Dodgers Stay In Tie For First

Not the most imaginative title. Kuroda has kept it up since coming off the DL with 3 straight quality starts. He's only allowed 1 run a start over 22 1/3 innings. I think it's almost concrete that the money spent on him was well earned by Hiroki. Kemp got his 14'th homer and Loney got a surprising 6'th triple (tied for 6'th in the NL).

Alright, with that out of the way I can discuss the news I read that I didn't quite like this morning. In this LA Times article discussing starting pitcher Brad Penny, it reported that Penny got sent back to the DL like I kinda figured after that rough start he had. Thankfully the dodgers came back to win that one.

But, in addition, the article also speculates that the dodgers buy out the final year of his contract. Whaaat? Makes no sense. Of course Penny is having a not-so-good season, but there are far worse pitchers without Penny's upside making more than Penny right now.

The guy that just pitched last night, Brett Myers, is 3 years younger than Penny, is having a down year, and is going to make 12 million next year. Myers is a good pitcher and he has upside. He's not even really sniffed the type of success Penny has yet and already makes more than Penny.

Aaron Harang is another example. The guy is the same age as Penny, coming off a down year, and is making around 12-13 million dollars a year. John Lackey is what Penny would be pitching like if he weren't currently sucking. Lackey has an '09 team option for $9 million that will certainly be picked up because it's a steal. With the league shortage in quality starting pitchers I don't see the dodgers at the least picking up his option and dealing him if they don't like his chances of coming back next year. You aren't going to find a pitcher on the free agent market for that much of a bargain. It has way more upside than the Randy Wolf signing did, and he was coming off TJ surgery 2 seasons ago. You have to be Brett Tomko, Russ Ortiz, or Esteban Loaiza bad to not be worth $8.75 million in 2009. Last comparison, one that my brother in law will get to see on t.v., Paul freakin' Byrd, Mr. average, makes $7.5 million a year this year! Penny, despite his down year is shoulders above the quality of the caliber of pitchers I just named. There are also easier ways of dumping salary so the team can go after the big free agent fish like C.C. Sabathia than just letting Penny walk if that happens to be their strategy.

I believe I'm giving this notion of the dodgers punting Penny too much serious thought. I don't believe the dodgers will throw him away due to whatever money problems the owner may or may not have. The dodgers will just call this what it is; a down year from Penny and hope for the best next season. At worst the dodgers pick up his extension and trade him to a team willing to gamble on Penny's bouncing back to his sometimes dominant self. Not going to even attempt to name teams that would be interested, but there will definitely be lots of teams that will lose out on the C.C. Sabathia sweepstakes.