Dodger Trade Possibilities Run Into a Minor Problem

With less than a week remaining before Saturday’s deadline for non-waiver trades, the Dodgers’ search for a starting pitcher and/or hitter might be inhibited by the calendar in another way.

It has been more than seven years since Fox supplanted Peter O’Malley as owner and a spotlight was turned on the need to rebuild the farm system.

There have been seven drafts in that period under two owners (Frank McCourt following Fox), four general managers (not including the interim Tom Lasorda and Dave Wallace) and three scouting directors (Terry Reynolds, Ed Creech and Logan White).

Yet, the top levels of the system lack major league-ready prospects who might influence a club to give up a frontline pitcher or hitter.

With the exception, perhaps, of triple-A catcher Koyie Hill, the void is particularly glaring in the area of position players.

The recall of the oft-circulated Chin-Feng Chen, who was signed initially as a free agent, was the best the Dodgers could do when they had to replace Juan Encarnacion from within, and new General Manager Paul DePodesta was forced to look elsewhere in improving the bench with the acquisitions of Jayson Werth and Jason Grabowski.

DePodesta was able to use outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, a product of the system, in trade for Milton Bradley, but the only position player on the current Dodger roster to have emerged from any of the club’s last seven drafts is backup catcher David Ross.

Then again, the only pitcher in that category is Edwin Jackson.

Having toured the system, DePodesta acknowledges that most of the strength is at the lower level.

“We have a lot of talent at our two A-level clubs, largely the result of the last couple drafts, and some of that is starting to feed into the double-A and triple-A levels,” he said.

“I don’t think we’re far off from filling in the upper levels with our own draft choices, but from a global perspective, most of the current strength is at the lower level.”

Although the publication Baseball America has praised White’s recent drafts and elevated the overall ranking of the Dodger system, others have not been as laudatory, and it is not certain that low-level talent will net the type of pitcher or hitter who might improve the Dodgers’ playoff hopes down the stretch.

“Certainly, clubs given their druthers would prefer players closer to being major league-ready, but fortunately for us, some of the players we have at the lower levels have very high upsides and are not your typical A-ball prospects,” DePodesta said.

“In fact, we have a handful of guys in A ball right now who could very easily be at the double-A level, but we’ve chosen to be more conservative.

“Hopefully, it won’t end up having inhibited our trade talks, but that’s still playing out.”

The absence of major league-ready prospects at a time when DePodesta is unwilling to trade Guillermo Mota or break up the bullpen might not, however, be as inhibiting as the simple fact that there does not seem to be much talent available with so many clubs still clinging to playoff hopes.

“I feel good about our bench and bullpen,” DePodesta said, “but I think we could improve both the rotation and offense. I would like to get something done, and I know everyone around us would like us to get something done.

“We have the money to make it happen and I think we have the players to make it happen, but the landscape is such that I wish there were more players available.”

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So, now Jose (Can You Top This?) Guillen has announced he will no longer talk to reporters, joining Bengie Molina in a petulant corner of the Angel clubhouse.

Who cares?

The preference here is to focus on today’s Hall of Fame induction of Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor, two of the most stand-up players of any era.

The vision of Eckersley standing at his Dodger Stadium locker and patiently answering the same questions from waves of reporters after yielding Kirk Gibson’s back-breaking, walk-off homer in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series is one of the most remarkable in 43 years of baseball coverage.

Eck and Molitor were voted into the Hall because of their accomplishments, but their first-ballot support wasn’t hurt by the fact that they were always classy.