Dodger Thoughts

Jon Weisman's outlet for dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball and life

Happy Thursday chat thread

This is a fun interview with National League Cy Young Award-winner Clayton Kershaw, especially with the twist at the end.

Best wishes also to Nick Punto, who has signed a nice deal with Oakland.

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39 Comments

  1. Bob_Hendley

    That Punto! We were just a stepping stone for him. Be nice to slide Uribear over into that utility position if we are able to upgrade at the hot corner.

    • thescrounger

      You can’t get Uribe for Punto money, so I don’t see him in a bench role. I do see the possibility of resigning him for third, hopefully for fewer dollars, and leaving Hanley at short. Still need a backup shortstop and another bench infielder or two.

      • Bob_Hendley

        You can’t even get Punto for Punto money these days!

    • foul tip

      Do you think Punto still respects the Dodgers this morning?

    • dalegribel

      I’m guessing they are grooming Dee Gordon for it. We know he has played shortstop (or tried to), learned some second base in AAA last year, and is playing the outfield in winter ball.

  2. foul tip

    OK. Good to see Roy Clark has joined the Dodger scouting dept.

    Been wondering what he was up to since his Hee Haw days….

  3. WBBsAs

    I’m still surprised the cash-strapped A’s offered such a contract to a utility player.

  4. Bumsrap

    Ho hum, Kershaw wins CYA. Now, lets get back to talking about Punto

  5. SaMoDodger

    Kershaw got screwed out of MVP votes.

    • WBBsAs

      I can’t get too worked about even a less-than-unanimous Cy, let alone MVP.

  6. NoahUCLA

    How much money and years do you guys think Stephen Drew will get? He might work for us for a year or two, although not as versatile as others. Not too impressed by the infielders on the market. Signing Guerrero was a huge plus.

    • Bob_Hendley

      Getting Hanley off SS seems to be the bigger challenge here. He didn’t do as badly there as might have been expected (BR even gives him a positive dWAR), so not sure that he can be convinced at this point.

  7. foul tip

    Talks between NYY and Beard are short but not so sweet because of……the Beard.

    http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2013-11-13/mlb-trade-rumors-yankees-brian-wilson-beard-free-agent-agency?icid=maing-grid7|maing14|dl25|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D406285

    • WBBsAs

      I find Twitterboy to be an exhibitionist, but the Yanquis’ treating adults like schoolboy or military recruits is simply silly. The last club to enforce such a rule, to the best of my memory, was Marge Schott’s Reds. I would like to see Hermeto Pascoal play GBA at Yanqui Stadium: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGaaxlvP-BA

  8. foul tip

    From Dodgers.com story applying brakes to rumors of big spending on free agents and such:

    “they were busy during the General Managers Meetings that ended Thursday talking to representatives of several second-tier free-agent pitchers….. kicking the tires on a group that includes Ervin Santana, Matt Garza, Hiroki Kuroda, Ubaldo Jimenez, Bartolo Colon and Bronson Arroyo, as well as Nolasco.”

    http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/la/stan-kasten-los-angeles-dodgers-likely-to-temper-spending?ymd=20131114&content_id=63917630&vkey=news_la

    OK, I’m just a reasonably uninformed fan. But why not seriously consider signing Volquez instead of these guys? He was doing as well at season end as most on that list, if not better. He’s younger than most of them, still has #2 stuff. And he’d probably be very interested in coming back since the Dodgers rescued him from the scrap heap and seem to have fixed him. Probably cheaper too, which may have begun to matter.

    People forget he was an opening day starter before floundering. Also, why sign more likely Harangs and Capuanos? (Tho I’d be fine with bringing back Cap as a lefty reliever)

    After the starting big 3 and the possible return and re-emergence of Bills and Becket, he’d add a degree of fallback/certainty. Also, we know how the starter logjam to start last season worked out, no matter any additional pitcher signings or trades.

    He certainly couldn’t demand a no-trade clause, if any logjam couldn’t be resolved.

    If Hiroki hadn’t hit the wall so hard toward the end of the year I’d strongly object to any “second-tier” label for him. He was one of the top 5 or so in the AL most of the year.

    But at some point Father Time taps him on the shoulder. May have in 2013.

    • Bob_Hendley

      Another factor in weeding through this group is whether they would costs us a draft pick. In the cases of Volquez and Nolasco I think not.

  9. New Entertainment post above.

  10. John_from_Aus

    Ellis and the officials will have a nice trip, all those venues mentioned that they are going to visit are all must sees.

    http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/la/aj-ellis-los-angeles-dodgers-officials-set-for-australian-goodwill-tour?ymd=20131114&content_id=63922078&vkey=news_la

  11. Bob_Hendley

    Ricky leveraging 6 games in August into a four-year contract!? Really doubt that the Dodgers are among the teams.
    http://tracking.si.com/2013/11/14/ricky-nolasco-multiple-four-year-offers/

    • foul tip

      He may bristle at the idea of a hometown discount. Sounds like he might not have to take a discount of any kind.

      But then what’s a few mil among old friends, right?

      • Bob_Hendley

        Four years for what would be for us a 4-5 (barring injuries) doesn’t seem the way to go almost no matter what the price.

        • foul tip

          Agreed. Big-picture, 3-4 years of league average.

          • Bob_Hendley

            Average for a fifth is not bad. I could be wrong, but you should be able to get that for less money with less risk.

  12. Bob_Hendley

    The Kid is clean shaven and colorful!

  13. foul tip

    OT from the chuckles dept., subdivided into either the silver-tongued-devil or deep-doodoo depts, most likely the latter–

    Man (fortunately not this one) to wife after she put extra effort into looking great to go out–

    “You look a lot better than you usually do.”

  14. foul tip

    MLB pulls its offer for changes in the posting system, possibly meaning no Tanaka this year. Says Japanese drug their feet too long.

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20131114/posting-system-japan-masahiro-tanaka/

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