Bengie Molina - Frederic Larson - SF Chronicle

It’s never fun to read the annual winners and losers columns from the winter meetings and see the Dodgers in the losing column. John Heyman with Sports Illustrated put them there (Link Here), and I do have to agree with him. This divorce has put a cloud over the Dodgers and they now have even more pitching needs.

After thinking about it more though, the Dodgers didn’t do that bad.  Actually they did quite well from the perspective of the Dodgers/Giants rivalry.  This week it was confirmed that Bengie Molina, Brad Penny and Juan Uribe would not be returning to the Giants.  Although none of them are high all-stars, they were very important to the Giants. 

Bengie Molina was their second big bat with Pablo Sandoval.  Brad Penny gave them a late surge of pitching and Juan Uribe won the hearts of the fans by having numerous late game heroics.  Losing Bengie will hurt them the most.  He was solid behind the plate and always clutch with the bat.  The fans felt he was too slow, the but the real issue is that he was expected to be the #4 hitter on a team when he should have been the #7 hitter.  He also didn’t like it when they started using a different catcher with Barry Zito, and wanted a long term contract, so I guess he didn’t feel truly wanted back.

Bottom line though, those three guys were Dodger Killers and losing them will definitely help the Dodgers.  Bengie didn’t have a great average against the Dodgers, but he had clutch RBI’s to beat them multiple times.  Juan Uribe hit  .340 against the Dodgers last year, so he definitely had their number.  Brad Penny got beat up by the Dodgers in a key game down the stretch last year, but otherwise he pitched pretty good against them and definitely had the motiviation to beat them.

Now, on the flip side Randy Wolf was a stud against the Giants last year with a 1.35 ERA, so that will definitely hurt the Dodgers.  He ate up a lot of innings, so the Dodgers definitely have a big hole to fill.

Now if only the Giants get rid of Randy Winn, then the Dodgers will really be in good shape.    All in all, not a great week, but against the Giants it wasn’t that bad.

By the way, special welcome to all of you who have visited the site through Twitter.  You can catch out my tweets through this site, or by looking up SFDodgerfan.  Go Blue.

Jeff Kent from Fox Sports.com

So say what you want about Jeff Kent, but there is one common theme about him for both Dodger fans and Giant fans – RESPECT.  Everyone respects Jeff Kent.  Not everyone necessarily likes him, but everyone respects him.  They respect him for being consistent.  That’s it.  Consistently good and consistently ready.  He wasn’t always the clutch guy last year, but you knew if he was playing, he always had the chance to hit it out.

I’ve had a lot of talks with Giants’ fans about Jeff Kent, and they all think he is a clutch guy.  They all have stories about him and Barry Bonds, but they know it was just because he was a hard nose competitor.  Was he a nice guy?  Not necessarily.  But he was a competitor through and through.

Most Giants fans believe he will retire, but then get voted into the hall of fame as a Giant.  His best years were there, and it does make sense.  I’ve found most of the fans up here regret him leaving.  They believe that the Giants never should have let him go as there hasn’t been as strong as a 1-2 punch in the lineup (Bonds and Kent) like there was that year they went to the World Series.

He’s one of those that when he says he’s retiring, I bet he will stay retired.  He appreciated the game, but I don’t know that it was his life.  Ironically, he could become an announcer.  I could be wrong, but I bet he would have good input, if people liked his voice.  I think he saw the writing on the wall last year.  He was semi-healed but Blake DeWitt was already pushing him out.  Joe Torre liked DeWitt better and Torre is here for at least 2 more years.  Kent being the professional guy he is would rather hang ‘em up than come off the bench.

My personal favorite moment with Jeff Kent – Opening Day 2008.  Barry Zito pitching for the Giants.  I was at a work party at a new job and they had the game on.  Of course, living up here, I think I was the only Dodger fan among lots of Giants fans.  Jeff Kent gets up there and absolutely clubs a homerun against Zito.  He totally deflated the Giant fans I was with, and confirmed that Zito and the Giants were going to need A LOT of help that year.

Thanks for the memories Jeff.  I’m sorry the Dodgers couldn’t get you your ring…but hopefully you won’t mind too much when they make your bust in Cooperstown.

Rafael Furcal from MLB.com

So the Rafael Furcal rumors are really starting to grow up here. Twice in 2 days I heard either on the radio, internet or newspaper that the Giants and even the A’s are pursuing Rafael Furcal. Here’s the article on the Giant’s interest. Funny, I don’t hear as much about the Dodgers doing it.

It’s a tough situation.  He was great for the Dodgers…when he played.  He is a huge liability who is asking for 4 years.  My guess is that he will play 2 solid years.  That may not be 2 full seasons, just the equivalent of 2-162 game seasons over 4 years.  I know he had surgery and feels good, but he just kept breaking down, so I think it will continue..  He is a catalyst though.  He can drive an offense and everyone knows it.

If the A’s get him, that would really change the team especially with Holliday.  If the Giant’s get him, that is just salt in the wound.  I can’t stand hearing the rumors that the Giants are going after Manny Ramirez and Furcal.  Not so much that it wouldn’t help them…just that it would be horrible to see them in a Giant’s uniform.  I believe either of those signings would serve to heighten the rivalry with the Dodgers.   There have only been a handful of players that switched between the teams and rarely is it pretty.

We’ll see the outcome, but I do hope the Giants don’t get Furcal.  If they do though – it may work out ok.  He may be injured and they’ll pay the bill.  Even though the Dodgers lost Schmidt…at least the Dodgers don’t have the albatross of Barry Zito the Giants are trying to live down.