Dodgers sign Dan Haren to 1 year deal

[Neddy]

I LOVE it!

as i expressed my feelings about Dan Haren in another thread just a half a day earlier, his fielding independent stats were pretty damn good even when his ERA last two years didn't look as impressive. to top it off, it's a 1 year deal! it keeps the door open for zach lee next year as well as the injured vets in case one of them return to their original form and we decide to bring him back to round out our rotation. also, zach greinke has an opt out clause in his contract that can make him a FA after 2014, and if he bolts out we have more options.

next year rotation looks like (with some simple stats to go with from 2013)

clayton kershaw whip .0.915 WAR 6.5
zach greinke whip 1.114 WAR 2.9
hyun jin ryu whip 1.203 WAR 3.1
dan haren whip 1.238 WAR 1.5
beckett/billingsley/lee/fife/mcgill/possibly tanaka here

we have 4 of the top 66 pitchers in all majors in terms of WAR, and 4 of the top 64 in FIP. in fact, we have 3 out of the top 17 in terms of FIP with kershaw/greinke/ryu.

personally, i am pretty goddamn happy about this deal. for once Ned Colletti didn't screw things up like his brandon league deal, or jason schmitt deal, or andruw jones deal, or juan pierre deal, or ect, etc....

[Quake Griffin]

He had a bad back. I think it messed with his mechanics in 2012 and early in 2013.
guy is durable...i expect 180 IP plus to vest his 2nd year with us.
i expect 3.50 ERA or better.
and I expect him to be healthy.

quit hating on Ned man...since the new ownership, he's been hitting the right buttons.
if he sheds some of this salary, he'll make me really happy.

[Neddy]

brandon league was a right button? i dunno about that man. he made that trade with boston when i personally think we could have taken only one of the two waste contracts of beckett/crawford for getting gonzo. he also is the one who took over michael young's 6 million remaining $$$ of 16 million contract to be a 2 months rent of a bench player who made 4 outs in 2 at bats with 4 LOB in game 1 of NLCS. and these are all after guggenheim took over with flowing $$$s.

and don't count on Ned shedding salary in any sort of intelligent way.

anywho, now that 4th SP is settled, who do you think we will go after for the 5th? i highly doubt it is wise to count on billingsley/beckett duo to make it back from their injuries and back to their old forms any time soon. unless we are confident to handover the 5th rotation to Zach Lee next season, we need another short term contract to complete the roster.

[Quake Griffin]

Greinke obviously.
Adrian Gonzalez obviously.
Hanley obviously
Brian Wilson

i mean..the Dodgers have made tons of great moves...but you only reduce it to Logan White.

good GMing is listening to your scouts....what the hell would you hire them for if every move you made was going to be this nutsy, against the grain move that isolated your genius from their scouting prowess?

[Neddy]

it doesn't take a genius to outbid everyone else by 40 more million dollars to a former cy young. any GM with bigger budget could have signed greinke.

for 1 adrián gonzalez who already makes 21 million a year with 7 years remaining at the time of the trade, he took on 2 more atrocious contracts of useless Beckett and his remaining 31 millions, and pass his prime and coming off tommy john surgery carl crawford and his 120 million dollars remaining. gonzo was already a disappointment for the red sox brass and they were willing to move him anyway, and Ned couldn't negotiate like Kim Ng would or Billy Beane would, and came off spending nearly 300 million dollars when most teams would have gotten the sox to eat some of gonzo's 144.

hanley was a malcontent and miami was already talking to boston, we simply outbid them.

brian wilson is a good signing, but there was absolutely no other takers at the time and he came cheap.

btw Logan White was promoted to a Vice President directly under Stan Kasten.

[Quake Griffin]

excuse after excuse after excuse.

hanley, wilson, Greinke (we competed with Texas...im sure the extra money was because of our tax burden)...good moves.
adrian...meh, we'll see how he moves the money...we're still better with Adrian and Crawford and Punto spotting an injured Hanley than we were the year before without the deal.

good deals and good signs are just that.
you can try to dress them up how you want to help you continue to hate Ned....but at this point...especially with getting Alexander Guerrero and Dan Haren...I'm liking Ned with the new ownership.

only brought up Logan...cuz i liked some other moves/ draft picks in the Ned era...but u wont let me say "good job Ned" cuz Logan White scouted them.

[Neddy]

how are they excuses? you said yourself in the other thread that we need to shed some salary, the same deadweight salary Ned accumulated.

Ned signed Andre Ethier to 6 years, 100 million dollar deal that we can't find a taker for.

Ned traded for Carl Crawford and his 120 million dollar deal that makes Ethier's deal far more tradable, which just means one's chance is slim and the other none.

at least the total waste of roster spot that is beckett is expiring after next season.

Ned gave brandon league his 3 year deal, when there was absolutely NO OTHER OFFER ON THE TABLE. some smart guy he is. i even predicted that league would lose his job to jensen in 2 months. hell most of the baseball world predicted the same. only an idiot like Ned Colletti can't see it as he is too busy dating a dental hygienist 20 years junior to his age. how do i know this? because Ned' girlfriend's best friend used to work for me, and offered to give me some tickets to the best seat in the house since they told Ned i was the biggest dodger fan in Oregon with a "go dodgers" logo placed in a corner of my office sign. i turned it down.

Alexander Guerrero signing wasn't Ned's. that was Stan Kasten himself. so was Dan Haren. you should look up some archived LA times article about Stan Kasten stripping Ned the executive power to make any deal for himself and making sure all baseball front office transactions running through him lately.

[Quake Griffin]

link me please...i'll read it.

i still like what Ned did with the team.
im not a downer on the Boston deal...he incurred the cost to give us some talent so we could win in 2013.

the deals i hated were Schmidt, Uribe, League.
I still loved Hanley, Greinke, Wilson...all moves that most teams would be hesitant to pull the trigger on

hanley = cancer...doesnt hustle
greinke = not worth it
Wilson = not sure...just had TJS.
we pulled those triggers and they worked.


i see up above that we're close to a deal with Wilson.
and that is fine by me...and I love having 2 closers for the 8th and 9th....hopefully he isn't as expensive as i think he will be.

[Neddy]

i tried to look for the link, but it's been tough to find it. it was under an article that was some time after the fust settled down with the changes of the ownership, and right after the big trade last year, (or maybe during the last offseason when matt kemp's rehab was going on, i think) introducing stan kasten's job description and his expanded power as the man in control of all things dodgers including the final say so of players personnel decisions and also describing magic as a figurehead for the public's eyes. i think it might also be around that times when mccourt was still in the news as the new ownership had finished negotiating mccourt's parking lot usage and profit shares. anyhow, i will link it for you when i do find it but for now you will have to either do your own research, or take my word for it.

we signed wilson to a 1 year deal with 1 year of player's option, 10 million each. now we have the most expensive setup/middle reliever duo in baseball history between wilson and league. that right there tells you everything you need to know about Ned. when you can spend more $$ than anyone else, any one of us can make 50-50 guesses that results in the manner above. it takes a smart GM to minimize the financial losses such as leagues or what carl crawford's contract will be in 3 years, while gaining consistent success with your high priced FAs, like Billy Beane who seems to get more than his money's worth just about every time.

[Neddy]

link me please...i'll read it.

i still like what Ned did with the team.
im not a downer on the Boston deal...he incurred the cost to give us some talent so we could win in 2013.

the deals i hated were Schmidt, Uribe, League.
I still loved Hanley, Greinke, Wilson...all moves that most teams would be hesitant to pull the trigger on

hanley = cancer...doesnt hustle
greinke = not worth it
Wilson = not sure...just had TJS.
we pulled those triggers and they worked.


i see up above that we're close to a deal with Wilson.
and that is fine by me...and I love having 2 closers for the 8th and 9th....hopefully he isn't as expensive as i think he will be.

read this.
this article only mentions and credits those i have endorsed, and no credit to Ned. Stan Kasten listening to Logan White and Bob Engle.
if you remember earlier in Tanaka watch, Ned was quoted saying he will not be outbid by anyone on Tanaka, only to have Stan Kasten come out in a couple of hours later that the dodgers will not get into a bidding war for him.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/ ... z2rBy83pUE

by the way, no way this kid is at the level of kershaw/king felix/verlander but his contract is right there among them.