Once upon a time the Los Angeles Dodgers organization was the envy of all the land… Oh, how times have changed. We all know about the controversy that has been swirling around the club for what seems like far too long and it may be some time before the Dodgers’ system once again receives the attention that it deserves. Ownership needs to commit to rebuilding the organization from the inside out and it has one of the best scouting directors in the business, Logan White, to lean on. The Dodgers organization does have some impressive arms but things fall off quickly after them.

1. Zach Lee, RHP
BORN: Sept. 13, 1991
EXPERIENCE: 1 season
ACQUIRED: 2010 1st round (28th overall), Texas HS
2010-11 TOP 10 RANKING: 2nd

No one expected the hard-to-sign Lee to actually become a Dodger but the club got a deal done and he sits atop the prospect list just one year later. He spurned Louisiana State University where he would have played baseball while also possibly quarterbacking the football squad. Lee’s first season in the minors was a success. He posted a 3.68 FIP in 109 low-A innings while also striking out 7.51 batters per nine innings. Lee showed above-average control with a walk rate of just 2.64 walks per nine. His repertoire includes an 89-94 mph fastball, good curveball, slider and changeup. He could develop into a No. 1 or 2 starter if he continues on this path. The organization could make the bold move to jump Lee all the way to double-A if it wants him to avoid the California League. More likely than not, though, he could spend a short period in high-A before taking the leap.

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Wine and cheese make for a delectable combo. But the two foods don’t age the same. Wine takes much longer to turn to vinegar than it does for your cheese to grow fuzzy green mold. That’s why wine is the one used in sayings by older men verifying their remaining virility.

Power, patience and contact are the components of a delectable (productive) hitter. And yet, like wine and cheese, it turns out that these different skills age differently. Ages 26 through 28 are often used to represent a hitter’s peak, but not all of their different faculties are at their apex in that age range. Let’s check the aging curves, once again courtesy stat guru Jeff Zimmerman.

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There are some crazy-good ballplayers who ply their trade at second base. There’s Dustin Pedroia, Ian Kinsler, Chase Utley, Howie Kendrick, Brandon Phillips, Robinson Cano, and Ben Zobrist. There are other good — if not crazy-good — second basemen, like Rickie Weeks and Danny Espinosa. None of these good-to-crazy-good second basemen plays for a team in the National League West.

Which raises two interesting questions:

• Who will play second base in the National League West in 2012?

• How do you think they’ll perform?

In other words, it’s time to get in your 2012 Fan Projections for NL West second basemen.

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For more on the Venezuelan Winter League, check out Carson Cistulli’s final SCOUT leaderboards for said league.

With the MLB in the middle of its winter hiatus, we of the baseball-addicted must roll our listful eyes towards the winter leagues. One such league is the wildly popular Venezuelan Winter League. It is hard to say what exact level the Venezuelan league constitutes — but it certainly has a few veterans of both leagues, as well as a few MLB guys (though usually nobody who is already well established in the majors).

This year, Chicago Cubs fans have had the delight of being able to keep tabs on their… exciting… pitcher Carlos Zambrano. Big-Z — perhaps in an effort to ingratiate himself with the new Cubs regime, perhaps in a move to showcase his talents to the league — has now pitched five games for the Caribes de Anzoategui, but according to some recent rumors, Zambrano may be calling it a winter.

And maybe he should.
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On Wednesday morning, the Chicago Cubs came to an agreement for a one-year deal with free agent OF Reed Johnson. The Cubs are no strangers with Johnson — three of the last four times Johnson has signed a contract, it had “Cubs” literally written all over it (counting this most recent transaction).

It may be surprising to the Cubs fan base, however, that one of the staples of the Jim Hendry regime — the scrappy fourth outfielder Johnson — has been voluntarily re-added to the roster. However, Speedy Reedy should not be found guilty by association.

The truth is: Reed Johnson, hey, he’s not all that bad.
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In 2011, the Dodgers scored 644 runs, ninth in the National League. The offense was powered, of course, by Matt Kemp, who just missed the batting Triple Crown. The next most significant offensive contributions after Kemp came from veteran infielder Jamey Carroll, a somewhat-injured Andre Ethier, and a second-half surging James Loney. And that was pretty much it.

Carroll’s gone, having signed with the Minnesota Twins. Ethier and Loney are in the final year of their contracts. Kemp will continue to anchor the offense. Who else will get on base and score runs for the Dodgers in 2012?

This off-season, the Dodgers signed free agents Matt Treanor, Mark Ellis, Jerry Hairston, Juan Rivera, and Adam Kennedy. Rivera is the youngest of the bunch; he’ll be in his age-34 season in 2012. Treanor, Hairston and Kennedy will all be in their age 36-season. That’s a lot of players on the downside of their careers.

Let’s take a look at the 2012 Dodgers by position.

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Last week, we heard the official word that the New York Yankees had acquired negotiation rights to Japanese infielder Hiroyuki Nakajima. In order for teams to win rights to negotiate with players leaving Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league, they must participate in a silent auction called the posting system. The winning bid goes to the NPB team currently in control of the player’s rights, unless the team cannot sign a major or minor league contract in 30 days.

The Nakajima posting seemed to go by with little fanfare. The Yankees won the rights to negotiate with Nakajima, bidding a paltry $2.5M, and promptly announced their intentions to make him their second utility infielder.

To me, it seems pretty clear the Yankees had no expectations of actually winning the bid. Not only do they lack a position for Nakajima, they have already been rumored to be seeking a trade partner. On top of that, their bid was low. I mean: Seriously low:

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In free agency, the Los Angeles Dodgers struck quickly signing a pair of classic 4-5 starters to stabilize the back of their big league rotation in veterans Chris Capuano and Aaron Harang. When healthy, Capuano has proven to be a solid starter over his career providing relatively strong peripherals and should prove a discount over the life of the contract if he logs even 300 innings over the life of the deal.

And while Harang posted fourteen wins and a stellar 3.64 ERA, those surface numbers haven’t been important to the SABR minded since Ronald Reagan was President. In this rotation, Harang is likely the number five starter.

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The Dodgers kicked off their activities at the Winter Meetings by scooping up another veteran pitcher for their rotation. This time, it was another former NL Central tosser, as Los Angeles signed Aaron Harang to a two-year contract on Monday. The terms for the 33-year-old right-hander have not been released yet, but it is thought that the deal will be backloaded — similar to Chris Capuano’s contract, which was signed last week.

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The Dodgers have been very busy this offseason, signing Juan Rivera, Matt Treanor, Mark Ellis and Adam Kennedy to free agent contracts. The team also negotiated a mammoth eight-year extension with centerfielder Matt Kemp. In spite of their increased activity, some questions remained around the diamond, one of which centered on the return of Hiroki Kuroda.

That question was seemingly answered on Friday when the Dodgers signed southpaw starter Chris Capuano to a two-year deal worth at least $10 million. With Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly occupying spots in the rotation, and the team interested in using rookie Nathan Eovaldi in another spot, the addition of Capuano realistically completes the rotation. Kuroda looks like the odd man out, and whether that has more to do with his contractual demands, desire to play elsewhere (the Angels or back in Japan), or retirement considerations, assessments of Capuano’s deal should factor in, to an extent, the opportunity cost of losing Kuroda.

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