At the beginning of this season, we asked if putting Joe Torre and Ned Colletti together in the same organization was going to mutually exacerbate both of their well-known predilictions for big-name “experienced veterans.”

Clearly, the answer is a resounding “YES.”

Dangling well-known veteran players in front of Colletti and Torre must be like dangling porn videos in front of Hideki Matsui, because over the past two weeks the Dodgers have gone on a wild spree of acquiring big-name veterans, trading at least 4 prospects and putting down at least $7.5 million dollars combined to acquire Vicente Padilla, Ronnie Belliard, Jon Garland, and Jim Thome.

None of this makes any sense, no matter which way you slice it.

First of all, the Dodgers still have the best record in the entire National League. Yes, that’s right, best record in the whole league. They are a mortal lock for the playoffs, because even if the some how lose the division, they will end up with the wild card. So acquiring these guys for the “stretch run” makes no sense.

But at the same time, it’s not like you really need these guys for the playoffs either, when you cut about five guys from your pitching staff. At least, the Dodgers better not be stashing these guys for the playoffs. Because if you are a Dodgers fan you gotta be pretty frightened if Colletti and Torre are planning to make Vicente Padilla and Jon Garland a big part of their playoff plans.

Because the more important point here is, none of these guys are all that good. Ron Belliard has a career OPS of .753, and he’s already on the downside of that. He’s basically Tony Abreu, only 10 years older at 3 times the price. Oh wait, I forgot, he’s an “experienced veteran.”

As for Padilla and Garland, I’m not sure what to say, other than that these guys are scraping the bottom of the replacement level barrel. Padilla struggles to even achieve replacement level, and Garland has hovered just a smidgen above it for most of his career. Are these guys really going to give the Dodgers anything that they couldn’t get from guys they already have, like Charlie Haeger, Eric Stults, and Scott Elbert?

And as useless as the first three guys are, I consider Jim Thome the most useless acquisition of them all. Oh sure, Thome is a probable hall of famer and all, but he hasn’t played an inning in the field in more than two years, and now here he is on a National League team as a glorified pinch hitter. Thome even spoke with Ned Colletti on the phone and explicitly told him that he could only be asked to play first base in an absolute emergency. What use is that on an NL team? You can’t even double switch with him. Is 40 days of that that really worth a whopping 2.5 million dollars PLUS a minor leaguer?

Maybe Matsui has it right. I’m pretty sure you’d get a better return on your investment investing in porno tapes.

Like giving kimchi to a man with stomach ulcers, cigarettes to a lung-cancer survivor, or Japanese cartoons to an eplileptic, giving experienced-veteran-loving Joe Torre to experienced-veteran-loving Ned Colletti was only bound to make Colletti’s notorious case of big-name-itis worse.

Exhibits A, B, C, and D of this phenomenon are Doug Mientkiewicz, Jeff Weaver, Juan Castro, and Tanyon Sturtze, four “experienced veterans” who look primed to make the Dodgers opening day roster, all four as non-roster invitees.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, Joe Torre likes to go with what he knows, and always prefers the devil he’s heard of to the devil he hasn’t.  And Torre’s fingerprints are all over these four guys.

Mientkiewicz, Weaver and Sturtze have all played under Torre in the past when he managed the Yankees, and who better to play the Luis Sojo/Miguel Cairo role of Torre’s Latino futility-infielder binkie than their stastistical triplet Juan Castro?

The one that makes the least sense of all here is Mientkiewicz, a first baseman who hits like a third-string middle infielder.  But he has certain qualities that Torre and Ned Colletti just can’t resist, so let’s quickly run through Mientkiewicz’s truly impressive “experienced veteran” credentials:

• He is a veteran (11 MLB seasons)
• He is known for his defense (gold glove, 2001)
• He is known for his experience (six teams in five years)
• He has won a World Series title (Red Sox, 2004)
• He provides subpar offense (100 career OPS+. At first base.)
• He is over 30 (age 35 in 2009)
• He is white (very much so)

What is there for Torre and Colletti not to love?

Look I realize that it is possible to find good bargains among non-roster invitees, but usually these are younger guys who still have even a shred of upside left. The problem with going with experienced veterans is that they is what they is, and if what they is is not all that much, then guess what you are going to end up with? Not all that much.

Or even worse if keeping a Doug Mientkiewicz means that you have to trade away an out-of-options, cost-controlled, still talented youngster like Delwyn Young just to make room for him.

This is one of a series of posts in which we excoriate each team for their offseason blunders and grudgingly praise them for their occasion crafty stratagems.

There are rumbles around baseball that the Giants might be able to contend this season.

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick calls them “dark-horse candidates to make a run in the NL West.” Tim Lincecum is coming off a Cy Young award. The signings of shortstop Edgar Renteria and pitchers Randy Johnson, Jeremy Affeldt, and Bob Howry have been generally well regarded by the media. Fans are optimistic about young position players like Pablo Sandoval, Manny Burriss, Eugenio Velez, and Fred Lewis. And the Giants’ farm system, derided as barren in recent years, was just ranked 5th in all of baseball by Baseball America and 9th overall by Keith Law.

So are the Giants about return to relevance after four straight losing seasons?  Well, don’t hold your breath.

After all, this is a team that was a woeful 72-90 last season, and by rights and run differential, should have been even worse, at 67-95.  That is a long hill to climb.  Despite the strong rotation and bullpen, the Giants were 29th in the majors in runs last year, and it is uncertain how exactly Edgar Renteria and his .699 OPS last season are going to improve this situation.

Meanwhile, their purchasing power is still hugely hampered by stadium debt and the ridiculously unwise mega-contracts handed out to Barry Zito and then Aaron Rowand.  And just how soon will the Giants’ much-touted youth movement be able to offer any assistance? They have two superb positional prospects in catcher Buster Posey and first baseman Angel Villalona, but both seem at least two years away.  Meanwhile, their lone bright spot from last season, third baseman Pablo Sandoval, is all batting average – a swing-at-everything contact hitter kind of like a Vlad Guerrero with no power.  His .345 average in limited plate appearances was thanks to BABIP and sample size, and is not at all sustainable.

So basically the Giants are heading into the 2009 season with solid pitching, but barely league average or worse hitters at every position on the diamond except catcher Bengie Molina.  And it is the traditional slugging positions where the Giants are worst of all – all three outfielders OPS’d in the .700s, and first base has been a black hole for years now.  Molina led the entire team with a mere 16 home runs.

Which is why, with about a 20-win mountain to climb from last year to reach contention, the Giant’s offseason moves make no sense at all.  Since the Giants have no chance to content for at least another two years, any free agent veterans they sign are nothing more than place-holders.  So why give Renteria $19 million over two years, or Randy Johnson $8 million for this season?

The answer, of course, is that Brian Sabean is also convinced, like the fans and a sizable contingent of the media, that the Giants are in it this year.  In fact, he guarantees Jerry Crasnick that they will be over .500 this year.  But then again, that’s what he said last season too. Not to mention that guys like Renteria and Johnson are big-name players, and Sabean has the biggest case of big-name-itis in baseball (yes, even bigger than Ned Colletti, who learned from the master).

A lot of people are giving Brian Sabean credit this year for making short term, low-risk signings, I suppose because it contrasts so glaringly with his recent past behavior of long-term, high-risk signings. But the other side of the coin with short-term signings is that if you actually have no realistic chance of winning within that time frame, then you’ve just thrown more money down the drain, and you might as well have just let some guys give you the same result for the major league minimum.  Heck, maybe you even might find your next shortstop of the future, rather than letting Edger Renteria play out the string for $9 million per.

Offseason Grade: D

Acquisitions: Edgar Renteria, Randy Johnson, Jeremy Affeldt, Bob Howry

Losses: Rich Aurelia, Omar Vizquel

Projected Lineup, Rotation, and Closer:

LF Fred Lewis
RF Randy Winn
3B Pablo Sandoval
C Bengie Molina
1B Travis Ishikawa
CF Aaron Rowand
SS Edgar Renteria
2B Manny Burriss/Kevin Frandsen/Eugenio Velez

SP1 Tim Lincecum
SP2 Matt Cain
SP3 Randy Johnson
SP4 Jonathan Sanchez
SP5 Barry Zito

CL Brian Wilson

- Hot Offseason Action Index -

If Ned Colletti is not the worst GM in all of major league baseball (thank you Brian Sabean!), he is awfully close. Colletti proved once again how overmatched he is by the actually intelligent GMs in the game by trading away top pitching prospect Jon Meloan and breakout minor league catcher Carlos “Santana” Santana for Cleveland utility player Casey Blake.

Of course, Blake was coveted by several teams because he is a free agent to be on a team going nowhere and thus figured to be a decent bat who could be had for a fairly cheap price. Which makes the high price the Dodgers paid so baffling.

After Clayton Kershaw (who is currently up with the big club), Meloan was the pitching prospect closest to putting up good numbers in the majors. Meloan had been an absolutely dominant reliever last year in the minors. Last season at double-A Jacksonville he had compiled a 2.18 ERA and 19 saves and 70 strikeouts in 45.1 innings, and then posted a 1.69 ERA in 21.1 innings at triple-A Las Vegas.

In fact, in his entire minor league career, Meloan has posted an astonishing 335 strikeouts in only 262 innings.

But this year the Dodgers insisted on trying to convert Meloan back into a starter, and he posted an unsatsisfying 5-10 record with a 4.97 ERA, although he did keep striking out almost a batter an inning.

Given how dominant Meloan had been as a reliever, and given that with Takashi Saito down with an injury the Dodgers were in need of a setup man, Meloan and his live arm should have been up with the big club already, especially given the relief innings they are currently wasting on retreads and nobodies like Ramon Troncoso, Brian Falkenborg, and Jason Johnson.

And he certainly should not have been involved in any trades for a two month rental like Casey Blake.

Carlos Santana is not quite as awesome a prospect as Meloan, but he is having a huge breakout season in high A, batting .318 with a .424 on base percentage and a .563 slugging. Most impressively, he already has 66 walks on the season and has walked more than he has struck out, which reminds one of the minor league career of another catcher you may have heard of, current Dodgers backstop Russ Martin.

But giving up good prospects is not always bad if you get a good return. The real problem with this deal is Casey Blake and the guys the Dodgers already had

Not only is Blake going to be a free agent, thus making him only a two month rental, but he is also unlikely to represent an improvement over they guys he is replacing at third base. While it is true that rookies Andy LaRoche and Blake DeWitt have been slumping of late, and Blake has been hot, we are talking about Casey Blake here.

Blake is a 34-year-old no-glove utility guy posting an .830 OPS when his career average is only .782. It seems much more likely that he will hit at something less than an .830 clip the rest of the way than that he will continue to hit 50 points above his career average OPS in his age 34 season.

But the real downside of the Casey Blake deal is that Casey Blake is one of the worst defensive third basemen in baseball, whereas DeWitt is excellent and LaRoche is at least average. Given that the Dodgers are now going with Blake at third, cement-footed Nomar at short, and 40 year old Jeff Kent at second, it is not a stretch to wonder if the Dodgers do not now have the worst defensive infield in baseball. At the very least you can count on any ball hit to the hole on the left side getting through for a hit.

Given that the Dodgers are heavily depending on groundball pitchers such as Derek Lowe and Hiroki Kuroda, this is very very bad news. When you throw in how questionable it is that Blake will even be able to outhit Andy LaRoche (if the Dodgers actually let him play every day), this trade is just a huge subtraction all around.

But of course, Casey Blake is Casey Blake, a big-name “experienced veteran” (big bonus points for his prematurely gray hair), and this is the Casey Blake of the Cleveland INDIANS who nearly went to the World Series last year. So naturally Ned Colletti couldn’t resist, no matter the price.

You knew it was only a matter of time before his incurable case of chronic big-name-itis flared up again.

Most Dodger fans have been hoping and praying that the Dodgers would just stand pat and do nothing this offseason. Why? Because the Dodgers are so stocked with young talent, and the free agent market this year is so bad, that the Boys in Blue would probably have a better chance of winning the division next season if they just turned things over to kids than if they blocked them with pricey, overrated, veterans of declining ability. In fact, this author feels the Dodgers probably could have won the division last year if they had let guys like Matt Kemp, James Loney, and Andy LaRoche play from the start, instead of blocking them for most of the season with “big name” veterans like Luis Gonzalez, Nomar Garciaparra, and Juan Pierre.

So when day after day of the Winter Meetings went by without the Dodgers doing anything at all, hope began,slowly but surely, to well up in the hearts of Dodger fans. Hope that maybe Colletti had finally learned his lesson and was finally going to give all that young talent, talent every team in baseball had been chasing after all fall, a chance to prove itself on the field.

We should have known better.

We should have known that there was simply no way in hell that one Ned Louis Colletti Jr. was going to leave Nashville without signing at least one “experienced veteran” to an overpriced contract which would block at least one of his hot young prospects for at least a few more years.

And so, Andruw Jones is now a Dodger.

What bothers me most about this deal is that the Dodgers could have one of the best young outfields in baseball virtually for free if they went with a lineup of Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Delwyn Young.  But instead at least two of those guys are now going to be blocked by Pierre and Jones at an annual cost of nearly $30 million (it had been my secret hope that the Dodgers would take advantage of the incredible demand for centerfielders this offseason by trading Pierre).

And what bothers me almost as much about this deal are the specifics of the contract that is reportedly being given to Andruw Jones. $19 million per year??? For a player who just came off a season in which he batted .222 and had an OBP of .311??

I mean, Jones is still a pretty talented player, who may well have simply had an off year, so it would have been one thing if Colletti had shrewdly leveraged Jones’s weak performance last season to sign a decent player at a below-market price. But to make said player the fifth-highest paid player in all of baseball, behind only Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter, and Carlos Zambrano, especially when you don’t really have any pressing need for a centerfielder, and are now going to have to find someplace for the $45 million centerfielder you signed last year to play, is just stupidity.

The only people to whom this deal can make any sense are those who live on Planet Scott Boras, or those who let Boras take them for a ride there. My question is, why is it always the Dodgers who have to have the gullible GM who will believe whatever Boras says and hand out the most ridiculous contracts in Boras’s storied career?

When Rob Neyer chronicled the stupidest contracts given to Boras clients last month, he cited the contracts the Dodgers gave to Darren Dreifort and Kevin Brown as the two worst. This one may not be quite as bad as those two since it is only two years, but given the ridiculousness of the annual value and the fact that the Dodgers had no real need to do this, it needs to be added to Neyer’s list.

Rumors were flying all over the baseball world last night that the Dodgers have all but decided to fire manager Grady Little and replace him with Joe Torre.

As a Dodgers fan I would have mixed feelings if this whole thing actually goes through. On one hand, I have no particular love for Grady Little, who in two years at the helm of the Boys in Blue proved himself to be a borderline incompetent in-game manager, but even worse, completely lost control of his clubhouse down the stretch this year.

In this day and age of high-salaried, high-maintenance ballplayers, a manager’s biggest job has become managing the egos in the clubhouse (second biggest job: dealing with the media), and Grady decisively proved that he couldn’t do that.

So I’m not sad to see Grady go at all.

But on the other hand, Joe Torre is a supremely overrated manager. Granted, he was adept at performing what I just said were a manager’s top two jobs of managing the egos and managing the press, so credit where credit is due, but where the overrated part comes in is all the additional credit he gets for all the World Series titles that the Yankees won.

The fact is that Joe Torre was blessed with supremely talented teams for all twelve years he was with the Yankees. All twelve of those teams were the best team on paper heading into the season, and all twelve would have been expected to go far into the playoffs, no matter who was managing.

Joe Torre lived up to what we would have expected from any manager under those circumstances. He did an okay job. In the first five years (with no small amount of luck – Jeffrey Maier, anyone?), he won four World Series, but in the last seven years he didn’t win any.

Moreover, any sort of close examination of Torre’s in-game managing calls reveals that he was a less than stellar tactician, extremely rigid in his use of the bullpen and the bench, abusive with his star relievers to the verge of ruining careers, and prone to irrationally overplaying personal favorites.

Look, I’m not trying to say that Torre was a terrible manager by any stretch of the imagination. As I already said, he was good at PR, and he also brought a sense of dignity to the team and was popular with his players and the fans. And those are all good things.

But what it boils down is, are Joe Torre’s managerial skills really worth between $15 to $20 million over the next three years? I mean how many extra wins a year was Torre worth to the Yankees? 1? Maybe 2 at most? How many wins did he cost by playing Miguel Cairo at first base? Wouldn’t the Dodgers be better off spending all those millions on a starting pitcher, or three stud relievers, or a third baseman?

To me this is just more evidence that Frank McCourt and Ned Colletti really have no idea what they are doing and continue to be afflicted by one of the worst cases of big-name-itis in the majors.

I would much rather see the Dodgers spend big money on actual ballplayers, or scouting, or player development, than on a big-name manager. There are lots of baseball guys out there who could make players feel good and not say stupid shit to the press, but there are decidedly fewer guys who can hit 30 homers a year or throw 95 mph with movement.