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LA Times vs. LA Dodgers

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Van Lingle Mungo, Jul 12, 2006.

  1. Is there any particular axe the paper has to grind with Frank McCourt? Just wondering why Bill Plaschke still writes hatchet jobs over the Paul DePodesta era, even when talking about his one good trade.

    He's maintained that letting go of Adrian Beltre and Steve Finley were mistakes (even though they were the worst free agent signings last year), and now can't accept that Paul Lo Duca -- currently being out-produced by both Dodgers catchers -- was a fair trading chip for Brad Penny, who just started the All-Star Game. He goes so far as to blame that trade for Eric Gagne's injuries. Because Guillermo Mota isn't there. He's currently sucking in Cleveland.

    This is agenda-driven, right?
     
  2. flaming_mo

    flaming_mo Guest

    If Gagne needed Guillermo Mota to be his "support system," if his career is ruined without Mota's presence, then what does that say about Mr. Gagne?

    Here is the trade...

    They gave up...
    1) Mota when his value was highest
    2) a solid, if only slightly above-average corner outfielder in Encarnacion
    3) a good catcher in Lo Duca (who apparently served as the Yoda of the entire pitching staff)

    They got
    1) Penny, who was very good last year and even better this year
    2) A worthless pick-up in Choi
    3) A prospect in Bill Murphy who was quickly dealt to the D'Backs as part of the Steve Finley trade


    Was it a good or bad trade? That's debatable. Was is it the abomination of a trade that Plaschke makes it out to be? I doubt it.
    This column is definitely a scrapbooker for the Mota family, however.
     
  3. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Choi could have been a big producer if given the chance.

    Last year he hit 7 homers in 3 days at the No. 2 slot. Then Jim Tracy moves him down to No. 7 for no apparent reason and Choi goes into a slump.

    For that reason alone I'm glad Tracy was fired, the same way Grady Little should've been fired for not lifting Pedro against the Yanks in the '03 ALCS.

    Choi was never given a real chance to flourish, even if his defense wasn't the best. Those 7 homers in 3 days were no fluke.
     
  4. SCEditor

    SCEditor Active Member

    The battle could be worse, but T.J. Simers is on vacation.
     
  5. ogre

    ogre Member

    Choi was given all sorts of chances. Did you go to any Dodgers games last year? The whole crowd chanted his name at ever at bat right before he hit into a double play. It doesn't matter what slot you hit in. Hit or sit.

    McCourt has fired almost everyone in the Dodgers front office and pr department and replaced them with his own flunkies, which fumbled and bumbled a lot in 2004 and 2005. Plaschke was a Dodgers beat writer back in the gilded era, so that means a lot of people he knows personally were put out on the street. Maybe that part is personal.

    Simers has been up the Dodgers' ass a lot more than Plaschke, pointing out a lot of the Dodgers' mistakes, but that is what Simers does. In addition to talk about his family, and generally run smack on everyone else on the planet.
     
  6. SCEditor

    SCEditor Active Member

    Yeah, I miss him, too. ;D
     
  7. Penny was dominant in his two innings, excluding Guerrero's opposite field shot.

    Can he carry the Dodgers to the players, well, he is certainly big enough. Then again, he has only went 8 innings, once this year.
     
  8. What Simers does to the Dodgers, he does to the Lakers and everybody else.  That's not the odd part.  

    The weird part is the hatchet jobs for moves that 30 out of 30 GMs would do.  Jose Lima was another one -- after the Dodgers let him go, he went on to post one of the worst pitching seasons in baseball history -- and DePodesta was slammed because the team needed Lima and his "leadership."  

    Writing a column saying "Don't get excited about two All-Star Game innings" is a perfectly good subject. I don't get why the column space is still used to trash an understandable baseball decision made two years ago with strawman arguments.
     
  9. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    All I'm saying is that you don't yank a guy from No. 2 and slot him to No. 7 after he hits 7 homers in 3 days at the No. 2 spot. The move made no sense. Now, if Choi kept hitting into double plays, OK, sit the turd. But I'm still baffled that Tracy moved Choi during the hot streak.
     
  10. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    Choi's reputation as the Asian Bambino may have been dented by his passing through waivers and winding up at AAA, with his fourth organization in three years.

    Those needy teams like KC and Pittsburgh can't use a low-cost slugger?
     
  11. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    I like Choi as much as anyone, but he's barely above the Mendoza line at Triple-A Pawtucket. And that's after a strong start.

    Sorry Songbird, but those seven HRs in three days may indeed have been a fluke. Just ask Benny Agbayani.
     
  12. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    They may have been a fluke, but how will we ever know? You don't move a guy in that hot of a streak just for the sake of it. Had he gone 3 for 25 in the next 6 games after the 7-homers-in-3-days stretch, then sure, he's Hacky McHack. We'll never know.

    You have to give a guy a fair shot in one slot. 250-300 at-bats, in one slot, seems like a fair number.
     
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