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.

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.

Manny Ramirez at AT&T Park

So when the Dodgers first got Manny, I was skeptical.  They already had 4 outfielders, so I didn’t understand a 5th.  Yeah, he was Manny, but would he really turn things around?  We need pitching and a shortstop more than another outfielder.

Well, I went to the game with a Dodger fan and a Giants fan.  Middle of the game, 2 out, 2 on, Manny up and the whole crowd shouting “Beat LA, Beat LA.”  What happens, Manny drives a double to the gap and drives in both runs.  Clutch.  Anyone

who can handle that pressure and come through against the Giants – he’s a keeper.  The Dodgers lost the game in the ninth (Broxton and the Giants don’t mix well), but still the moment of the game was the coming out of Manny.

Here’s another picture – this time of good ole Jeff Kent.

Jeff Kent at AT&T Park