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« Rays Mulling Plans For Pena, Baldelli | Main | Renck's Latest Rockie Rumors »
Dodgers Interested In Loaiza
According to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dodgers have "genuine interest" in Oakland starter Esteban Loaiza. The 35 year-old righty has been excellent in two starts against the Blue Jays since coming off the DL.
Loaiza was coming off a fine 34-start 2005 season for the Nationals when the A's signed him to a three year, $21MM pact. I wasn't high on the deal at the time, though it's more palatable given some of the starting pitching deals that followed.
Loaiza pitched for Mexico in the WBC in March of '06. He reached April with a marked decline in velocity, and the A's blamed his early struggles on the tournament. Spasms in his non-throwing shoulder surfaced later that month. On the first of May he hit the DL with a strained trapezius muscle.
He returned in June to mediocre results, but his velocity had returned. He snagged a DUI later that month, driving 120 mph in his Ferrari while drunk. The incident prompted the A's to ban alcohol in both the home and visitor clubhouses. Loaiza was healthy but awful in July of '06. In August he was surprisingly lights out in winning four starts with a 1.48 ERA. Loaiza even touched 95 on the gun in a start that month. He ended up making a couple of playoff starts - one decent, one lousy.
This spring, tightness in Loaiza's pitching shoulder and a bulging disc in his neck surfaced. His rehab was delayed due to a torn meniscus in his knee, which he had surgery for in June. He finally returned this month, and is working in the 86-88 mph range. With $8MM due next year, it's possible Loaiza cleared waivers. However, we only have speculation on that currently. A switch back to the NL would not be a bad move at this stage in his career, and the Dodgers are still short on starting pitching even with David Wells in tow.
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Penny
Lowe
Loaiza
Billingsly
Wells
Looks good for the rest of the year. Can the Dodgers score enough runs?
Posted by: jskohl | August 28, 2007 at 10:03 AM
Not with Juan Pierre, the human out machine, starting everyday.
Posted by: Teetz | August 28, 2007 at 10:34 AM
I agree that the Pierre signing was terrible, but he's had a great august and is not the reason for the offense's troubles this month. His OBP is .383, OPS is .815, and he even has 8 RBI for the month. If you take him out of the lineup, you'd presumably replace him with Gonzo who's got an OPS of .612 since the AS break. The real problems in the lineup right now are Gonzo, Hillenbrand, and Loney.
Posted by: lih | August 28, 2007 at 10:53 AM
Hillenbrand has been a problem his whole career.
Posted by: Teetz | August 28, 2007 at 10:59 AM
Jeez, will Frank please FIRE this man. The season is over, mostly because of moves signings that our GM made. Its over. Stop trying to salvage this team.
Posted by: J.L. | August 28, 2007 at 11:40 AM
I hear Paul DePodesta is still available down in San Diego. Better grab him before Houston makes its pitch.
Posted by: YouthofToday | August 28, 2007 at 12:03 PM
"I hear Paul DePodesta is still available down in San Diego. Better grab him before Houston makes its pitch."
Bill Plaschke's fat head would explode.
Posted by: ArodSucksAtLife | August 28, 2007 at 01:19 PM
Bargain Depot is not the answer. They need to give Coletti at least another offseason to see how he does. Firing him will not get rid of the Pierre deal.
Posted by: lih | August 28, 2007 at 04:34 PM
it didn't say you were going to get loaiza before the season end and anyways that rotation sucks, loaiza has had 2 starts since coming off injury and wells was a fluke only did that good because he had 3 or 4 weeks in between his starts
Posted by: Barroid_Bonds | August 28, 2007 at 06:21 PM
Bargain Depot... is that supposed to be clever? Hey, Dodgers fans bitched about that Penny deal, give me a few more of those, right? Here's a better play on names - don't go over after Estebum.
Posted by: DentalPlan | August 28, 2007 at 08:40 PM
Wow it was only 4 yrs ago that Loazia was the best pitcher in all of the American League. With the 21-9, an under 3 era and over 200 Ks.
Posted by: russell | August 28, 2007 at 10:04 PM
As long as we're assembling the "4 years ago" team bring in Mark Prior and Richard Hidalgo.
Posted by: DentalPlan | August 29, 2007 at 06:05 AM
The Dodgers are only good because of DePodesta and Logan White. Brad Penny, Derek Lowe,and Jeff Kent were all DePodesta signings.Under White, the Dodgers have developed Russell Martin, Chad Billingsly, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Jonathan Broxton.
What has Ned Colletti done? He signed the hated Juan Pierre. He signed Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf, Luis Gonzalez. And he gave Nomar Garciaparra a 2-year deal with a No-Trade claus after James Loney broke out at the end of last season. Olmedo Saenz was re-signed also. Marlon Anderson and Brady Clark were released and Ned Colletti was forced to go out and get Hilenbrand and Mark Sweeney. It's been bad move after bad move for Colletti, and now, unless he makes a trade, I can't see anyplace for him to put a power hitter(which the Dodgers really need!)
Posted by: jskohl | August 29, 2007 at 08:11 AM