Mission Accomplished

A few things happened while I slept, like the dodgers largely completing their offseason.  First, Kent made it official that he is returning for the '08 season over on the official dodgers site. Oh well, so much for a much improved infield defense or decent trade bait.  It's no secret I dislike Kent as he just seems like a jerkasaurus, but then again baseball isn't a popularity contest, it's a sports competition.  This isn't too much of a surprise seeing as the dodgers added a legitimate power threat that will allow him to be Robin again to Andrew Jones' batman like he was to Barry back when Kent was on the giants.

The next items are more about who the Padres didn't get as opposed to who they did get.  They did nab Wolf a while ago, but they lost out on what I think is a greater need in losing Fukudome to the cubs, and Milton Bradley to the rangers.  The Padres now need to scrounge up two outfielders now.  Giles, injured a bit last year might still be in the midst of a decline. Their consolation prize for not landing the talented Fukudome?  Tadahito Iguchi, an offensively average player who's offense figures to decline going from hitter friendly parks in Philadelphia and Chicago to San Diego's spacious Petco Park.  Not much of a consolation to a team where second base has been troubling for a few years now, and who are also much in need of more offense in a division in the midst of a bats race as well as an arms race.

Speaking of arms races the dodgers made another important move by getting Hiroki Kuroda to choose the dodgers over the mariners on a three year deal.  It is believed that Seattle had offered Kuroda more money.  Was it having Saito as his teammate again that tipped the scales? Was it the recent losing ways of the team in Seattle that made Kuroda turn away from more money to sign with L.A.?  I don't know.  You'd think having Ichiro manning center field for you defensively would mean something.  

Well I'm glad he signed with L.A.  Maybe Ned was pretty sure he would get Kuroda to let his leftovers in Randy Wolf slide on over to his southern rival. Kuroda should be a solid starter, meaning the dodgers won't have a mish-mash of arms having to take over in the starter's role past the midpoint of the season because of tiring and injuries (knock on wood).  I think the scouting reports of Kuroda's current stuff are overblown, but his numbers speak for themselves.  He pitches a lot of innings.  He completes a lot of games.  And while he doesn't strike out too many people he is very stingy with base on balls allowed.  

The boosted defense by adding Jones, Furcal's return to health, and committing to LaRoche at least part time was enough to improve the dodgers' pitching alone.  Adding Kuroda makes one of the league's best pitching staffs even better.  At least better than the padres.   The dodgers will go with a staff that looks something like Penny, Lowe, Billingsley, Kuroda, and some combination of Schmidt, Kuo, Loaiza, Hendrickson, McDonald, Kershaw, and Meloan. 

Hendrickson, with the addition of Kuroda, is even more likely be non-tendered now than before.  Don't count him out though as Colletti does like depth and last year he changed the focus of that fetish from middle infielders to pitching.  Meloan is there more for fun, but there was a report that Meloan would get a chance to try pitching as a starter again.  Sounds good to me.  If this is the case it's less likely he could win a job out of spring training, but we may see him sometime in July or September if he's been successful as a starter in Vegas. Jason Schmidt doesn't even have to pitch much better than Tomko or Mark Hendrickson now. I have no doubt that if he pitches that badly he'll be dl'd and someone else will get a shot. 

I still haven't gotten to the most important part about this signing.  The dodgers signing Kuroda means Matt Kemp is staying put because they have no more need to try to trade for a starting pitcher like Johan Santana.  Santana might have been worth it, but I don't think anyone else that could have been available would have been.  A lot of names got brought up like Erik Bedard, Dan Haren, and Joe Blanton, but who cares anymore as the dodgers shored up their pitching (which they arguably didn't really need to do) while the padres' roster languishes without improving very much despite trying to.

The dodgers' offseason is pretty much complete now except for trading away Juan Pierre so he can play center field somewhere else everyday, getting a backup for Martin (Lieberthal is still available), getting a few bullpen arms (Seanez reportedly has an offer on the table from L.A. and numerous other teams), and digging up a pinch hitter to replace Olmeado Saenz.  Mission accomplished.