It Is Not Baseball If There Is Not Some AL East Drama

East Coast

Yep, those Yankees are at it again. Just a week or so after people left them for dead and more than a few baseball commentators and analysts said they were done, the yankees sweep the Red Sox at home to put them just five games behind the Red Sox.

I for one never saw this coming. I emailed my Red Sox friend that his team could happily do away with the yankees this series. Now they have a nice cushion for the wild card and are in striking distance in the AL east. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. As a dodger fan the yankees are definitely less loved than the red sox. Well at least the pennant race will not be boring down the stretch. Just gives me a little more of a need to check out the red sox pages every few days or so.

West Coast

Meanwhile over in the division that might as well be the unloved stepchild of ESPN the dodgers are holding their own and have not fallen off the gritty win wagon yet. Ned, God bless his little heart, is earnestly trying to keep the dodgers in the division by sewing patches onto the torn out knees of the starting rotation by adding Esteban Loaiza and taking on a 6.5 million dollar commitment to him next year. Thankfully, the Athletics are still responsible pay Loaiza his one million dollar bonus next year. Lose a Wolf, gain a Loaiza I guess. A few writers mentioned that this means the dodgers are done with Wolf. I am not so sure based on the collection of pitchers the dodgers had and kept this season. Wolf and Loaiza are both brittle guys and who they keep may depend on who has the better prognosis. The Loaiza acquisition comes at a much higher price than Wells because Loaiza is more likely to still want to pitch rather than retire next season and Loaiza requires more of a commitment in terms of cash and length of time. Maybe this move also signals that the health of Schmidt for next year is far from a given thing.

What Do I Expect the Dodgers To Do

I think in terms of the rotation the dodgers are going to be hoarders. Penny can't go anywhere so he stays and Ned learned from this year that even 9 or so pitchers may not last you a season so you shouldn't trade any unless you get something very special back. There was much talk of him being shipped off after the Schmidt signing. Lowe will be in his last year and I'd doubt if they move him but this offseason would be the time if they were because you know Boras clients don't sign extensions or give out hometown discounts. Billingsley probably has the safest starting rotation spot of all being so young and cheap. Schmidt can't go anywhere since his contract currently looks like one of these. Another team may still want to take a chance on Kuo despite his injury history because of the combination of being left-handed, throwing pretty hard for a left hander, and not having all that many innings on his arm. I can see Colletti trading this guy if Wolf ends up seeming like he can come back strong next year. Unfortunately it will probably be yet another trade where the consensus is, 'not a terrible move but you could have or should have been able to get more back for him'. I think Hendrickson will be non-tendered. I think Hendy put the final nail in the coffin of his performing best in a long reliever swingman type of a role. You don't pay those guys 4-5 million dollars a year. It would beabout as riciculous as having Brett Tomko be one of your middle relievers for about four million dollars a season--oh wait, that happened. Hendrickson's performance as a reliever versus as starter these last two years may make most other teams shy away from offering him a rotation slot as well if the dodgers cut ties with him. Anyways, I think Stults is more than ready to fill that swingman/long reliever role should they cut ties with Hendrickson and at near the league minimum.

Lowe

Penny

Billingsley

Schmidt

Loaiza/Kuo/Stults/Wolf??/Wells???/Blanton?????*

* The number of question marks symbolize remoteness of the possibility of acquiring or keeping the guy on the dodgers roster

The only other thing I can think of is revisiting a Joe Blanton trade in the offseason. There really aren't any good pitchers on the free agent market unless you like old people. Maybe you take a chance on Jason Jennings and hope he can rebound from a terrible year. Maybe you try to outbid everybody for some posted Japanese arm (not gonna go there because I know nothing about the quality of the guys that may be coming from over here next year). Pickings seem pretty slim. All I know right now is the dodgers have three solid pitchers and then a bunch of question marks.