autographs of the little known

whether meant to be checklist filler or prospecting investments, i have never really been a fan of bowman's attempts at providing cards of players in single a.  by the time it all started in the early '90's, i was losing touch with the dodgers' farm system and didn't know who the top prospects were in aaa, let alone rookie ball.  anyway, upper deck seemed to do the same sort of thing in the 2000's, and as a result, i have some cards of players whom i do not know.  and not just cards, but relics and autos, too.  like this 2003 upper deck spx andrew brown jersey and auto card.

i was surprised to learn a few months ago that brown actually made it to the majors with the indians and a's later in the decade.  also surprised to learn that he was twice traded for milton bradley - first from the dodgers to the indians, and then from the padres to the a's.  once again, i was surprised to find that he was still pitching professionally in 2010.  nothing against brown, he was just never really on my dodger radar.

at least brown eventually pitched in the bigs.  not so for orlando rodriguez, whom upper deck had sign at least 999 stickers for their 2004 sp authentic release

rodriguez made it as high as aaa in 2005 and was most recently pitching in the mexican league in 2010.  he may have been injured along the way, as he apparently didn't pitch in 2004.  hopefully signing all those stickers wasn't the problem.

and then, there were the scout autos.  i know there was lots of consternation about these cards when they were distributed in 2008 bowman.  i mean, who are more little known than scouts?  still, i sought this one out. 

ralph avila has been a scout for the dodgers since 1970, and was the first scout to make a presence in the dominican.  he signed pedro and ramon martinez, raul mondesi, and others for the dodgers, and helped establish the baseball academy system that most teams use today.  sometimes it's good to know about the little known.

logan white has the last laugh

i think logan white is one of the many 'assistant' general managers the dodgers have on staff.  it probably won't be too long before that assistant tag is dropped and he is putting together some team's roster.  for now, though, his focus is on scouting and he does that very well. 

he's taken pitching first every year since 2003 (he took james loney first in 2002), and you know the names like billingsley and kershaw (and watch out for ethan martin in a couple of years).  this year he wanted zach lee.

lee, as we all know, was going to go to lsu and play football so he dropped in the draft.  he fell all the way to the dodgers' spot at 28.  many speculated (and i believed) that lee was drafted because he was the best player available and because he was un-signable.  with the mccourt divorce and the frugality that was the dodgers' offseason, it made sense that frank would be keeping up appearances without really intending to sign the kid.

the dodgers sent tommy to the draft.  he looks tired. kind of like elgin baylor at all of those lottery drawings he went to for the clippers.  drafting is hard.

he consulted with ralph avila, a longtime scout who was the one that really first tapped into the dominican republic.

surely they would find someone who had 'signability', but no, they took lee.  white said all along that lee was drafted with the intent to sign him, but there was no indication leading up to the deadline that the two sides had even begun negotiating.  lee was at football practice in louisiana and things looked like they weren't going to come together.  then comes word that lee did sign, and for a lot more money than the dodgers had ever paid before (twice what kershaw received) and logan white was vindicated and i was wrong to have doubted the dodgers' intent.

two nights later zach lee is at dodger stadium being introduced wearing an outfit that would have looked right at home on a 1992 topps draft pick card, and white was at his side.

it would be downright awesome if in 4 or 5 years the dodgers had a rotation of billingsley, kershaw, scott elbert, martin and lee.  of course, ned will likely trade at least a couple of those guys for a johnny damon type.  but, if white were to become the dodgers' gm, it could happen.  here's hoping!