Back to the Offseason Doings of the Dodgers

The biggest potential story floating around is the public hawking of pitcher Jake Peavy to the league. They say they want pitching. Check. They say they want middle infielders. double check. Would Peavy accept a trade to L.A.? Triple check. The dodgers have a bunch of middle infield prospects. There's Chin-Lung Hu. There's Tony Abreu. There's Blake DeWitt. There's Ivan DeJesus Jr.. There are some even younger players that are more projects like Don Mattingley's son, Preston.

But the padres also want pitching. Maybe the dodgers sell the padres on Broxton as an excuse to not pay Trevor Hoffman, which would cause the dodgers to come off slightly cheaper. One infielder and a reliever do not a Jake Peavy trade make, however. I think the dodgers would have to balk at Kershaw and Billingsley. Anyone else they have to consider. They'd probably like Elbert. I think they would really like McDonald because of his control type pitching. If they want even younger pitching that's a year or so away the dodgers have Bryan Morris still. The dodgers let so many good young pitchers go. It's a shame. I really liked Hanrahan but the nationals picked him up as a minor league free agent. The dodgers need to be a bit more aggresive in promoting pitching prospects so that pitchers aren't defecting because they feel the dodgers will never give them a chance on the big club.

I'd be very curious to see the padres scouting report on Hong-Chi Kuo. He doesn't count as young pitching, but the padres are the type of team that would take him and put him right into the starting rotation and ride him out. He's off and on as a starter (like any other starter) but he was mostly dominant as a reliever. He's still cheap, but not under control for as long as the pads probably would like. Still, he's ready to pitch now and with the team exploding, he's a good stopgap type of pitcher to have. Maybe they'd take him, but that still wouldn't be enough.

There's a few wildcards that may come into the mix. Padres still need a center fielder. They may take Pierre for two years as long as he's paid for, lowering the amount of prospects they net. Pierre isn't the type of guy the padres would like, but when you're blowing up the team, you just want a cheap, warm body that plays everyday. Pierre meets those requirements. Brad Penny might also be someone they could take on to keep fans happy as long as the dodgers pay most of his salary. I think they'd take Penny before Pierre. Penny at least has name recognition and the team line could be that the padres got a good starting pitcher plus 2 more pitching prospects and a new shortstop all in one fell swoop. Blow up team while still seeming to improve team.

My head is spinning with all the possibilities. I really don't know what will happen. Probably somebody I didn't take seriously enough to mention gets dealt. I'll scratch my head and stuff and then a few minutes later kinda sorta figure it out. I'm pretty sure about one thing though. Padres won't trade him to the braves. The braves aren't going to trade Jurjens. Peavy doesn't help the braves enough in the short term to make them a winner. The braves don't have enough good infielders to be trading them away.

Puck wasn't sure last night if she could cheer when Aybar hit that homer. She loved him as a 51 when he was in Vegas, before all of his personal problems began.