The Big Unit Trade

When I saw the Dodgers hired Paul DePodesta, I figured that he would make them into a contender simply because he had been Billy Beane's assistant since 1998 and he was working with a budget almost twice as big as Beane's. Although the Dodgers did win the division last year, I was skeptical of his trade for hothead Milton Bradley and the proposed Randy Johnson deal seems to be a terrible deal for the Dodgers, too. If the trade goes through in its currrent form, the Dodgers would give up Shawn Green, Brad Penny, Kaz Ishii, and 2 others for Javier Vazquez and two Yankees' prospects. Obviously, DePodesta is eager to relinquish the $16 million that Green is owed, but Vazquez is going to be paid $35 million the next three years. Penny is 2 years younger than Vazquez and his career ERA is a bit lower. Kaz Ishii isn't great, but he's serviceable. As one LA Times writer has conjectured, there has to be something else in the mix for the Dodgers to do this, perhaps JD Drew.Ah, but those Yankees' prospects. According to Baseball America, Dioner Navarro is the Yankees' top prospect. And Eric Duncan was the Yankees' first round pack last year, you might point out. There's a reason why the Yankees trot out twenty-five mercenaries bought from various teams around the league every year: it's because they draft so terribly. In the past decade, the Yankees have drafted such studs as Tyrel Godwin, Danny Walling, and, yes, the immortal Shea Morenz. Yankees' prospects are nothing to get excited about. If the Dodgers are banking on Navarro and Duncan becoming solid major leaguers, they haven't been paying attention to the Yankees' recent drafts.So will the deal go down? I suspect it will not in its current form unless the Dodgers have other things cooking and they come to fruition in the very near future. Exchanging solid pitchers (Vazquez and Penny) is one thing, but giving up Green and Ishii for prospects does not make sense for a team that is supposed to be in contention, not in that beloved "rebuilding" phase. Expect DePodesta to have something else up his sleeve.