While patrolling the internet for news on the pending purchase of the Dodgers by real estate “mogul” Frank McCourt, I ran across a great blog called Dodger Thoughts by Jon Weisman. Like me, John is hoping the pending McCourt deal falls through. It appears that, finally, McCourt is being exposed as the charlatan many suspected he was all along. Because of Jon’s research and wonderful writing I don’t have to write anything on McCourt, I will just let Jon’s article speak for me.
As for the Dodgers off-season, suffice it to say that it is a tremendous disappointment. Now comes the even harder part: the Dodgers, no matter who owns them in 2004, must write the season off. Since the opportunities presented by this year’s crop of free agents have been missed, it is essential that the Dodgers not trade one single prospect away this summer unless they get a young player under contract in return. The Dodgers have one of the top three farm systems in the country right now, and the amount of talent at AA and under last year was almost too much for the system to hold. Some of that talent will be moving to AAA this year, setting up 2005 and 2006 for a Dodger team stacked with young, talented players. Couple that with a team with minimal payroll (the few albatrosses left on the Dodgers like Hundley and Dreifort will be gone, leaving the Dodgers able to fill holes with veteran leaders) and you have the makings of a very young dynasty. I know, I know. The Dodgers history is strewn with “can’t miss” prospects, and there are no guarantees with young players. But I can give you one guarantee: trading Edwin Jackson, Greg Miller and Joel Hanrahan for Magglio Ordonez or some other soon to be free agents is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.
In other words Dan Evans, or possibly Bud Selig, made the Dodgers bed, and now we all have to lie in it. The new Dodger GM in 2004 must be patient and live with what he has, and wait for the future to arrive, probably in 2006.
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