Dodgers Web musings: Don Mattingly doubts big bat is coming
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Say this for Don Mattingly: He usually does not try to snow you. He might, understandably, favor the company line, but he is a straight shooter.
That was on display again this week during a radio interview with 710 AM’s ‘Mason and Ireland,’ when Mattingly first stated the obvious -– that the Dodgers most need an impact bat -- but then acknowledged he was not counting on that happening.
‘I can’t say I’m confident that we’re going to be able to do it,’ he said. ‘We’ve talked about different things. ... You hear Prince [Fielder], you hear Albert [Pujols]. Those are nice thoughts; there’s a lot of teams talking about those type of guys ... but you got to have a Plan B, a Plan C. How do we put offense together if we can’t do something like that? That’s the biggest thing.
‘And obviously, I don’t know where we’re going to be as far as what we’re going to be able to do. Are we going to go backward with the budget, are we going to go forward? ... It’s hard to know right now.’
Got that right. Hard to know the budget when you can’t be sure who will own the team come next spring.
Also on the Web: -- The Times’ Bill Plaschke writes of the opportunity Jamie McCourt wasted as the former president of the Dodgers, and her legacy of selfishness.
-- A Times editorial asks Frank McCourt to move on in the Dodgers’ best interest.
-- Dodger Divorce’s Josh Fisher, writing for ESPN Los Angeles, said the divorce settlement between Frank and Jamie McCourt should at least leave the ownership mess closer to a resolution.
-- Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball, writes that Frank McCourt has himself set up to lose even if he should win in bankruptcy court.
-- Kim Ng will reportedly interview for the Angels’ vacant GM job.
-- Ken Gurnick of Dodgers.com said outfielder Alex Castellanos, the prospect acquired from St. Louis for Rafael Furcal, has been shut down in the Arizona Fall League with a strained left oblique.
-- Clayton Kershaw won the Warren Spahn Award, given out annually to the best left-handed pitcher. Matt Kemp won Baseball America’s award for major league player of the year.
-- Former Dodgers executive Dennis Mannion, pushed out as team president by McCourt last year for reasons never explained, has put his La Canada Flintridge home up for sale at $3.3 million. He is now president of the Detroit Pistons.
-- In a video, Tom Lasorda looks back at Rick Monday’s series-clinching home run in the final game of the 1981 National League Championship Series, which helped to propel the Dodgers to the World Series title.
-- Wearing his Variety hat, Jon Weisman writes the Rangers-Cardinals World Series has the potential of a ratings disaster, but could be saved if the series goes seven games.
-- Mike Petriello of MikeSciosicasTragicIllness finds some blue reasons to pull for the Texas Rangers in the World Series.
-- Roberto Baly of Vin Scully Is My Homeboy has pictures of Jerry Sands playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic.
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-- Steve Dilbeck