Thursday, June 19, 2008

Would You Trade Matt Kemp for a First-Round Playoff Loss?

Those pesky Matt Kemp trade rumors just won't die. From Tim Brown at Yahoo! Sports:

It’s a fluid time of year. Expectations and organizational directions are being reconsidered, some strongly so. The Dodgers, for one, are waiting on Rafael Furcal and Andruw Jones to heal, waiting on Brad Penny and Hiroki Kuroda to heal and then pitch like front-of-the-rotation starters, waiting on their young players to string together some professional at-bats. And, even then, they no longer have the vaguest notion of what a healthy Jones can give them. Actually, they have a strong suspicion, which is worse. As pricy as [Matt] Holliday would be, the Rockies likely would jack up the cost on a trade inside the NL West, and then the Dodgers could watch Matt Kemp become Holliday at Coors Field.

I realize just because Tim Brown is writing it doesn't mean that Ned Colletti is thinking it. And it's a stretch to assume a power bat allows the Dodgers to win the division, as my title suggests. But the point is this year's post-season will be just like that of 2006, with the NL West going one-and-out in the first round. I'd rather let the Diamondbacks take that hit, and keep our homegrown power bat.

2 comments:

karina said...

Agree, Orel. They can't or shouldn'tlet the young players go. In fact, they should lock them on large contracts. For the very first time in years we have an exciting bunch of homegrown players, we have to be patient. In fact (i think i've said this before), if the youngsters had played more time together last season, maybe the Dodgers would have been first place in the NL West this season.

Alex said...

Bottom line is that we have our pricey old power hitter. His name is Andruw Jones and he's the biggest bust of all time.