. . . could the Los Angeles Dodgers be thought of as the "underdog":After his less-than-amicable departure from the Yankees, Torre is settling into a new reality, attempting to restore credibility to a franchise that has won one playoff game in 20 seasons. There is no fishbowl, no calls from Boss & Sons and no suggestions from above for lineup changes.The Little Engine That Could? This is a franchise valued at $684M, which is the fourth highest in baseball. And while it's true that there is no $200M payroll, there is somwhere between $132M (Forbes' number) and $118M (everyone else's), which ranks the Dodgers pretty damn high as well.
On the other hand, there is no $200 million payroll. The Dodgers constitute the Little Engine That Could.
"In New York, you know how it is,” said Dodgers reliever Scott Proctor, a former Yankee. “Everything is blown up 100 times over."And, it would seem, outside of New York everything is discounted that much as well.
*Thanks to reader Jim D for pointing me to the pic
4 comments:
They keep making these dumb free agent signings and they basically beg for ridicule. They almost have aas much dead weight on their payroll as the Yankees have the past few seasons.
Jones - $36.2M, Schmidt $47M, Furcal $39M (2008 he's earning his cash) Garciaparra $18.5M, Pierre $44M, Loiaza $21.4M
Sad part is that their farm system was/is good enough where they could've followed the Arizona/Colorado model and had payrolls half of what they do and still miss the playoffs every year.
Of course, as a DBacks fan... I say "Spend on!"
I think it was summed up best here...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/The_New_Yorker%2C_1976-03-29%2C_Cover_%28View_of_the_World_from_9th_Avenue%2C_priced_and_dated%29.PNG
And I'm a New Yorker
You're exaggerating a bit there, dre - Furcal was worth the money in 2006 as well, and he was injured last year (nor is he the injury-plagued type for whom that should be expected); that was hardly a bad signing. Schmidt and Jones were high risk, high reward short term signings - not a bad way to spend money, they just haven't worked out (and the sort of risk a high revenue team like the Dodgers can take). Garciaparra was a bad signing and Pierre was indefensible; Loaiza was actually signed by the A's, and well over half that money was paid by them. Probably not a great pickup, but again, they can afford it.
Scott Proctor talking about other people blowing things up... Sort of like when he light his equipment on fire? And every time he entered a game?
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