Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Nothing like a late-season trading deadline to separate baseball's haves and have-nots. With owner Frank McCourt so badly in debt that he was forced to file for bankruptcy, the team was certainly not looking for any expensive deals. On the contrary - the Dodgers shipped Rafael Furcal to St. Louis to save $1.4 million. Meanwhile, the Giants keep bulking up. From the LAT:
Furcal agreed to waive his no-trade rights to move to the contending Cardinals, who will pick up $1.4 million of the $3.9 million remaining on his contract for this season. "Now he gets an opportunity to play, we get financial savings on it and most importantly we get to watch Dee Gordon and not have a situation where you have a veteran watching a kid play every day," [GM Ned] Colletti said of Furcal, who ended his six-year Dodgers tenure having played the third-most games (608) at shortstop in franchise history. Furcal never formally said goodbye to his teammates, slipping out of the Dodgers clubhouse during their game against the Diamondbacks on Saturday night. "After I got done pitching," Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley said, "his locker was empty."
Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff says that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt should sell the club, telling the LAT that he believes the other owners are behind the efforts of Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. McCourt has been challenging Selig in Bankruptcy Court. "For anyone to seek to diminish Bud's accomplishments in order to rationalize their own actions is, in my opinion, ludicrous and hugely disingenuous," Wolff said. The Dodgers are 11 games under 500 and 12 1/2 games out of first place.