21 June 2014

what if that psychic guy the mccourt's hired had actually healed jayson werth's wrist?

i've had this 2005 fleer tradition marcus giles card scanned for quite some time.
giles is flying high over then-dodger jayson werth.  you can even see jayson's chin!  here's a 2006 fleer card of werth's just for good measure
werth was a bright spot for the dodgers in the 2004 nlds as he hit a couple of homers in the series.  then, in march of 2005, he was hit by a pitch on the wrist.  he struggled through the season, but the injury didn't heal properly, and werth wound up missing the entire 2006 campaign.  this despite the efforts of the mccourts and their russian psychic healer!  no, it took the mayo clinic to get it right, but the 2006 season was lost. once the season was over, werth left the dodgers as a free agent and found new life in philadelphia.

i have since wondered what might have happened had he not been hurt, and instead had productive 2005 and 2006 seasons - would the dodgers have still acquired kenny lofton to play center in 2006?  would grady little have been as enamored with werth as jim tracy seemed to have been?  assuming that jd drew still opted out of his contract, and milton bradley was still traded for andre ethier, would ned colletti have still signed both luis gonzalez and juan pierre for the 2007 season?  or would he have given the third outfield spot to matt kemp sooner?  and does that mean that we would have avoided the awful signing of andruw jones for the 2008 season?  for me, however, that is the biggest what if here.

had werth been healthy and productive, and assuming that ethier and kemp performed as they did in 2008, ned probably doesn't see the need to sign jones.  and if jones doesn't massively underperform, does ned still trade for manny ramirez?  the mind boggles.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting. I forgot that Werth was a Dodger. Who knows had he been healthy he might have stuck around for another few seasons. Under different circumstances he theoretically could have never been traded and would still be wearing the Dodger Blue.

    When he was a Phi..I can't even complete that word, I absolutely hated the things he did right for his red Pennsylvania ball club against the Nationals. Then when he was traded to DC. It took me a month or two to warm up to him, now I'm glad his is no longer in Philly.

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