Saturday Rockpile: The Dodgers Are Scaring The Crap Out Of The Rest Of The NL West

Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox On Verge Of Mega Trade - True Blue LA

The Dodgers are, at any moment, reportedly going to acquire Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto from the Red Sox in exchange for Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Jerry Sands, James Loney and Ivan DeJesus, according to Fox Sports' Jon Morosi (via Eric Stephen).

Beckett has a chance to be a solid pitcher in the NL West, though I think his dominant days are behind him. Gonzalez, meanwhile, could return to his former San Diego self, but he's also a few years older now. And Crawford? Well, you don't really know what you're going to get with him after he sits out for a while following Tommy John surgery. And the one positive about Nick Punto being thrown in is that I can make more "more like Nick Puto, amirite?" jokes.

It's a blockbuster deal that has a lot of questions behind it, that's for sure. However, no matter how you feel about THIS trade or THESE players, one thing is for certain: you, and I, should be very, VERY afraid of the Dodgers. They're clearly not messing around. Even if they end up losing this deal, it likely isn't going to stop them from being aggressive in the future in trying to bring the best players to Chavez Ravine.

Molly Knight, who writes for ESPN the magazine, received a text message from an unnamed NL East player that sums up my thoughts on the Dodgers going forward:

Just received this text from an NL East player: Dude...the Dodgers are out of control!!The new Yankees!Place to be

— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) August 25, 2012

So, yeah...the Rockies, who already have enough issues on their hands in terms of things they need to figure out how to do to be competitive, now have one more huge, blue problem to worry about.

That's all for today's Rockpile, as a game thread will be up within the next hour or so.