Things starting to look up for the LA Dodgers

The fortunes of the Los Angeles Dodgers are finally starting to change for the better.

Frank McCourt mercifully realized his quest to hold on to the Dodgers was fruitless and agreed to sell the team, much to what I imagine was unbridled glee behind closed doors in the offices of Major League Baseball. It will take some time, but Bud Selig will be successful in his quest to rid baseball of McCourt once and for all and will hopefully find an owner that will not pilfer the team and will make a legitimate effort to reconnect with disillusioned Dodgers fans.

The Dodgers appear to be off to a good start in making their fan base happy with the reported mega-contract for superstar Matt Kemp. I have to admit to being very surprised at the timing considering Kemp is not a free agent and the Dodgers are still in bankruptcy. Perhaps McCourt wants to try to screw over the next owner by leaving an expensive, long-term deal that the next owner will be responsible for and McCourt does not have to answer for if it goes bad. But I don’t have a problem with the deal, especially when you consider that Kemp is only 27 years old and coming off a terrific season in which he almost got the Triple Crown of hitting in the National League with a .324 batting average, 39 home runs and 126 RBIs.

The good news for the Dodgers continues, with young ace Clayton Kershaw winning the National League Cy Young award by a substantial margin. Only 23 years old, Kershaw beat out Phillies pitching studs Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Kershaw beat the competition by achieving the Triple Crown of pitching, tying for the National League lead in wins with 21 and placing first with 248 strikeouts and a 2.28 ERA. The best news for the Dodgers is that he is only now becoming eligible for arbitration so they control his rights for three more years. But I would like to see one of the new owner’s first orders of business being to lock up the youngster to a long-term contract that both sides can be happy with.

It really does say something positive about the fortitude of both Kemp and Kershaw that they were able to have such fantastic years with all the drama hanging over the team’s head.

Of course there will be kinks along the way, but things appear to be looking up for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Thanks to SD Dirk for the Kemp photo and Craigfnp for the Kershaw photo via Wikipedia.