What velocity drop Ned? He's fine. He hit 94 on Sunday.

Remember Ted Lilly got 10 million a year for 4 years. In some ways a 1.5-2 year contract for a pitcher is a good thing. Long enough to get value form him, but short enough to avoid sig. injury risk.

Much of the talk surrounding Yusmeiro Petit is about his flaws. He's not very tall and could stand to work out more, doesn't throw particularly hard and lives on the edge as an extreme fly-ball pitcher. While all of that may indeed keep him from becoming a true ace, his performance has been consistently extraordinary. In 346 career innings Petit has a 2.76 ERA with a 429-to-75 strikeout-to-walk ratio and has allowed just 250 hits. Last season at Double-A he went 9-3 with a 2.91 ERA and 130-to-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 117.2 innings, holding opponents to a .209 batting average. And unlike some iffy prospects who pad their stats against less experienced competition, Petit doesn't turn 22 years old until November.

Petit succeeds because he has an expansive repertoire of pitches that he can throw for strikes, has a good approach to pitching, and hides the ball very well with his delivery. Those things aren't going to go away just because he's facing better competition, and while a few of the long fly-ball outs he gets now will turn into homers in the majors, I'm confident he can become a solid second starter. Typically when a prospect becomes a "stathead favorite" he is a little too old or is lacking in something significant like defensive ability. Petit is lacking only in fastball velocity, but he's far from a soft-tosser, is only 21 years old, and ... well, his stats are really good.

The Dodgers aren't giving him up for awful, old, and expensive Contreras.

Contreras for Milledge might be possible though.  Although, I don't see how Milledge is any better than Jackson.