Monday, December 27, 2010

Half Of The Greinke Effort Would Get Dodgers a Viable LF



As we all know, Ned Colletti was tenacious in his attempt to trade for the present Brewer Zach Greinke. How he was going to accomplish that, we don't know but we do know we have a platoon of Jay Gibbons, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Xavier Paul playing LF at this point. There really wasn't much in the way of available left fielders in the free agent market and now, even less of the FA's remain. Forget the question of why Ned was going after Greinke when the Dodgers have 6 quality starting pitchers in house. The Dodgers would be a better team with him, obviously but would not be filling a need.

The question I have is "what if Ned focused half of that energy towards finding a viable left (or right, i.e. move Ethier) fielder via trade?" The evidence that Ned doesn't manage farm system assets is well-documented but, if he were to make a trade for Luke Scott, for instance, wouldn't that pay dividends unless gives way too much in exchange for Scott? I will take Scott even though he is a birther.

It is striking that a GM running a team with great pitching wants even more despite the still-present lack of hitting the Dodgers have. Accumulating an embarrassment of riches in pitching is the San Francisco Giants model for success but the Giants didn't get anywhere until they had some bats. Forget the disappointments that James Loney and Casey Blake will probably be, the LF position at present is not part of a winning strategy.

A better left fielder can still be had but it will require some dealing (my vote is for Lastings Milledge & his baggage). Not as much dealing as it took to get Zach Greinke. Talking to Orioles GM Andy McPhail takes time but a reasonable GM could work a deal with assets the Dodgers possess.

Thus reveals our problem.

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