All-Time Low?

I've been meaning to get back into this for a while, and I see no more appropriate occasion than this.

Basically, the Dodgers decided that neither compensatory draft picks nor, in the case of Randy Wolf and Orlando Hudson, above-average players on one-year deals, were worth the relatively low potential cost of their services. That both were likely to decline arbitration is academic because either one would help the club in 2010 if they decided to accept.

Jon Weisman has made the point a few times that not every decision the Dodgers make can be viewed through the scope of the ownership situation and impending divorce, but today's news, to me, is indefensible. Jon and Eric Stephen at True Blue L.A. both gave their takes on the news, and while they express varying levels of disgust, there really isn't much to say. Disenfranchisement may not be the right word, but it really feels like Dodgers fans who pay attention are aware of the chronic mismanagement of the situation, yet must accept powerlessness over it.

For a moment, I began to draw parallels to my beloved Clippers, a team that is routinely ripped for making decisions based on financial rather than competitive reasons. But then I realized, Donald Sterling is actually a better owner than Frank McCourt.

That's right, Donald Sterling does more to help his franchise win that Frank McCourt. And it's not even close.

Of all his faults, letting Bobby Simmons leave as a free agent was then, and is certainly now, a sound decision. Say what you will about Baron Davis, but there is no chance that McCourt will sign his baseball equivalent (John Lackey, Matt Holliday, Jason Bay) this winter.

For a regime that is best known for shortsighted decisions that have even cost it in the short term, today's events are an all-time low.

I'm back. Unfortunately, so, for now, is the nightmare that is Frank McCourt.