The Trolley Dodger

Reports are coming in that Robbie Keane is on his way to join the LA Galaxy.

Keane is unwanted by Spurs boss Harry Redknapp and said last week that he expected to tie up a move before the end of the transfer window.

The Irish international played in a friendly on Wednesday night against Croatia in Dublin, but is believed to be flying to LA to sign a contract worth a reported $9 million over next two years.

(Cross posted with Celsius1414.com.)

Watching the Galaxy has been a mostly safe escape from the doldrums of Dodger baseball this season, especially with their 14-game unbeaten streak going. However, last night’s “embarrassing defeat” in Portland, combined with the Dodgers’ failure to sweep the Padres (plus continuing bad news), made for some depressing channel switching this year.

The Galaxy will be fine, I’m sure, and the Dodgers…well, sometimes the old maxim about not saying anything if you don’t have anything nice to say is probably a good idea.

With no NFL (yet), no NBA, and the NHL season still to come, I think I’m going to need to find a new escape. As the weather cools down from the summertime 9000-degree heat and humidity out here in the Inland Empire, other options should present themselves.

There’s always the English Premier League, which starts up a week from Saturday. I’ve been following Everton FC ever since Landon Donovan had his stint there. Hopefully they’ll be able to overcome off-field worries and make a good showing.

I thought we were going to get past the Sunday trade deadline relatively unscathed with only a bittersweet goodbye to Rafael Furcal on his way to the Cardinals.

I saw his first at-bat last night, and while it was weird seeing him in red instead of blue, I have to echo one of the comments at Dodger Thoughts — I wish him well no matter what uniform he has on. He was one of my favorite Dodgers, and I’ll miss him.

Someone I’m missing in advance is AAA outfielder Trayvon Robinson, who was shipped off to Seattle in a complicated three-team affair yesterday. I watched Trayvon as far back as the Single-A 66ers. In fact, he played CF at the first 66ers Manny rehab game in 2009 we went to.

There have been cries of “Konerko!” and “Pedro!” about this trade, and I can understand why. However, I can’t get on the tar-and-feather-Ned-Colletti bandwagon just yet until we see what happens with who we got in return – there’s an old truism about trades not being gradeable until several years down the road. But whatever players these three turn out to be, I’m definitely worried about seeing Trayvon excelling in a Mariners uniform some day and none of these guys ever again.

• Tim Federowicz – catching prospect
• Stephen Fife – RHP
• Juan Rodriguez – RHP

There’s also Alex Castellanos, who came back from the Raffy trade.