Are You Kidding!
Two in a row to the Royals! Who does this Dodger team think they are, the Yankees? The Dodgers aren’t good enough to be as bad as the Yankees.
But please, the Royals? They score three runs in two nights against Kansas City? My softball team could score more than three runs in 18 innings against the Royals.
Anybody could see that Jose Lima had circled this date on his calendar a month ago. But I would have hoped his old team might have mounted a comeback after he had left the game. No such luck. I know it was his first victory of the year, and he’s been awful, but the Dodgers made a serious mistake letting him go. They didn’t even pick up the phone and thank him for winning their only playoff game in a decade.
Nobody, not even Lima, expected the Dodgers to pay him based only on his 2004 stats (he did lead the team in victories, however). Had the team offered him a deal based on his last three years, he probably would have taken it. The guy has reinvented himself more times than David Bowie. Instead, they went out and signed Scott “Going Going Gone” Erickson.
Now it seems the Dodgers are looking for another starting pitcher. Here are the names they are supposedly interested in: Aaaron Harang (4-5; 3.86), Joe Kennedy (3-6; 7.22), Ted Lilly (4-7; 6.47), Mike Maroth (5-7; 4.23), and Mark Redman (4-4; 2.80). Not an over-.500 guy in the bunch. Redman is the best of a sad bunch, but I can’t see why the Pirates would be willing to give up their best pitcher. He’s having the best year of his 52-55 career; and is with his sixth team in six years. And he’s 31 years old.
(You could say much the same about Carl Pavano, who the Yankees overpaid, and who is performing even worse).
The Dodgers don’t need a fifth starter. They have six of them already. What they need is an ace. A guy who can go up against Mark Mulder, Kerry Wood, John Smoltz, or Jake Peavy and give the team a chance to win. None of the guys they have now can do that. Not Penny, not Lowe, not Perez, and definitely not Weaver. Even if this lousy Dodger club makes the playoffs, they will surely get bounced again in the first round. And without Lima, they won’t even win a game.
The guy they need is Barry Zito. He’s a proven ace, a former Cy Young Award winner, and is about to make too much money to play in Oakland any longer. Paul: call your old boss and get Zito. It doesn’t matter what you have to give up. There’s no single player on this team who brings what he brings to the table. Give up Jason Repko and Hee Seop Choi. Deal Dioner Navarro (though Oakland just shelled out for Jason Kendall). Hell, I’d even give up Cesar Izturis if that’s what it would take, and Izturis is my favorite player on the Dodgers.
DePodesta has already shown he doesn’t care about chemistry or fan favorites. So go make a winner. But stop screwing around with more fifth starters. We already have an Elmer Dessens. We don’t need another one.
But please, the Royals? They score three runs in two nights against Kansas City? My softball team could score more than three runs in 18 innings against the Royals.
Anybody could see that Jose Lima had circled this date on his calendar a month ago. But I would have hoped his old team might have mounted a comeback after he had left the game. No such luck. I know it was his first victory of the year, and he’s been awful, but the Dodgers made a serious mistake letting him go. They didn’t even pick up the phone and thank him for winning their only playoff game in a decade.
Nobody, not even Lima, expected the Dodgers to pay him based only on his 2004 stats (he did lead the team in victories, however). Had the team offered him a deal based on his last three years, he probably would have taken it. The guy has reinvented himself more times than David Bowie. Instead, they went out and signed Scott “Going Going Gone” Erickson.
Now it seems the Dodgers are looking for another starting pitcher. Here are the names they are supposedly interested in: Aaaron Harang (4-5; 3.86), Joe Kennedy (3-6; 7.22), Ted Lilly (4-7; 6.47), Mike Maroth (5-7; 4.23), and Mark Redman (4-4; 2.80). Not an over-.500 guy in the bunch. Redman is the best of a sad bunch, but I can’t see why the Pirates would be willing to give up their best pitcher. He’s having the best year of his 52-55 career; and is with his sixth team in six years. And he’s 31 years old.
(You could say much the same about Carl Pavano, who the Yankees overpaid, and who is performing even worse).
The Dodgers don’t need a fifth starter. They have six of them already. What they need is an ace. A guy who can go up against Mark Mulder, Kerry Wood, John Smoltz, or Jake Peavy and give the team a chance to win. None of the guys they have now can do that. Not Penny, not Lowe, not Perez, and definitely not Weaver. Even if this lousy Dodger club makes the playoffs, they will surely get bounced again in the first round. And without Lima, they won’t even win a game.
The guy they need is Barry Zito. He’s a proven ace, a former Cy Young Award winner, and is about to make too much money to play in Oakland any longer. Paul: call your old boss and get Zito. It doesn’t matter what you have to give up. There’s no single player on this team who brings what he brings to the table. Give up Jason Repko and Hee Seop Choi. Deal Dioner Navarro (though Oakland just shelled out for Jason Kendall). Hell, I’d even give up Cesar Izturis if that’s what it would take, and Izturis is my favorite player on the Dodgers.
DePodesta has already shown he doesn’t care about chemistry or fan favorites. So go make a winner. But stop screwing around with more fifth starters. We already have an Elmer Dessens. We don’t need another one.
posted by John Rosenthal @ 5:34 PM
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