MSTI: Mike Petriello asks how good Matt Kemp‘s contract looks in light of other long term deals. Pretty awesome, I’d say.

Grantland: Bill James goes through the best pitcher duels of 2011 and the Dodgers land on the list 10 times.

3. July 20, 2011, Dodgers at San Francisco, Clayton Kershaw against Tim Lincecum

5. September 9, 2011, Dodgers in San Francisco again, Kershaw and Lincecum rematch

23. June 26, Angels at Dodger Stadium, Jered Weaver against Clayton Kershaw

31. August 2, Dodgers in San Diego, Mat Latos against Hiroki Kuroda

32. March 31 (season opener), San Francisco in Los Angeles, Lincecum against Kershaw

35. June 8, Dodgers in Philadelphia, Hiroki Kuroda against Cole Hamels

36. July 9, Dodgers in San Diego, Rubby de la Rosa against Aaron Harang

42. June 19, Houston in L.A., Bud Norris against Hiroki Kuroda

60. September 14, Arizona in L.A., Daniel Hudson against Clayton Kershaw

82. July 8, San Diego in Los Angeles, Mat Latos against Chad Billingsley

No surprise to see Clayton Kershaw there five times. Hiroki Kuroda being there three times goes to show how effective he was and how the team gave him no support. Interesting cameos by both Rubby De La Rosa and Chad Billingsley in games that I didn’t remember.

Minor League Ball: John Sickels has the Dodgers farm system ranked in the bottom third.

22) Los Angeles Dodgers: Some intriguing pitching depth, much of it fairly close to the majors, but not much hitting.

Not sure if I agree or not yet, but my instinct is to concur.

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ESPN: Jayson Stark relays the thoughts of one executive who thinks the Dodgers are going to be huge spenders next off-season.

As Buster Olney has mentioned recently, if Hamels does reach free agency, the Dodgers will be perfectly positioned to make it worth his while. It’s amazing, in fact, how much other teams fear the Dodgers’ potential spending power once their new owner is in place. Remember, L.A. has only TWO players on the roster signed beyond 2013 — Matt Kemp and Chad Billingsley.

“Next year this time,” said an exec of one team, “the Dodgers will be THE team calling up every marquee free agent. They’re going to have serious money. They’ll be the Yankees West. They can just look at that free-agent list and cherry-pick whoever they want. And why would anyone not want to go there? They’ll be the sleeping giant in free agency next year.”

Makes sense.

ESPN: Andre Ethier doesn’t understand why the Dodgers can’t be signing Prince Fielder.

The ownership limbo seemingly affected the Dodgers’ ability to deal in free agency this offseason, with general manager Ned Colletti saying earlier this month the team was essentially done with its offseason acquisitions because “we’re at our payroll.” So when news broke Tuesday of the Detroit Tigers nearing a deal with marquee free agent Prince Fielder, it wasn’t lost on Ethier.

“Why can’t the Dodgers be doing that? Look at the markets those two teams are, and the stability you see through the front office and the team being able to operate … on the level it should be,” he said, adding, “you don’t try to think of it too much as a player, but obviously if you’re not going after the big fish like other teams are, like our partners are down there to the south of us, the Angels [who acquired Albert Pujols], it’s tough to go out there and keep competing year after year if you’re not going out there and making your team better every year. “I think that’s the situation we’ve been in. Obviously it’s going to get better from here on out because of the sell and getting new people in there.”

Oops.

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Dodgers Now: Patrick Soon Shiong, the richest man in Los Angeles, will not bid on the Dodgers, but may join a bid.

The richest man in Los Angeles has not bid for the Dodgers.

However, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong could join the Dodgers sweepstakes soon — not by bidding on his own, but by joining one of the groups already in the running to buy the team. Soon-Shiong has met with several prospective bidders, and he had dinner recently with outgoing Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

If he links up with the Magic Johnson group, this could get good.

CBS Sports: Jon Heyman said on Twitter that Steven Cohen is the biggest threat to win the Dodgers. Ugh.

I recapped all the Dodgers bidders here, so go find out why I don’t want him.

The Los Angeles Dodgers avoided arbitration with Andre Ethier and James Loney on Tuesday, signing both to one-year deals worth $10.95 million plus performance bonuses and $6.375 million plus performance bonuses, respectively.

MLB Trade Rumors projected Ethier to clock in at $10.7 million and Loney at $6.5 million, making their knowledge of the process disturbingly accurate.

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Considering that Ethier is coming off the worst season in his career, it doesn’t seem all that absurd that he gets a raise just below $2 million, as opposed to a larger bump around the $12-13 million mark. Is he worth it? Sure (~3 WAR), but at this point he’s certainly not going to be clocking in at bargain bin prices.

As for Loney, I find it hard to believe he could get a better deal on the open market. He had his best offensive season as a full time regular and was still only worth around 2 WAR. While he would certainly be worth the contract in terms of value (probably), I would imagine he would find it difficult to get the $8-10 million he would need in order to actually want to be non-tendered at this stage in the off-season.

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I don’t have much problem with the actual arbitration salaries, because they’re both standard and about in line with their value. Once again, the real issue at hand is the use of resources.

The Dodgers will have spent around $55 million in 2012 payroll during this off-season, including $35 million on players not named Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. For 2013, the Dodgers have committed over $105 million already, including $46 million this off-season and $24 million of that chunk on players not named Kemp.

At this point, I honestly have to wonder why the Dodgers couldn’t have fit Prince Fielder into the equation.

I ruled him out early in the off-season because I assumed (incorrectly) that the Dodgers had no money to spend beyond 2012 due to the contract potentially hamstringing the team’s value. However, the Dodgers have plainly spent a ton of money in 2012 and beyond, so this appears to be nothing more than another poor use of resources. If the Dodgers are going to allow such money to be spent, I’m unclear as to how spending it on a bunch of mediocre players will make the franchise more well off in terms of fan support, payroll flexibility, and franchise value than getting a marquee talent.

It just seems absurd that the Dodgers will fail to get an impact player out of the gigantic chunk of money they have spent in the 2012 off-season by using the mantra that it’s impossible when their actions clearly show otherwise.

While there’s nothing wrong with pipe dreams, and the speculation about the Los Angeles Dodgers and Prince Fielder was inevitable given the team’s needs and his need for a team, it was never all that realistic.

As such, Buster Olney‘s suggestion was understandable, but Bill Shaikin‘s rebuttal was reasonable, as Mike Petriello pointed out.

As you can imagine, I tend to agree with Shaikin on this. While Olney’s points are valid, we’ve been talking a lot this week about just how much money the Dodgers are expected to go for – by all indications, it’ll be record-shattering. I find it hard to believe that a franchise which might already come close to doubling the previous MLB sale record would get an even further boost by adding Fielder; as Shaikin suggests, it might actually lower the price. Besides, if you’re willing to toss more than a billion dollars into purchasing a baseball team, you almost by definition have a large ego. I’m thinking that a new owner would prefer to be the one seen as rescuing the team and bringing in big stars, not inheriting someone that McCourt brought in.

Earlier today, as if to drive a stake through the heart of a rumor on life support to begin with, essentially all scenarios involving Fielder landing in a Dodgers uniform were squashed out.

Dodgers taking a shot in the dark by discussing a contract with him at all? Nah.

The #Dodgers, at the moment, are not involved in the Prince Fielder sweepstakes, source says.

One year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers and then sign with the Dodgers next year? Nope.

I’m told #Brewers invited Fielder to return for 1 year so as to get mega-deal from new #Dodgers owner next winter. Boras showed no interest.

Frank McCourt rewarding Dodgers fans by signing him? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

McCourt laughs at question about #Dodgers interest in Prince Fielder. “We’re not going to talk about that,” he said.

While it’s depressing that the Dodgers won’t be able to fill a gigantic void with an MVP candidate, the probability of that happening was always slim-to-none, but at least we all got yet another peek at why McCourt is a gigantic worthless asshole.

I learned a harsh lesson over the past month: be careful wat you wish for, because it just mite come true.

Sure, I’ve always wanted more Dodgers players to be on Twitter so that I could get a feel for their thoughts on intangibles like grit and hustle, but what I ended up getting was more than I bargained for.

A while ago, Jamie Hoffmann and James Loney were the first to join Twitter and I was fine with that, as I figured all players should have the opportunity to just gopher it. Then in 2011, Javy Guerra and Dee Gordon made their Twitter dayviews as well. Then Matt Kemp joined.

Then Matt Kemp joined.

I figured I minus whale follow them, because if nothing else, I could always give them a pizza my mind after a soul crushing loss, but that turned out to be a big McSteak on my part.

Seriously, how can they move on so quickly? It’s so disappointing to see them have such a lazy fare attitude without even having gone through their rice of passage as World Series winners!

It’s bordering on arrogance, really.

As fans, we say: “I can’t believe they are continuing to enjoy their lives as young, famous, wealthy athletes.”

Nobody wants to see this carpet diem bullshit after the season. They need to listen to the advice and criticism I give them on Twitter because everything I say is right.

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My critics will say that I should support are players, but in my opinion, those fans just have no passion for the game, not like you and me.

I don’t want Jamie Hoffmann to make a Twitter comeback a week after the season ends when he should be doing steroids and choking babies. I don’t want James Loney saying the season ended on a wonderful note! I want him to be depressed and to start working out all day!

Worst of all, I have to see are so-called MVP, Matt Kemp, dating a pop star again, what an unbelievable pre-Madonna! It just shows he has no focus on the game, and that the only thing he will ever lead this team to is a 3rd place finish in the NL West. To top it off, he was cheering for the Brewers on Twitter! CHEERING FOR A TEAM THAT’S NOT THE DODGERS?! ENJOYING WATCHING PLAYERS WHO ARE NOT DODGERS?! HAVING FRIENDS ON TEAMS OTHER THAN THE DODGERS?! UNACCEPTABLE! Nobody wants to see you give Prints Fielder props on Twitter, man. It’s just sickening to us fans to see you enjoy the game you play for living, and it just confirms your place as a lazy waist of talent.

The bottom line is this: I want to see the players suffer in pain like all of us fans did for weeks, no months, on end. I want to see that in tent city in their hearts and minds! I want to see their drive and determination 24/7 until they win the World Series!

THE PLAYERS OWE US THAT MUCH! THEY OWE US FANS TO SUFFER AND HAVE A MISERABLE EXISTANCE JUST LIKE ME!

Gah, should of kept Juan Pierre.

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Big thanks to my boy Crossing Broad for always keeping it real and giving me in the inspiration to right this peace.

Much love.

True Blue LA: Eric Stephen looks at how Jamey Carroll exceeded expectations.

While I don’t have the post anymore, I’m quite sure I didn’t like his signing at all. However, by mid-2010, it became quite apparent that he was going to be a valuable player for the Dodgers going forward. It wasn’t about grittiness or hustle or whatever storyline people want to feed you, it was about him taking walks, having positional versatility, and providing dependable defense over two years where the Dodgers didn’t have much of it at the 2B, 3B, and SS positions.

Never been happier to be so wrong about a player.

Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Will the Dodgers splurge on Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder? Should they?

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Los Angeles Times: Jonathan Broxton will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his elbow. He’ll be out for about six weeks, but he should be ready for Spring Training 2012.

I suppose the Dodgers could bring him back on the one year deal he allegedly desires, but he might benefit from a fresh start with a fresh fan base that doesn’t treat him like shit.

MLB: Tony Gwynn Jr. got an MRI that revealed a jammed shoulder, but we’re still waiting on the results.

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The Seattle Times: Trayvon Robinson’s journey to the big leagues.

The Seattle Times: His path to the majors in multimedia format.