Keeping Luis Cruz and Ramon Hernandez on the Los Angeles Dodgers' Roster is Nonsensical By Dustin Nosler | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 3 hours ago Email Share Related Content View Photo Luis Cruz bats against the San Diego Padres on July 13. COMMENTARY | Fans and followers can play armchair general manager, thinking they know better than those who do this for a living. But the Los Angeles Dodgers' front office is making me question their moves so far in 2013 season. It's no secret: Ned Colletti hasn't been the best general manager in his tenure with the Dodgers. Hamstrung by Frank McCourt or not, he still hasn't made the best of moves. The Dodgers are almost printing their own money, yet they're still making player personnel moves like they're the McCourt-run Dodgers. Case and point: Mark Ellis was activated from the 15-day disabled list on May 19. Instead of designating either Luis Cruz or Ramon Hernandez for assignment, the Dodgers instead optioned Tim Federowicz back to Triple-A Albuquerque for the second time this season. Federowicz won the backup catcher job out of spring training and is the best player for the job. But when the Dodgers acquired Hernandez for Aaron Harang in April, Colletti was back to his old ways. Eric Stephen of True Blue LA tweeted the following: "Regardless of what you think of Tim Federowicz & Ramon Hernandez, there is an obvious disconnect between Don Mattingly & Ned Colletti" and "With 3 catchers on roster last 9 games, Mattingly started Federowicz twice & used him as PH 5 times. Hernandez didn't play. At all." It's clear Mattingly has zero confidence in Hernandez, yet he remains on the roster. It's clear Hernandez doesn't have it anymore. He's 1-for-22 this season. On some level, that's worse than Cruz. Speaking of Cruz, there is no reason for him to still be on the active roster, especially since the Dodgers activated an infielder, essentially eliminating any chance Cruz playing regularly. The Cruz experiment is officially over. He's 7-for-73 (all singles) this season. That translates to a .096 batting average. The term "hitting your weight" doesn't apply here, unless Cruz is an aspiring supermodel. The Dodgers not only have better options, but have the financial ability to just let these two players go. Trading Harang for Hernandez saved the club $2 million. Hernandez is due $3.2 million from this season. When the payroll is upward of $230 million, eating roughly 1 percent of the payroll isn't unthinkable. And Cruz is making -- by comparison -- a paltry $505,000. Cruz would easily pass through waivers and have a home with the Isotopes -- where he belongs anyway. It really doesn't matter what happens with Hernandez. He's a 37-year-old who's at the end of his career. He has no value. The time for these types of puzzling roster decisions is over. The Dodgers are well-off enough to ditch a couple of vastly underperforming players like Hernandez and Cruz. Federowicz would replace Hernandez, while Elian Herrera, Justin Sellers or even a guy like Alfredo Amezaga would replace Cruz. This is partly from frustration over the team's play, partly about logic. It is illogical to keep Hernandez and Cruz on the roster. They provide less-than-zero value. There's no room for any player like that on any team, let alone a team expected to contend for the National League pennant.
Via MLBTradeRumors http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/05/nl-west-notes-goldschmidt-gregorius-oswalt.html Dodgers manager Don Mattingly will soon be fired, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal argues. "My guess is that Mattingly gets this series, and if things don’t go better, that’s it," Rosenthal says. "The Dodgers are off Thursday, then begin a five-game homestand against the Cardinals and Angels. You can look it up — managerial changes often occur on off-days before a homestand." The Dodgers are currently 17-25 after being swept by the Braves. Rosenthal notes that GM Ned Colletti might find himself on the hot seat as well, but that the typical pattern is for the manager to be the first out the door. When asked recently whether Mattingly would remain with the Dodgers through the end of the season, team president Stan Kasten replied, "I assume so," but noted that he expected the team to play better. Here's more from the NL West.
This is what pisses me off. So just because Kershaw, Greinke, and Ryu might beat a struggling Brewers team, Don gets to stay? If it is one series that decides the fate...fuck that! I wanna win AND have Don + Ned gone.
Relax...It's not up to you or Rosendouche. He is the one that made that "ultimatum". DBB is as good as gone soon enough...the team will not suddenly turn it around either way, so you'll get at least don out of there.
Holy SHIT! We might be in for a huge shakeup! http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/ Dodgers manager Don Mattingly offered up some brutally honest and scathing remarks for his players and the team's upper management prior to Wednesday's game, and Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times has a recap. Mattingly benched $85MM right fielder Andre Ethier in favor of rookie Scott Van Slyke, commenting that to use his “most competitive lineup” and one that would “fight the hardest.” Mattingly wouldn't confirm whether or not he still viewed Ethier as an everyday player. He also noted that the front office tried to buy an All-Star team, stating: “All grit and no talent isn’t going to make you successful. But all talent and no grit is not going to get you there, either.” Here's more out of baseball's Western divisions... One rival general manager told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that it seems like Mattingly is trying to get himself fired. Dave Cameron of Fangraphs writes that Ethier is now "eminently available" and suggests some speculative trades. Cameron proposes a swap of Ethier and Jeff Francoeur, with the Dodgers picking up the tab (Twitter link) on Ethier's final two seasons. Doing so would save the Dodgers up to $40MM, allow them to call up Yasiel Puig and give Kansas City an upgrade over Francoeur. He also suggests a swap with Franklin Gutierrez of the Mariners or dumping Ethier on the Rangers.
Jeff Francoeur and pay 30 Mil of Ethier's salary???? Yea fuck that, I would rather pay all 85M of Ethier's contract and sit his ass on the bench then get fucked in the ass by a 20 inch dick balls deep without lube.
It came to me in a dream....Ausmus. Or not. Interesting... "Mattingly is trying to get himself fired"....very interesting. Maybe the hoosier sees the dark at the end of the tunnel, and doesn't want to be aroung for the holocaust rampant. maybe the rival manager has a heads up on this , too. I see the Dodgers (arguably the worst team in BB), playing the Cards, the best team in BB right now, as a benchmark in this whole tale of woe.
Well I don't agree that the Dodgers are arguably the worst team in baseball...there's alot of teams worse and that's not just going on records alone (there is 8 teams worse)IMO. I can't claim any team being the worst when the starting rotation has CK, Zach, and Ryu frontrunning it. And believe it or not, we have won 3 out of 4 series lately as bad as we've played. Then again, I'm obviously more on the optimistic side than you usually are. We do have a tough test in the Cards and the resurging Angels though. I'm not trilled about it. I do like the Ausmus thought. That's an interesting idea I totally overlooked. I always though catchers make the best managers until HoF Joe Torre showed up...but there's an exception to every rule, right?
Yeah, I don't think the Dodgers are going to give Ethier away for garbage just to save money when we have it dispensing out of our asses. Seems like a huge overreaction.
Arguably, bro, arguably. Every team has a great one on it, even scrubbers. Are you from New Jersey, pray tell? I'm not trilled aboud dit, neidah....LOL It must have been Torre , the 3B that we got, not the catcher. I want Bruce Bochy, the SF finook. Why is he over there? Why? Why? Why? "Because Ned is not", the answer swelled up inside me....
I wondered myself why ethier was sitting. Lets look at the three games this series....he gets thrown out of a game he actually played well in and was productive, does jack shit last night and sits today. Fuck it.....trade him for bullpen help and bring up the Cuban B
Funny thing, Bochy wasn't even good enough for the Padres to extend. Torre was fired a couple times before his succesful yankee run, wasn't he? Don may go on to win a couple WS somewhere else after he's fired...who knows about baseball?
Jeff Francour? That is a complete JOKE right? lol. That's like trading Andre Ethier for Jerry Hairston.
If you trade Dre, you better get value. Not some 40-year-old with "veteran leadership". You either get a reliable SP or a good 3B for Dre, or you don't do anything at all.
