SB Nation User Blog: ToyCannon

Misfit Island

ToyCannon — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:59:13 -0000

As I watched Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer for the gazillionth time last night it amazed me how much I like this rudimentary children's story. The misfit toys are embedded deep into my sub conscious and I still get strange pleasure when they are picked up to be disbursed to the misfits of the world. It is one of those shows that if it is on, I'll watch the whole thing and always feel better after having done so.

The same holds true for the early Beatles pap that I soaked up from the age of 8-10, spinning 45's while lying sick in bed with whatever ailment had kept me from school. You could play I Feel Fine anytime at all and it will perk me up. I enjoyed Across the Universe much too much when you consider how much I can't stand current pop music.

Then we have baseball and everything about the game from how it is played on the field, to the statistics, to the off field maneuvering. I'm addicted to all of it and it all started as a child.

If I step back and look at these through a middle age lens and experience all of the above for the very 1st time, I know for a fact that I would scoff at Rudolf and turn it off within minutes of watching it. The same would hold true with the Beatles, just as I turn off anything with Justin Timberlake involved, I would not give those pop songs a glancing thought.

Would I do the same for Dodger baseball if I watched my first game not as a child but as me right now? The gluttony of the players, owners, agents, and fans combined is quite appalling when put into proper context. Why do we feed the beast? Is it because baseball is such a great game and deserves all this attention, or is it simply a reflex from childhood that we can't control?

This quote from today's Kurt Streeter's LA Times article made me laugh.

Better yet, just ask the McCourts, who, according to reports, recently purchased side-by-side estates on the Malibu beachfront for just over $50 million.

coming just days after Jamie was trying to decide if they should be spending money on players or fields. Evidently my guess that the McCourts might be having some cash flow problems was off the mark. They are only having problems spending their money on their team instead of other endeavors. They have every right to buy whatever house they desire, but God I hope Carlos Santana makes them pay the next time they want to save two million dollars by throwing a prospect into a deal.

Joe Sheehan Dodger Breakdown

ToyCannon — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:18:08 -0000

Continue voting for final prospect here.

With the Joe Sheehan GM for the day freed from behind the firewall, I thought we could take a look at his suggestions.

So here's the plan, in order of importance:

Sign Derek Lowe for four years and $62 million. He's the best fit for this team and this payroll, and there should be some value to Lowe in not having to relocate. If there's not, ply him with additional money.

Trade Xavier Paul and Victor Garate to the Brewers for Rickie Weeks; then make Weeks a center fielder. It's a low bid, and honestly, I'm skeptical enough of DeJesus' power and ability to play shortstop than I might deal him if that's what it took to get Weeks.

Sign Ray Durham for two years, $8 million. The extra year is designed to get this over with quickly, as the falloff from Durham to the next option is steep enough to want to avoid the question. If Durham is done, this is an easy contract to eat. Speaking of which…

Release Andruw Jones. Ideally, you could get him to agree to a buyout, where he takes 60 cents on the dollar and gets to hit the market again, choosing that ahead of a season in which he bats 125 times as the Dodgers' fifth outfielder. There's no place for him on this roster. A year ago, I loved this signing; I was very, very wrong.

Sign Javier Valentin. He starts 30-35 games against good right-handed pitchers and is a very good pinch-hitter the rest of the time.

Re-sign Takashi Saito. Offer him a high-upside deal. It's not likely there's much guaranteed money available for him, and he's one of those "good or unavailable" guys.

Offer arbitration to Ramirez. I can't fathom him taking it, and almost no team uses draft picks as well as the Dodgers do.

These things done, my 2009 Dodgers:

Weeks CF
Ethier LF
Kemp RF
Loney 1B
Martin C
Durham 2B
DeWitt 3B
Hu SS

Bench: Pierre, Valentin, Delwyn Young, Tony Abreu, Jason Repko

Rotation: Lowe, Billingsley, Kershaw, Kuroda, Kuo, Schmidt

Bullpen: Broxton, Saito, Cory Wade, McDonald, Stults, Elbert

1. D Lowe does not want to sign with us. Everyone in LA knows this so while I wouldn't mind signing D Lowe he is not an option and it bothers me when someone tries to build our roster and ignores the reality of the situation. Lowe will have plenty of suitors and may not get his 4 year deal but he will get a deal he likes.

2. Huge difference between trading a 4th outfielder like Paul and a minor league rule 5 pickup in Garate compared to DeJesus. Again reality is not at work. The Brewers would never deal Weeks for the 1st offer and we'd probably be foolish to deal DeJesus for Weeks. Canuck thinks Weeks will not be any better then what we have seen. I think he is wrong and that Weeks will fullfill the potential scouts saw when he was drafted and when he destroyed AAA pitching at age 22. His 2007 2nd half is not to be ignored. If this was me I'd trade for Weeks and let Weeks be the 2nd baseman in 2009 and then move him to CF in 2010 when the outfield would be Kemp/Weeks/Ethier. I have a week spot for Weeks and would try to figure out a way to consumate the deal without including DeJesus who I want to be my 2nd baseman in 2010. Then again reality should also be in my realm as why would Ned be interested in a low average high OB guy. I'm sure he finds them worthless as that was what Betemit was doing when he was dumped for a middle relief pitcher. Speaking about Betemit it sounds like Kenny Williams is going to make him the starting 3rd baseman for the WhiteSox. Bet it works out better then most people expect.

3. Nothing wrong with signing Ray Durham but you better sign someone like Loretta to be his platoon mate or be sure that Abreu can step in and play when he gets hurt, which he will, and then have someone ready to play for Abreu (DeJesus) when Abreu gets hurt.

4. Andruw Jones in todays market will not accept a buyout at 60 cents on the dollar. He would not be able to make up the difference with a new contract. Would anyone give him more then 1 million? On Dec 10th he will be playing in the DWL and we can see what kind of shape his body and skills are in.

5. Good idea

6. Good idea

7. Good idea and already done. He won't accept arbitration so we will either get draft picks or sign him to a three year deal if other suitors don't step. Or maybe he will accept arbitration. Who knows, maybe the market really does suck this year and he'd make his 20 million plus while continuing to rebuild his stock for next years free agent run.

Final Prospect Vote

ToyCannon — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:21:13 -0000

BHSPORTSGUY provided this great link to keep track of what is happening in the winter leagues.

Here was the vote for number one
Here was the vote for 2 - 4.
Here was the vote for number 5
Here was the vote for numbers 7 & 8
Here was thevote for Number 9
Here was the vote for number 10
Here was the vote for number 11
Here was the vote for number 12
Here was the vote for number 13 & 14

Baseball- Intellect put out their 6-15 list.

Top Fourteen
1.James McDonald
2. Ivan DeJesus
3. Andrew Lambo
4. Scott Elbert
5. Ethan Martin
6. Josh Lindblom
7. Austin Gallagher
8. Josh Bell
9.Chris Withrow
10.Xavier Paul
11.Nathan Eovaldi
12. Jamie Pedroza
13. Tony Delmonico
14 Devaris Strange-Gordon

The final vote of the 15th prospect will be a write in. Below are some names you might want to consider. To many names for a poll.

Jesus Castillo (40 Man), Victor Garate (40 Man), Travis Schlichting(40 Man), Josh Wall, James Adkins, Jamie Hoffman (40 Man) , Steve Johnson , Geison Aguasviva , Pedro Baez , Kyle Russel , Chris Jacobs , Cole St. Clair , Jon-Michael Redding (D4P Fav)

Happy Thanksgiving

ToyCannon — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:32:53 -0000

True Blue is going dark until Monday unless something unusual happens and Andrew decides to write something. Enjoy the food, family, and friends.

Clumsy PR = Lowered Expectations

ToyCannon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:14:16 -0000

Continue voting for the Prospects here

Tripon in the post below linked to this story in the LA Times and I recommend everyone read it. I don't want to do a FJM piece on these boatload of quotes because that would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Let's take a look at what they had to say and see what is behind them.

"If you bring somebody in to play and pay them, pick a number, $30 million, does that seem a little weird to you?" Jamie McCourt asked in an interview at the Evergreen Recreation Center in East Los Angeles. "That's what we're trying to figure out. We're really trying to see it through the eyes of our fans. We're really trying to understand, would they rather have the 50 fields?"

Obviously most Dodger fans would say they would rather spend the money on the team. This is step one in lowering expectations that they will be spending big money on free agents. This is a clumsy way of going about it as any fan with a pulse can see right through this. They aren't asking the fans if they would rather have a 30 Million contract or lower ticket prices which is within the McCourts grasp. They are trying to tie it into the community but the Dodger reach is to vast for this to have any meaning to the Dodger fan. What do they care in San Bernandino if the Dodgers put some money into East LA to build some parks when they would rather be playing soccer on those fields.

"I think, oddly enough, maybe if things weren't guaranteed, then we could pay for it," she said. "If people can't play anymore, it's like, 'Oh well, see ya.' Different story. Whatever money they are guaranteed could be money that we could otherwise have given to community."

Now this is pure frustration bubbling over from the fact they watched 33 Million dollars last year do nothing but enrich the players and agents involved. It was not Jason Schmidt's fault that he was on the DL but it surely was Andruw Jones fault that he did not come ready to play for the most money he had ever been paid in his lucrative career. If you think we are frustrated with this lack of production from these two, think of the frustration level of the family writing these checks. This is the cost of doing business in baseball as every organization will have plenty of hit and misses but the McCourts are new to the business. Of course this bed is of their own making, Depo didn't have these non - performing contracts other then when Drew broke his wrist which I think is different then signing a pitcher who probably knew his shoulder was shot and had been pitching through pain for several years.

Frank quickly put to rest that there was conflict between the Dodgers operating budget and the Dodger charitable foundation as he tried to repair the comments by Jamie.

Frank McCourt said that while he and his wife contribute money out of their own pockets to the Dodgers' charitable causes, the team and its foundation are separate entities and the funds to pay for the fields won't be taken out of the team's operating budget. But he, too, said the Dodgers had to re-examine their priorities.

He then continued the path of lowered expectations with these final comments.

Frank McCourt said the Dodgers' top priority remained to field a winning team. He said the team's payroll, which was around $120 million this year, hasn't been determined for next season.

So things are in flux in Dodgertown. I would expect most teams know their budget for the coming season. The fact we are in late November and the budget is in questions says that there are variables in play that will determine the amount of the budget. What those are, only the McCourts know.

I've said all along that the McCourts would not be increasing their budget in 2009 and I doubted they would even match the 2008 budget. These comments are reinforcing my opinion that the McCourts are not happy with the contracts they are paying and Ned is only still here because he has a contract. He is a lame duck GM and anything he attempts to do will be scrutinized like never before by the McCourts before any stamp of approval hits the paperwork.

I wonder what Joe Torre thinks of the sentiments expressed by the McCourts today? I expect Josh Rawitch is biting his nails as he figures out how to respond to the LA Times article.

[Update]

6-4-2 has Jamie's spin control

Prospect Number Thirteen

ToyCannon — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:46:42 -0000

Pedroza takes number twelve holding off the new draftees. Also with the AFL and HWL seasons over, here are the final results. Russel Mitchell didn't get many at bats as we was on the taxi squad so he was not eligible every game but he did the most with what he got. Looks like Hoffman and Schlichting may have helped make their case for getting added to the 40 man roster. For one of the youngest players in the league, Mr. Lambo did just fine.

BATTERS	CLUB	LEAGUE	AVG	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SO	BB	IBB	OBP	SLG	OPS ?
Mitchell, Russl	SUR	AFL	0.364	22	2	8	1	1	1	5	7	4	0	0.444	0.636	1.081
Hoffmann, Jamie	SUR	AFL	0.314	35	11	11	2	2	0	6	9	8	0	0.432	0.486	0.918
Lambo, Andrew	SUR	AFL	0.313	67	8	21	3	1	1	10	13	4	0	0.356	0.433	0.789
De Jesus, Ivan	SUR	AFL	0.254	67	9	17	3	1	0	4	11	8	0	0.333	0.328	0.662
Silverio, Alfro	WAI	HWB	0.241	112	18	27	8	0	0	9	27	6	0	0.283	0.313	0.596
Giles, Tommy	WAI	HWB	0.184	76	5	14	5	1	0	3	20	3	0	0.253	0.276	0.529
May, Lucas	SUR	AFL	0.183	82	8	15	4	0	1	6	16	1	0	0.202	0.268	0.471
Garabedian, Alx	WAI	HWB	0.154	52	4	8	3	0	0	2	11	2	0	0.185	0.212	0.397

PITCHERS	CLUB	LEAGUE	ERA	G	GS	SV	SVO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	SO	BB	IBB	WHIP	AVG
Guerra, Javy	WAI	HWB	4.24	11	1	1	1	23.1	20	11	11	1	28	9	0	1.24	0.233
Orenduff, Justi	SUR	AFL	5.79	8	8	0	0	28	30	22	18	10	29	11	0	1.46	0.268
Perez, Eduardo	ZUL	VWL	2.81	10	0	0	1	16	9	5	5	1	13	8	1	1.06	0.173
Pfeiffer, David	WAI	HWB	1.59	11	0	3	4	17	7	3	3	0	11	4	0	0.65	0.127
Pratt, Jordan	WAI	HWB	2.53	10	0	1	2	21.1	16	7	6	0	34	14	0	1.41	0.2
Schlichting, T	SUR	AFL	1.5	13	0	3	4	12	10	4	2	1	6	5	0	1.25	0.208

BHSPORTSGUY provided this great link to keep track of what is happening in the winter leagues.

Here was the vote for number 12

Baseball- Intellect put out their 6-15 list. Up until number 11 we are almost in total agreement, and then it all goes to hell in a handbasket. No one had deemed Russel, St Claire, or Adkins worthy yet so I haven't put them out for a vote. I know Russel was drafted higher then Delmonico and Gordon but based on their age and position and how they produced in the same rookie leagues I'm reluctant to put Russel a head of either of them. I'm only going to 15 with the vote so 13 / 14 will be determined by this vote. Number 15 will be a write in vote as there are too many players to put in a poll.

Top Ten
1.James McDonald
2. Ivan DeJesus
3. Andrew Lambo
4. Scott Elbert
5. Ethan Martin
6. Josh Lindblom
7. Austin Gallagher
8. Josh Bell
9.Chris Withrow
10.Xavier Paul
11.Nathan Eovaldi
12. Jamie Pedroza

Tony Delmonico was our 2008 6th round pick and took his team to the College World Series finals. For us he hit .340 with 20 doubles and 11 home runs in 35 games. Six of those home runs came in the final 10 games of the season. The word is that he is going to transition to catcher as he's a terrible infielder.

Devaris Strange-Gordon just like Delmonico played for Ogden. The 2008 3rd round pick didn't hit like Delmonico but he's a year younger and everyone was raving about his defense at SS. He may now be the fastest player in the organization stealing 18 bases in only 60 games with a 78% success rate.

Poll

Prospect Number 13

Confidence in the face of reality

ToyCannon — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:33:28 -0000

I'm not sure I've ever been as confident as this man is as he faces a life without legs. It is a stirring picture of a man who has yet to give into reality. A man I would have been proud to pay tribute with the other 100,000 fans.

Many good things happened in 1958 for Dodgers fans but easily the worse thing that happened was his accident in January of 1958 just weeks short of joining the Dodgers for their move to Los Angeles.

50 years of Dodger Baseball

ToyCannon — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:46:30 -0000

The Los Angeles Dodgers and I were born in the same year and close to the same place. I came out crying in Pasadena while the Dodgers birthed several miles to the South. As my 50th birthday passes into the night, the one constant in my life has been my Dodger fandom. Much to much of my life has been spent worrying about this team. Is it a pathetic thing to say that not a day has probably passed in 40 years where I didn't think at least once about them?

Best offensive players born in 1958

I have no idea why I became a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as we moved not long after I was born, and my family began a journey of a new city every year for the next 11 years. I didn't see my first live Dodger game until I was 11. Maybe it was my Grandparents who lived in Glendale and were weaned like many of you on Dodger baseball by Vin Scully. Maybe it was my brother Chris who liked them and that rubbed off on me. For whatever reason from the time I could determine symbols the Dodgers were my team. I'd go through my brother's baseball cards before I could read and pick out any player with the Dodger symbol on their hat and put it aside. It is one of my earliest memories but as time has moved on I've collected more then my mind can hold.

Best pitchers born in 1958

Listening to armed forces radio as Willie Davis dropped 3 flyballs in the 66 World Series and the unbeatable Sandy Koufax was beaten. At the time I listened to the game with my family but I understood little of what was actually happening other then the fact it was bad, very bad.

Bill Sudakis hitting a solo home run on the game of week when I saw the Dodgers play baseball on TV for the first time ever.

Bill Grabarkewitz hitting a solo home run and Don Sutton pitching a 1 - 0 shutout for my first game at Dodger Stadium

Watching a double header against the Big Red Machine in the bleachers with my Dad turning purple under the sun after six hours of baseball sometime in the early 70's.

Jimmy Wynn, Mike Marshal and the young Dodger infield giving me my first taste of postseason Dodger baseball

World Series despair in 74, 77, and 78 after playoff heroics

Final three games against Houston in the 80 season

Fernando mania and a real world championship for the Dodger infield, complete with a kickass defeat of the Yankee's by winning the final four games.

Pedro Guerrero smash n smile during the mid 80's

Improbable 1988 Championship hoisted on the shoulders of Orel and Gibby

Piazza time

Shawn Green time

Lima time & Beltre Bombs

Dodger thoughts and a newly found Dodger community

Writing for True Blue over the last year and a half has been a godsend for me. While I've been making my living over the last 30 years in the application business software side I yearned to do something related to baseball. When Jon suggested to Andrew that I write here when he needed to concentrate on work I figured he was trying to get rid of my paragraph size comments at Dodger Thoughts. Having something to say has always come easy to me, writing it down in a coherent manner with little knowledge of writing skills seemed daunting. I didn't think I could pull it off without embarrassing myself and felt it would be a short gig. One year and a half later you are all still stuck with me. I've muddled through but I'm fully aware of my writing limitations made even more so when I wrote a few stories for SportsHubLa and discovered what an editor does.

This little blog only gets about 300 daily visitors but it feels big to me. After 50 years I can say for the first time I'm doing something I really enjoy. Writing about the Dodgers is about as good as it gets in my book, the fact that you actually take the time to read what I write keeps my trying. I know this blog is missing an important component when Andrew takes his fall vacations but in the meantime we will muddle through. My Andruw Jones endorsement is a red flag about any advice I might give, My Jeff Kent call is the counter to my Andruw Jones endorsement. I'm going to be wrong alot, after 50 years I'm good at being wrong, but hey this is baseball where Jose Lima pitched the greatest game I've ever seen at Dodger Stadium. What were the odds of that? I know I've made you think about the Dodgers, laugh at Ned, shed a tear when I remember my friends, give you updates on the prospects, while all the while wincing at my grammar. I sometimes go where Dodgers baseball cannot follow, but many of you understand when I go there.

Thanks for reading, thanks for taking the time to comment.

Starting to Sweat

ToyCannon — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:51:18 -0000

In the fall of 2006 I had several worries. I didn't want to sign Soriano, Matthews, or Juan Pierre. On Nov 20th, Soriano signed a crazy 8 year deal with the Cubs. Now only two players were left to worry about. I tried to think good thoughts about Ned but I knew he would love the way Pierre played the game and would be fooled by the 2005 year of Matthews. He had signed Rafy Furcal to a contract that I loved and 2nd half Furcal in 2005 made the signing look good. He had made some deals that didn't work out in 2005 but he did bring in Ethier for a player he had to deal. In the fall of 2006 most of my skepticism about Ned was based on expectation not on actions.

Juan Pierre was the name at the top of my list that I didn't want us making a long term commitment with. Even with the rumor mill saying he was headed for the Giants I couldn't shake this uncomfortable feeling that I'd be seeing Juan Pierre more then I wanted. Sure enough almost two years ago Juan Pierre signed a horrific deal with the Dodgers on the same day the Angels made an equally misjudgment when they signed Matthews. Our local teams both swallowed the bait and have been paying the price ever since. Still I never imagined that Juan Pierre would get 5 years. 5 years!!!

As we ended the season one of bigger holes on the Dodgers is at SS. Everyone seemed to think we could just resign Furcal to a short term contract so he could rebuild his value after missing most of the year to back surgery and killing us defensively in the championship series. Instead his value seems to have grown and rumors of him getting 3 and 4 year dealers abound. The Dodgers only got about one year of above average play out of him over his three year deal so we can understand the skepticism of giving him another three year deal. Our internal options are not very strong. Chin-Lung Hu looked like our future SS at this time but his 2008 was as bad as it gets. His early offensive woes were blamed on vision problems but it never sounded like they really got those resolved. He can surely pick it well enough but you can't carry a Belanger these days, not with this offense. Will Joe Torre give him another chance? Is his vision problems solved? Was that really the problem or is simply not a major league hitter? Further down the chain we have DeJesus who ate up AA and is currently eating up the Puerto Rican League. Between those two stints however he sucked in the AFL and basically was called out for his sloppy play by John Sickels and some scouts. Is he ready to step up?

On the free agent terrain we have Renteria and Cabrera . Two long time shortstops whose better days are long past, and in Cabera's case they weren't that good to begin with. Renteria on the other hand was at times one of the best shortstops in the NL and is only one year removed from a solid year for the Braves in 2007. Renteria appears to be headed to the Giants.

I'm sorry to say I can't shake the feeling that Cabrera is coming our way. I hope these are unjustified worries but if Cabrera is not coming, what do you do. I can't imagine them going with Hu and DeJesus. Really what do you do? I fully expected Furcal to be a Dodger in 2009 and I'm shocked with the interest he has drawn. Didn't the A's just spend the last 5 years waiting for Crosby to get healthy and now they are going to sign a guy to a deal who hasn't been healthy for 2 out of 3 years and just had back surgery?

It would be so ironic if the A's signed Furcal, and we took a flyer on Crosby, who decided in 2009 to fulfill his promise after the A's give up on him.

Beating a dead horse

ToyCannon — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:14:54 -0000

Continue voting for the Prospects here.

Back on July 26th, the Dodgers acquired Casey Blake and I've been simmering mad ever since. I understood at the time of the trade that we were hurting at 3rd base and I accepted the deal. My pot didn't start boiling until Peter Gammons reported that we included Carlos to offset the two million still owed Blake. Baseball America a more trustworthy site then Peter Gammons reported the same thing when they talked about how the Indians were able to acquire Carlos.

The Dodgers wanted Casey Blake to fill a hole at third base, but they also didn't want to pick up any of the roughly $2 million in salary remaining on his contract. In return for paying Blake's remaining salary, the Indians were able to increase their return, getting Santana along with righthander John Meloan

The pot hasn't boiled over yet, but with the news last week that Carlos Santana is now the numero uno prospect for the Cleveland Indians it doesn't appear that my simmering will go away.

If you do a search on Carlos Santana you will find 38 entries for him at True Blue starting in August of 2007. I started writing here in July of 2007 and within a month I wrote my first post about Carlos Santana when he came to life in the MWL, producing the best offensive output for a prospect in July, even while playing in the tough MWL.

That however was not the beginning of my appreciation of Carlos. Way back before he was even a catcher Nate Purcell had mentioned we had a prospect named Carlos Santana. I love Carlos Santana, I can listen to his guitar work for hours and in fact am listening to it right now. So I checked his namesake out and was intrigued with his solid OB skills combined with a modicum of power. Over the next few years if any question was asked of BP or BA about Carlos Santana before this year you can bet it was me asking the question. At the time I felt he'd be lucky to have a big league career and I was only intrigued because very few Dominicans display excellent plate discipline at that age. When I found out he was going to be moved to catcher, it gave me hope that he'd hit enough to be able to carve out a real career. As much as I liked him, his July in 2007 kind of came out of nowhere and for the rest of the year he was awful. Still that July kept me intrigued and he made my top 30 Dodger list.

No one, and I mean no one saw 2008 coming. He started hitting from day one and then got better and better. Still no one heard of him, he never made the BA prospect list that they send out every day to subscribers. He never made the BA Hot List until after he was traded even though he was tearing it up every week. Maybe he was too consistent. Anyway he was ignored by everyone until we traded him and then all the sudden people took notice of what he'd been doing all year long. Some shrugged it off and said it was the easy California League and an anomaly. That train of thought went into the dumpster when he was assigned to the Cleveland Indiand A+ Carolina League Kingston, Ohio team. In 105 at bats for that team he produced an OPS of 1.042. To show you how impressive that was, the closest person to him in OPS on that team weighed in at .879 and that was Beau Mills the Indians 2007 number one pick. He capped off his wonderful season by being named the MVP of the California League. Even the renowned Keith Law can't get it right. In a recent chat someone asked this question about Carlos.

O (Pittsfield, MA): If Carlos Santana is so great, how did the Indians land him for Blake?

Keith Law: The Dodgers have Martin, Colletti doesn't value prospects that highly, and Santana (like a few other prospects dealt midyear, like Tabata) really took off after the deal.

Wrong, the numbers he put up in the Cal League where he won the MVP were all done before the deal.

Now everyone has noticed that the Indians have a switch hitting catcher, with great plate discipline, combined with growing power. BA sure noticed because they made him the Indians number one prospect. That means, he is ranked higher then Matt LaPorta the guy who the Indians got in return for CC Sabbathia.

Think about that. The Indians gave up CC Sabbathia for Matt LaPorta. The Indians gave up Casey Blake for Carlos Santana. Carlos Santana is currently ranked as a better prospect then Matt LaPorta. Granted, Michael Brantly and Jon Meloan were also included in these deals but they cancel themselves out.

Did anyone cry baseball rape?

My anger sprays in all directions.

1. At Andy LaRoche for doing such a poor job of showing the Dodgers he could handle the job in 2008 and beyond. We can all make excuses for his poor showing, but this was his 2nd stint and he is 24 years old. The at bats weren't many before they decided he wasn't the answer but he didn't prove them wrong with such an anemic display with the Pirates.

2. Frank McCourt for requiring that Ned make sure that we didn't take on any salary during these deadline deals. Who are we, the Padres? The Marlins? Were selling prospects? Embarrassing

3. Ned and staff for not finding someone else to sell. If you are going to badmouth your current catcher about his defense and partying you might want to hold onto your best catching prospect and get them to take someone else to offset the salary. Or better yet, realize that Casey Blake is Casey Blake, not someone you trade a top prospect for. Based on the comments by Ned, I don't even think they knew what they had in Santana as he made some silly remarks about him being unable to stay at catcher. That only matters if you are an average hitter, when you start hitting like Carlos who cares where you end up? 3rd base is still a position that the Dodgers seem light on if that is where he ends up.

I wouldn't be irritated at all if Santana had been the guy we traded for Manny instead of LaRoche. Hell, he's the better prospect right now. What gets my goat is that he was the guy we traded for Casey Blake. Reverse the whole thing I wouldn't care. So why do I care since the the net result is the same. Beats me, but I'm sure going to miss writing about Carlos Santana and Dodger fans are going to miss watching him play in Chavez Ravine.