The Dodgers have been in the news quite a bit in the last week, and while some news is good news, it's not all quite the news we've been hoping for. That said, Manny is still not a Dodger... yet. More on that in a minute...
The big free agent signing of the week is none other than Brad Ausmus, a Southern California native who spurned the Padres to be Russell Martin's back-up, which means he'll probably start all of 30 games this year, given the fact Martin has been the busiest catcher in all of baseball in terms of games started the last two years. The Dodgers now employ two back-up catchers, and you can bet Danny Ardoin is ecstatic about this move.
The normally stoic, all-business, no-nonsense, hard-nosed Jeff Kent finally hung his cleats, glove and porn-style mustache last week, putting an end to a solid 17-year career as one of the best-hitting second basemen of all-time. Kent got unusually emotional and tearful at a press conference last Thursday to announce his retirement from baseball as the all-time home run leader in Major League history for second basemen. Kent won the NL MVP in 2000 while with the Giants, appeared in five All-Star games, won the Silver Slugger award four times, and drove in 100 RBI eight times, including six straight years, a record for a second baseman. Kent is a sure bet to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer five years from now when he will be first eligible.
Three Boys in Blue eligible for arbitration avoided such and inked one-year deals. Martin, Jonathan Broxton and Jason Repko all signed new deals last week. A couple of quick highlights on the deals. Broxton's contract includes a Matt Stairs Fathead as a reminder to never throw him a fastball on a 3-1 count late in a game in the NLCS. And Repko's includes a coupon for Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, and a get-well card signed by all of the Dodgers, for when he gets hurt again either in Spring Training or the first month of the season. He then proceded to request a trade... again. Meanwhile, Andre Ethier, also eligible for arbitration, and the Dodgers continue to negotiate a deal and hope to avoid the arbitration process. The sticking point on his deal getting done is he wants the Blue to sign Manny so he can have a couple of career years before returning to being just slightly above average. The Dodgers are apparently in no such hurry.
Guillermo Mota is officially a Dodger again. A parade will be held in his honor in East L.A. somewhere in the middle of April.
Still no word on which of the three of Randy Wolf, Jon Garland and Braden Looper the front office is leaning towards, but all signs point to Wolf earning the dubious honors of being the guy no one seems to be excited over to fill out the back end of the rotation. I guess the Colletti & Co. feel any one of them can do what CC Sabathia is capable of doing.
We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging: Manny Watch.
And that concludes our blog programming for today...
The big free agent signing of the week is none other than Brad Ausmus, a Southern California native who spurned the Padres to be Russell Martin's back-up, which means he'll probably start all of 30 games this year, given the fact Martin has been the busiest catcher in all of baseball in terms of games started the last two years. The Dodgers now employ two back-up catchers, and you can bet Danny Ardoin is ecstatic about this move.
The normally stoic, all-business, no-nonsense, hard-nosed Jeff Kent finally hung his cleats, glove and porn-style mustache last week, putting an end to a solid 17-year career as one of the best-hitting second basemen of all-time. Kent got unusually emotional and tearful at a press conference last Thursday to announce his retirement from baseball as the all-time home run leader in Major League history for second basemen. Kent won the NL MVP in 2000 while with the Giants, appeared in five All-Star games, won the Silver Slugger award four times, and drove in 100 RBI eight times, including six straight years, a record for a second baseman. Kent is a sure bet to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer five years from now when he will be first eligible.
Three Boys in Blue eligible for arbitration avoided such and inked one-year deals. Martin, Jonathan Broxton and Jason Repko all signed new deals last week. A couple of quick highlights on the deals. Broxton's contract includes a Matt Stairs Fathead as a reminder to never throw him a fastball on a 3-1 count late in a game in the NLCS. And Repko's includes a coupon for Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, and a get-well card signed by all of the Dodgers, for when he gets hurt again either in Spring Training or the first month of the season. He then proceded to request a trade... again. Meanwhile, Andre Ethier, also eligible for arbitration, and the Dodgers continue to negotiate a deal and hope to avoid the arbitration process. The sticking point on his deal getting done is he wants the Blue to sign Manny so he can have a couple of career years before returning to being just slightly above average. The Dodgers are apparently in no such hurry.
Guillermo Mota is officially a Dodger again. A parade will be held in his honor in East L.A. somewhere in the middle of April.
Still no word on which of the three of Randy Wolf, Jon Garland and Braden Looper the front office is leaning towards, but all signs point to Wolf earning the dubious honors of being the guy no one seems to be excited over to fill out the back end of the rotation. I guess the Colletti & Co. feel any one of them can do what CC Sabathia is capable of doing.
We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging: Manny Watch.
And that concludes our blog programming for today...
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