Upon their arrivals to their new clubs, the departing youngsters put on a show for their new fans.  DeWitt posted a 3-4 debut with the Cubbies and smacked a home run with four RBIs in his fourth game.  Not be outdone, James McDonald debuted for the Pirates and delivered the best performance of his young career by obliterating LA’s divisional rival Colorado during six shutout innings, punctuated by eight strikeouts and a mere five baserunners allowed.

In essence, the Dodgers gave up cheap, young players with considerable talent for older, more expensive, and less productive ones.  Consider the 2010 seasons of fellow second basemen DeWitt and Theriot.

DeWitt: .275 BA, .354 OBP, .384 SLG, 2 SB, salary – 400k

Theriot: .284 BA, .321 OBP, .328 SLG, 16 SB, salary – 2.6 million

Why make this swap?  Enter Ned Colletti.

“We wanted more speed.”

Ok, then.  I guess all other considerations went out the window.

Well, how about the acquisition of the elderly Dotel and the relinquishing of two talented players with a plausible 8-10 years of future major league production?

“Those are the guys they wanted.”

Sheesh, good thing they didn’t ask for Clayton Kershaw or Andre Ethier?

Colletti’s  pattern of giving teams pretty much whatever they ask for in return for marginal players is downright frightening for the future prospects of the organization (and I don’t mean the players).  Coupled with tight-assed owner Frank McCourt’s frugal ways, the outlook is bleak for the Blue Crew.

For all the talk and hoopla over Cliff Lee and every other name pitcher mentioned in the free agent market, what is consistently overlooked is how weak and meager the Dodgers infield continues to be.  While the team boasts an outfield trio as talented as any in the majors, the Dodgers infield home run totals are as follows: Martin – 4, Loney – 5, DeWitt – 1, Furcal – 3, and Blake -8.  As a group, they have the same number as Tigers first basemen Miguel Cabrera.  While the Dodgers have made it to the NLCS the last two years, it is difficult to fathom anything beyond that without a sufficient power upgrade in the infield.

The Dodgers difficulties in acquiring infield talent is somewhat understandable.  In Russell Martin and James Loney, they have two young players with outstanding pedigrees who have shown their ability in spurts.  Martin arrived and thrived early, garnering great fanfare and expectations.  Loney is a former 1st round pick who is a favorite of Dodgers management and coaches Joe Torre, Larry Bowa, and Don Mattingly.  The team consistently praises his attitude, work ethic, high-RBI totals and anything else you can think of.  Their effusive praise of Loney at times seems to be almost an act to send a message to the more self-assured young guns like Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier.  But the reality is that they are average players at best, currently.  The Dodgers should be lauded in giving the young guys every chance to star, but the failure to upgrade at these positions is glaring when cheap upgrades such as Troy Glaus, Aubrey Huff, and Adam LaRoche were available and subsequently acquired by NL teams in free agency.  Meanwhile, Casey Blake provides veteran leadership, solid defense, and serviceable production at the hot corner.

Which leads to second base.

The Dodgers didn’t really commit anything to the position after letting Orlando Hudson walk in free agency.  They signed Ron Belliard as a backup and opted to give former 1st-round pick Blake DeWitt a crack at the starting job.  While DeWitt has been decent, he is cheap and hardly a roadblock to acquiring an upgrade.

Which leads to that fish I was talking about.  He’s playing second base for the Marlins and his name is Dan Uggla.  The Marlins have been fading of late and ownership clearly has been disappointed by the team’s 37-42 record, which led to the dismissal of manager Fredi Gonzalez.  The tight-fisted ownership group led by Jeffrey Loria will probably look to dump salary at the deadline and if the team’s decline continues, the power-hitting second baseman could be available.  His name was bandied about in the rumor mill nearly all off-season but Uggla remained a Marlin, probably because his salary was needed to stay above the MLB-mandated minimum for total player salaries.  His 50 runs, 15 HR, and 46 RBI would be a huge aid to the Dodgers lineup.  Imagine how it would look with Uggla in the fold.

1 – Furcal

2 – Kemp

3 – Ethier

4 – Ramirez

5 – Uggla

6 – Loney

7- Blake

8 – Martin

Looks pretty good to me!!