Coming and Goings

Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness

By Mike Scioscia's tragic illness | January 13, 2009 at 5:55 PM | In Claudio Vargas, Derek Lowe, Guillermo Mota, Michael Young, Shawn Estes, Takashi Saito | 7 Comments

Let's catch up on some of the fun that's been going on in this, the most boring hot stove season in years...

Coming: Guillermo Mota
Hey, remember Mota (shown at right)? Lights-out setup man for Eric Gagne in 2003? Part of the controversal deal that sent Paul LoDuca to Florida in 2004? Well, pending a physical (presumably looking for track marks), he's going to be back in Dodger blue in 2009. No, it's not a coincidence that I mentioned all-but-confirmed 'roid abusers like Gagne and Paulie, because Mota actually got caught with the stuff and lost the first 50 games of 2007. You think Gagne's career fell off the rails to injury and ineffectiveness after he stopped with the helpers? You think LoDuca's short peak ended pretty quickly once he went back to doing it all naturally? Let's look at this fun "Gee, You Think Steroids Helped?" timeline:

2006, April-August: 6.21 ERA, 1.699 WHIP for Cleveland. Mota, your stats... woof.
2006, August 11: DFA'd by Cleveland.
2006, August 20: Acquired by the Mets.
2006, August-Septmber: 1.00 ERA, 0.833 WHIP for the Mets.
2006, November 1: MLB announces a positive test from "sometime" during the 2006 season and hands down a suspension.

Gee. You think steroids helped?

As for the actual signing, it gets a solid "meh". I don't know what the contract details are, but it's unlikely to be a huge amount of money, and Mota was basically average last year. But do we really have a shortage of guys who could do exactly what he could, for less money and without his history? I suppose we can hope that he's going to be the next Giovanni Carrera-type who only pitches well as a Dodger.

Going: Derek Lowe
No surprise that he wasn't returning to LA, but I am surprised that he did actually get up to $15m/year, getting $60m over 4 years from Atlanta. Unless I missed something, wasn't his only other offer about $30m over 3 years from the Mets, which may have not even been officially tendered? As I detailed here several months ago, I really am going to miss Lowe, and the rotation's going to be worse off without his solid reliability and occasional brilliance. But at his age and at that salary, I'm not too disappointed - that's higher than I was willing to go for him. Really, after how badly DePodesta was bashed for giving him $36m/4 years in 2005, who'd have thought that four years later he'd be nearly doubling that salary? Enjoy Atlanta, Derek. Can we please go get Ben Sheets now? Thanks.

Coming: Mediocre Retread Starters
Welcome, Shawn Estes. Over there, Claudio Vargas. Now paging Jon Lieber and Kip Wells. I know we hit the proverbial "old busted dude" jackpot with Chan Ho Park, Aaron Sele, and Scott Erickson, lately, but how many times are we going to keep going to that well? For every Park there's a Jason Johnson or Esteban Loaiza. Ah, hell, whatever. Short money and non-guaranteed deals. Let's get that welcome mat ready for Kris Benson and Josh Fogg.

Going: Takashi Saito
So long to one of my favorite players. How can you not like a guy who comes over to America in his late 30s after a relatively average career in Japan only to dominate the bigs? I was singing his praises back in 2007, just after we launched (yeah, weird formatting on that one with the move to MVN, I guess). I can't overstate this enough - his 2007 was better than any season Mariano Rivera has ever had, and Rivera's going to the Hall of Fame. I really believe one day we're going to look back and be simply amazed that we had Saito and Jonathan Broxton in the pen at the same time. Between his elbow injury and his age, I think we all knew it was basically a foregone conclusion that he wasn't coming back for a while, but still, it's sad news.

Really, I'm just going to miss the happy first pump after every successful save. We'll miss you, Sammy. I hope your arm doesn't land outside of Jillian's on Lansdowne Street.

Not Coming: Michael Young
At least, not if I have anything to say about it. The Texas shortstop has requested a trade after the Rangers *gasp* asked him to move to third base. Hey, good luck with that, guy. You're going to be 32, on a four-year slide in OPS+ (131, 108, 107, and 96), immensely helped by your home park, and about to start a ridiculous $60 million contract extension. Not only that, you're an overrated defensive shortstop (Gold Glove be damned, FanGraphs actually has him at a negative rating) and your reputation is taking a hit because of your balking at this request to help your team. I particularly like this quote from an unnamed GM in today's Buster Olney blog:

"Put it this way," one GM said. "If the Rangers offered up Michael Young for free -- with that contract, I don't think there would be any takers."

What does this have to do with the Dodgers? Because, of course, they keep popping up on the list of Young's possible suitors after he said he'd move to second base in order to faciliate a trade. You know what? Forget the home park helping his stats, and forget the immense contract. Just look at the lines:

22 year old, "overmatched" rookie Blake DeWitt: .264/.344/.383
31 year old, All-Star super veteran Michael Young: .284/.339/.402

Look at that. DeWitt actually had a better OBP and a competitive SLG, and that's including the two solid months he was completely awful that led to his demotion. If Michael Young could only just barely outperform DeWitt while playing in Texas, why would we want to have him at another year older and not playing in that bandbox? Not to mention, the extra $60 million. So, no thanks. Enjoy Texas, Michael.

- Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

Discussion

7 Comments on "Coming and Goings"

Posted by kensai, January 14, 2009 2:11 AM

Exactly agree on Michael Young.

Even if his bat WASN'T declining, it would be pointless to acquire him. A terrible defender (not just last year), and a guy with a ridiculous contract.

Pass.

Posted by grabarkewitz, January 14, 2009 7:48 AM

I have to agree on Michael Young. I prefer the potential of Blake DeWitt over the chance that Young might produce away from that wind tunnel in Arlington.

It would appear that Our Neddie is going through the marked down section of the FA Market. Now, it appears he is hot after Kris Benson...would prefer Ned signed his wife, but that is just me.

Who's next? Cheeseburger? Tony Armas, Jr?

Posted by Bluefan, January 14, 2009 11:23 AM

While I wouldn't want to lose DeWitt, if we could get Young, while including Pierre and not much else in the deal, it could be considered a win for us.

1) While Young's splits concern me, he did play through a bad wrist last year, and we have Mattingly as a hitting coach to smooth out any bad habits from his time playing at the BPIA.

2) His contract calls for $80 million over 5 years, with $15 million deferred (per MLB4U). Without a complete breakdown, I will assume that the deferrment is spread out evenly, so we would be responsible for $13 million per year or $65 million. With Pierre at $10 m in 09, $10 m in 10 and $8.5 m in 11, we would only be taking on $3 m in each of the next two years and $4.5 in 11. For the upgrade between Pierre vs. Young I would take that.

3) We've had Jeff Kent at 2B for the past few years, so pretty much anyone is an upgrade defensively on him.

4) While not the best defensive SS, GG not withstanding, he would also give us another option at SS if Furcal were to go down for an extended period again.

Posted by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness, January 14, 2009 6:30 PM

Bluefan, why would Texas trade Young for Pierre?

Posted by grabarkewitz in reply to comment from Bluefan, January 14, 2009 9:11 PM

What Mike said. The Rangers are asking for pitching and I doubt we can get them to take one year of Schmidt for Young.

I gave Young's numbers a close look and he has been in the downturn mode for a past several years. I would prefer the potential of DeWitt over the aging badly Young. Plus, the salary thing is just too much.

Posted by Evan, January 14, 2009 9:34 PM

Wonder if the Dodgers could convince Randy Wolf to come back.

Posted by Bluefan, January 15, 2009 9:13 AM

MSTI/Torgy,

I've crunched the numbers about as far as I can and while Young is defintely overpaid (has Tom Hicks not ever overpaid), but would be a good #2 hitter/2B along the lines of a Mark DeRosa. Good gap power/versitile.

I am not saying the the Rangers would make that deal, just that depending on how bad it gets between the Rangers and Young about the move to 3B (and the Rangers have already publicly said that they are not moving Kinsler to 3B or LF to slide Young back over to 2B) he could be had at a discount. If we were able to make a deal where Pierre was a key component, the off setting salaries (at least for the next 3 years) would be minimal.

This was more of a ... find a home for Pierre deal, than an acquire Young deal.