The Dodgers officially announced the hiring of Mark McGwire as hitting coach, replacing Dave Hansen. McGwire spent the past three years with the Cardinals as their hitting coach.

Under his tutelage, the Cards offense was top-five in OBP in each of his seasons at the offensive helm, leading all of baseball last year.

McGwire has stated that his philosophy includes not forcing change upon established sluggers, so Matt Kemp will be allowed to be himself. Hopefully McGwire can rub off on some of the lesser bats in the lineup while aiding Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez in regaining some of their previous offensive clout. The willingness McGwire displayed as a player for drawing a walk could also be a great starting point for most of the team, as that aspect of the game can never be emphasized enough.

—–

As Chad noted yesterday, the Dodgers won the rights to Korean southpaw Hyun Jin Ryu, according to Mike Petriello. The Dodgers are spending money like they have a printing press hidden away in Ned Colletti‘s suite, and this seems like just another example.

—–

The club has outrighted Alfredo Silverio to AAA Albuquerque, opening up a spot on the 40-man roster. Silverio missed the entire 2012 season while dealing with multiple injuries suffered in a car crash.

—–

23 minor-leaguers, most notably Ramon Troncoso and Josh Fields, became free agents earlier this week.

If Troncoso were to return, it would just be as AAA roster filler, as the Dodgers possess a plethora of bullpen arms and Ramon has been mediocre at best recently. Fields is your typical AAAA player, and he could be a back of the bench player with some pop, though considering that he didn’t see The Show in 2012, he’s not all that likely to see it in 2013 with the Dodgers.

=====

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

Ted Lilly‘s injury isn’t thought to be serious, but he’s enough behind schedule that he’ll be given extra time to recover by starting the season on the disabled list.

Ted Lilly threw off a mound on Friday for the first time in nine days, and reported improvement in his stiff neck. But the left-hander is too far behind schedule to be ready for opening day, and will begin the season on the disabled list.

“We just don’t feel like he’s going to be ready,” said manager Don Mattingly. “If it was an emergency or something and we had to push to get him ready for this start, he could take the ball. But that’s not really what we want for his first start.”

So who does that free a roster spot up for?

The Dodgers have an off day on April 9 that allows them to skip a fifth starter until April 14. Mattingly has said the Dodgers will definitely use the temporary extra roster spot on an eighth reliever, which will essentially be a choice between right-hander Josh Lindblom and non-roster invitee Scott Rice, a lefty.

Has to be Josh Lindblom, right?

Right?!

—–

The team trimmed the roster by two, releasing Josh Bard and Cory Sullivan.

The Dodgers trimmed their roster after Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the White Sox, releasing catcher Josh Bard and outfielder Cory Sullivan, both in camp as non-roster invitees.

The 29-year-old Bard, with eight years of Major League service, was essentially insurance should anything happen to starter A.J. Ellis and backup Matt Treanor and had an out in his contract. Tim Federowicz will start the season as the starting catcher at Triple-A.

The 32-year-old Sullivan, with four years of Major League service, was similarly insurance should anything happen to outfielders Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier or Juan Rivera.

Ramon Troncoso cleared waivers, which means he’ll be sticking around in the organization.

Right-handed reliever Ramon Troncoso cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Albuquerque by the Dodgers Friday.

Actually somewhat surprising, considering the amount of teams who have terrible pens. Troncoso remains a good depth option, so it’s a positive turn of events for the team.

The Dodgers are off on Thursday, but they did make one roster move. Ronald Belisario, who was on the restricted list all of last season, was reinstated, and to make room on the 40-man roster the Dodgers designated Ramon Troncoso for assignment.

Belisario still must serve a 25-game suspension for violating MLB’s drug policy, presumably for testing positive for cocaine, something the reliever said last month that he only tried once. Belisario needed to be on the 40-man roster to serve that suspension.

The team hopes he clears waivers, but don’t think he will.

The Dodgers are hoping reliever Ramon Troncoso gets through waivers so they can keep him in the organization, but manager Don Mattingly said he expects the right-hander to be claimed.

Yeah, can’t imagine some team with horrible relief depth wouldn’t take a chance.

Anyway, with Troncoso gone, the candidates for the final spot in the bullpen have been revealed.

Troncoso was competing for the final long-relief spot in the bullpen. That competition now is among Jamey Wright, Josh Lindblom, John Grabow, Angel Guzman, Wil Ledezma, Fernando Nieve and Scott Rice.

According to general manager Ned Colletti, Wright and Grabow have opt-out clauses they can trigger on Sunday, which gives the Dodgers until March 30 to guarantee their Major League salaries or grant their releases.

I don’t see how it’s not Josh Lindblom over that cavalcade of crap. They don’t absolutely need a lefty reliever that bad, do they? We should hope not.

—–

Perhaps of greater concern is Jerry Hairston‘s arm, as it even piqued Don Mattingly‘s worry.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he is “more concerned” with infielder Jerry Hairston’s throwing after the veteran utility man picked up his fifth throwing error in the last five games Friday.

Playing third base, Hairston fielded a chopper but spiked the throw to the plate with the bases loaded in the 17-4 split-squad win over the White Sox, pulling catcher A.J. Ellis off home and costing Minor League pitcher Ethan Martin an unearned run.

The 35-year-old Hairston reportedly had some arm or shoulder discomfort earlier in Spring Training but missed no time. Mattingly would not speculate on whether Hairston is trying to play through an injury, but he said the club would “look further into” Hairston’s status.

That sound you hear is Justin Sellers doing cartwheels and praising Jesus.

MSTI: I don’t know where he found this, but this is definitely the best thing Javy Guerra and James Loney do all year even if they finish 1/2 in the MVP race.

Dodger Thoughts: None of the potential Dodgers ownership groups liked the Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw contracts? Uh…yikes.

Feelin’ Kinda Blue: Jon Weisman blogger profile.

—–

Baseball Prospectus: Kevin Goldstein names his top 101 prospects. The only Dodger on the list is Zach Lee at 70.

—–

MLB Trade Rumors: Los Angeles Dodgers have four players who are out of options for 2012: A.J. Ellis, Ramon Troncosco, Blake Hawksworth, and Scott Elbert.

Could mean trouble for Troncoso and Hawksworth, but the other two shouldn’t have an issue.

—–

Baseball Nation: The ten worst swings of 2011. It’s amazing.

During the 2010-2011 off-season, the Dodgers aimed to improve on what was an effective unit in 2010 (3.80 FIP/8th In MLB). With all their veteran relievers making their Los Angeles exit, the rest of the potential returning cast consisted primarily of pre-arbitration players making the major league minimum, with only Jonathan Broxton locked into a high paying salary for 2011. The predominantly untested nature of the bullpen didn’t sit well with the Dodgers, so they went out and re-signed Vicente Padilla as a reliever, avoided arbitration with Hong Chih Kuo, traded for Blake Hawksworth, gave Mike MacDougal and Lance Cormier minor league contracts, and made a long term commitment to Matt Guerrier.

While handing out millions to seemingly solid and steady veteran relievers is rarely going to play poorly in the media or among fans, they often prove to be unnecessary and costly additions to the roster. Now the Dodgers bullpen in 2011 has been quite effective as a whole, ranking 8th in the MLB in FIP at 3.58, but were the expensive veteran members all that important to the 2011 unit’s success?

-

*50% fWAR (FIP) & 50% rWAR (ERA)
*5,000,000 Dollars Per Win
*Salary Data From True Blue LA
*SV=Surplus Value

Guerra, Jansen, Elbert, Lindblom, and Troncoso are all pre-arbitration farm system arms who have combined for $11,134,000 in SV. MacDougal was given a minor league contract with a mere $500,000 major league option and netted the Dodgers $2,750,000 in SV. Hawksworth, despite his -$676,000 total, was acquired in a trade that rid the Dodgers of Ryan Theriot, who is currently putting up a 0.1 WAR at a $3,300,000 salary for a -$2,800,000 SV, so feel free to credit Hawksworth with that.

Guerrier was the big money free agent signing, and he was actually decently productive in 2011. Unfortunately, the only reason he clocks in at positive value is because of the deferred nature of his overall contract (4 Y/12 M), so he’ll have to get better in a hurry if he wants to continue breaking even. The more likely scenario is that it ends up being a neutral to poor overall transaction.

The four pitchers who rank the lowest happen to include three of the top bullpen salaries, with Broxton, Kuo, and Padilla combining for -$17,725,000 in SV. Also clocking in at the bottom of the pile is Cormier (-$4,050,000 SV), who inexplicably made $800,000 in the majors and was inexplicably allowed to pitch 13.2 innings before the Dodgers realized how terrible he was.

Overall, it’s quite clear where the value lies in the Dodgers pen, as the data demonstrates that the most productive and most valuable members of the 2011 bullpen have been the farm system arms, and more specifically, those making 500k and below, basically around the major league minimum.

-

While the status quo maintains that locking down relievers with track records of success to million dollar deals will lead to overall bullpen stability, it would do the Dodgers and their fans well going forward to remember that money spent hardly guarantees productivity and success, especially with a commodity as volatile as bullpen arms.

Over the course of the 2011 season, the Dodgers relief corps has proved that bullpen arms are indeed a fickle and fungible group, with production to be found from a multitude of sources, and that the most value out of the pen is commonly derived from those making the least. Sticking with cheap team controlled building blocks in the bullpen can be highly effective, and the money used to sign costly relievers can frequently be better used elsewhere.

—

Published @ True Blue LA as well.