The Trolley Dodger

Well, it wouldn’t be an off-season without a little signing drama. Joe Beimel and the Dodgers still haven’t worked out their monetary differences, according to a story in the Daily News today.

The arbitration hearing for Dodgers reliever Joe Beimel is scheduled for Feb. 9 in Phoenix, leaving team officials nine days to negotiate an agreement to avoid what would be the club’s first such hearing in three years.

Beimel, who made $425,000 last season, is seeking $1.25 million for 2007. The Dodgers filed at $912,500, leaving a gap of $337,500. Talks aimed at reducing that gap appear to have reached an impasse.

And if Joe’s agent Joe Sroba was spinning any harder about BeimelGate during the playoffs, his head would fly off:

“How they choose to use that is up to them,” Sroba said. “We will certainly be responsive to it. It isn’t a positive thing for us, but it was an unfortunate accident.”

Yes, how unfortunate that those lies kept popping out of his mouth. Accidentally.

Speaking of agent spin, here’s the master talking about how the Cardinals didn’t want to be stupid act fairly:

“We just wanted to be treated fairly,” said [Scott] Boras, who cited the four-year, $32 million contract given Derrek [sic] Lowe by the Dodgers after the 2004 season and the three-year, $24.5 million received last month by free-agent starter Adam Eaton from Philadelphia as markers for Weaver’s value.

In the dictionary under “crocodile tears”, there’s a picture of Scott Boras eating a crocodile.

At the very bottom of this Sun-Sentinel.com article, “Sanchez focuses in on return to the big leagues”, a blurb of interest to Dodger fans.

Dontrelle Willis was not among the players in camp Monday, but he plans to move to Jupiter this weekend. Willis, who is awaiting trial on a driving under the influence charge, has been working out with friend and former Marlin Juan Pierre.

Hopefully, Juan is engaging in some sort of hypnosis/brainwashing about Dontrelle coming to LA when he’s a free agent. ;)

Caught this in the Press-Enterprise

The Inland Empire 66ers have hired Loren Foxx as the Dodgers Class A team’s general manager.

Foxx was previously director of communications with the Arena Football League’s Kansas City Brigade. He has also worked in baseball with the independent league Kansas City T-Bones and the Class A Hagerstown Suns.

(Cue X-Files Theme Song.)

You know, they say that Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra were conducting a soccer clinic and bone-marrow drive earlier today in Bellflower, but I think looking at this picture we know the Truth about what’s going on:

That’s right: in utero soccer instruction. The twins are being trained even now to become an unbeatable pair of uber-elite wingers, guaranteeing the United States a win in the 2026 World Cup!

In your face Italy!

Well, he’s no David Lee Roth circa 1984, but Olmedo Saenz is still cutting a dashing figure these days:

Now, I could make a Saenz/signs pun here. In fact, I just did. But in any case, Olmedo is obviously in mid-season form as he signs autographs for kids in Panama City on Friday. Another picture is here, showing a close-up of Olmedo and a spiffy “Estamos Unidos” cap with a US and Panama flag. Apparently, according to the caption, he was speaking with reporters about doping in baseball, while engaged in a charity event in Panama City.

I’m still laughing at the sidebar of that linked page, which looks like this:

It would appear that Olmedo is looking down in disgust at JD Drew’s less-than-graceful slide in the bottom pic. The Killer Tomato, while not known for his baserunning, is also not known for baserunning blunders, unlike JD “I thought I could sneak past the catcher” Drew, finally officially for reals a Red Sock. Probably.