Malone Giveaway Has Fans Down in the Dodger Dump

Show me a worse general manager than Kevin Malone, and I’ll show you the front of the unemployment line. His grand total of savvy moves is a staggering zero. Kevin Brown and Shawn Green may be great players worthy of large contracts, but credit Malone’s dearth of negotiating skill for making them the two highest-paid players in the game. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to open up the Fox wallet, but as the old saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted.

Now he dumps Ismael Valdes in a pitching-thin market because of financial concerns. First of all, anyone who set ablaze as much money as Malone did on Devon White should be forever precluded from raising finances as an issue of concern. More important, he has now given away two valuable pitchers, Dave Mlicki and Valdes, for a setup man and a bunch of minor leaguers we will probably never see. Call me crazy, but I think these guys just might have commanded a slightly better price at last year’s trading deadline. On the bright side, the Dodgers (and the rest of us) still get to pay Mel Rojas’ salary.

I can only imagine how the players, agents and general managers must lick their chops when Kevin “the Pigeon” Malone sits across the bargaining table to do battle with himself.

DEREK W. STARK

Woodland Hills

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In a little over two years, the Dodgers have traded/given away or lost to free agency an entire starting rotation (Pedro Astacio, Hideo Nomo, Dave Mlicki, Brian Bohanon and Ismael Valdes) and have Terry Adams and a handful of unproven, nondescript minor leaguers to show for it. I am sad to see that in an era where pitching is at a premium, and few teams have more than two or three quality pitchers, Dodger management has interpreted the holiday giving season to be a year-round phenomenon benefiting the other 29 major league ballclubs.

MAX GINSBERG

Los Angeles

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So, the Dodgers dump a truckload of salary and get almost nothing in return for a starting pitcher and a bonafide leadoff man.

Where is Bowie Kuhn when you need him?

ERIC MONSON

Temecula

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I’ve got an idea. Instead of dumping young, productive and underpaid players like Ismael Valdes, why don’t the Dodgers instead get rid of overpaid, underachieving has-beens like Kevin Malone?

SU H. PAK

Los Angeles

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Well, if there was anyone left who still thought Kevin Malone was a good GM, I’m sure they’ve changed their minds after the trade of Ismael Valdes and Eric Young to the Cubs. Worse even than the fact that the Dodgers lost one of their best pitchers and their offensive catalyst was Malone’s comment after the deal: “Last year we had all-stars at practically every position. We need a better mix.”

I always thought the goal was to have the best players possible, but I guess I just didn’t understand. Now I see that the Dodgers should have three good players, three mediocre players and three downright awful players on the field at all times. If Malone can accomplish that, there’s no doubt that the Dodgers will win the pennant!

DARA LEVY

Westchester

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This is very simple. If Sheriff Malone doesn’t make the idiotic deals for Todd Hundley, Carlos Perez and Devon White, the Ismael Valdes giveaway never happens and we still have Charles Johnson and Roger Cedeno.

MARC GERBER

Malibu

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From the first time that I watched a Kevin Malone interview, I had the feeling that I had seen him before. Then it came to me. It was Dustin Hoffman’s brilliant portrayal of Malone in “Rain Man.”

KEVIN FITZPATRICK

Pasadena

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“Cost efficiency, not talent” is Kevin Malone’s rationale for trading Ismael Valdes. Last year, Malone put himself into this bind by bringing in or signing the likes of Carlos Perez, Devon White and Todd Hundley to salaries that will total $16 million in 2000, apparently without regard for either cost efficiency or talent.

Now, with one of the best young pitchers in the National League gone in exchange for next to nothing, just so the Dodgers could get someone to take on Eric Young’s salary, it is apparent that Malone just lurches from one move to the next. Some teams, maybe even the Angels, have a plan. The Dodgers do not.

GREGG B. HUGHES

Northridge

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Terry Adams? Maybe next the Dodgers can trade Kevin Brown for a pack of gum and Eric Karros for a box of Cracker Jack.

GREG HANSON

Long Beach

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While the Dodgers are at it, how about trading Eric Karros for some silverware? Or Gary Sheffield for a Popsicle? Or Todd Hundley for a Zip disk? (Actually, that last one isn’t so bad an idea.)

JOSH SEGAL

San Diego

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Does Kevin Malone think that his five-tool player, Shawn Green, can play five positions: right field (in place of Raul Mondesi), second base (in place of Eric Young), No. 2 starter (in place of Ismael Valdes), left-handed reliever (in place of Pedro Borbon), and third base (if Beltre files a grievance and leaves as a free agent)?

J. SCOTT SCHEFFER

Adelanto

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This week’s absurd cost-cutting trade notwithstanding, the Dodgers want a solid, productive, young center fielder, while dumping the aging, overpriced guy who currently dogs it out there. They also wanted to get a little something in trade for an excellent-yet-immature young starting pitcher with his whole career in front of him, who was soon to be guaranteed $6 million via arbitration.

Across town, the Angels have a solid productive young center fielder with whom they’ve surprisingly grown tired. Gee, what to do?

The Dodgers should have traded Devon White and Ismael Valdes to the Angels for Jim Edmonds, but that deal would have been too beneficial to each club and too pleasing to each club’s fans.

Way to go, Malone and Stoneman!

STEVE SMITH

San Gabriel