Dodger Deal for Dollars Just Appears Senseless

Movie man that he is, Bob Daly will surely understand why this town is confused about what is happening to its baseball team.

The new Dodger boss spent his first six weeks producing an action flick. Then Sunday, he turned it into a comedy.

Not that Dodger buffs have anything against either genre, but those buying the tickets and the popcorn deserve to know what it’s going to be.

Are the Dodgers going to try to win now by paying big money to players like Shawn Green and Kevin Brown?

Or are they going to try to rebuild by virtually sacrificing players like Ismael Valdes and Eric Young?

Are they going to bring us to the edge of our seats with excitement, or knock us to the floor with humor?

Daly claims that scheduling a Valdes-and-Young Giveaway Day at the winter meetings in Anaheim on Sunday was just business as usual.

But upon being handed the news, many of us are as confused as Carlos Perez when handed a baseball.

It is as if the Dodgers’ two biggest deals this off-season were conducted by two organizations.

The win-now group swaggered in celebration last month after acquiring Green from the Toronto Blue Jays for Raul Mondesi and Pedro Borbon Jr.

The win-later group ran for cover Sunday after trading Valdes and Young to the Chicago Cubs for middle reliever Terry Adams and a couple of minor leaguers.

“I’m a Dodger fan, and I know if I was reading your newspaper this morning, I would say, ‘Argghh, what a trade!’ ” Daly said Monday.

That would make him one of calmer Dodger fans.

It is of no small concern that the trade for Green was made during meetings at a swanky Dana Point resort . . . and the dispatching of Valdes and Young occurred at a hotel where the clientele dresses in Mickey Mouse ears.

So what’s it going to be?

It was written here last summer that the Dodgers should admit their flaws and rebuild.

It was written here later that, well, since they had picked up Green, maybe a championship run could be salvaged with another important acquisition or two.

Nowhere has it been written, or has it been proved, that a combination of the two philosophies works.

The Dodger behavior has been like that of an 8-year-old begging for more ice cream one minute, then whining about a tummy ache the next.

C’mon, guys. Make up your minds.

Or at least stop asking your customers to commit to all those new seats and suites until you do.

Bob Daly said Monday that if fans look at the bigger picture, they would see everything clearly.

“Our philosophy is to win now,” he said. “I believe this trade will help us do that. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong.”

Give Daly credit for this much. A day after being publicly filleted, the Dodger chairman is keeping both feet firmly on the grill.

“If fans don’t like this deal, they shouldn’t blame Kevin [Malone], they should blame me,” he said. “The marching orders for this one came from me.”

Point by point, Daly answered charges that this trade was as sturdy as Valdes after the seventh:

Criticism: They gave away one of baseball’s best arms (Valdes) for the sake of giving away one of its worst contracts (Young).

Counterpoint: They acquired the use of the $10 million they need to pick up a good reliever and pinch-hitter.

“Fans have to look at this trade as us getting four players--the two pitchers from the Cubs, and the two players we hope to sign to strengthen our two biggest areas of need,” Daly said. “Without this trade, we couldn’t do anything about our bullpen or bench.”

Criticism: They could have waited to trade Valdes until teams grew more desperate for pitching, meaning a higher return on their investment.

Counterpoint: Not if they wanted to include Young.

“Yeah, the window would have been open on Valdes for a long time,” Daly said. “But the window on teams willing to pick up Young was closing at any minute.”

Criticism: If they were going to give the two players away for so little, why didn’t they just keep them?

Counterpoint: “Like we have said, we only want players who want to play for the Dodgers,” Daly said. “We want 25 guys who are rowing together. This will help us do that.”

We say it is about money, they say it is about chemistry.

We say it is about chemistry, they say it is about money.

Come April, of course, it is about neither. It is about winning.

Dodger fans would accept a hustling, hard-working group of youngsters if they felt there would be winning in the future.

If not, then the team needs to be stocked with veterans who can win right now.

But to have a mixture of the two is to have guaranteed mediocrity.

Of all the things that will sell in this town, that isn’t one of them.

But can there be any other way to describe a team with cornerstones of Green and Gary Sheffield and Eric Karros . . . sandwiched around a middle infield of Alex Cora and Mark Grudzielanek . . . with a starting staff that could include a rookie and three guys with ERAs over 4.50 last season?

And that dim view doesn’t even include the vacancy caused by the likely loss of Adrian Beltre.

“I would just ask the fans to look at the big picture, to wait until we are finished putting together the team, to realize it is about 25 players, not just one or two,” Daly said.

Daly seems honest, smart and with only his team’s best interests at heart.

Yet after his first six weeks, I don’t yet know what direction the Dodgers are headed.

More unsettling still, I don’t know if they know.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.