"East Coast in the West"

With the news of Joe Torre likely headed to Los Angeles, it brings up a great story about the Dodgers.

Frank McCourt tried to buy the Red Sox. After that didn’t work, he bought the Dodgers. Since then, he has gone out of his way to recruit any and all Red Sox players to add to his rosters (The Red Sox 2). Players like Nomar Garciaparra, Bill Mueller, Derek Lowe, Rudy Seanez, David Wells, have all been moved from the East Coast Sox to the West Coast Sox ( Dodgers.) Even manager Grady Little was a Red Sox annex.

Now, with the Red Sox pools depleted, he turns to the Yankees. The news around the league is that there is little to discuss in the departure of Grady and the insertion of now Ex-Manager of the Yankees, Joe Torre. I can only believe that A-Rod, at the very least, is next. I could see Johnny Damon and Doug Meintkiewicz in a Dodgers uniform next year. There are also some pitchers available too. Maybe Frank "McCourts" players like Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth, Ron Villone, and Jason Giambi.

The Dodgers are deep in the outfield, but with Melky Cabrera, Shelley Duncan, Bobby Abreau, and Hideki Matsui in the outfield all ready for the Yankees, the infamous Johnny Damon is now expendable.

The Yankees can use Duncan at first as well as either Andy Phillips or even Jorge Posada, if they get the right freeagent catcher in the off season (or Jose Molina can get the job done), which would make Giambi a wholesale purchase. This is less likely he ends up in a Dodger’s uniform with James Loney stepping it up this year, but you never know.

Here are the likely departures of the Yankees:

1B – Jason Giambi
1B – Doug Meintkiewicz
3B – Alex Rodriguez
RP – Kyle Farnsworth
SP/RP – Ron Villone
SP – Carl Pavano
SP – Andy Pettitte
SP – Roger Clemens

The Dodgers (Sox 2) are fairly healthy, and will see a starting line-up along the lines of…

C – Russell Martin
1B – James Loney
2B – Jeff Kent (Tony Abreu)
3B – Nomar Garciaparra (Andy Laroche)
SS – Rafael Furcal
LF – Luis Gonzalez (Matt Kemp)
CF – Juan Pierre (Matt Kemp)
RF – Andre Either (Matt Kemp)

They will be loaded on starting pitching with…

SP – Brad Penny
SP – Derek Lowe
SP – Jason Schmidt
SP – Chad Billingsley
SP – Randy Wolf
SP – Esteban Loaiza

And an excellent bullpen that consists of…

CL – Takashi Saito
SU – Jonathan Broxton
RP – Scott Proctor
RP – Mark Hendrickson

And many, many more… With Torre at the helm, will the Dodgers be in line for a World Series visit? Only time will tell…

The real question is… Will McCourt continue to pilfer from the American League East Free Agent Pool?

And if Torre does become a Dodger, will some of these NYY cast-offs come’a runnin’?

Statistocrat