I think the collective Dodgers "feeling" is the worst it's been in five years. There is no shortage of people who can tell you about why this Dodgers thing is off the tracks for this year and perhaps beyond. The Dodgers won't be in bad shape forever but as long as a McCourt owns the team, the Dodgers won't be put into a favorable position to compete again.
The McCourt divorce is out there for all Dodgers fans to follow but I haven't taken an active interest in it. At some point in the past I might have but I can't bring myself to care. There will be a verdict and subsequent action. I don't envision quick action that will result in the Dodgers placed in better hands. If that does happen, it will be a glacial process.
When management is incompetent, the fans can look to the farm system. Right now, the Dodgers farm system isn't much but, with the acquisition of Zach Lee, the Dodgers have already improved their farm system. It has been said that the 2011 draft will be a truly deep draft. In my opinion, it is more important for the Dodgers to place themselves in a position to acquire as much talent as they can from that draft. If the Dodgers have compensatory picks coming their way from Ted Lilly, Hiroki Kuroda and Octavio Dotel, they had better make the franchise eligible to receive those picks. Last year, the failure to offer compensation to Randy Wolf was more disappointing than any other move or non-move the Dodgers made last offseason.
The farm system had more to do than any free-agent or any veteran the Dodgers signed on. Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Jonathan Broxton, Chad Billingsley, James Loney, Russell Martin, Hong Chih-Kuo couldn't have done it without Manny but they probably would have had a better shot doing it on their own than doing it in spite of all the bad moves Ned Colletti has made this year and year's past and doing it with grindy veterans who "try harder" and "give 100%."
This team has become my nightmare with the addition of the grinders and the obligatory credos that come with them. I would rather that the Dodgers model themselves after the teams that have a vision, find their own talent and that talent constantly flows into the Major Leagues. It seems that a lot of Dodgers fans demand that the team sign every big name free agent that they can but if the Dodgers system can produce waves of talent that come close to the one that debuted four years ago, they won't need those players.
If the Dodgers want to be a stay a big-market team I would be alright with them using that big-market money to secure the players that they have seasoned and developed. The Dodgers, at present, have a dry farm system and their current young talent are creeping closer to pay day. It may be time to focus on creating wave and getting a new wavemaker (Logan White can stay). Like Dr. Martin Luther King and Glenn Beck, I dream.
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