Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 24, 2007
Wells To LA

The Dodgers sign David Wells. 6-4-2 Isn't crazy about the deal, but he does find someone who finds a silver lining.

My take is Wells is a warm body at this point. Given that yesterday's lineup had Luis Gonazalez, Shea Hillenbrand and Ramon Martinez, and given that Wells is an option for them, what happened to the Dodgers farm system? Wasn't this supposed to be a great strength for the team? Where's all the talent?


Posted by David Pinto at 07:41 AM | Transactions | TrackBack (0)
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David, unless Andre Ethier, James Loney, Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton don't count, all called up since 2006, I guess there was nothing. Otherwise, that's six quality full-timers, all with OPS+ or ERA+ better than 100. How many other teams have called up six full-timers in the past 15 months?

Doesn't really make much sense to base your evaluation on the lineup for one game.

Tony Abreu, Andy LaRoche, Scott Elbert and Hong-Chih Kuo are hurt. Otherwise, you'd have nine guys on the 25-man roster coming out of the farm system since 2006 (Kuo would be late 2005).

Chin-Lung Hu and James McDonald is about a year away tops; Clayton Kershaw maybe two. Delwyn Young was on the roster until the team needed a third baseman when Nomar got hurt.

Unfortunately, Edwin Jackson, now hot for the Devil Rays, isn't here to help instead of David Wells. Still, you're looking at a roster that will be half fresh-off-the-farm by the end of next season.

Posted by: Jon at August 24, 2007 10:39 AM

I think signing Wells is a great move, but then, I'm a Padres fan...

Posted by: Geoff Young at August 24, 2007 11:09 AM

I don't know, Jon. Certainly the Yankees, who many for years weren't considered a strong team as far as farm talent went, are on the whole shedding old players for younger ones, including picking up Betemit. Maybe it's not 15 months, but Wang, Cano, Cabrera, Hughes and Chamberlain is pretty good. And the old men they have on the roster are actually good players. Maybe my criticism should be of little, who given the option of old guys who can't hit keeps playing them.

Posted by: David Pinto at August 24, 2007 11:12 AM

Evidently David hasn't seen the DL list for the Dodgers and how many of them are starters. Might help to do your homework first before commenting on the "talent."

Posted by: Russ at August 24, 2007 11:37 AM

Russ, I just looked at the DL, and I see two position players. Over the last month they've replaced them with Hillenbrand and Ramon Martinez. It seems to me that a strong farm system should be able to produce players at the AA level better than those two.

As for starting pitching being injured, again, if you have a strong farm system, why are you signing injuries waiting to happen like Schmidt and Wolf?

And to be fair, the Dodgers have produced good players. I'll take Loney, Kemp, Martin and Ethier any day. It just seems to me that a strong farm system means you can keep dipping in to solve problems, not sign a bunch a has beens.

Posted by: David Pinto at August 24, 2007 12:34 PM

As someone who watches the Dodgers a lot, I'd say your criticism is misplaced, as you suggest it might be. It isn't that the farm system hasn't been/isn't impressively productive, it's that both Little and Colletti have an inexplicable fondness for players both weak and old. Colletti for the most part has held on to the youngsters, but still signs players like Gonzalez, Hillenbrand, Roberto Hernandez and Wells. In the game you watched Martinez and Gonzalez were playing meaning that Ethier and Loney were benched -- and Ethier had just come off two games as solid as he's had all season. To a large extent, the Dodgers can dip into their farm to solve problems, it is just they they often choose a worse alternative.

Posted by: Capybara at August 24, 2007 12:56 PM

Yeah, the problem isn't the farm system. Ethier could have started in place of Gonzalez. Hu (or Abreu if healthy) could easily do the job that Martinez is doing. LaRoche, if healthy, would have rendered Hillenbrand non-existent. Betemit, if not traded - same thing. Jonathan Meloan is an obvious better choice for the bullpen than Roberto Hernandez. It's not the farm system's fault that management isn't taking full advantage.

The one weak point at this moment is in starting pitching. The Dodgers have dipped into the system to use Eric Stults in addition to Billingsley, but D.J. Houlton has been passed over in place of Wells. Again, the Dodgers are hurt by injury (Scott Elbert) and management choices (Edwin Jackson lost in the Danys Baez trade).

Maybe the Yankees' system was underrated, but to answer your original question, "Where's all the talent?" if all the Dodger names mentioned above don't satisfy you, you've got remarkably tough standards. If not for injuries and management, at least 10 quality minor leaguers called up in less than two seasons would be on the Dodger roster. How much more can you expect?

Posted by: Jon at August 24, 2007 01:11 PM

Okay, I'll buy that, Jon. Sounds like the Dodgers shouldn't have fired DePodesta.

Posted by: David Pinto at August 24, 2007 01:48 PM
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