Dem Bums - A Dodgers Blog

The Dodgers finished up a minor league deal with former high level prospect Chin-hui Tsao.  At one point, Tsao was considered the best prospect in the Rockies organization but his career was sidelined after he had surgery for a torn labrum in 2005 as well as a variety of other injuries.  The Dodgers will pay Tsao $425k if he makes the big league team and $125k if he’s relegated to the minors.  He’s still only 25 though so I can see why the Dodgers would want to take a flier on him.

If you ask me this question, I’d say a definite yes but I’m a homer.  The good news is, others agree especially after the Dodgers shored up their rotation with Jason Schmidt.  That almost makes up for the Juan Pierre signing.  Almost.

Regardless, John Shea at ESPN.com thinks the Dodgers should definitely be in the mix in 2007.  This team has come a long way even since last years All Star Break so it’s good to see their finally getting their due in the press.

The Dodgers beat writer for MLB.com, Ken Gurnick, recently answered readers questions in a mailbag column.  He touches on whether making room for James Looney makes sense as well as why the Dodgers signed Luis Gonzalez over Trot Nixon.  Interesting stuff here and worth checking out.

The Dodgers signed right handed pitcher Mark Hendrickson to a one year, $2,925,000 deal.  Because of the signing, the two sides will avoid arbitration.

Hendrickson had a rough season last year and because he never worked out for the Dodgers, we had to go out and trade for Greg Maddux.  This year, Hendrickson might be the odd man out after the Dodgers signed Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf so I expect the 6′9″ pitcher to start the season in long relief.

For big guy, Hendrickson doesn’t strike out many batters.  He has 372 career strikeouts in 721 1/3 innings.  I guess height doesn’t neccesarily equate to velocity and strikeouts.  We must be spoiled by Randy Johnson or something.

Sorry for the abscence.  There just hasn’t been a lot of Dodger news lately and while I have a few historical things in the works, I haven’t felt too motivated yet to work on them.

In the meantime, Jeff Sackman at the Hardball Times explored Steve Garvey’s case for the Hall of Fame.  Good stuff and it’s hard to forget how good Garvey was.  He comes to the same conclusion I do about Garvey and it’s a great read about a great player.

The history of fireplace is very intriguing. What began as a pellet stove, became the centre piece of the house. Today, a living room cannot be imagined without fireplace mantels.