasty prospects. The Dodger online fan presence is already drunk with possibilities, most of them along the lines of “let’s do it!”

Sounds great! Sign me up?noaroddodgers.jpg

Well, no.

Because the first “Official Position of MSTI.com” is:

SAY NO TO A-ROD IN 2008.

“MSTI, are you drunk?”, people might say. And while the answer is “yes”, that’s besides the point.

The problem I have with going after A-Rod has absolutely nothing to do with his work between the lines. He’s fantastic. Astounding. He’s going to break a whole lot of records in the coming years, and there sure isn’t anything wrong with having your team’s uniform be the one people see in the video clips for years to come. The problem I’m seeing here is how much cold hard currency it’s going to take to sign him up, and whether it’s actually worth it.

It’s not that I have a problem with him being the highest paid player in the game; I don’t. But the numbers being thrown around? Ungodly. Bora$ is actually throwing numbers out there like 12 years and $360 million dollars. (Side note: is it even possible to read that sentence without doing a Dr. Evil voice? I tried my hardest and couldn’t come close.) That’s $30 million a year, and by all estimates that’s the low end.

Let’s say the Blue give him $30 million per year. That’s one quarter to one third of the payroll tied up in one player. Now, A-Rod has been a remarkably durable player in his career. But all it takes is one foul ball off the toe, one wild pitcher that wonks him on the wrist, or one awkard step of the thousands he takes each season, and the Dodgers are now essentially a team with a $70 million payroll and a gaping hole in the order and at 3B they can’t afford to fill. Even worse, while he might actually be worth that much now, what happens when he’s 38, 39, and 40 and is still owed that much? That has disaster written all over it.

If we’re spending $30 million a year on free agents, I think I’d much rather have 2 excellent $15 million players than one sublime $30 million player. I think I’d rather give Andruw Jones $17 million a year to play CF, $10 million to some other team to take Juan Pierre and his remaining $35 million off our hands, and $3 million to throw a parade celebrating that Juan Pierre is off our hands.

Hey, there’s nothing wrong with spending big-time money on a free agent. If this is a big-market team, let’s act like one, especially because one of the ancillary benefits of having so many young players up is that they all make relatively little. But for the numbers and years being tossed around? Count me out.

I’d be willing to give him six years, no more. And while I think it’s obscene to even offer this much, I’d do $27 million a year, just because there’s no way he’s not getting a raise from his curent $25. 6/162? That’s a lot of coin. And it’s not going to be anywhere near what he’ll actually get.

That said, if he does end up in LA, I reserve the right to be thrilled when he’s killing the National League and we’re in 1st place.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg