A retirement and other notes

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In case you missed it:

If the Dodgers and Uribear can’t compromise (last I saw he wants a two-year deal, the Dodgers want to give him only one), maybe Mr. Hairston Jr. could be persuaded to come back and play third. That’s if they don’t want Hanley Ramirez to play there, with newcomer Alexander Guerrero playing what we’re told is his natural position of shortstop. Mark Ellis is still looking for a job, too. And then there’s the rather more intriguing idea of Kevin Youkilis, whose agent expressed a belief that he’d like to play on the West Coast.

How does one acquire a “natural” position, anyway? Doesn’t that really just mean “he’s played more games there than anywhere else?”

38 thoughts on “A retirement and other notes”

  2. Word is the Phillies are shopping Rollins. $14MM in 2014, reasonable option for ’15; has a no trade clause so we’d have to pick up the option at least to get him to play ball. Quite decent offense, at least as good as Hanley on defense. Extend Hanley and switch him to third, Uribe is our swingman. I like it, your opinion is your own…

    • On second thought, we could probably get Drew for the same money and only have to give up a draft pick.

  3. I wrote the following in the comments to his last post at Jon’s place:

    Jon, can’t you persuade your new employers that you desperately need to tweet something like the following, and they should make it so?

    “Kershaw has signed a lifetime deal with the Dodgers for $280 million direct pay with another $20 million going to his charity in $2M per year increments for 10 years.”

    Creative dealmaking, that’s what I offer.

  4. Cleveland is still looking for a closer… How about League for… almost anything? I’d like to see the Dodgers sign Betemitt for the bench, he can play anywhere in the infield and has good power.

    • Been pining for him ever since he left. But never a very good fielder and age and injury have probably not helped. On offense not very effective from the left side. Chavez would probably cost you twice as much, but you could platoon him with Uribear.

  5. I wish they would go ahead and give J P Howell three years, I can’t think of a better lefty available. Also trade League for whatever we can get, lots of clubs still looking for relief help, there’ll never be a better time to move him. Our biggest need in the organization is for young catchers.

      • Veteran leadership? Haha. How much more “seasoning” does FedEx need? Not sure why, but Butera keeps hanging around in the media, so you may be correct without a move having to be made.

        • Just look at how much “seasoning” AJ got before he got the job (stuck behind Barajas and Navarro) at 31! Fed has less that 200 Big PAs under his belt. Still, if they don’t land anyone else, gotta think that Fed gets the nod over Butera as back-up..

    • Well, he was considered to be the best FA available at 3rd, which says more about the field than anything. I suspect that he will be hard pressed to achieve again what he did last year offensively, but I will be rooting for Uribear.

      • Just hope the signing of Uribe is over enthusiasm based on last year. 2013 was the only year he was of any value to the Dodgers, fans seem to be forgetting the other two.

  8. It’s 86° F here in Talca and, in Chile, 24 hours of prohibition starts at 8 pm (three hours from now). No buying or selling alcohol on election day (though I can’t help thinking that, with obligatory drinking, we might have gotten a better Congress than we did last November).

      • It doesn’t mean you can’t drink, just that you can’t buy alcohol during the allotted period. I don’t know the origins of this, but the rationale was presumably that sober voters make better decisions.

      • It was that way when I was growing up in Indiana too many years ago, other states also. I don’t know if it still is or not. In parts of this country there are also what is known as “Blue Laws”, no alcohol sales on Sunday. And there are counties in the US that forbid alcohol sales completely. Naturally on the borders of neighboring counties there are liquor stores that do land office business, no doubt paying bribes to the politicians of the dry county.

  10. I loved the video that Hairston did with the Magician and Uribe after Uribe fell for the hidden ball trick. Hairston seems like he’s a natural on a broadcast crew.

  11. Didn’t Hairston once claim he wasn’t comfortable at third? I’m with Bob that Chavez could be good for a year, not sure if Youklis would hold up, but I’ve always liked his style. And though not popular due to his playoff ABs, the Dodgers could do worse than Michael Young.