Dodgers on the Web: Scouts dinner to honor several Dodgers

The Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation is hosting its annual "Spirit of the Game" fundraising dinner and auction at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on Saturday. Ticket information: 818-224-3906.

Several scouts and former players will be saluted, and here are a few stories written about the honorees in connection to the event:

-- The Times' Bill Shaikin has a nice overview of the reasons behind the dinner and the effect advanced baseball statistics have had on scouts.

-- Times columnist Bill Dwyre checks in with another honoree, Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, probably the greatest catcher ever.

-- Bob Nightengale of USA Today has an excellent piece on veteran Dodgers scout Carl Loewnstine, who is battling bone cancer but still at work.

-- Daily News columnist Tom Hoffarth has a story featuring ground-breaking orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe, who pioneered the Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery and remains a special advisor to Frank McCourt.

-- Dodgers.com's Ken Gurnick looks at Tim Wallach's family, which also will receive an award.

-- Here's another general overview of the dinner at MLB.com, which is worth a look just to see the picture from last year's event that shows Commissioner Bud Selig with his arm around McCourt and foundation founder Dennis Gilbert, one of those who now wants to purchase the Dodgers.

Also on the Web:

Ex-Dodger Casey Blake gets one-year deal with Rockies

Good for him. Hope it all works out for Casey Blake and the Rockies.

Of course, the Dodgers hope it doesn’t work out too well after Blake signed a one-year, $2-million, non-guaranteed contract with Colorado. Performance bonuses could add another million.

Still, it’s hard not to wish anything but the best for Blake, who was a standout person and, when healthy, a standout player for the Dodgers the last 3½ seasons. Of course, the problem got to be keeping him healthy.

He’s 38 and coming off his worst and most trying season. He went on the disabled list three times  before undergoing neck surgery.

Blake made it clear even at the end of last season, however, that he still wanted to play. A non-guaranteed contract could prove to be a nice deal for the Rockies, who are without an experienced starting third baseman and are looking at 21-year-old Jordan Pacheco.

Blake is not someone they can count on to play every day, but at minimum he could provide a nice right-handed power bat in a left-handed-heavy lineup.

And come back to haunt the Dodgers.

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Dodgers are just about done with shopping

-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Casey Blake. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Dodgers have most free agents, four days of exclusivity to re-sign

The clock is now ticking on the exclusive window for teams to re-sign their free agents.

The Dodgers, with 10 free agents -– the most in baseball, have until 9 p.m. Wednesday before the players are free to also negotiate with other teams.

The four-day exclusive period for a team to re-sign its free agents began Saturday night.

Of the Dodgers’ 10 free agents, only one –- catcher Rod Barajas -– is thought to project as a Type B free agent, which could provide a team a supplemental draft pick if the Dodgers offer arbitration.

Of course, what the Dodgers can do financially is the great unknown. The team remains tied up in bankruptcy court. The team and Major League Baseball are reportedly working on a settlement. Their trial is currently scheduled to start Nov. 29.

Barajas, 36, earned $3.25 million last season with a one-year contract. The Dodgers are looking at going young behind the plate and not expected to offer him arbitration.

The Dodgers’ other free agents are: infielders Casey Blake, Jamey Carroll and Aaron Miles, pitchers Jonathan Broxton, Jon Garland, Hiroki Kuroda, Mike MacDougal and Vicente Padilla, and outfielder Juan Rivera.

Any could return, but it’s hard to have a firm offseason plan when ownership and a true budget is uncertain.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Outfielder Juan Rivera connects for a two-run double in a Dodgers victory over the Pirates in September. Credit: Stephen Dunn / Getty Images

Daily Dodger in Review: Casey Blake's injury-riddled season

CASEY BLAKE, 38, third base

Final 2011 stats: .252 batting average, four homers, 26 RBI, .342 on-base percentage, .371 slugging percentage in 202 at-bats, and eight errors.

Contract status: Free agent.

The good: Well, sometimes you can only stretch things so far. He came out with a successful surgery? He remained great in the clubhouse? He had a decent April (.321)? Sadly, there just wasn’t much there.

The bad: There was just precious little that went right for Blake last season. He went on the disabled list three times (back, staph infection, neck) before finally succumbing to neck surgery. He never really was healthy all season.

Daily Dodger in review: Juan Uribe goes bust, under the knife

JUAN URIBE, 32, infielder

Final 2011 stats: .204 batting average, four homers, 28 RBI, .264 on-base percentage and a .293 slugging percentage in 270 at-bats.

Contract status: Signed for two more years at $15 million.

The good: OK, this one is a toughie. Try this – his defensive versatility proved an asset when Casey Blake missed most of the season with injuries. Uribe was signed as a second baseman, but spent most of his time at third. As Eric Stephen noted, he doubled to break up a San Diego no-hit bid 8-2/3 innings into a scoreless tie July 9 -- and scored the winning run on a Dioner Navarro single. Hit three home runs in a five-game stretch during April.

The bad: Hit only one other home run all season, or at least as much as he saw of it. Look, it was all pretty much bad. Like disastrous bad. After April 29, he batted .182 with one home run and 14 RBI for the rest of the season.

He went on the disabled list with a left hip flexor strain May 22, continued to stink when he returned, went back on the DL with the same injury July 30, and went it finally healed, they determined he had a sports hernia too. Ultimately, he had surgery and was never seen again.

What’s next: It can’t get any worse, can it? The Dodgers signed him to a three-year deal, so he’s on board for two more seasons. All they can do is hope he’s healthy and send him back out there next season. Now, however, they view him as their third baseman. Which leaves a hole at second.

The take: General manager Ned Colletti didn’t really expect him to duplicate the career-year he had with the Giants in 2010 (24 homers, 85 RBI), but neither did he expect the worst season of Uribe's career.

Uribe was a major bust, but it was a thin free agent market and the supposed big bats all seemed to disappoint. Colletti didn’t want to go three years on Uribe, but the Giants wanted him back and here he was.

Now we’ll see if last season lit any kind of fire under Uribe, who turns 33 in March. If he gets back to the 15-homer, 70-RBI range, then the Dodgers have the player they thought they signed. And still need. 

ALSO:

Daily Dodger in review: The incomplete book of John Ely

Daily Dodger in review: Tony Gwynn Jr. delivers as hoped

-- Steve Dilbeck

twitter.com/stevedilbeck

Photo: Juan Uribe reacts after being hit by a pitch. Credit: Victor Decolongon / Getty Images

Dodgers decline options on Casey Blake, Jon Garland

It might be hard to remember now, what with all the kids the Dodgers called up from the minors last season, but they actually began the year a fairly old club.

Older players tend to get injured more frequently than their youthful counterparts, which is pretty much what happened and led to the stampede of youth.

But on Tuesday the Dodgers got a tad younger, severing ties with two veterans when they declined options on third baseman Casey Blake and right-hander Jon Garland.

Both moves were totally expected and necessary. Both players spent the bulk of last season on the disabled list, both underwent surgery and both face uncertain futures. At least not the kind where a team is willing to guarantee Blake $6 million next year and Garland $8 million.

It cost the Dodgers $1.25 million to opt out of Blake’s contract, and $500,000 to opt out on Garland.

For Dodgers, the kids were a lot better than all right

There’s youth served and youth force fed.

Sometimes the play of a kid is just so exciting it demands that he be called up. And sometimes, bodies are just falling everywhere and a team has little choice but to reach into its system, give ’em a push and let go of the bicycle.

Outside of the play of their big two –- Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp -– the most encouraging aspect to the Dodgers’ improved performance over the final two months was the play of their kids. Lots and lots of kids, and almost every one responded. And most at a level the team had little right to anticipate.

None were really in their plans for 2011. Position players Jerry Sands and Dee Gordon and right-hander Rubby De La Rosa were scheduled to be September call-ups. The rest were still deep in the development stage.

Then injuries hit the Dodgers unusually hard, though it wasn’t exactly totally unexpected given the age of their roster. Down went Casey Blake, Jon Garland, Jay Gibbons, Dioner Navarro, Vicente Padilla (all before opening day), Hector Jimenez (remember him?), Rafael Furcal, Hong-Chih Kuo, Marcus Thames, Jonathan Broxton, Blake Hawksworth, Kenley Jansen, Rod Barajas, Juan Uribe and Andre Ethier. Some made repeat visits to the disabled list. Some never came back.

All of which created opportunity. At least the Dodgers were willing to give the kids a chance, rather than signing or trading for some tired journeyman. They get points for that. And the Dodgers were delighted with how most responded:

-- Jerry Sands: The lone power prospect, he struggled during his first call up in (.200 average, .622 on-base plus slugging percentage) but was a different hitter in September (.342, .908). He hit in 15 of his last 16 games (.407, 1.063). Could start next season back in triple-A or in the starting lineup.

-- Dee Gordon: There are still real concerns about his defense, but he figures to be their starting shortstop next season. The final month of the season, he hit in 21 of 26 games (.372) and stole 12 bases. There will be growing pains, but an exciting talent.

-- Justin Sellers: Struggled at the plate (.203), but can play three infield positions and is a heady player. If Jamey Carroll doesn’t return, option as a utility infielder.

-- Javy Guerra: The surprise of the season. Guerra only figured to be up a couple weeks while Hawksworth was on the DL, but he was pitching so well he stuck and by early July had become the Dodgers’ unexpected closer. Saved 21 games in 23 opportunities.

-- Kenley Jansen: You’d pay to see him pitch. After he came back from a sore shoulder, he was almost unhittable. In his last 31 games, had a 0.55 ERA. Set an MLB record of 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

-- Josh Lindblom: The former second-round draft pick seems to have found himself as a reliever. Had a 2.73 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 27 games.

-- Rubby De La Rosa: The hard-throwing right-hander was looking like a rotation find for years to come, before injuring his elbow and undergoing Tommy John surgery. He could return next summer, though initially as a reliever.

-- Scott Elbert: Not a rookie, but after a frustrating few seasons finally appeared comfortable as the left-handed reliever (2.43 ERA, 1.23 WHIP).

-- Nathan Eovaldi: Another called up largely out of desperation, but in six starts had a 3.09 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP. Penciled in as a starter.

MORE:

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Dodgers need to swing for fences to keep Kemp

Strong finish sparks hope for Dodgers for next season

-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Dee Gordon, next year's starting shortstop, has been a pleasant surprise. Credit: Christian Peterson/Getty.

Was that a last chance to bid adieu to half the Dodgers?

So did you wave goodbye? Blow a few kisses, you know, just in case.

Bid a fond farewell to the nine Dodgers who can become free agents at the end of the season? The five Dodgers who are arbitration eligible and could be non-tendered? The two whom the Dodgers hold options on that they’re not expected to pick up?

That’s almost half of the 38 Dodgers currently in uniform or on the disabled list. Some will be back; some won’t. But which, and in what roles?

The free agent list: Aaron Miles, Jamey Carroll, Rod Barajas, Juan Rivera, Hiroki Kuroda, Vicente Padilla, Jonathan Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo and Mike MacDougal.

The arbitration five: James Loney, Tony Gwynn Jr., Eugenio Velez, Blake Hawksworth and Dana Eveland.

The options not expected to be picked up: Casey Blake and Jon Garland.

That’s a lot of moving parts. For sure, several appeared on the field at Dodger Stadium for the last time Thursday in the Dodgers’ final home game of the season.

Ned Colletti and the Dodgers' looming, uncertain offseason

If there’s one thing most every offseason offers, it’s uncertainty. And then there is the coming offseason for the Dodgers, which may discover new doors into the unknown.

"I think we have more questions this offseason than we’ve had in the past," General Manager Ned Colletti says.

From small to huge, from backups to star players, from short term to long, all the way to who is going to be the team’s owner.

Colletti is charged with piecing it all together -- determining who he wants to re-sign and which free agents and trades he wants to pursue. When to gamble, when to play it conservatively.

"The offseason really is Ned’s time," Manager Don Mattingly said.

The team offense is the one area everyone agrees the Dodgers need to focus on improving. And the easiest way is to add a significant bat, which remain in shorter supply than love letters between Frank McCourt and Commissioner Bud Selig.

"I say the most dramatic way we can improve the offense, that would be the way we would go," Colletti said.

Alas, there are only two big bats scheduled for free agency, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. Either will be looking at a $100 million-plus contract. McCourt has never spent $100 million on a single player, and that’s when he wasn’t in bankruptcy court. Only one player has ever received a $100 million contract from the Dodgers, Kevin Brown back in 1999.

"The pitching and defense have been pretty good," Colletti said. "It’s the offense we have to try and impact, whether that’s from the inside or outside, we have to make the offense more productive. It’s a domino effect inside the lineup."

The Dodgers have at least $25 million coming off the books this offseason, so the possibility of signing a Pujols or Fielder isn’t completely ridiculous. Yet even if they were to make a run at them, there certainly is no guarantee that they’d return the interest. Some players may not be attracted to a bankrupt team.

Colletti said he hasn’t been told by McCourt yet what kind of budget he’ll have in the offseason, though that’s standard operating procedure for this time of year. Most years, of course, the Dodgers aren’t bankrupt.

When he starts to piece it all together, here are some issues Colletti will have to address:

-- Colletti said he wants to re-sign right-hander Hiroki Kuroda: "We’d love to have him back here."

-- If Kuroda returns, Colletti would still need a fifth starter: Nathan "Eovaldi has to be a candidate for that. I don’t want to count anyone else out. [Dana] Eveland has had two real good starts out of three. And there maybe somebody else in the system who can take that."

-- Assuming he doesn’t get a Pujols or Fielder, Colletti may tender James Loney after all: "As of right now, I’d say he’s somebody we’d have back."

-- Juan Uribe was a bust and then went out with injury but has two more years on his contract and will return next season, most likely at third: "We’re going to have to count on it. Everything is risky."

-- When the big pieces are filled in, several of this year’s role players -– Tony Gwynn Jr., Aaron Miles, Jamey Carroll, Juan Rivera and even Casey Blake -- may return: "In the right situation, yes."

-- Steve Dilbeck

Dodgers web musings: Reaction to the commie invasion

Good news! No word today of any offers for the Dodgers from former KGB leaders, Kim Il Sung Inc. or the Illuminati.

Kinda makes you all warm inside, huh?

Yep, one day after The Times’ Bill Shaikin wrote of a local businessman, backed with funds from the People’s Republic of China,  making a record offer of $1.2 billion for the Dodgers, people are still trying to make sense of it.

Major League Baseball apparently was not too impressed, but then there is probably precious little involving Frank McCourt that would impress them these days, save for his announcing he is officially putting the team up for sale to the highest bidder.

That 21-day window in the offer makes it seem all but impossible, anyway, and Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan views the messy ongoing struggles of the Dodgers and Mets as teams united by greed, "excess, profiteering, power -- the usual ills that come with entities worth billions of dollars and the people who live in the netherworld that rewards their pursuit."

Coming next, a bid from the legion of the dead!

Harold Meyerson in The Times writes that if the deal with the Chinese were to actually go through, the Dodgers would become the  "very symbol of the decline of American capitalism." Like McCourt doesn’t have enough to worry about.

Paul Oberjuerge wrote he’s so fed up with McCourt that "As long as they don’t sell 'The Book of Mao' at the concession stands and brutally crack down on fans who boo the club … we’d be good!' "

And then in a video (sort of), Fox Sports’ Jon Paul Morosi said the Dodgers' ownership mess is taking so much of MLB’s attention it is holding up the progress of the Astros' sale.

   

Non-communist Dodgers’ news on the Web:

-- The Times’ Dylan Hernandez says that not only is Casey Blake headed for season-ending surgery, but Juan Uribe likely is too.

-- Mike Petriello fantasizes over Uribe just staying away at MikeSciosciasTragicIllness.

-- Hernandez also credits rookie Dee Gordon with sparking the Dodgers victory Thursday in his return from the disabled list.

-- The Times’ Bill Plaschke thinks Matt Kemp is the National League MVP and Clayton Kershaw its Cy Young winner. Hold tight, still a month to go.

-- Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman, however, said voters put emphasis on "valuable" and only lists Kemp as his fifth-leading candidate, while tabbing Kershaw at No. 1.

-- The McCourts have actually sold one of their seven homes.

-- Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins compares two stars reacting very differently to the crossroads in their careers, the Dodgers’ Andre Ethier and the Padres’ Heath Bell.

-- ESPN/LA’s Tony Jackson looks at Jamey Carroll after the Dodgers failed to move him at the trading deadline.

-- Fox Sports’ Joe McDonnell thinks Juan Rivera is building a case to return next season.

-- The Register’s Howard Cole tries to find worse baseball things than Eugenio Velez’ 0-for-30 start to his career as a Dodger.

-- And for those of you who enjoy videos of old Dodgers, here’s one of Don Drysdale in a Vitalis commercial that also features ex-Giants manager Herman Franks.

  

 -- Steve Dilbeck