I'll start by just echoing Joe Sheehan's sentiment about the L.A. Dodgers' signing of Andruw Jones. Two years, $36M is a really smart contract. The Dodgers save themselves from a massive beating if he's really as out of it as he looked last year (which is highly unlikely), and they don't commit any years to him when he's 34 and his defensive abilities have probably deteriorated significantly. Andruw Jones becomes more highly paid than Torii Hunter for the time being, which he certainly deserves.
I hope that the Dodgers get it. I hope they just relegate Juan Pierre to a fourth outfielder/pinch runner/pinch hitter role, which he'd actually be very well suited to in the NL; the Dodgers have a ton of slow people, and could use some wheels in pinch-running situations. And he's certainly an acceptable stop-gap at center or left, should anyone get hurt. Sure, that's a lot to pay $9M for, but it's better than paying $9M for someone to have more opportunities to suck at baseball. Sunk Costs: The Dodgers already paid him too much, and can't save themselves by hoping he isn't Juan Pierre all of a sudden. He still is.
From a completely non-statistics-related perspective, adding Andruw actually adds a lot of charisma to this Dodgers lineup. They had some already. Their pitchers were already likeable; Lowe and Penny are scruffy world champions, Takashi Saito is a Kaz Sasaki-like freakozoid at 37 (!), and Chad Billingsley starred in everyone's favorite holiday comedy.
Now, the lineup sports fun youngsters like Loney, Kemp, Ethier, and the superfun Russ Martin alongside defensive standout and speed merchant Rafael Furcal and the bouncing-back (?), usually-smiling Jones. Now if they could just ditch Jeff Kent and force Nomar into early retirement.
Incidentally, Furcal-Jones-LaRoche might now be a Due Up for the Dodgers. It sounds oddly familiar.
Good move, Dodgers. Even if I wanted the Royals to get him, just for fun.
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