The Dodgers haven't had a productive off season in years. This off season they are off to a much better start. They rounded out a solid, if not spectacular starting five with the signing of right-hander Jon Garland yesterday to a one year contract. They had earlier locked up Ted Lilly and Huroki Kuroda to go with Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw and that gives them a good balance of power and finesse.
Now that the starting five have been addressed, they need to go after some bats. I am hoping that GM Ned Colletti doesn't trade any of their core players-Matt Kemp, James Loney, Andre Ethier, or even Russell Martin- to pick up any overrated, overpriced veterans that he seems to covet.
I am not sold on Ryan Theriot at second base, Casey Blake is getting some age on him, and Rafael Furcal cannot seem to stay off the disabled list long enough to make any solid contributions. They let veterans Vicente Padilla, Scott Podsednik, and Rod Barajas walk as free agents but none of them were the answer to anything.
The Dodgers minor league system seems to be bereft of any talent that can make an immediate contribution. Russ Mitchell got some at bats at the end of the year, Kenley Jansen got some important "experience" innings, john Ely picked up some starts but he was all over the place but that is about it. I was disappointed in the fact that they did not bring up Ivan DeJesus Jr. for a little bit of playing time (what was it going to hurt). The rest of the off season should be interesting because the Dodgers have alot of holes to fill.
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