Saito from L.A. Times - Allen J. Schaben

So Takashi Saito signed with the Red Sox this last week, ending his time as a Dodger.  I don’t quite know why this happened.  Saito was a stud.  He had elbow problems last year, but when he was on – he was lights out.  He was different than Gagne, but in some ways he was better.  Gagne was all about the drama and the look.  Saito was all about just getting it done.  Gagne always had guys on base to make it interesting, Saito just struck them out.  He was surgically accurate, and he gave Dodger fans great peace when he came in.

I’ve wrote previously that I want to one of his last games in SF last year, and it was reassuring to see him back and close the door.  He ended up not being fully ready for the playoffs, but even Giant’s fans knew he was good.  I have a friend who is a big Giant’s fan and Saito was always his Fantasy Baseball closer because he knew how good he was.

This whole thing is a little confusing.  It appears like the Dodgers just let him walk away.  I’m trying to read inbetween the lines, and the Dodgers seem to be on a trend.  Cut older, injury prone players.  Kent, Nomar, Penny, Saito.  All guys who had injuries, and who the Dodgers think will have more.  The fact that the Red Sox picked up Saito and Penny is real interesting.  They wouldn’t just pick up guys they thought would be injured, but they did only sign them to 1 yr deals.

The real problem with this is that now Broxton is the default closer.  Broxton is a great setup guy, but he hasn’t shown he’s Saito material yet.   This is especially true against the Giant’s last year.  They lit him up at the end of the season.  He is a hard thrower, but he can be hit and they usually hit it far.  The Dodgers lost Hoffman and thought Saito would call them back, and he didn’t.  I still think they need a real closer or else the bullpen won’t be near as strong as last year.

So my last post on Arbitration was a classic case of being the bay area and being disconnected from L.A. I took Rafael Furcal not getting Arbitration as a potential good thing….according to the L.A. Times I’m a little off. I also finally got the L.A. Times RSS feed on the News page fixed, so hopefully this won’t happen again.

Anyways, here’s the link to the L.A. Times article.

Basically, they didn’t offer arbitration because he played so little last year (not a Type A or B free agent), and they don’t want to pay him more than last year.  Fair from the Dodgers point of you, but if he really can get a 4 year deal from the A’s, then he’s probably gone.  It may change, but it does seem that Coletti really favors the short contracts. 

It will be an intereting off-season, because the team may look very different next year without Furcal, Manny, Kent, Nomar, Penny and Lowe.  The team always makes a splash, but they may end up with more holes again.