Sources: McCourt nixed Dodgers' possible trade for Sabathia

No trades pleae. Nomar is looking good at SS. Kuroda is the man. And they need Andruuw Jones at Las Vegas for a few months.

Ethier, Kemp and Pierre work for me as an outfield.

Dewitt at third, Nomar at ss and Kent at second with Loney at first, looks good to me.

You have solid back ups with Berroa, Young, LaRoche and Maza.

Stick with this roster NED. No trades unless it is for Jones only.

You know, if Joe Torre would actually take his pen, and write the name "ANDY LAROCHE" instead of "BLAKE DEWITT" on his lineup card, the Dodgers wouldn't be "force to improvise at 3B since 3/7/08."

I hope things keep going as well as tonights game. Dewitt had two solid hits and made a super play on a bunt attempt. Nomar popped a two run homer and of course Kuroda almost pitched a no hitter.

with nomar back we have a chance as long as no one is traded away and jones stays out of the outfield.

"The club basically has been forced to improvise at third base since March 7"

Tell that to Blake DeWitt who is an excellent third baseman, and overall great talent for the team.

Craig wrote:

You know, if Joe Torre would actually take his pen, and write the name "ANDY LAROCHE" instead of "BLAKE DEWITT" on his lineup card, the Dodgers wouldn't be "force to improvise at 3B since 3/7/08."

LaRoche? What has he done that warrants starting? He may show occasional power, but he has big holes in his swing and Dewitt is a superior defensive player.
If the deal only involved Kemp and LaRoche, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Then use Lowe or Penny to get another OF stick. I'm concerned Garciaparra will not make it through the year as an everyday SS.
Sabathia, Bilingsley, Kuroda and any two of Penny/Lowe, Park, Stults, Kuo, Kershaw or Schmidt would suffice.

blake dewitts average has propped 60 points in the last 6 weeks. he was a double A guy for a reason. laroche is a legit prospect with power. Play laroche everyday and lets see what happens. plus normar will be hurt by aug 15th - but thats another issue. in my opinon if they make a trade its for power not pitching

Do the deal wrote:

<quoted text>
LaRoche? What has he done that warrants starting? He may show occasional power, but he has big holes in his swing and Dewitt is a superior defensive player.
If the deal only involved Kemp and LaRoche, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Then use Lowe or Penny to get another OF stick. I'm concerned Garciaparra will not make it through the year as an everyday SS.
Sabathia, Bilingsley, Kuroda and any two of Penny/Lowe, Park, Stults, Kuo, Kershaw or Schmidt would suffice.

I don't mean to cast aspersions onto the valiant effort by Blake DeWitt, but there is a reason why Andy LaRoche has been named one of the top prospects by numerous scouting agencies for the past few years. DeWitt is a superior defender? According to who? His SportsCenter highlight from last night? LaRoche has holes in his swing? He's 25 and hasn't been given a fair shot. Blake DeWitt has had a 119 more at-bats than LaRoche in his major league career despite never playing a game above AA until he was briefly sent down this season. It's a shame that whenever LaRoche gets hurt whenever he's close to getting his shot. I agree that he hasn't shown anything yet, but he deserves a chance to do it. While DeWitt is a serviceable third baseman, his ceiling isn't as high as LaRoche's.

Craig wrote:

You know, if Joe Torre would actually take his pen, and write the name "ANDY LAROCHE" instead of "BLAKE DEWITT" on his lineup card, the Dodgers wouldn't be "force to improvise at 3B since 3/7/08."

Don't know ehat u've been watching, Craig, but Dewitt is the least of the Dodgers problems, the most fundamentally sound, smartest ballplayer the Dodgers have. Sure, more power at 3rd would be nice, But as Torre has said, Give me a team with 9 Dewitt's and you'll have a perenial champ contender. HE'S THE QUICKEST STUDY (Unlike Kemp and some others on the team, u only have to tell Dewitt something once and he's got it), and has already had more clutch hits than anyone on the team. WATCH the Dodgers go on a long winning streak with the useless Piere out of the lineup, he can stay injured the rest of the season that would be a blessing to Dodgers.

FIRE NED COLLETTI and promote Logan White & Kim Ng to dual General Managers. I cringe every time I hear "Dodgers" and "trade" in the same sentence almost as much as I cringe every offseason whenever I hear the Dodgers have signed someone. Colletti's list of blunders is long and undistinguished, but what I find most troubling is hearing him try to rationalize and excuse the obvious failures. He undersells our prospects -- Edwin Jackson, Joel Guzman, Dioner Navarro, Chuck Tiffany -- for garbage: Julio Lugo, Mark Hendrickson, Toby Hall, Danys Baez. If his free agents signing aren't washed up -- Andruw Jones, Jason Schmidt, Luis Gonzalez, Nomar Garciaparra -- then they're useless: Juan Pierre. To make matters worse, all that wasted money ends up becoming a roadblock for one of promising kids. The Dodgers are a rudderless ship treading water to stay on top of the lousiest division in all of baseball and it starts at the top of the organization. Colletti has been operating under the false pretense that since LA is a big market "rebuilding" is out of the question and the team must be in contention annually. I've been a blue-bleeding fan for over 20 years and while the Dodgers have been in contention for division title occasionally, they have never been a championship-caliber team. This team should've been rebuilt two years ago by handing the keys to the kids and watching them bloom the way the Cleveland did in 2006-2007, Colorado and Arizona last year, and Tampa Bay this year. The "growing pains" Torre complains about now should've happened before he got here. It's a shame that the Dodgers keep wasting precious time.

derlct kinsella wrote:

<quoted text> Don't know ehat u've been watching, Craig, but Dewitt is the least of the Dodgers problems, the most fundamentally sound, smartest ballplayer the Dodgers have. Sure, more power at 3rd would be nice, But as Torre has said, Give me a team with 9 Dewitt's and you'll have a perenial champ contender. HE'S THE QUICKEST STUDY (Unlike Kemp and some others on the team, u only have to tell Dewitt something once and he's got it), and has already had more clutch hits than anyone on the team. WATCH the Dodgers go on a long winning streak with the useless Piere out of the lineup, he can stay injured the rest of the season that would be a blessing to Dodgers.

Torre also said he loved Juan Pierre's approach at the plate. I consider myself an old-school purist of sorts, and as much as I love DeWitt's demeanor as a ballplayer, there are limitations. Nine Blake DeWitts will get to the cellar of the weakest division in baseball. That Torre would state something as preposterous as that is discouraging. I'm sure he was just blowing the proverbial smoke up DeWitt's rear-end to needle about the more TALENTED players like Matt Kemp. I coach baseball and have the utmost appreciation for "dirtbag" ball players like DeWitt, but at the end of the day it's TALENT that wins games. It's a lot easier for someone like Kemp to learn to listen like DeWitt, than it would be for DeWitt to learn to hit like Kemp.

South Bay Native wrote:

<quoted text>
Torre also said he loved Juan Pierre's approach at the plate. I consider myself an old-school purist of sorts, and as much as I love DeWitt's demeanor as a ballplayer, there are limitations. Nine Blake DeWitts will get to the cellar of the weakest division in baseball. That Torre would state something as preposterous as that is discouraging. I'm sure he was just blowing the proverbial smoke up DeWitt's rear-end to needle about the more TALENTED players like Matt Kemp. I coach baseball and have the utmost appreciation for "dirtbag" ball players like DeWitt, but at the end of the day it's TALENT that wins games. It's a lot easier for someone like Kemp to learn to listen like DeWitt, than it would be for DeWitt to learn to hit like Kemp.

Well I'D Have to agree Torre was probably trying to wake up KEMP & Loney who have great talent and unlimited potential with his comment about 9 DEWITTS, But until (AND HE MAY NOT) blake plays himself out of the lineup Laroche, who looks overmatched against qualty pitching is going to have a tough time getting regulas AB's. Regarding PIERRE, my 6 year old daughter has a better arm, and with all of his speed he can't steal first base. Did Torre rally say he likes Juan's approach at the plate? All he does is hit short fly balls, the last thing he should be doing is putting the ball in the air.

LaRoche is pressing because this is the second time he's been jumped in the depth chart (first time being when Nomar moved from 1B). The thing is, DeWitt played himself out of the lineup a couple weeks ago when he couldn't hit. He was given time to work himself out of it and has had a couple good games. LaRoche, on the other hand, has a couple good games then gets benched like what Kemp, Ethier, and Loney had to go through the past couple years.

The Torre comment on Pierre's approach was in the Times a couple weeks ago and was lumped in with his praise for Jeff Kent who was slumping at the time. Torre made that comment as a backhanded swipe at Matt Kemp even though Pierre and Kent both rank in the bottom third in pitches-swung-at that are out of the zone and pitches per at-bat. For the life of me, I cannot understand the criticism of Kemp. Hopefully, it's just tough love to accelerate his development. Kemp is going to be a superstar one day, and I pray it's in a Dodger uniform. He didn't play baseball his entire life like a lot of great listeners, but for a high school basketball star he's learned a lot in the few years he's concentrated on baseball.

I read a great article on baseballsavvy.com that suggested the Dodgers go after David Eckstein who's riding the bench in Toronto right now. I can't think of a better situation for both Eck and the Dodgers. The Dodgers would get a starting shortstop with World Series rings, a leadoff man, and great clubhouse guy with a championship pedigree who won't alienate the kids. Eck's contract is up this year so he'll have extra motivation to perform, and the Dodgers will be free to find their shortstop of the future in the offseason. I hope Colletti can pull this deal off without getting snookered. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Alan Litt wrote:

"The club basically has been forced to improvise at third base since March 7"
Tell that to Blake DeWitt who is an excellent third baseman, and overall great talent for the team.

I totally agree! Dewitt has done a great job there and we need his bat in the lineup. Why on earth would we be looking at 3rd base? Jones needs to go on Jenny Craig and get his bat going. We are going to be stuck with his contract, so we might as well get used to him. I also think that Nomar at short is good. But he's pretty brittle. As long as he stays injury free, we are fine there. Sabathia is going to be a free agent at the end of the year. I wonder if, during negotiations, he refused an extention to the contract. That would be the only way we would want him.

South Bay Native wrote:

I read a great article on baseballsavvy.com that suggested the Dodgers go after David Eckstein who's riding the bench in Toronto right now. I can't think of a better situation for both Eck and the Dodgers. The Dodgers would get a starting shortstop with World Series rings, a leadoff man, and great clubhouse guy with a championship pedigree who won't alienate the kids. Eck's contract is up this year so he'll have extra motivation to perform, and the Dodgers will be free to find their shortstop of the future in the offseason. I hope Colletti can pull this deal off without getting snookered. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I love the Eck man, he'd be great in any clubhouse,,but the Dodgers already have a second baseman with very limited range in Jeff KENT, so I dont think he'd be a good fit here.

Trading both Penny and Lowe is a great idea. However, if at all possible please retain all the younger players we have. Play them more and we will have a championship team for years.

How about cesar Izuturas??????

The nickname "McCheap' was not earned for nothing.

As long as 3-million+ of you Dodger fan bozos keep paying to enter the turnstiles every year, McCheap has no incentive to improve the team beyond 0.500 talent.

Sabathia would have been a great addition but these hitless wonders need some power sticks in order to advance in the playoffs. It doesn't seem like they are content in just winning the West and not go any further.