[BirdWatcher]

The El Paso Dawgs are arguably the worst franchise in the history of the WPK, especially now that the Charlotte Sting have lifted themselves up to a WPK championship.

And given a pair of trades they have made in the past week I'm not convinced that under the current management they are likely to get better.

First they traded away veteran reliever Ron Dippold to Philadelphia for 22-year old minor league third baseman Dan Needham. Now on the surface this trade makes sense. Dippold is 33 years old after all and what does a team in perpetual rebuilding mode need with an aging reliever. But the fact is that not only is Dippold still talented, and as an extreme ground baller with great movement and with El Paso's Arsenal Stadium being a pretty good HR hitters park those are very valuable traits, but he also has a club-friendly contract which doesn't expire until the end of the 1974 season (and which was front-loaded and 10K cheaper in 1974). And Needham, in spite of his great work ethic (the same of which can be said for Dippold, by the way) and solid defensive skills, is a borderline prospect at best.

Then they sent another talented veteran reliever, Jeremy Jankowski, to the Phoenix Speed Devils. Okay, this part was probably smart. Jankowski, at age 30, isn't as talented as Dippold and he has a bad reputation as being a very selfish player. And they got a very good hitting shortstop in exchange- Humberto Rivera. So what's the problem? Well, first of all, Rivera only has experience at shortstop and is an adequate but far from great fielder at a premium defensive position. And he's considered fragile and has a fairly extensive injury history. His bat makes him likely an acceptable big league player but his glove keeps his ceiling likely at average big leaguer at best. And here's the real catch: the Dawgs sent Phoenix 24-year old Marty O'Brien in the package. O'Brien, the 21st pick overall in the 1969 draft, is probably not an ace in the making. But he's a high quality guy with a strong chance to become a solid mid-rotation starter in the WPK. And El Paso not only has a shallow rotation now but they also lack starting pitching prospects, with the best (now that they have traded away O'Brien)- Dan Bottom- profiling as a fragile pitcher.

It just seems to me that if El Paso wishes to become the next Charlotte, they are going to have to do a lot better than this.