Woohoo!

No, not because the Dodgers won two in a row (they only scored one run in yesterday’s game, so let’s not get too excited).

No, woohoo, because somebody wants Jeff Weaver! The Orioles have indicated interest in the inconsistent towhead. I don’t know how well Spicoli will fare in Baltimore, but this is a golden opportunity for Los Angeles to get rid of a big contract. Perhaps the Orioles will take Darren Dreifort as well.

Who cares what Baltimore is offering. Getting rid of Weaver is addition by subtraction. The Dodgers aren’t making the playoffs this year. Everybody knows that. And D.J. Houlton can match Weaver’s crappy statistics at a fraction of the cost. Whatever the Dodgers get for Weaver is going to be more than the compensation they’d receive for letting him go as a free agent this winter.

So I say pack his bags, drive him to the airport, do what you can to dump this guy. He’s had eight seasons in the big leagues so far, and he’s never shown himself to be anything other than a below .500 pitcher with a 4 ERA. At some point, a guy has to live up to his promise or admit that he never had that potential in the first place.

The book is in on this 28-year-old and it’s nothing to get excited about. The Dodgers have a golden opportunity; they should rush to cash it in.

Vacation!?

It’s the dog days of summer, which means that relief umpires are covering major league games while the regular umps are on vacation.

Vacation!? How do these guys get vacation? They work six months a year and they’ve been able to negotiate a vacation? They work three hours a day and they get vacation?

I can just hear their arguments at the bargaining table.
Waahh! We have to work six days a week.
Boo hoo! We have to travel twice a week to a different city.
Poor us! We have to stand for the whole game.

The guy who runs the deli on my corner works seven days a week. Salesmen travel much more often than twice a week. And every waitress in America is accustomed to standing for a lot longer than 3 hours a day.

Major league umpires do a terrific job. They are correct more than 95 percent of the time, but people only notice the few occasions when they screw up. But vacations? Puh-leeze.