For me and, I would venture to say, most of my readers, $800,000 is a whole lot of green. But for the people of Major League Baseball, it’s not exactly a lot of money — for example, it’s roughly one month of Jose Uribe’s salary over the next three seasons.

But $800,000 appears to be the amount that sent the Dodgers and Russell Martin their separate ways.

Dodger general manager Ned Colletti told reporters Thursday that as the deadline approached, Martin’s agent, Matt Colleran, lowered his pitch to $5 million in base salary  (plus incentives). According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, the Dodgers were offering a base of $4.2 million.

We can debate all day what salary Martin actually deserved, but given that the two sides were this close, I’m a bit surprised the deal didn’t get done. If you think Martin has the potential of helping at all in 2011, I don’t know why you’d let less than a million bucks stand in your way.  And if you are that skeptical, I’m not sure why you’d be offering even $4.2 million.

But what do I know? Not much. Each side had its magic number, and sometimes, you can’t fool with magic.

* * *

  • Here’s a fun take on the main Hall of Fame ballot from Wezen-Ball.
  • From The Onion: “Baseball Players Hold Annual Meeting To Discuss Benefit Of Wearing Index Finger On Outside Of Mitt.”
  • Here’s an attempt to project Ted Lilly’s 2011 performance from Jeffrey Gross at the Hardball Times.
  • Brian, I hope George Costanza brought you some nice sandwiches.
  • Finally, Dodger Thoughts favorite Buddy Carlyle has signed a minor-league contract with the Yankees, after a stint in Japan. Welcome back, Buddy!