The Trolley Dodger

What if the rumored Adrian Gonzalez/Heath Bell to the Dodgers trade was only Part 1? What if Part 2 is the Blue Jays wanting Broxton as part of a Roy Halladay deal? Might explain the George Sherrill deal as a backup plan. Or flipping Bell to Toronto in a 3-team deal?

Yikes. This last hour of the trade deadline is always nerve-wracking.

UPDATE: Well, much ado about nothing, as usual. :) Barring some August waiver-wire deals, this is it.

Let’s say you’re the GM of the non-existent MLB franchise Poughkeepsie Pachyderms. In this alternate universe, you have a 24-year-old Roy Halladay and a 21-year-old Cliff Lee at the top of your pitching rotation, with three serviceable pitchers in the other spots. The Pachyderms have these two aces under contract for five years at cheap prices. They are already good, and they will only improve. Virtually everyone who has scouted the pair raves about where they are at for their ages, not to mention their amazing potential.

Why in the name of all that is holy would you trade either of these young guns to get a 31-year-old pitcher who will cost you over $10 million a year? Oh, and he’s only yours for one full season and part of another, with no guarantees he’ll stick around after that.

The Dodgers are in that position right now with Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw. Why would we trade either one of our aces, both of whom will otherwise be in Dodger Blue (and cheap) for years?

They are both good right now, whether you go by stats or by observation. They both will likely be great by next year.

Yes, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are awesome pitchers. It would be killer to have either one of them in Dodger Blue. But if getting one of them costs us Bills or Clayton, the price is too high. Why trade for one or two years’ worth of increased chances for the World Series when we could have five years’ (or more!) worth of increased chances?

Doesn’t make sense to me, and I’ll bet it doesn’t make sense to Dodger management either.

Now Roy or Cliff plus Bills and Kershaw as the 1-3?

Heh heh heh. [evil laugh]

Hey, Plaschke — remember when you were saying that Manny didn’t deign to acknowledge his fans on his first game back in Dodger Stadium? You wrote a big article about it, “Manny Ramirez shows little gratitude to his fans”, on July 17th.

Let me refresh your memory:

The citizens showed up early in hopes that the mayor would come out early to greet them.

He didn’t.

The citizens began cheering as he ran out for the start of the game in hopes that the mayor would acknowledge them.

He wouldn’t.

The citizens chanted his name as he finished his first warm-up tosses in hopes that the mayor would at least throw them the ball.

He threw it in the left-field stands instead.

After blowing off honesty, accountability and one-third of the season, Manny Ramirez did something more egregious in his return to Dodger Stadium on Thursday.

He blew off Mannywood.

In the first inning of his first appearance in a left-field corner adorned with the “Mannywood 99″ banner and filled with hundreds of loving fans who paid a premium for their proximity, Ramirez acted as if none of it existed.

Talk about splitting hairs. Of course, you don’t have a bias about this story, do you, Bill?

No, of course you don’t.

Trying to spin his first appearance back in left field like he blew off his fans (the “official” Mannywood or not) is just wrong.

Stick with the mascots, Bill. I think you found your calling in Lake Elsinore.

Update: I missed Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness catching this on Friday. I enjoyed their post title: “Bill Plaschke Lies to You and Hates Dodger Stadium”. :)

Considering how much consternation that Manny, Dodger fans, and Dodger Stadium are causing Bill Plaschke, he might be better off just skipping the games. For both his sanity and ours.

The stuff he writes when he does attend has so little to do with what’s going on down on the field that there’s really no point in him being there. (Unless it’s for the free press box Dodger Dogs.) If he insists on “covering” the team, he might well just stay home.

Maria Serrao, a fixture in LA sports reporting currently with COX/RPV-TV (and one of the folks featured in Bluetopia) put together a short feature on the three Italians at the top of the Dodgers organization — Tommy Lasorda, Joe Torre, and Ned Colletti. And The Dodgers Italian Connection just won an award.

[It] was my pleasure to sit down with these three men and talk about their Italian heritage. As a result the feature called the “Italian Story” won a National award this week, called The Telly.

Maria has also started up a sports blog recently called, appropriately, Maria Serrao’s Sports Blog.