It's Official — Hendrickson and Hall for Navarro and Seo

Similar to what was reported this morning by the Tampa Tribune and L.A. Daily News, the Dodgers and Devil Rays have completed a trade that will send Dioner Navarro and Jae Seo to Tampa in exchange for LHP Mark Hendrickson and C Toby Hall. Some cash will be tossed L.A.'s way as well.

In the previous post, I talked about the trade, and the addition of Seo doesn't really change any of my analysis, other than to say I was very disappointed in Seo's performance in L.A.  When he was brought in from the Mets — for a valuable reliever in Duaner Sanchez — I thought he'd slide into the back of the rotation and give the Dodgers some solid innings. I'm gonna go ahead and say I got that one wrong.

Click below for the press release on the trade, courtesy of Dodgers PR. If nothing else, the Dodgers are putting together quite a hoops team. More to come as it comes in.

—BK

Trade Alert!

All of this information is in this morning's Extra!, but just in case not everyone reads to the end, here it is again.

The L.A. Daily News and Tampa Tribune are reporting that the Dodgers and Devil Rays are on the verge of completing a trade that would send Dioner Navarro to Tampa in exchange for LHP Mark Hendrickson and C Toby Hall.

The first thing this deal shows, should it happen, is the high price teams will have to pay to pick up starting pitching this trading season. Though he's been pitching well this season and has had a nice June, Hendrickson has been known more for being extremely tall (6-foot-9) than for being extremely good over the course of his career. Honestly, his profile is pretty ordinary — unless you think a 5.01 ERA and .291 BAA over five seasons HOF material. Still, he was reportedly getting attention from the pitching-starved Yankees as well, and I'm guessing other teams have made inquiries. And the Dodgers don't need him to be good forever, just for a couple months. If this is Hendrickson's career year, they'll take it.

Extra! Extra! (6.27)

Dodger rookies haven't spent much time looking overmatched this season, so it was bound to happen at some point. Chad Billingsley, making only his third start in the bigs, was beaten around the Heftydome in Monday night's 8-2 loss to the red-hot Minnesota Twins, stopping L.A.'s winning streak at four (including three against Pittsburgh, which should only really count as 1.5). Billingsley ran into problems from the start. In the bottom of the first, following a Joe Mauer — get used to that name — RBI single, Torii Hunter nearly lit Bills for a grand slam before grounding into an inning-ending double play.

Trouble was only temporarily averted. After one Minnesota run had already scored in the second, a Mauer triple plated two more before Grady Little took a moment to remind Billingsley what he was capable of doing. Billingsley, who said he was trying to be too fine on the corners, managed to escape the frame and stretched his outing to the sixth, but by the time it was over, the box score shows he had given up seven hits (four to Mauer), six runs (five driven in by Mauer), plunked a guy, and worst of all, walked seven. Those are Oliver Perez numbers. That L.A.'s top pitching prospect hasn't seen the seventh in any of his three big league starts shouldn't surprise, since he wasn't doing it at AAA either.

Maybe I'm a Purist...

...but no player should have to create a SportsCenter-worthy highlight by making a leaping catch into a freakin' garbage bag, as Matt Kemp did.

Just an observation. Makes you appreciate Dodger Stadium a little more, despite the traffic issues — and the lousy hot dogs.

—BK

Trivia Answer

Here was the Q from Friday afternoon:

1) Gold Glove shortstop Cesar Izturis returned to the regular lineup last night, albeit at third base. It was his first, and the first for a Dodger since Charles Johnson in 1998. Who has won the most Gold Glove Awards as a Dodger? What position did he play?

2) Having broken in with the Blue in 1999, Eric Gagne is currently the longest-tenured Dodger. That's turnover, people. But he's got a long way to go before catching the guys who played the longest with the franchise. Who are they, and how many seasons were they Dodgers?

As Lolo correctly pointed out, the answer to No. 1 is 1B Wes Parker, who took home the hardware six consecutive times between 1967 and 1972. All the more impressive considering he only played nine years. Dude could pick it.

No. 2? It's a tie, at 18 seasons each for HOFer Zach Wheat (1909-28) and Bill Russell (1969-1986). 

Thanks for playing.

—BK

Extra! Extra! (6.26)

Everywhere you went yesterday, were you constantly hearing the faint sound of a broom bristling against the floor? Well, that's probably because a whole lotta sweeping was going down this weekend. And it all came to a head Sunday afternoon after the Dodgers took down Pittsburgh 7-4.

Had they actually traveled to Chavez Ravine on a sinking pirate ship, the Bucs couldn't be any more downtrodden at the moment. Bad for them (and former Dodger skip Jim Tracy). Great for L.A., who got themselves plenty hot before heading on this upcoming roadie. Unfortunately, Brad Penny got a little too hot, which turned his pitching anything but. The silly bad humidity got to the righty from the outset, draining Penny's stamina and resulting in an early exit. But with the blue bats going nutty, including wood swung by a de-slumped J.D. Drew, Penny's mediocre outing was plenty covered. As the box score shows, plenty of multi-hit games. Should the guns remain so loaded, the Dodger starters can get as hot, cold, lukewarm or whatever temperature of any given particular game.

Suh-Weep!

That's the beauty of playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Such headlines are always a strong possibility. And in the case of today's 7-4 win over the Bucs, such expectations became a reality. The boys in Blue went out of their way to give their opponents props (Grady Little: "We respect everybody we play." Rafael Furcal: "They've got a lot of good players." Kenny Lofton: "Any team can be a pretty good team on any given day."), but I'm not on their payroll, so there's no need for me to apply tact.

The Pirates stink.

The Dodgers should be brooming the likes of them.

There. I said it.

One Day at a Time

That phrase doesn't just describe an inexplicably popular, totally mediocre '70s sitcom or the mindset of those fighting various addictions. As I scoped out various thoughts from around the Dodgers clubhouse, the sentiment was more or less a common theme regarding the Blue.

Take Cesar Izturis' adjustment to his new position of third base. For now, he's going 24 hours by 24 hours on his quest to get into the groove. "So far, so good," he replied, when asked about the adjustment so far. He admitted that the new position doesn't feel entirely comfortable to him yet, but all in all, he'd label things "good." He also a little surprised, given his tendency to play reasonably far back, that nobody's tested him with a bunt in his direction. Especially during the Seattle series, because they have some rummy named Ichiro leading off. According to the scouting report, he's got some decent speed and ability with a bat. I asked Izzy if, all adjustment and trial and error aside, he's actually enjoying his time at third. Well, depends on how you define "like." Dude wouldn't go so far as to say he's having a blast back there (the man's still a shortstop, given his druthers), but he is digging the pure challenge placed in front of him. "Especially playing third in the big leagues...especially for the L.A. Dodgers."

Asked about a variety of subjects, Grady Little answered with a lot of variations of "day by day." Take Brett Tomko's progress. "I haven't heard anything new today, but they're working on him back there. So we don't have any new news today." Same question, this time in regards to Eric Gagne? More or less the same answer. "No update on that either on our end. I wish I could help you, but I can't."

Asked if it's safe to assume that the lack of specific info could be interpreted as "Game Over" being a ways off from actually entering a game, Little responded with a simple "sounds like it to me." If nothing else, it could be time for Takashi Saito to find some intimidating rock and roll for his save entrances. Suggestions, anyone? Asked about DH's for the upcoming interleague series against Minny and that other team in the L.A. area, Little will be making his decisions on a game to game, matchup by matchup basis. That said, a betting man could probably feel good about placing a Vegas wager on "Olmedo Saenz DH'ing against a Twins lefty" without worrying too much about losing his shirt (although we at Blue Notes don't condone such activities, so you didn't hear it from us).

Finally, the 24-hour time period was given the biggest shoutout by Joe Beimel, who packed the "24" season one DVD, still in the plastic, into his bag for the upcoming road trip. The reliever's never seen an episode of the real time show in his life, but he plans on killing time on the road by watching a day in the life of Jack Bauer. Ramon Martinez warned him of the show's rather addictive quality. "You're gonna be hooked for the rest of your life, bro!"

Today's lineups:
Pittsburgh
Nate McLouth cf
Freddy Sanchez ss
Sean Casey 1b
Jason Bay lf
Jeromy Burnitz rf
Joe Randa 3b
Jose Castillo 2b
Ronny Paulino c
Kip Wells p

Dodgers
Furcal ss
Lofton cf
Nomar 1b
Drew rf
Ethier lf
Martinez 2b
Izturis 3b
Martin c
Penny p

Extra! Extra! (6.25)

The Dodgers were a lot like Ringling Brothers on Saturday night in their 7-0 win over the Pirates.  Fun for young and old.  Taking advantage of a rare start against left-handed pitching, Andre Ethier ripped a two-run single to center in the bottom of the second, then got all deja vu in the sixth with a second two-run single. All to prove what he's said all along — he can hit southpaws. Aaron Sele (he's old) scattered five hits in six shutout innings, striking out four and allowing him to put the skids on a four game winless streak. Just as Brett Tomko credited a mechanical adjustment for his success on Friday, Sele said he put on his tinkerin' hat to fix a flaw in his delivery. The box score also shows a bunch of other Dodgers, including Olmedo Saenz, Jeff Kent, and Nomar Garciaparra, all played well enough to get their names in the paper. All good enough to put the Blue back at the top of the NL West.

With Brad Penny pitching this afternoon, the Dodgers will be looking for their fourth consecutive strong start, going back to Derek Lowe's effort against the Mariners on Thursday. Does that mean they won't be looking for a rotation-solidifying arm or two over the next few weeks (despite having some of the NL's better-though-somewhat-misleading-pitching stats)?  Hardly.  But they'll have some company in the trade market and the pickin's are slim.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! The Dodgers have been playing a lot of rookies?

No, you get out of town, because it's true.

And because of their prominent roles this season, ESPN Insider's Gary Gillette gave a rundown on the contributions/success thus far of Russell Martin, Andrew Ethier, Matt Kemp, Willy Aybar, Chad Billingsley, Jonathon Broxton, Takashi Saito and Hong-Chih Kuo. For those with a subscription, here you go. For those without, you'll simply have to remain in agonizing suspense for the rest of your lives, never knowing how the writer evaluated your Blue's young talent.

Or you could check out the comments section, where it's been cut and pasted. Whichever seems like the more practical approach.

—AK