The Trolley Dodger

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.

In response to a question over on Reddit, “Where would you rank Clayton Kershaw among today’s elite starting pitchers and who’s ahead of him, if anyone?”

Bringing some stats in,

WHIP (NL)

Hamels, C (PHI) 0.99
Kershaw, C (LAD) 1.02
Harstens, J (PIT) 1.04
Halladay, R (PHI) 1.05
Hanson, T (ATL) 1.06
Lee, C (PHI) 1.07

Freakin’ Phillies. ;)

Other Kershaw NL stats:

OBA .209 (4th)
SO 167 (1st)
ERA 2.72 (5th)
Wins 11 (tied for 2nd with four other guys)

By the way, those five guys in the top 6 in WHIP? Here’s another stat for you:

Hamels 28
Kershaw 23
Harstens 28
Halladay 34
Hanson 24
Lee 32

That’s how old they are. And Hanson will be 25 in a month.

In an Al Jazeera opinion piece, Dave Zirin weighs in on the current situation: “Dodger’s bankruptcy reveals much about the US”

Much has been said about the business practices of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his battle against the efforts of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig to forcibly seize the team. But what does an insolvent Dodgers franchise say about the state of America in the 21st century?

Maybe it says nothing at all. Maybe it’s as simple as saying that Frank McCourt mismanaged the team. Yes it’s true that McCourt looks terribly incompetent and used the team as a personal ATM to live a lifestyle that would shame Caligula.

But that doesn’t explain the broader economic crisis in the sport. It doesn’t explain why the Texas Rangers in 2010, on the road to the World Series, had to be auctioned off at a bankruptcy sale. It doesn’t explain why the New York Mets, playing in the game’s biggest market, are flat broke after team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz thought Bernie Madoff would make a fine personal investment banker. It doesn’t explain why Selig, when he crows about baseball’s rosy financial picture, sounds like he’s living in the last days of disco.

But more than anything else, it doesn’t explain how – of all teams – the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves in this crucible of humiliation. The Dodgers are arguably the most culturally significant franchise in the history of American sports. It’s the team of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela, and Hideo Nomo.

That’s more than just a tradition. That’s a Ken Burns epic.