Because I Can

The Dodgers successfully created the surplus of pitching Ned Colletti talked about. The question is: what do you do with it now? One theory involves trading Brad Penny for a power bat, but his value is low after a poor post all-star performance. The other option for LA looks like Hong-Chih Kuo, who in a brief sample as a starter did well, but it remains to be seen how the league will adjust to him. But here are those Dodger pitchers who look like they have a reasonable chance of being part of the opening day roster, a trade, or something.

Starters
Derek Lowe: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Brad Penny: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline , MLB4u
Chad Billingsley: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline , MLB4u
Hong-Chih Kuo: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline , MLB4u
Jason Schmidt: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline , MLB4u
Randy Wolf: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Mark Hendrickson: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Brett Tomko: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline , MLB4u
Eric Stults: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
DJ Houlton: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline

Relievers
Jonathan Broxton: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Takashi Saito: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u, Japan
Joe Beimel: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Yhency Brazoban: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Greg Miller: BP, CBS Sportsline
Mark Alexander: CBS Sportsline
Elmer Dessens: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Franquelis Osoria: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u
Tim Hamulack: BR, BP, CBS Sportsline, MLB4u

I'm not going to put Scott Elbert on there, personally, because I think he still needs more seasoning in the minors.

But as it stands, I'd expect/suggest the following staff for next year:
Rotation
Schmidt
Lowe
Penny
Wolf
Kuo

Bullpen
Saito (CL)
Broxton
Billingsley
Beimel
Brazoban
Dessens

And I would definitely trade Tomko off, along with Toby Hall. At the deadline, I'd expect one of the starters to be traded, which pushes Billingsley back into the 4th starter's role and Greg Miller being called up. Billingsley would also take to the rotation in the event that any of the starters is injured.

As it stands now, the Dodgers have just signed Wolf, Schmidt, Gonzalez, and Pierre as free agents, so they can't be traded for a while. That essentially limits the trade options for a power bat to Penny, Billingsley, and Kuo, neither of which would be a good idea, because the young guys shouldn't go and Penny's value is low because of his second half. An ideal package includes Pierre and/or Gonzalez, and would result in an outfield of Wells or Jones and Kemp with Ethier in left. Although if Kemp needs the rest of the year in AAA, that's ok too, as long as Pierre can be traded quickly.

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Addendum: Osoria has been grayed out because he was claimed off waivers by the Pirates.

Labels: Dodgers