5 of 7

Write now Article Tools

Youth, youth, and more youth. My philosophy for running any Major League baseball team is to start with as many hungry, talented, young, inexpensive players as possible and build from there. The Los Angeles Dodgers, perhaps more than any other team, were already in prime position to field a team of young studs ready to blossom before this season started.

In fact, they made a mistake in giving millions to Andruw Jones, retaining Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra, Juan Pierre, and Brad Penny and hiring Joe Torre.

The Andruw Jones thing is easy for anyone to see now that he has shown that he is, indeed an unmotivated, overweight prima donna rather than the exciting, talented youngster he once was, as many feared and as the highly astute Braves deduced. But I would not have pursued him even this winter, when all of us were wondering if he was still a star who just had a bad year or if he was on the downside for a permanent slide. It is just not a good time for L.A. to be spending millions when they are not sure what their team is about yet.

I have tremendous respect for Joe Torre. He has proven that he is a master of leading a group of veteran stars to "Titletown" time and again - even managing to keep most of them happy, to boot. But for the team the Dodgers should be fielding, he is all wrong. I would have tried hard to get Joe Girardi or someone else who is proven in patiently teaching prospects how to play Major League Baseball. I may have even given someone with the right baseball pedigree his first shot, someone like Terry Pendleton.

Then, I would have turned almost every veteran on my roster into more prospects to join what was already a fine group of young talent at every position. I would have retained a few veterans just for the influence they would have in showing the kids "how it's done". Rafael Furcal would stay, for instance, and maybe one of the veteran starters, Derek Lowe or Penny to go along with Jason Schmidt, untradeable due to his injury status and hope I got SOMETHING out of Schmidt besides his mentoring ability. Of course, I would have a few vets on the bench. But the rest of the older guys would have been shipped out for more young building blocks. Kent, Pierre, and Penny should have been enough to bring back an Edinson Volquez or David Price et al.

I would have started the year with Russell Martin catching, James Loney at first, Tony Abreu at second, Furcal at short, Andy LaRoche and/or Blake DeWitt at third, Delwyn Young in left, Matt Kemp in center, and Andre Ethier in right. Clayton Kershaw would have joined Chad Billingsley, Lowe or Penny, and whatever young talent I brought back for Kent, Pierre, etc in the rotation while we waited for Schmidt to return. That is a fantastic core of youth to start with. I would have just let them play regularly for the year to see what I had.

I think it is important for young starting pitchers to build confidence, so I would have retained Takashi Saito to close out their games and Scott Proctor and Joe Beimel to help Jonathan Broxton set up while continuing to develop Broxton as the future closer.

After the year, I would discuss with Girardi or Pendleton or whoever my manager was whether we are going to try to add a veteran or two to the mix in our weaker spots and "go for it" or try different youngsters in those spots and continue to build.

One thing is for sure - if we did decide to bring in a couple of veterans, one of them would NOT be Andruw Jones.

Learn more about this author, Michael J Link.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about If I ran the Los Angeles Dodgers?
We want to hear your view. Write now!