Sox it to me: Money doesn’t change everything

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With a more relaxed payroll, the Dodgers might well have been determined John Lackey and Carl Crawford to free agent contracts after the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Lackey, who went for $82.5 million over five years, has a 5.26 ERA in 61 starts in his first two seasons and will miss the 2012 season with Tommy John surgery.

Crawford, who went for $142 million over seven years, had a .289 on-base percentage and .694 OPS in his first season with Boston and is sidelined until at least May with wrist problems.

A big payroll does help you absorb setbacks more easily. But in the end, it’s not just about money. It’s about being smart and fortunate.

 

  • Anonymous

    Or given Uribe $8 million a year.

  • Anonymous

    Yes this what scares me about Ned having money to spend. He hasn’t been the best judge of talent IMHO. 

    • Anonymous

      Yeah, I, myself would have wasted the money on Dunn (though he seems to have gotten his groove back this Spring).

      • Anonymous

        At the the time I thought Andrew Jones was a good signing. But Pierre, Schmidt, and all the junk veterans he has brought in to block the youngsters over the years not so much.  I think the best way to go is to develop your own talent and take low end risk there. Barely any of the ’13 potential free agents make me want to spend too much on them. 

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry-Pruett/1707390003 Terry Pruett

        I don’t think Beltre would have been a waste of money.

        • Anonymous

          Yeah sure, even with Dunn’s disasterous year and WAR of -2.7, with Beltre’s 5.2 you would have come out ahead of Loney (1.1) and Uribe (-0.1).

  • Anonymous

    As I recall, both the Schmidt and Jones signings were widely lauded at the time. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why those did not work out (and in the case of Schmidt in particular, the medical information available to Colletti but not the public seems damning).

    I think Kasten is by far the most important piece of this ownership group. Has anyone put together a review of his track record to give us an idea of what we might expect?

  • Anonymous

    If nothing else, it is putting the fear of God in Philadelphia fans- their angst over Hamels possibly becoming a free agent is truly music to my ears.

  • Anonymous

    Disastrous signings hurt a team’s chances of winning, but I think they also make it harder for a fan to enjoy rooting for a team. I know that for me, holding WAR (or whatever performance measure you prefer) constant, I would much rather have a homegrown player vs. an import, and a lower-paid player than a higher-paid one.

    • Anonymous

      Yes! I loved the 70′s and 80′s when we mostly went with our own talent with small exceptions here an there.  You felt it was your LOS ANGELES DODGERS and not some rental. I know the times have changed and the O’Malley way has went by the wayside but there is just too much risk in signing players who have a good history to these mega million dollar contracts. 

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5SSJ4OHG2BK3QQ66NFE7V4ITYU Kris

      Dodger free agent busts and disastrous
      trades pre-date the Nedster. How about Dave Goltz, Kevin Brown, and
      Darryl Strawberry? The Piazza trade? Or that candidate for the
      worst trade in the history of modern baseball, Pedro Martinez for
      DeLino DeShields?

      Yes many of Nedster’s transactions have
      gone south. But he has pulled off a few gems like Kuroda, Manny, and
      my favorite, Milton Bradley for Andre Ethier.  I think Nedster gets the rest of the year to prove himself and an extension if we make the playoffs.

      We definitely need to go back to
      growing our own players and Stan Kasten did that in Atlanta. The
      farm system is well stocked with pitchers but short on position
      players. We need to obtain some prospects for restocking the minors
      and draft better in the early rounds for position players.  Logan White is a genius but has a penchant for drafting pitchers first.

  • Anonymous

    The Angels optioned Mike Trout to AAA. Gotta get those ABs for Vernon Wells.

  • Anonymous

    I hated the Jones signing at the time and wanted nothing to do with Lackey, but Crawford being such a bust so far fooled me. As for Schmidt, I still contend that it hurt the Gnats more, having to give Zito stupid money.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713935344 Jason Ungar

      Yah I was stoked we got Jones. gotta admit it, in fact he is pretty much the only FA signing I have ever been happy with when it comes to Ned. Not to say he has or hasn’t signed good players but at the time I mean. I know the year before he fell of a bit but the two years before he hit 92 home runs, had 260 steaks and OPS’ed around 915 while playing a solid centerfield (at least from a distance since I didn’t watch him daily, I mean 9 straight gold gloves..I know Gold Gloves are sorta a joke but 9 straight!)

  • http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/ Linkmeister

    Kevin Brown had a couple of very good years for the Dodgers, if I remember correctly.

  • Anonymous

    In 5 seasons with the Dodgers, Kevin Brown went 58-32 with a 2.83 ERA. He had an ERA+ of 148. He averaged 8.1 Ks per 9 innings. And when Brown was in his decline, the Dodgers traded him to the Yankees and got a serviceable Jeff Weaver, one good half season out of Yhency Brazoban, and the future quarterback for Oklahoma State in this year’s Fiesta Bowl.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_53Y6B3KAAVOECSA5E666M4CVLE MRF

    Testing.  Hello.

  • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

    Kevin Brown was a successful signing. 

    • Anonymous

      Agreed and see posts above for proof!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry-Pruett/1707390003 Terry Pruett

    The thing that bothered me about the Pierre signing at the time was in what it revealed about Ned’s baseball acumen, or lack of same. The mentality that says: “Oh look, he hits .300, doesn’t strike out and has speed”, while ignoring the fact that Pierre would have to hit .340 to be a decent leadoff man, because he never walks. Or ignoring the fact that he gives up runs in the outfield. This bothers me, and makes me question whether Ned understands what actually wins baseball games.

    On the other hand, I’ve always given Ned somewhat of a pass on Andruw Jones, except for the large money involved. It was reasonable to assume at the time that he would be a productive player offensively and a great defender. It was a stretch, but it was within reason.

    • Anonymous

      Yeah nobody saw Jones doing that bad, kinda like Dunn last year. Can’t blame anyone for that. I mean Jones was only 31 at the time and even if he had duplicated his age 30 season it wouldn’t have been nearly as much of a disaster. He is still younger than most of the guys Ned signed this past offseason!!

  • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

    NPUT