The Dodgers have dealt John Ely to the Astros in exchange for minor-league lefty Rob Rasmussen.

Rasmussen, a SoCal native and UCLA graduate, was selected by the Dodgers in the 27th round of the 2007 draft but declined to sign and instead became a Bruin. He was drafted by the Marlins in the 2nd round of the 2010 draft and acquired by Houston in 2012 as part of the Carlos Lee deal.

John Sickels of Minor League Ball gave his thoughts on the deal for both teams here. A detailed report on Rasmussen, soon to be 24, can be found here from True Blue LA.

Rob profiles as a relief pitcher and adds some lefty depth to the organization. He’s been emphatic in his joy following the deal:

Speechless/incredibly excited to be a Dodger, truly a dream come true!

— Rob Rasmussen (@RasmussenRob) December 19, 2012

For a kid who lived 10 minutes from the stadium, and saw the likes of Piazza and Nomo, I couldn’t be happier than I’ve been all day today

— Rob Rasmussen (@RasmussenRob) December 20, 2012

Ely, who was merely organizational depth with the Dodgers and profiles as such going forward, was a small price to pay for a flier on a small lefty with some upside.

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Scott Van Slyke has cleared waivers and been outrighted to AAA Albuquerque.

While Van Slyke is probably just a bench player or perhaps a one-year stopgap for a rebuilding team, I’m surprised nobody took a chance on him.

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The Dodgers have signed former Angels third baseman Dallas McPherson to a minor-league contract with an invitation to Spring Training.

Over 10 seasons, McPherson owns a career minor-league line of .289/.370/.563/.933, but a career major-league slash line of just .241/.292/.446/.738 with a .316 wOBA while whiffing in an unseemly 32.1% of his plate appearances.

Over the past six years he’s amassed just 30 plate appearances and appeared in 22 games in the bigs. That doesn’t even tell the whole story though, as Dallas didn’t taste MLB ball in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2012 due to a combination of injuries and ineffectiveness.

McPherson profiles as a classic AAAA player.

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Ryu Hyun-jin: It was assumed he would not participate in the WBC and that assumption was confirmed today with the replacements being named.

— Dan (@MyKBO) December 21, 2012

The Dodgers have announced their minor-league staff for 2013.

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Greg Zakwin is the founder of the site Plaschke Thy Sweater Is Argyle. Follow him on Twitter @ArgyledPlaschke.

Photo Credit: Hans Gutknecht of the Los Angeles Daily News.

I had the opportunity to speak with Onelki Garcia before his Nov. 8 Arizona Fall League game, a conversation that was translated by Rodney Linares, manager of the Mesa Solar Sox and a manager in the Houston Astros system.

Edited for sanity, because nobody wants to read “uh” and “um” and laughs and transitions and crap.

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After all the hardships he’s gone through to get to where he is now, has it affected the way he looks at or plays baseball?

“He said he feels really good even though he’s been through a lot, and that he’s happy and he’s a little impressed with the amount of talent of the players he’s playing with right now, but he’s learning and getting a lot of experience and he says he’s thankful for the opportunity.”

After the extended layoff and his oblique injury, does he have any concerns about durability or rust going into the 2013 season?

“He says that after he had the oblique he had a little bit of a bicep issue, but that he doesn’t envision that it’ll be anything that hampers him for next year. He’s been here in Arizona with the Dodgers and he’s been here working out. He says he still feels it a bit after pitching but he doesn’t envision it being a big problem for next year. He’s ready and happy to be here.”

He still feels the bicep or the oblique?

“Yeah, the bicep, he says he still feels it after he pitches, a little bit, but not before he pitches.”

Can he describe what pitches he throws?

“He says he has a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, sinker, a curve, which he uses a lot, and his change-up is developing. He says he doesn’t use it a lot but it’s coming along.”

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Short but informative, as I previously had no idea that he threw all those pitches. Perhaps most importantly though, people were unable to confirm previously why he wasn’t throwing in the AFL, but it turns out that he had both an oblique and bicep injury.

Overall, he seems like a good guy and is just genuinely excited to get back on the field. Also, Rodney Linares is awesome.

On Sunday, the Dodgers reportedly pulled out of a deal that would see Carlos Lee in a Dodger uniform and prospect Garrett Gould shipped off to the Astros.

The Dodgers, who entered Sunday with a seven-game losing streak, have pulled out of talks for the Astros’ Carlos Lee, according to baseball sources.

Rumors of a deal for Lee began Friday night and on Saturday it was announced that a trade was in place for pitching prospect Garrett Gould.

However, Lee spent the weekend mulling whether he would accept the trade or not and he had not made a decision by Sunday.

“If they don’t want to be here, then I don’t want them” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said on Saturday.

As I said at the time, I didn’t get why the Dodgers were interested in that deal anyway, as it made no sense to me.

No loss there, in my opinion.

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So what now? Well, how about Derrek Lee?

“OH MY GOD, YOU GODDAMN IDIOT, YOU JUST SAID NO TO CARLOS LEE AND NOW YOU WANT DERREK LEE, LOLOL, WHAT A DUMMY!”

Right?

Not exactly. It’s not that I think he’s the savior, but if the Dodgers want to take a flier on an old first baseman, I don’t see why Derrek Lee isn’t a better option than Carlos Lee for a few reasons.

1) He only costs money.

There’s no asset to give away for Derrek, as he’s a free agent. Whatever you think of Gould, he’s obviously a usable asset, which I don’t think should’ve been on the table for what amounted to basically a lateral move and a prayer.

2) He might be better with the bat than Carlos.

Derrek hit .267/.325/.446/.771 last season and projection systems ranged from .756 to .826 for 2012. Carlos hit .275/.342/.446/.788 last season and projection systems ranged from .739 to .788 for 2012.

The upside with Derrek seems to be higher because of a presumed bounce back in walk rate and the fact that his power hasn’t completely left him yet, despite his diminishing ability to square up the ball consistently.

3) He’s a better defender than Carlos.

While similarly old, Derrek has always been athletic and a solid defender. Therefore, unlike Carlos, he shouldn’t be much of a drop-off in that area from James Loney.

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While neither are likely to carry a team for half a season, there are legitimate reasons that Derrek Lee is more likely to contribute than Carlos Lee. Most importantly though, the cost of acquiring the former is just money.

As I watched Houston Astros catcher Jason Castro get absolutely lit up in a home plate collision with Mat Gamel of the Milwaukee Brewers, I wondered to myself why this aspect of baseball was even necessary.

I’m obviously not the first person to suggest this, and I’ve read all the criticism of writers who have previously suggested such rule changes, but there’s generally minimal logic to be found in the dissenting corner.

Their arguments usually go something like this:

“You’re ruining the tradition of baseball!”

“It’s always been this way, so why change it now?!”

“You could get hurt doing anything! What’s next? No sliders?!”

This would be a straw man fallacy if these weren’t the most common arguments I actually see against the idea.

Oh, and don’t let me forget the best of all:

“It’s people like you who are pusssssifying Amurrrrricccccaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!”

Well, that’s great.

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Despite my mocking, I actually understand where they’re coming from. No, really.

I was raised on traditional, hard-nosed baseball where doing things like wrecking a second baseman and blowing up the catcher was just considered “playing the game the right way”. Hell, my great-uncle was initially reviled in Japan for busting up the double play, and I learned a lot of my baseball from a guy who taught my great-uncle how to play ball, my grandfather. So I don’t feel the “you just don’t understand” reasoning applies to me.

I do get it, but I didn’t grow up believing in statistical analysis either, yet I was drawn to it anyway because I sought out things like logic and facts, not tradition and romanticization.

In that same vein, I can’t see the logic or sense in continuing to allow collisions at home plate, and I’ll even take it a step further than others and add takeout slides as well.

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The hit on Jason Castro would be cited as a blow to the head of a defenseless player in the NFL, and would probably lead to a fine and perhaps a suspension. In the NHL, a player just got suspended for 25 games for an elbow/shoulder to the head of a defenseless player. Yet, in the MLB, for whatever reason, these actions are completely legal and legitimate.

Why?

In sports like football, hockey, basketball, and yes, even soccer, exerting physicality and strength over an opponent is not just “part of the game”, but an active and legitimate strategy that is frequently employed by dominant teams.

Physicality in baseball? Eh … not so much.

No matter how often people repeat this rhetoric about beanballs and intimidation or whatever, baseball never was and never will be a contact sport. Exerting one’s physicality on an opponent has minimal to no effect, especially in the modern game, so why even bother keeping this “tradition” alive?

Two roughly developed rule changes (that you can help me adjust) would instantly address the issues I have:

1) Treat home plate like any other base. The catcher may not interfere with the runner’s path to the base and the runner may not collide with the catcher.

2) A player sliding or diving into a base must do so directly in line with the bag unless attempting to avoid a tag. In essence, this eliminates the need for the neighborhood play, as there will no longer be batters sliding five feet out of the basepath trying to take out the legs of infielders.

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I can’t see how the product on the field would suffer with those rule changes implemented. People don’t watch baseball to see infielders get taken out or catchers blown up, because if that was the actual appeal of the sport, then they’d be out of business.

The reality is that baseball has been and always will be a finesse sport, regardless of how people try to twist it. As such, both rule changes would have a minimal impact on the actual game, but would help avoid a number of potentially horrific head, knee, and ankle injuries, which I think would both protect players and improve the quality of the product on the field.

Most importantly, it just makes sense.