Watching the Dodgers

A couple of recent articles on espn.com about the Dodgers caused me to come out of my recent hibernation. We'll start with the earlier of the two: Buster Olney's April 6 blog pronouncing the Dodgers DOA after their Opening Day loss. Olney, last seen in this space wondering why the Red Sox weren't "pressing the issue" more (stealing bases) against the Yankees, took courage from Jose Valentin's game-losing error in the Dodgers' season opener to finally expose DePodesta as the heartless number-cruncher that he is. That's right, I said number-cruncher! And DePodesta doesn't even deny it!

Fielding, intoned Olney, is what the Dodgers need to win championships at the hitters-friendly Dodger Stadium:

Los Angeles was a great defensive team in 2004, with Adrian Beltre and Cesar Izturis dominating the left side of the infield and Alex Cora making plays on the right side. With the Dodgers housed in a pitcher's park, the conventional wisdom was that this defense was the backbone of the team that won the National League West.

Then Beltre signed with the Seattle Mariners, after feeling as if he barely got a serious whiff from the Dodgers, and Cora was dumped in December. Their replacements: Jeff Kent and Jose Valentin, two players who are average defensive players on their best days and very capable of sabotaging their teams on their worst defensive days.

Well, and so the Dodgers lost their first game. Obviously, if you lose the first game of the year, you are in "serious trouble." I'm pretty sure nobody's ever won the World Series after losing their first game. How could they, after starting out in such a hole?

Anyway, so the next day Valentin came back and went 3/4 with 4 RBIs, coming one double short of hitting for the cycle. Olney, to his credit, did give it a mention in his blog. A brief mention. He has not, however, mentioned since that time that Valentin on the year is batting .409 with a 1.335 OPS, and oh by the way, the Dodgers are in first place. Of course it's early, but that's my point: be careful what you say on the basis of one day. Especially Opening Day.

As for the theory about the Dodgers winning championships with defense, I'm afraid I don't have some real hard numbers here, but I do have a distinct memory of who the second baseman was for the Dodgers back in 1988, the last time they won the World Series. That would be Steve Sax, he of the legendary throwing problems from second to first.

Peter Gammons also had his say on the Dodgers. As usual, he positions himself as the Voice of Reason in the wilderness of barbarians that is the sports world. "Give DePodesta time," he murmurs, while urging all Dodger fans to breathe deeply and take up yoga (okay, I made that up).

This is all well and good, of course. Not gonna disagree with that. Give him time. But then Gammons treats us to this bleeding-heart paragraph:

The Dodgers were hardly a dynasty when DePodesta took over, and like most rebuilding jobs, there are going to be difficult and controversial choices. Lo Duca was one. Beltre was another. Cora. Green. People get hurt in the process, and while this is a people game, what DePodesta is trying to do deserves to be judged by the team's performance, not what baseball folks and we in the media think will unfurl.

Aw, did People get hurt in this? Did poor widdle Beltre get his feelings hurt when he was forced at gun-point to sign for a paltry $65 million? And DePodesta really owed it to Green to keep one of the most overpaid players in the game In The Family.

I get sick and tired of hearing about how offended these ballplayers are when they get traded or "disrespected" by "management." Look, people, this is a business, and the players know better than anyone else that this is a business. When two contracts are on the table, one of which has more money, and the other of which relies more on the "intangibles," which one does the player sign? He goes with the money. Every. Single. Time. You know what? I'm pretty sure Beltre could have stayed with the Dodgers if he wanted to. Nomar Garciaparra could have signed an extension with the Sox back in 2003. He could have negotiated for a no-trade clause, too, if he wanted to. But they didn't want to. They wanted the money. So don't go crying to the press about having your feelings hurt after putting your name on the bottom line.