Sunday, January 13, 2008

Feliz and Hall rumblings

A couple of more rumors to check out, both dealing with the 3rd base situation. The first is from Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, and is about Pedro Feliz, formally of the San Francisco Giants. Not only are the Dodgers showing interest, but the Brewers, Phillies, and Giants are as well. The other 3 teams seem to have more interest, though. Rosenthal seems to think that the Dodgers will stay on their current course of Andy LaRoche or Nomar Garciaparra. Signing Feliz would mean Garciaparra would be $8.5 million utility player.

The second rumor, courtesy of ESPN's Buster Olney, is about Bill Hall, which has been discussed somewhat off and on. I remember a couple of months ago, the talk was centered around both Hall and Ben Sheets, but now it's just Hall. Hall has switched positions with the Brew Crew many times, mainly because he has too much power potential with his bat to sit him (35 HR and 85 RBI in 2006). With the signing of Mike Cameron, he'll have to be at 3rd base exclusively. Olney points out that a move to the Dodgers would mean a trip to 3rd base anyway, so what's the point?

My take is simple...... stop the madness! I know both Feliz and Hall have power potential, but LaRoche needs a chance to show his stuff. Now that the Dodgers have signed Andruw Jones, and with Jeff Kent coming back, a healthy Raffy Furcal, and the emergence of James Loney and Matt Kemp, LaRoche should not feel too much pressure to perform. Hopefully he can just relax and hit the ball like he has his whole life. Nomar can still be a capable player when healthy, which is virtually never anymore. After a good offseason of adding talent without subtracting any, a move now would be foolish. Let the kid play!

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