Joel Sherman has an article up today mostly discussing the fractured relationship between Joe Torre and current Yankees brass. He does dish some McCourt, though:
He left an untenable relationship with Yankees ownership to work for something that has become worse with the Dodgers: deadbeat owners.
The divorcing McCourts have reduced a flagship franchise into an organization that behaves like a scrounging, small-market club. The payroll has diminished to less than the Twins, and the club is among the most penurious in the draft and international market. And the coffers will be closed again come the July trade deadline since Jamie McCourt's claims of co-ownership with Frank McCourt are not to be determined by the courts before August.
The distance from Torre's old job to his current one was stark yesterday: The Yankees were at the White House enjoying a final victory lap for last year's championship while Torre was at Citi Field not yet ready to identify which bottom-of-the-barrel option he was going to start tomorrow in place of the injured Vicente Padilla in what already was a rotation impaired by frugality.
I'm a fairly loud critic of much of the McCourts' actions, but I wouldn't go as far as Sherman does here. Characterizing them as "deadbeats" is a little much; they haven't abandoned the franchise. Not every parent that can't afford to buy their kid the nicest toys is a deadbeat. While it is true--and frustrating and apalling and ridiculous--that the Dodgers are operating like something much less than Los Angeles' premier sports franchise, they're still trying.
As for the trade deadline...well, I'm as curious as you are. The division is eminently winnable--seriously, a couple games over .500 might get this done. It will certainly be close enough that one or two parts can make a difference. We've known all along that this club's biggest concern was depth in the outfield and quality fill-ins for gaps in the starting rotation. Here we are with Manny Ramirez and Vicente Padilla on the disabled list. And yes, the club is struggling.
But I'm nowhere close to ready to even downgrade my hopes for this team. Maybe I'm being naive, but I really believe that the money will be there to fill in holes come June and July. Hopefully, the spousal support issue will be settled by then and the Dodgers can quit trying to pretend to be poor.
Oh, and as for Sherman...just two-and-a-half months ago, he wrote this article titled "Mets' failure to sign bargain players goes beyond Minaya." In it, he criticized the Mets for failing to close on players like jon Garland, Doug Davis, and Bengie Molina. So I guess I'm a little mixed up as to the message we're supposed to take away...are cheap retreads...bad?...good?
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Over at The Hardball Times today, I took a look at the Ryan Howard extension. I hope you'll go read it, but I'll give away the ending: it's a really dumb move. Remember this sort of thing when people crush the Dodgers for not being in on the mega-contract free agents.
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Losing both games to the Mets tonight and you wouldn't go as far as Sherman does? Stop going easy on these broke chowderheads. Screw them both and send them both out of town.
ReplyDeleteYou too, McCourt Junior.
Having two Ortizes wreck the pen, Kuo and Belisario missing most of the season and still rounding into form, Manny and Dre missing time, and Xavier Paul forced to sit behind Anderson are far bigger problems for this season than the McCourts.
ReplyDeleteIt's been like 20 games, people need to relax. It's a LONG season.
Yes, let's blame Manny's calves for not signing Halladay. Let's also blame Dre's ankle for not signing CC. Two Ortizes are the only ones we could afford, but let's not blame Frank for that. Because, like, it's a long season.
ReplyDeleteIf we had Halladay, you can pretty much bet we'd be without Kemp or Kershaw. And signing a guy like Sabathia long-term is a dangerous proposition.
ReplyDeleteThere's lots of things that haven't gone according to plan thus far, and certainly the key issue is just how thin the roster is. Did the McCourts cause that? Maybe. It'd be awfully nice to still have Hudson and Wolf.
But in the context of last offseason, I'm not sure how the Dodgers were supposed to get that much better without sacrificing key pieces. There was no room in the outfield to add Holliday, Bay, or Cameron. It's reasonable to give Martin and Loney another season. Maybe the club could have gone after Figgins to play second?
If we had Carlos Santana, according to a lot of rumors, we would have Halladay, Kemp, and Kershaw. However, he was required because the McCourts were too cheap to pay for Blake's salary.
ReplyDeleteNo, wait. The last sentence should read, "he was required because of Raffy's hammy," because, for the love of God, it's not Frank's fault.
And the Two Ortizes... JHC, who couldn't see that train wreck coming.
I cannot express how pissed off I am about the state of my Dodgers. Unfortunately due to the Mccourts divorce I am afraid this may continue for the next few years to come. Their inability to shore up the starting pitching in the offseason has proven to me that they have decided not to give this team a chance. Maybe Frank needs to devalue the team so he will only have to give half to his ex-wife at a much lower value. The fact that she needs 1 million a month makes me want to puke and shoot myself in the head at the same time!!!! These people are DISGUSTING!!!! I lost my job a year ago and the only thing that kept me together last year was watching my team compete. Well, Mccourts, here I am still out of a job struggling like everyone else in this world right now and you two have the gaul to not spend a dime on the team while spending millions on vacation homes and lawyers. The only thing we can do to force the Mccourts hand is to BOYCOTT ALL GAMES until they show us that they are willing to invest in this team as much as we all have everytime we go to a game! IF we can cut into attendance I believe this will send a clear message to the Mccourts that DODGER FANS will NOT stand for their BULLSHIT and continue to feed their wallets while they DO NOTHING to improve this team. I WILL NOT GO TO ANOTHER GAME until they do SOMETHING about our pitching!!! PLEASE join me Dodger fans…We have to send these people a message!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDodger Chris
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ReplyDelete