Baker Not Worried About Giant Gap

Dusty Baker seemingly should be among those most discouraged by the Dodgers’ groundbreaking signing of pitcher Kevin Brown.

Brown has tormented the San Francisco manager’s ballclub, going 6-0 with an 0.58 earned-run average against the Giants in his career. And now Brown has signed a record seven-year, $105-million contract that keeps the former San Diego Padre ace in the National League West, and his presence is expected to elevate the Dodgers to the top of the division.

But surprisingly, Baker was not among the Dodgers’ many critics here Saturday at the winter meetings.

“There’s nothing you can do about how another man spends his money,” Baker said. “It’s like I tell my team, ‘If you’re riding in a BMW and another man is riding in a Rolls-Royce, you’re still riding pretty good.’ You might not be riding as well as the other guy, but it’s not bad.”

Most here disagreed.

The reaction to the Dodgers’ move was swift and intense, stirring outrage among their colleagues throughout the major leagues. For their part, the Dodgers said they are only playing by the rules, though that didn’t allay concerns about the game’s long-term financial stability.

“We continue to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots, and the scary part of this is the effect it’s having on the competitive balance aspect of the game,” said General Manager Randy Smith of the Detroit Tigers. “I don’t think anyone is surprised that he [Brown] signed with a big-market club, this is just another example of the big-market clubs continuing a trend.

“But at some point, and I don’t know when, we’re going to have to figure out a way to address this situation. I don’t know exactly what’s going to be done, but I think most people feel something needs to be done.”

Cleveland General Manager John Hart said a chasm is opening among the high-revenue teams as well.

“I really think you’re beginning to see a separation between teams that have high revenues and those that have high revenues and are also run by media corporations,” Hart said. “If you look at a lot of the spending that has been done this off-season, you see teams with large media companies behind them, such as Disney with the Angels and Fox with the Dodgers.

“We [the Indians] are a high-revenue team, but we aren’t backed by a media company that might allow us to do certain things we don’t, or can’t, do now. So I really feel it’s almost as if we’re going to a level of super clubs, the other high-revenue clubs and then everyone else.

“I want to make it clear that I’m not criticizing anyone for doing what they feel they have to do to improve their clubs, I certainly understand those issues. But the reality is that there is a problem in the industry and it needs to be fixed.”

The Dodgers were not pleased about being portrayed as the poster franchise for fiscal recklessness.

“We are concerned about the economics of baseball,” President Bob Graziano said. “But you have to do this [address the problem] at the collective bargaining table, not on a club-by-club basis.

“We’ve made a decision to be aggressive and put a winning team on the field. In order to do that in this economic climate, you have to take these risks. This is a risk, but if you’re going to take a risk, Kevin Brown is the right player. He really is the complete [pitcher].”

One Dodger player agreed.

“The bottom line is that this is a great signing,” first baseman Eric Karros said. “You look at the one thing we needed most, a dominant No. 1 starter, and they went out and got the guy we needed.

“You can’t put a price on what he’s going to do for some of our younger pitchers, who definitely have the stuff but may still need to learn how to approach the game mentally. That’s why this signing is so much better for us than it would be for some other teams, because there’s just no telling how much he’s going to mean to those guys, and how much that’s going to help us as a team.

“I don’t care what they had to pay to get him here--just that they got him here.”