Off-season trade with Bucks

    For the past couple of weeks, I have been arguing with a friend of mine about the feasibility of this trade proposal. I insist it is equally beneficial, whereas he argues that it would never happen because each club will put too much value on what they are giving up (the Dodgers will give up too many young players under team control; the Pirates will put too much value on the face of a franchise and a young starter with ace-potential). With all the recent articles reminiscing about the LoDuca-Penny trade, it occurred to me that we may be missing out on an opportunity to acquire another 26 year old potential #2 or 3 starter with some of our superfluous assets.

      The Dodgers are a large market team that stands to shed 80 million from the payroll over the next two seasons (Lowe, Schmidt, Jones, Loiaza, Kent, Nomar, etc). Assembling the most economically efficient team might mean letting Hu take over for Furcal after this season. However, with a gaudy (for Hu) prospect ranking from publications like BP and BA, it might make sense to construct a package around Hu Loney, Ethier, McDonald and Kuo for Ian Snell and Jason Bay. The Dodgers don't always have to take the most economically conservative route,as long as they are making wise decisions, and can stand to add a couple of modestly priced players such as Snell and Bay.

     Admittedly, the Bucks don't receive a ton of prospects with soaring ceilings (although, as stated earlier, Baseball Prospectus is high on Hu and McDonald, and Loney, Ethier and Kuo will have had 2+ years of production time in the majors to gain some insight on their projectability) but there are probably enough young, team-controlled assets that blend in age-wise with the up-coming crop of Pirates prospects (Walker, McClouth) that likely make this trade worthwhile. Furthermore, Adam LaRoche becomes another trade trip to add more pitching.

    From the Dodger's side, the offer should be contingent on a couple of shrewd free-agent signings and re-signing Furcal. Unless Loney demonstrates that his spike in power from last year is sustainable for a whole season, he might have more value as a trade chip, and replaced with Texiera. Kent could be replaced in house, or with a player like Mark Ellis. The cost of these two would not likely eclipse 25 million annually, and coupled with the salaries of Snell and Bay (signed for the 2009 season at  around 8 million I think), would still be less than the money shed during the off-season.

Dodgers Lineup

SS: Furcal

C: Martin

LF: Bay

1B: Tex

RF: Kemp

3B: LaRoche

2B: Ellis (Abreu)

CF: Jones

SP: Penny

SP: Snell

SP: Bills

SP: Kuroda

SP: Kershaw