The Day After Absolutely Nothing

So… how are you feeling after of all yesterday’s insanity? Or, if you want to be specific to the Dodgers, total lack of insanity?

I guess all I can come up with is “mildly disappointed.” Josh Beckett and Dan Haren aren’t an acceptable 4/5 in the rotation. Chris Perez and Paul Maholm shouldn’t still exist in the bullpen. The bullpen part of that can probably be solved internally; the rotation part, not so much. Seeing Jon Lester go to Oakland didn’t bother me so much, because the Dodgers didn’t have a Yoenis Cespedes to send back, but obviously, watching David Price go to Detroit for an underwhelming — though likely unfairly maligned — return was a bit harder to swallow. If it’s true that it would have taken two of the big three of Julio Urias, Corey Seager and Joc Pederson to do it, so be it, pass and move on. If it was only one, and some secondary parts, then I’d have had to think a lot harder about it.

We don’t know what the truth is, of course, and we never will. Mostly, we just need to remind ourselves that while adding Price to Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-jin Ryu would have been hilariously insane, it wouldn’t have guaranteed anything — and that’s a fact most fans seem to be forgetting. I’ve seen too many people acting as though the Dodgers could have simply started planning the parade route, and it’s just not realistic. Anything can happen in the playoffs, and other teams are really, really good too. (Don’t forget, the A’s added Lester to Sonny Gray, Jeff Samardzija, Scott Kazmir and Jason Hammel; the Tigers added Price to Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello. At least one of those teams won’t even make it out of the American League, much less to [and then winning] the World Series.)

Part of me wonders, and this is just speculation, if the top-heavy nature of the Dodger system and the insistence on looking at prospect rankings hurt them. I’m pretty sure I said something like this years ago when the prospects were Kershaw, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Chad Billingsley, and so on, but the fact is that the Dodgers have three of the top 20 prospects in baseball. Now let’s say the Dodgers made a proposal around Zach Lee, arguably their No. 5 prospect. Some other team made an offer around their No. 2 prospect. That No. 2 prospect, depending on the system and the player, might be like the eighth-best player in the Dodger system. But can’t you easily imagine the team with the asset to sell saying, “well, the other team will give me their second-best, why would I take your fifth-best? Give me Urias.” Which, of, course, no.

That doesn’t mean I’m pleased no upgrades were made; again, I’m disappointed by it. I’m just trying to remember that being “kinda disappointed” is better than being “horrifically rage-fueled,” which we’ve been at more than one Ned Colletti deadline deal in the past. It’s still a very good team, and August 31 is the real deadline here, not July 31. I don’t think we’re looking at the exact roster that (hopefully) goes into the playoffs.

Just remember, it could always be worse. We could be Phillies fans… or have watched the Dodgers trade for Cliff Lee.