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Am I the only person not drinking from the Joe Torre Kool-Aid?
I’m hearing almost everyone gushing how Torre will bring credibility and a winning attitude to the Dodger organization. Even in Monday morning’s press conference Dodger owner Frank McCourt said, “Ned Colletti and I agree there is no substitute for a strong character to lead our team to the top.”
It’s funny he brings up the character issue since the way Grady Little was shown the door (or decided to leave if you care to believe that) was sketchy at best.
According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, Colletti threw the coaching staff under the bus at the end of the season much to Grady’s dismay. After a couple of weeks of uneasy silence, Colletti started talking to Joe Girardi and actually came to an agreement before the Yankees came and snatched him away. The talks then focused on Joe Torre.
All of this while Grady was still our manager.
Then came that uneasy conference call last week, and that was that.
Don’t get me wrong. I do believe Joe Torre will be an improvement over Grady Little, but since he is not out there fielding balls and swinging the bat how can anyone make the claim that he will instantly make this a World Series contending team?
Remember, the only team he has won with was the Yankees who boasted a payroll higher than the GDP of some nations. Now granted the Dodgers have more talent than the Mets, Braves and Cardinals teams Torre managed, but it’s not like there’s a lot to show for it. The pitching staff is hanging on by a torn labrum and the hitting has about as much power as a vibrator with dead batteries.
It is up to Ned Colletti to learn from the mistakes of this season and give Torre a team he can guide to victory.
That means somewhere he needs to find some power in the line up. Even if A-Rod’s asking price is too much, I’m hearing the Florida Marlins are ready to trade their third baseman Miguel Cabrera (.320 batting average, .966 OPS, 34 home runs, 71.4 VORP despite his ever-expanding waistline).
Also Colletti needs to get reliable arms in the pitching staff. That means no risk taking on injury prone free agents like Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf. Rumors are that Colletti is talking about trading for Twin’s ace Johan Santana and acquiring 32-year old Japanese pitcher Hiroka Kuroda.
Just as the case was when the Lakers re-hired Phil Jackson in 2005 you can hire a hall-of-fame head coach to guide your team, but the head coach can’t turn a lump of shit into a bag of gold. Just look at where the Lakers are right now, and let Frank McCourt be forewarned.
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I completely agree. The Dodgers have been in a panic for years now, making rash/incorrect signings (Pierre, Schmidt) just to try to make a splash and Torre is no different. We should have just taken Mattingly and started fresh with a new face and new era. It wasn't Grady's fault, anyways; our players completely lagged and had no chemistry. World Series are won with chemistry, emotion and peaking your abilities at the right time. Santana would be great if we can resign him immediately for a decent price. Arod will never win a championship; big name players are usually distractions.
wrong...we all know a manager isn't a fix all for a struggling team. but the 2nd hiring of phil isn't the same thing as torre coming to the dodgers. dodgers were in 1st for most of the 1st half of the year last season, and arguably had the tools to stay there. Signing pitchers to big contracts is always risky...and their arms tend to die out. chemistry and getting old grumpy dudes like kent to play nice with the kids can really help. I guy like torre can do that...hopefully he won't keep a broken down nomar in the line up for half the year, when he's obviously no longer the nomar we once knew. if you preach that the youth movement is the future let them play.
Jim Tracey got canned after a few winning seasons and a trip to the NL post-season, so Grady got off easy. Speaking of the "olden days", Depodesta's moves don't look so bad in retrospect since Penny and Lowe have done well (and since Beltre and LoDuca are distant memories, not to mention Sean Green).
Girardi would have been great longterm. Torre is good for now. But he needs players -- pitchers and hitters. Hopefully Torre is the first of a series of good moves from Coletti.
Holy crap! A pro sports team negotiated with a new manager/coach before getting the old (unsuccessful) one to retire? OMG OMG OMG!
Torre brings proven leadership and an unmatched résumé. The Dodgers had the money to get him, so good for them. Sure, they could have taken a chance on someone without a track record, but why?
If it wasn't for Depo not re-signing Beltre-- not even offering him a number until he was offered two over-the-top contracts (Detroit and Seattle)-- we wouldn't have a hole at 3rd base. Losing Beltre, winner of the Gold Glove (again) meant that we got to deal with 2 seasons of over-the-hill shortstops trying to man the hot corner (one of whom lost a ball in the chalk). Yeah, we got Penny, but he wasn't able to finish the year we traded our starting catcher at the trading deadline to get him for. A lot of good his 2007 season did for seasons of 2004-2006.
Still, wouldn't it be funny if 2004 was the Dodgers' best chance at going late into the postseason with a team that was mostly ripped apart and cast away by McCourt and his lap dog Depo? We were real strong up the middle, had a bullpen that narrowed games to 6 innings, and notoriously came back in the late innings. We were also the hottest team in baseball at the time of the LoDuca trade.
As the French say, "C'est la vie. Now pass me a snail."
I'm not a conspiracy theorist so I'll take Little at his word that he had been mulling stepping down as manager since before the season ended as was reported. I don't believe hiring a big name manager significantly increases the Dodgers' chances of making the playoffs, but he's capable of preventing the type of clubhouse strife that undermined the team's chances last season. More than anything, the Torre hiring is a shot in the arm for franchise that has been drifting into LA sports obscurity the past 20 years. This isn't a rehash of the Davey Johnson hiring, this is Joe Torre and his 4 World Series rings who was able to walk away from Steinbrenner unscathed. I'm a bit leery about all the trade rumors swirling around Miguel Cabrera and the combination of names the Dodgers might have to give up to acquire them. From what I've read the only kid that's untouchable is Russell Martin. I've also read reports that Billingsley is someone the Dodgers brass is firmly trying to hold onto. That leaves the obvious pieces -- Kemp, Kershaw, Ethier, Hu, Loney, Meloan, McDonald. It would probably take two players on the 40-man and a high-level prospect like Kershaw to get Cabrera. As much as I would love to see big bat in the line-up, I don't think it's worth trading three of our most coveted youngsters to get him -- especially Kershaw. I've been following this kid's career since I first heard about him before the 2006 amateur draft. He was considered the top high school player in the draft and the Dodgers were very fortunate that he fell into their laps at #7 in the 1st round. His quick ascension from rookie-ball to AA in only a year is evidence of the kid's amazing talent and make-up. Teenage southpaws who can touch high 90s and is consistently in the mid-90s with a plus curveball AND a plus slider don't come around that often. The Dodgers fell apart last season because they couldn't overcome the injuries to their pitching staff. Trotting out Mark Hendrickson and Brett Tomko out there didn't help either. While the lure of acquiring a big bat may seem tempting, it isn't worth the cost of our future staff ace especially when Matt Kemp has the potential to be that feared bat in the middle of the lineup.