I’m a Dodgers fan that doesn’t live in L.A. and read the times everyday. But I have a thought on the offseason.

It was disheartening, and I don’t think the offense is better. But Beltre, specifically, was a sad loss. Still, who knows what Boras said the minimum expectations were? And if Dodgers’ brass thought the Mariners were offering far more than they did, it might not be a surprise they didn’t get back to Boras ASAP.

But who knows? As sad as this situation seems, it’s tough to sign a guy to a six-year contract after an outlier season, even if it comes at age 25 and there are a lot of good years to come. But Plaschke is wrong when he said last year was the year the Dodgers were expecting from Beltre. No one ever expected 48 home runs from Beltre.

Even though J.D. Drew is often injured, I think there’s less risk he’ll deliver five $11 million years than Beltre will deliver five $13 million years.

I’d rather have the Dodgers’ offseason than the Tigers’, signing Ordonez for $75 million.

e-mail me if ur in L.A. or Orange county and a m’s fan

jmkenoyer@yahoo.com

p.s. i will be in seattle for the opening day game! oh yeah!

Beltre was a good signing, and i def. think he’d rather be a dodger, but what he doesn’t realize is he will fall in love with seattle and it’s fans really quickly.

I don’t understand the posters who claim that Depo had a terrible offseason. Let us see how the new team plays before making that judgement. Sure he overpaid for Lowe but for Mariner fans to say he had a terrible offseason based on overpaying for pitching when they signed a 1st baseman who just missed a complete season to an injury that could occur again at any time is a bit strange. Last season Depo built a complete OF without trading one regular. Werth for Frasor, Bradley for 2 prospects, Finley for 2 more prospects. Brad Penny decided to get a new pitching injury or that trade might have brought the Dodgers the NL Pennant. Sure Choi sucked but so did Mota and LaDuca in September. So when Depo is given some latitude it might be because he already has a nice track record. I’m sure Ryan Ketchner will have a better career then Jolbert Cabrerra. Or Antonio Perez will have a better career then Jason Romano. I totally expect the Dodgers to win the division this year and many more in the future because this team now has flexibility and a GM who will not be afraid to make a move when he see’s a weakness during the season and he has plenty of ammunition to trade. And as far as the Yankee debacle, at least he had the nuts to pull out of the deal when he knew it no longer was in the best interest of the team. He’s young and he’s going to make mistakes but I still like him. I do wish he’d improve his communication skills as they do seem to be lacking. I hope he’s not a Duquette who was very bright but not exactly seasoned with people skills.

Plaschke is the worse sports writer at the LA Times. Simers is just an Ass but Plaschke is just clueless about all sports.

So in other words, he’s LA’s answer to Steve Kelley?

And, of course, Plaschke is a moron. Ever watch him on Around the Horn? I think my IQ dropped about 40 points after I watched him debate something with Woody Paige.

Speaking as a resident of Colorado and regular reader of the Denver papers, that has as much to do with Woody as it does with Plaschke.

Are we supposed to understand from this that this would have been a bad thing? If the Mariners had let Baltimore have Sexson, I would have been thrilled. I can almost read the comment threads to the post on USSM, ‘Sexson signs with Baltimore, 4 years, $44 mill, Mariners dodge a bullet’ in my head.

Regardless, it’s difficult to discern whether this is even true. Let’s not forget who his agent is. Boras wouldn’t even let the Astros talk to Beltran, even though they desperately wanted to. It may have been the same thing in this instance. Of course, we can argue any side you want, but we’re merely speculating. I do have a hard time seeing DePo being willing to part with 55 million for Drew, but not 64 million for Beltre. If he had started his negotations with a $200 million dollar offer, that probably wouldn’t have been great business. Beltre ended up signing ridiculously early compared to the the other marquee free agents. I really don’t know what happened. I don’t think anybody does.

But one thing is for certain: Most Dodger fans hate Plaschke because of his negative Dodger attitude. It was around long before DePodesta went to the Ravine, and it will be around until he retires. Plaschke is about as credible as Jose Canseco.

And, of course, Plaschke is a moron. Ever watch him on Around the Horn? I think my IQ dropped about 40 points after I watched him debate something with Woody Paige.

On the other hand, I suppose this is what people have an interest in these days. No longer content to learn what happened, readers want to know *why* something happened so they know who to blame if things go wrong. To that extent, the purpose of the article is to inform, I guess.

I guess I just don’t see the smoking gun here. The Dodgers made an offer for less than the M’s did, Beltre took the best offer. Isn’t that the whole story? That’s a yawner. Or is the implication that if DePo had just picked up the phone and called Beltre, he would accepted $3MM/year less? How do we know this? Maybe the Dodgers just didn’t feel like he was worth what he was likely to get, so they didn’t spend a lot of time on him. The proof will be in the pudding, I suppose. If Beltre repeats 2004 year after year, you can say the Dodgers messed up and should have offered more money. If he doesn’t, you can say that DePo was right not to spend too much organizational capital on him.