Some might say it’s baseball blasphemy for a die-hard San Francisco Giants fanatic to give opinions about our hated enemies to the south, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In fact, I know quite a few who will say that.
But bear with me for a second.
The blood rivalry—that is unfortunately a literal term when it comes to this particular pairing—between the Gents and Bums is an example of major-league contempt in its purest form.
Granted, the saying goes familiarity breeds contempt, but you could argue the converse is just as true.
That is, contempt breeds familiarity.
Add the fact that the unbalanced schedule in Major League Baseball tosses these two in a cage 18 or 19 times a year, and I’d wager that both fan bases have a pretty good handle on the other side.
The trick, of course, is removing the obvious bias from the assessment.
That’s difficult, but not impossible.
Especially in the case of the topic at hand—the whispers from baseball’s offseason that los Doyers are considering several of their young studs as bargaining chips to bring in fresh, equally talented faces.
Rumor has it that LA is floating such names as James Loney, Matt Kemp and Jonathan Broxton on the open-market waters to see what the franchise might get in return.
It’s also true (as you can see in the links) that Ned Colletti and company have said they will NOT move those same names at any point during the winter.
What’s the bottom line?
Well, you don’t hear anything about Andre Ethier, Clayton Kershaw or Chad Billingsley on the trade winds these days.
By comparison, I’d say that means the Bums are at least considering the use of Loney, Kemp and/or Broxton as bait.
Consideration is fine; pulling the actual trigger on a deal would be monumentally stupid.
(So let’s hope it happens…)