Thursday, March 29, 2012

Dear New Owners: Please...

1. Long-term Clayton Kershaw. Self-explanatory.

2. Figure out Andre Ethier. Can he remain healthy enough to bat next to Matt Kemp? Was that Gold Glove a true indicator of his defensive talent? Can his dickishness be overlooked? If yes to all three, lock him up.

3. Put Ned Colletti on notice. He may have been handcuffed lately, but that doesn't excuse poor signings like Jason Schmidt, Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, Juan Uribe, etc. Logan White, Kim Ng and/or De Jon Watson are waiting in the wings.

4. Find us a catcher. It's arguable if Russell Martin is the one that got away, but it's less arguable that A.J. Ellis is the long-term solution. Ever since the Carlos Santana debacle (which was preceded by the Mike Piazza debacle), the backstop position has been a source of great inconsistency.

5. Sign some free agents. Cole Hamels and Matt Cain will be free agents after this season, and Joey Votto will be after 2013. Just some names to consider.

6. Beef up Dodger Stadium security, unobtrusively and consistently. When Frank McCourt did it, it seemed reactionary. When you do it, it'll seem responsible.

7. Restore international scouting and player development. The Dodgers were once forerunners in this field, and it's time for them to return there.

8. Make Magic the public face of the franchise. We love Magic, have you noticed?

9. Get players out in the community. To be fair, the Dodgers did a good job of this under the McCourt regime, but it's more important for guys like Kemp and Kershaw to show their faces around town than, say, forcing new signees to make donations to ThinkCure.

10. No nepotism, no Vladimir Shpunt, no "perquisites." Thank goodness you dudes are already loaded, because the McCourts' nouveau riche act wore thin really fast.

11. Lower beer and parking prices. Show Arte Moreno who owns L.A.!

8 comments:

MeanieBreanie said...

And so let it be!

karina said...

Very well said, Orel. Specially on the international scouting front, they should not only look for talent in the Dominican Republic, there's plenty of talent in the Caribbean, including Panama, Colombia, Aruba and Curazao, in Central-North America: Mexico and other countries like Nicaragua and Honduras, baseball is growing on those countries.

In Venezuela, they have a sort of agreement with Tiburones de La Guaira, but it seems it is more of the type "i"ll allow some of my good -not elite farm-players to play in your team during winter baseball" but they could deepen those agreements and use those local scouts to look for talent, it's worked for teams like Blue Rays, Phillies, Astros, Mariners and Pirates, to name a few.

Greg Hao said...

2. Figure out Andre Ethier. - No. He's an overrated RF who can't hit lefties. He's passed his sell by date. Ship his ass out.

3. Put Ned Colletti on notice. - FIRE HIS ASSSSSSS. For the Magic/Kasten/Walter group to have generated any more positive buzz yesterday, they would have announced that ned colletti was clearing out his office right NAO. Colletti's big time signing mistakes are well documented but what people don't talk about are his small deals. Up and down the line Colletti has made bad signings and shit deals. That the Dodgers are what they are is testament to White, Watson, and formerly Ng.

4. Find us a catcher. - His name is AJ Ellis. You talk about wanting to find stability, by venturing out to look for an established star (which means he'll probably be on the wrong side of the age curve), which would lead to further instability. Ellis gets on base and can call a game. Not every position needs an All-Star. The organization just needs to trust in Ellis.

Neeebs (The Original) said...

You forgot, yard passes (equivalent to a back stage pass) to all SOSG and their followers.

Neeebs (The Original) said...

And, FWIW, I'm not sold on Ethier either. [looks funny side by side.]

Cliff Beefpile said...

I'm really torn on Ethier. He's so full of himself, and a bit overpriced, but he he's got pop and he'd be guaranteed to turn into Babe fuckin' Ruth any time he faced the Dodgers.

And FIRE NED!

Dusty Baker's Toothpick said...

Y'all are being too modest.

Why didn't you tell us you got front page billing on the Yahoo! Big League Stew?

Nicely done!

Franklin Stubbs said...

One of our many, MANY virtuous qualities is our modesty, DBT.