Five Cuts: Why Dodgers aren't in running for Sabathia ... yet

Rafael Furcal flirted with other teams, but he may be returning to Los Angeles in 2009. Chris McGrath/Getty Images Tom Verducci's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tom. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

1. Los Angeles general manager Ned Colletti denied reports that CC Sabathia told him, "I want to be a Dodger." But the two of them did speak casually and joked with one another in a chance meeting on Sunday night, Colletti said. The Dodgers do fit Sabathia's profile of a prospective employer: a National League team on the west coast. But Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has not yet authorized Colletti to get into the Sabathia sweepstakes, even to see what that NL West discount might be.

While the Dodgers still are not a player for Sabathia, they are addressing their infield needs. They moved closer to re-signing third baseman Casey Blake, met on Monday with the agents for free-agent infielder Mark Loretta (who grew up in Pasadena as a Dodgers fan wanting to play for his hometown team) and have made re-signing shortstop Rafael Furcal their top priority. If the Dodgers do sign Loretta, who also is being courted by Arizona, they would use him in a platoon at second base with Blake DeWitt and also as a backup at the other three infield positions. The Dodgers also have shown interest in Nick Punto for a similar role if Loretta goes elsewhere.

2. The Cubs need a lefthanded bat, primarily for right field, and the free-agent market is full of them: Adam Dunn, Bobby Abreu, Raul Ibanez and Ken Griffey Jr., for instance. The problem, though, is that all of them are below-average defenders and Chicago already has one of those in leftfield: Alfonso Soriano. The Cubs, for instance, backed off a possible trade for Ibanez in July because of concerns about his defense, especially in what can be a tricky right field at Wrigley. (And can you imagine the wall-phobic Abreu surrounded by brick?) The bottom line is that the Cubs are comfortable with a platoon of Reed Johnson and Kosuke Fukudome in center field, but they will not put two below-average defenders in the corners. Where does that leave them for a left-handed bat? They could try to trade for Jeremy Hermida from Florida or they could put Mark DeRosa in right field and add a left-handed-hitting second baseman with speed. Good luck trying to restart those year-old Brian Roberts talks.

3. How much do teams value draft picks? The Tigers had interest in signing Jason Varitek, a 36-year-old catcher coming off a down year, but backed off as soon as Boston offered him salary arbitration, a move that meant the Tigers would have forfeited their second pick of the 2009 draft if they signed Varitek. So instead Detroit gave up pitchers Guillermo Moscoso, 25, a prospect who struck out 122 batters in 86 2/3 innings last year, and Carlos Melo, who struck out 61 in 49 inning at age 17, to get catcher Gerald Laird from Texas.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland got so carried away with the addition of Laird that he talked about how Laird improves the team's athleticism and baserunning, referencing Laird's speed and gap power, which he said will lead to doubles and triples at Comerica Park. Laird might run decently for a catcher, but he has five career triples (none last year) and has been thrown out eight of the 19 times he has tried to steal a base in his career. I guess the Tigers were that plodding of a team last year that even Laird is hailed as great addition to team speed.

4. The 30 major league teams, already hit by the economic recession, are about to have even less money to spend on players. The clubs have been informed that they will have to pay between $2 million and $3 million each before the end of the year to make sure the players' pension fund is fully funded, as is required by law. Said White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, "It's pretty simple. You have to make sure there is enough money in the account to fund the pension plan. The market has reduced the value of the account."

5. I don't buy the argument that Hall of Famers haven't voted anyone into their club via the revamped Veterans Committee because they want to preserve the exclusiveness of the Hall. If that were true, they would be handing in blank ballots. In truth, the 64 Hall of Famers averaged 3.3 names on ballots in which they could list no more than four.

There are two problems at work: The Hall of Famers spread out the vote because they tend to vote only for players they know, and baseball players in general are lousy historians. These guys may know the skills of the players in their own era and their own league, but how are they qualified to make historical evaluations on players? The only committees that are getting people into the Hall (such as managers, executives and pre-World War II players) are hybrids of players, writers and executives that meet in person and can discuss historical perspective.

Oh, and one more problem: It is clear in the cases of Ron Santo, Gil Hodges and Joe Torre that the Veterans Committee is not unanimously following instructions to consider the entirety of a candidate's contributions to baseball, including broadcasting and managing on top of the playing record. When Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, for instance, was asked how the electorate considered the careers of such value-added candidates, he replied, "As a player."