My Kingdom for a Bat

It’s being said that the Dodgers, if they have any hopes of staying in the race, need to get another bat.

That’s easy to say from a computer terminal or behind a microphone, but let’s look a little closer. Exactly where will this “bat” play?

The Dodgers have a solid middle infield in Kent and Izturis, and Antonio Perez has shown that he can handle the duties at third base. He’s also hitting well. Hee Seop Choi has hardly been my favorite player, but Paul DePodesta seems to be in love with the guy.

In the outfield, the problem isn’t a lack of outfielders, it’s a lack of healthy outfielders. When J.D. Drew, Milton Bradley, and Jayson Werth are healthy, they’re perfectly serviceable. The problem over the last month has been that they haven’t never been in the lineup together. Even Ricky Ledee, the fourth outfielder has been injured.

If the Dodgers were to get another “bat” they would end up with too many outfielders when everybody got healthy again. That’s supposedly a problem every manager wants, but you have to give up something to get something. It would be foolhardy to trade away somebody valuable to get a player who will become a spare part when the lineup returns to full strength.

There are two exceptions to this scenario: 1) the player the Dodgers give up plays the same position as the one being acquired. For example, Todd Helton for Hee Seop Choi (oh please, oh please!) and anybody else the Rockies want. 2) The player the Dodgers get is so good that one of the outfielders (probably Werth) becomes a part-time player and Ledee becomes a pinch-hitter extraordinaire.

Those scenarios all require a lot more negotiations than simply acquiring “a bat.” The Dodgers have to find a team who wants what they’re selling. If what they were selling were any good, he’d be playing now. Then again, Billy Beane has shown a willingness to give away frontline starting pitchers for mediocre relievers. Maybe a Barry Zito for Franquelis Osoria and Steve Schmoll deal could be in the works.

Joe Must Go. Here's How

When he’s not annoying us by beating a point into the ground, no matter how wrong he may be, Joe Morgan is boring the Sunday Night Baseball audience with some moronic banter. He’s truly execrable.

Jon Miller is little better. He brings out the worst in Morgan, who was somewhat bearable a week ago with Gary Thorne when Miller was on vacation.

The fault lies not with these two mediocre broadcasters, however, but with the ESPN higher-ups who have put them in this position. It’s just not possible for two people to be so knowledgeable about every team in the league, and it shows. Miller follows the Giants from his home in San Francisco. I have no idea who Morgan watches on a daily basis.

But when they do a game of the week, they see maybe two games and then attempt to sound like they’ve been around the teams all year.

Why not jettison this tiresome twosome and replace them with local broadcasters. That way fans in one city not only get to see teams from another city, they get to hear the voice of that team as well. Give the country a chance to hear Vin Scully call a Dodgers game. Let fans outside of Chicago hear Bob Brenly call a Cubs game. Share the beauty that is Jim Kaat calling a game with the entire nation.

I know, the plan has its faults. For one, any time the Sunday Night game was played in Anaheim or Atlanta, a national audience would get furious at the relentless homerism of the announcers in those cities. But it might actually do those guys some good to hear feedback about how one-sided their broadcasts are.

For another, local announcers might assume too much knowledge about the home team and leave some fans in the dark. But it’s quite better than the reverse situation—f ans watching at home who know more than the announcers—which is the current predicament.

ESPN used to cut away for a half an inning to do exactly this kind of stunt. It’s time they extended the stunt to all nine innings. They can still use their production crew. Because of ESPN’s exclusivity on Sunday night, local crews and local announcers most likely aren’t working that night anyway. So put them to work for the national audience.