Rosenthal's Latest: Kemp, Bradley, Fuentes, Street

The Dodgers would be stupid to trade Matt Kemp. That guy could be a superstar and he's far from the problem in LA.

I'm thinking the problem is giving out contracts to guys like Nomar, Schmidt, Andruw, etc.

I agree that the Phillies have enough trade chips in the minors to acquire a pitcher if they want. Carrasco is a top 100 prospect and has improved this year relative to last year (more K's). Cardenas is a good 2B prospect who is blocked by Utley. Savery is struggling some but is tradeable.

The Dodgers would be fools to trade Kemp for any of the guys that are available. It would be one thing if they had included Kemp in a deal for Miguel Cabrera last offseason. But Kemp is already an above-average MLB hitter at 23 and he shouldn't be traded for anything other than an elite slugger, none of whom seem to be available.

A smarter move would be to hope Hu gets it going at AAA and then package him with James McDonald for a bat.

Ok, this is completely out of hand! Ned needs to be fired, like right now! The team would be better off having all the FO decisions go to a poll at the stadium then let this buffoon keep chasing his dreams of putting together a 2001 all-star club…

“I have an idea, why don’t we trade Kemp and others for a player who might produce a tiny bit more than Kemp” ~ Brilliant… ***sigh***

Street's career: 9.3 k/9, 4.1 k/bb, 159 ERA+, 24 years old, prone to a crappy April. I know he hasn't been 100% healthy in his career, but that should garner more than "minimal trade interest"...

and Rosenthal and/or Daniels are on drugs if they believe they could net "multiple high-end prospects" for Molten Bradley....how do two healthy [and productive] months erase six injury-prone, hot-headed years?

“and Rosenthal and/or Daniels are on drugs if they believe they could net "multiple high-end prospects" for Molten Bradley....how do two healthy [and productive] months erase six injury-prone, hot-headed years?”

…Not to mention the fact that the list of teams who might be interested would probably include such clubs as Cle, LA, Oak and even longshots SD (how are they still only 7.5 out?). Remove those four from bidding though, and who’s left? I cant imagine the Mets bid against themselves to the tune of "multiple high-end prospects"…

How do the Phillies have enough to get an impact pitcher at the deadline? You would have to think that other teams with deeper systems have more to get a number two or three pitcher. Aren't the Phillies ranked somewhere in the 20 range in terms of talen on the farm? I am just asking, I don't know, maybe Tim/Philies phans can enlighten me on this.

"why do you trade him if you can't get at least one, probably two real legitimate prospects?"

my point is that he's not worth giving up multiple high-end prospects, let alone two real legitimate prospects....Bradley's been great so far this season, but knowing that he's missed about 40% of his teams' games over the last six years makes Bradley way too risky...

The ChiSox had an opportunity to unload Uribe and didn't jump at the chance?

Milwaukee, I got one for you too, since you were part of the original post as well.

I got your starter in Jeremy Guthrie. Compare his numbers over the past two years with any of the options on the market (not CC obviously, but the Blanton/Burnett class of pitcher). Now take into account that he's under team control on the cheap until 2013 and isn't even arbitration eligible for another year or two. We'll hook you up with him and, say, Chad Bradford if you'll give us O's one of LaPorta or Gamel and a couple secondary prospects (I said secondary, not crappy no name cats. Somewhere in the Gillespie, Evercart, Gindl, Escobar, Salome, Braddock, Rogers class). Whaddya say? I'm crrrraaaazy! But these deals aren't gonna last. Get yourself down to the Baltimore firesale and you too can pick the flesh from this corpse of a once proud franchise looking to rebuild!

"Rosenthal is full of bad ideas. Kemp is already a better hitter than Dunn"

...Where that is just absolutely, undeniably, flat out wrong ~ I do agree otherwise that you dont trade Kemp for Dunn because its poking out your right eye in an attempt to save the left...

Truth be told, its extremely unlikely that Kemp can keep up the 300 BA (that .393 BAbip is going to come down) and his lack of power is a tad disturbing. That said though, he is playing well, he is one of the main pieces for the future and he cant be dealt for a short-term and mainly minimal upgrade…

PS, Dunn in LA would be crazy ~ he would probably be sending them off the Ravine, onto the free-way and having them show up somewhere down by the Queen Mary…

Colletti may at times indeed be an idiot, but Ken Rosenthal is consistently one, just as he is consistently wrong about almost anything. I know we already accept that these are just rumors, but when they come from Rosenthal I particularly don't bother getting my undies in a bunch. Rosenthal also has talked in "blaming the kids" mentality regarding the Dodgers since last year for whatever ails them so he seems to have the ears of many a veteran when he passes on his gobbledygook. In the World Series last year he got his facts wrong literally at least three times when speaking as a "sideline reporter". In short {shrug}, forget it, Jake, it's Rosenthal-town.

UPDATE on one of my previous posts:

“so if I was the Rangers I would be on the phone ASAP trying to get Omar to pony up anything special… Take advantage of said production and the desperate need in NY at this time; don’t wait to be holding the bag of doorknobs that Milton almost certainly will throw at someone come September though…”

…oops ~ too late…

"...Where that is just absolutely, undeniably, flat out wrong ~ I do agree otherwise that you dont trade Kemp for Dunn because its poking out your right eye in an attempt to save the left...

Truth be told, its extremely unlikely that Kemp can keep up the 300 BA (that .393 BAbip is going to come down) and his lack of power is a tad disturbing. That said though, he is playing well, he is one of the main pieces for the future and he cant be dealt for a short-term and mainly minimal upgrade…"

He hit .342 last year, so it doesn't seem like a fluke. The high BAbip is easily explained in that Kemp strikes out a lot but makes hard contact and has the speed to beat out a lot of infield hits. He just gets thrown out at first a lot less than the average player. He has also boosted his walk rate

As for the power, he has boosted his doubles and tends to be a streaky home run hitter anyway. Further, his lack of patience recently has hurt his power numbers, but given what he did to that Zambrano slider, I don't think that anyone can question that the power is there. He also happens to be first on the Dodgers in RBI.

The final 2 things about Kemp may be the most important. There is no doubt the guy has the size and swing to mash XBH, but he also has the speed to steal 40 bases a year, which is a big part of his high BAbip. He is also a serious plus defender who is better at this point than the guy he has been better in the field than the 10 time Gold Glover he has replaced. He has a cannon for an arm, lots of range and has only made 1 error all year (and that was playing Right).

"But I think Ned does need to deal a Loney,LaRoche, Ethier, or Broxton. Watching these guys day in and out, it doesn't look like anyone of those offensive players will become power hitters. This goes for Matt Kemp as well. It may be too early to tell, but how long should Ned put up with a bunch of singles hitters? Trading Loney now and using LaRoche at 1B could provide an opening for a Texeira signing."

Trading Loney of all people? Next to Martin, Loney is probably the best of the Dodgers' young bunch. He wasn't forecast as a power hitter in the minors, so his power in the majors has been a pleasant surprise. What he is is a defensive wizard who makes amazing contact with rather surprising power (or unsurprising if you look at the size of the guy). He saves runs on defense and creates runs on offense. He is third on the Dodgers with 33 runs scored and second with 32 RBI, and that is despite a significant slump which he has been mashing his way out of. Oh, and lets not forget that he is left-handed, which is an advantage defensively and offensively over LaRoche.

Ethier is a rather similar player to Loney and has put up very good numbers despite his ability to hit lefties mysteriously disappearing. He easily projects to a 20 HR/40 2B kind of guy and is another plus defender, both with his glove and with his arm.