Word on the street is the Dodgers just traded reliever Danys Baez and infielder Willy Aybar for Atlanta Braves backup 3B Wilson Betemit. I’m not seeing this on the newswires yet, so if your reading this soon after I post you’re almost certainly seeing it here first.

To me this trade is a wash at best at third base for the Dodgers, and a definite subtraction when you count the loss of Baez in the bullpen - a very usable part at a time when set-up men are commanding a premium. Aybar and Betemit are essentially the same player - you give up a bit of Aybar’s OBP to get a bit more power with Betemit - except that Aybar is two years younger and OBP is slightly more important (and harder to teach) than SLG.

So even if it were Aybar for Betemit alone I would be a bit unhappy as a Dodgers fan. Now when you give away Baez as well, it becomes a downright foolish trade, because you have to imagine that Baez could have gotten somebody pretty useful if he were traded on his own (considering how the Nats got Kearns and Lopez for two similar setup types).

I am quickly souring on on Ned Colletti as a general manager. He seems way too enamored of the “big names” as evidenced by the ridiculous contract he gave to Furcal and the decision to sign career downsiders Bill Mueller and Kenny Lofton when the Dodgers were rich with big-time prospects at those positions (Nomar was a big name that could have gone bust as well, but that gamble happened to work out so far). And for the past several weeks, he has insisted on playing “experienced veteran” Cesar Izturis (.601 OPS) at third base over Aybar (.770 OPS) or coveted triple-A stud Andy LaRoche.

Finally, at a time when the Dodgers should clearly be cashing in walk-year veterans to load up on young talent (They are 7 games out of both the wild card and the division), Colletti is insisting that the Dodgers are still in it and that he is going to instead do the opposite and trade away young talent for veterans.

Colletti is continuing the longstanding pattern that has led to the Dodgers only winning 1 playoff game since 1988 - no vision, no planning for the future, and constantly trading away valuable young prospects only to watch them bloom elsewhere while creaky veterans “help” the Dodgers limp to 85 wins each year.

As an aside, as I write this, Vin Scully has the call for the 1-for-their-last-14 Dodgers against the Nationals: “There’s a single driven up the middle, Martin goes to third, and the Dodgers are on the attack!” Pause. “Gosh, when is the last time I said those words?”

Remember when Dodgers won 5 rookie of the year awards in a row in the mid-1990s?  Well, this year it seems like they are trying to win 5 rookie of the year awards in one season. 

Last season the Dodgers were an aging team riddled with injuries that scuffled to a 91-loss season and wound up a distant 4th place in the NL West.  This season, they are an aging team riddled with injuries that has been saved by an astonishing bumper crop of ourstanding rookies.

Despite significant injuries to virtually every established player on the opening day roster, including Nomar Garciaparra, Rafael Furcal, J.D. Drew, Jeff Kent, Kenny Lofton, Bill Mueller, Dioner Navarro, Rickey Ledee, Jason Repko, Eric Gagne, and Yhency Brazoban, the Dodgers have surged into second place in the NL West and have scored the most runs in the National League.

Check out the numbers of some of their replacements, all of them homegrown rookies called up from the minors on an emergency basis:

     C Russell Martin: .271 avg, .822 OPS, team is 20-5 when he starts behind the plate

     3B Willy Aybar: .314 avg, .879 OPS

     OF Matt Kemp: .333 avg, 1.079 OPS

     OF Andre Ethier: .300 avg, .899 OPS

     P Jonathan Broxton: 19.1 IP, 26K, 0.93 ERA