Monday, March 26, 2007

Dodgers Gain Clark; Trade Dessens; Lose Repko for Season

The Elmer Dessens era is over, as Dessens was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for Brady Clark and $2.1M.

Clark gives the Dodgers a replacement for Jason Repko, whose severely injured left hamstring is expected to keep him sidelined for several months. Repko was the only right-handed hitting outfielder set to make the team because the Dodgers want power-hitting prospect Matt Kemp to play every day at triple A.

Clark, 33, batted .263 with four home runs and three stolen bases in 138 games last season. His best year came in 2005 when he batted .306 with 13 home runs and 10 stolen bases in 599 at-bats. "It gives us a very capable player who plays hard, plays all three outfield spots and is a baseball player," said General Manager Ned Colletti said, who added that his scouts say Clark "does a lot of things major league average. He's an average hitter."

Not exactly the rousing endorsement from Neddie ("we're trading to get Mr. Average"). But given the news on Repko, we were kinda stuck:

Repko has two torn tendons in his hamstring close to the pelvis and will be sidelined for at least five months. Dr. Neal El Attrache will perform surgery Wednesday in L.A. to reattach the tendons.

"The prognosis is good, the time frame is bad," Conte said. "This requires the tendon to be regrown back on the bone. So essentially, he will miss the season."

Conte said the injury is rare in baseball but fairly common in football. It occurred while Repko was running for a fly ball in a game Thursday. The hamstring gave out when he stepped from the grass to the warning track.

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that Dr. Attrache will be doing the reattach? Pretty ironic anagrams. Next they'll be telling me that Stan Conte Can't Stone, or that Nomar Garciaparra has No Air, A Rag Arm, Crap.

6 comments:

Delino DeShields, Sr said...

I think this is even more of a compliment for Clark: "(he) is a baseball player"

Steve Sax said...

Wow, I can't believe I missed that one. You're right.

"It gives us a very capable player who plays hard, plays all three outfield spots and is a baseball player," said General Manager Ned Colletti said....

Apparently Clark passed all three screens (that last one was a doozy). Nice to know that Colletti isn't looking for (a) players who don't play hard; (b) players that are limited to only two outfield spots; or (c) horse-racing jockeys, race car drivers, or jai-alai players.

Hallux Valgus said...

the fact that Colleti threw in "and is a baseball player" indicates that he realized his folly in the acquisition of Lance Carter.

Steve Sax said...

Hey now, salsa. Julio Lugo wasn't much of a baseball player, either (at least for the Dodgers).

Hallux Valgus said...

Baez, Hendrickson... I guess we can all agree that the Devil Rays are only tangentially populated by baseball players.

Lasorda said...

Well, I think some might argue that the Devil Rays have quite a few blue-chippers: Young, Dukes, Upton, Brignac, Crawford, Baldelli, Kazmir, et al. The problem from the Dodgers perspective is that Trader Neddie doesn't trade for these good guys (raise your hand if you think that Baldelli would have been a better fit at CF than Juan Pierre). Instead, he gets freakin' Lugo and Hendrickson.