Kendall at the Ravine in 2004?

External Since: Oct 16, 2003 Posts: 16

Say it aint so. Lee Hacksaw Hamilton tonight indicated the Dodgers have
offered Odalis Perez for Kendall and $5 million. This is not the offensive
upgrade we need. We already have a pretty sound catcher and Kendall is not an
impact offensive player. Hopefully we do not spend that precious trade bait in
this deal. Of course, it is Hacksaw, so chances are good there is little to
this rumor.

Mike

External Since: Aug 23, 2003 Posts: 12

"Ima Pseudonym" <akrasian.RemoveThis@nospam.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:vg6r30tg9jd6pq1oao03fmep1ng219cg05@4ax.com...
> Kendall's a fine player - overpaid, but that's presumably what the
> money is for. Great obp. Also, one of the things that DePodesta is
> interested in is getting the average number of pitches per plate
> appearance up high, and Kendall's pretty good at that.
>
> It doesn't make a lot of sense, unless there's another trade set up to
> trade Lo Duca for an outfielder. Even better would be if the trade
> expanded slightly, the Pirates included Craig Wilson in the trade,
> then Lo Duca gets traded to the Orioles for Brian Roberts (who
> DePodesta supposedly wants)
>
> That would give the Dodgers a lineup of Roberts, Roberts, Kendall,
> Green, Wilson, Encarnacion, Beltre, and Izturis. If the only major
> leaguers of consequence they gave up would be Lo Duca and Perez, and
> no minor leaguer more consequential than Hanrahan was included, then
> the Dodgers would have immensily improved themselves. If the pitching
> didn't collapse, the Dodgers would probably be favorites in the NL
> West then.
>
> That's if the Pirates can be talked into including Wilson - but they
> don't value him, that's why they keep signing useless veterans. The
> Orioles want a catcher besides Javy Lopez, so that they can dh him
> regularly and supposedly like Lo Duca - they also have Hairston
> competing with Roberts anyway.

I'd prefer seeing Kendall bat behind Dave Roberts to give Dave plenty of
pitches to get a jump on when he's on base. None-the-less, I'd welcome those
moves in a heartbeat. It would vastly improve the lineup. Green could go
back to RF which would please him. B Roberts is a switch hitter with speed,
great insurance policy on Dave's hamstrings.

Your lineup plus Trammell, Giambi, Ventura, Ross, Cabrera, Cora on the
bench, not a bad bench. 3 lefties and 3 righties, plenty of positional
flexibility available to Tracy, not much in the way of pinch running but the
starters would provide plenty of speed.

--
Chris