We won the battle, but the war is far...you get the idea

Frank McCourt, being a douche.


Today, the bankruptcy judge ruled against Frank McCourt's financing plan and ordered him to negotiate a deal with Major League Baseball.  We're very excited about this news, although at the same time it must be said that this does not rid us of McCourt, nor does it give MLB permission to seize the team.  We're not particularly legally minded here at Proven Veteran Leaders, maybe due to my apparent drinking problem, so we'll refer you to Josh Fisher's take on it.

One thing that stands out in his column is this:  "While Gross did not approve the deal McCourt proposed, he ordered one that will cost the Dodgers less money without appearing to enable a seizure of the club."  This worries us just a little.  Even simply buying McCourt more time could be catastrophic to the Dodgers going into next season, and this could drag out a long, long time.  At this point, even in a best case scenario, I can't imagine a new owner is in place before early next year at the earliest, which basically takes the Dodgers out of any significant free agent sweepstakes, and will likely be non-players at the Winter Meetings.  We might just have to get used to Aaron Miles batting fifth for a while.

Something else I noticed today that's not Dodger related but interesting to note.  Apparently, Jim Crane, the soon-to-be owner of the Astros has ordered payroll be decreased from $76MM to $60MM.  I only relate this information because it might be important for us to remember that a new owner doesn't necessarily guarantee an improvement of our situation.  We're all excited to be rid of McCourt, but it's probably not the best idea to assume Mark Cuban, or somebody, is just going to come in and raise the payroll to Yankees levels.