What can the Dodgers do to help their team without gutting the kidpack? I've checked the rosters of the teams who are out of it and most deals would involve as Bob Timmerman put it "robbing peter to pay paul".
I have uncoverered one deal which could benefit both teams without involving any of our young prospects. Right now our biggest hole is SS and while Furcal is expected back he could go back down any time since we are talking his back. Houston is completely out of the race. If we were to swap shortstops we'd get 1 1/2 years of Tejada and they would get two compensation draft picks when Furcal becomes a free agent at the end of 2008 for a team that needs to rebuild.
Tejada is not the Tejada of old and his road splits this year are hovering at around 700 OPS. After an initial tear in April he has slowed down considerably but when you think about who he is replacing, he'd still be a huge upgrade. The Astro's would be off the hook for his 2009 season and they could use the draft picks to help rebuild one of the worse minor league systems in baseball.
1 1/2 years of Tejada would give Hu/DeJesus more time to percolate and give the Dodgers a little more punch in the lineup in 2008.