One Web view: McCourt payroll is unacceptable
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Checking in on your weekend Web reading ….
-- Ken Rosenthal at msn.foxsports.com doesn’t care for the way the Dodgers’ payroll is shaping up. Rosenthal argues that a team based in the Los Angeles market, drawing a baseball-best 3.7 million last season, should have one of the highest payrolls in the game. He suggest $150 million.
It’s currently expected to come in at about $85 million, sans deferral payments, which is lower than the small-market Minnesota Twins. He is not a big Frank McCourt fan. Writes Rosenthal:
‘They should be dominating the NL West, a division in which no other team approaches their financial might. Instead, they’re fretting over their starting rotation, which lacks an ace at the top and depth at the bottom.’McCourt’s finances were in question even before his personal life sparked the creation of dodgerdivorce.com. He says the Dodgers are not affected by his messy split from his wife, Jamie, but would be better off admitting the obvious.’
He rips the Dodgers for not landing one of the four aces traded in the last 20 months -- CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Jake Peavy and Roy Halladay. There’s almost no chance the Padres were going to trade Peavy to their division rival, and as Rosenthal points out, Halladay had a no-trade and wanted to be in Philadelphia. His harshest words were for passing on Sabathia and reportedly asking the Indians to pick up part of his contract.
-- Ken Gurnick examines the rising stock of right-hander Carlos Monasterios at dodgers.com. A Rule 5 pick, Monasterios has yet to allow a run in his eight innings this spring in his bid to be the team’s fifth starter. A Rule 5 pick is had for just $50,000, but if he doesn’t remain on the team’s 25-man roster must be returned to the team from which he was drafted. Gurnick points out, however, that of the team’s 10 Rule 5 picks since 1981, only three made the Opening Day roster and just one, J.D. Houlton in 2005, remained with the club all season.
-- Dodgers Manager Joe Torre is running out of time to announce his starting second baseman this week, as he said he would. It appears a slam dunk at this point for Blake DeWitt, and Riverside Press-Telegram columnist Gregg Patton writes a nice profile on him at pe.com.
-- Bert Blyleven -- yes, that Bert Blyleven -- writes an N.L. West preview for nbc.sports in which he picks the Dodgers to win the division and predicts Manny Ramirez will have a big rebound season.
-- Tony Jackson writes a terrific, in-depth profile on Dodgers Spanish announcer Jaime Jarrin at espnla.com. Turns out they’re part-time neighbors in Phoenix.
-- Steve Dilbeck