NL West First Look – Padres

February 23, 2019

Finally, ST has arrived, and the first ST game is today against the ChiSox.  The 7-man scheduled pitching rotation for Saturday’s game is Daniel Corcino, Jaime Schultz, Kevin Quackenbush, Josh Sborz, Stetson Allie, Josh Smoker and Joe Broussard. Sunday’s game 7 man scheduled rotation will be Hyun-Jin Ryu, Brock Stewart, Dennis Santana, Adam McCreery, Tony Gonsolin, Mitchell White, and Dustin May. I had already written a lengthy response to Mark’s…

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Going on the Offensive

February 22, 2019

I often border on the offensive… however, that picture is pretty cool: Orel Hershiser and Russ Martin. How many teams have two starting catchers who can play several other positions? Russ Martin is a catcher who can also play LF, 3B, SS and 2B… probably 1B as well. Austin Barnes, who is also a catcher, can also play 2B or 3B. Now, I am not saying they are Gold Glove…

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Let’s Play Twenty Questions

February 19, 2019

So, since Bruce Bochy has announced he will retire AFTER this season, will Bill Hanselman be hired now or wait until the next off-season? That is, if he really will be the next Giants manager and I have heard he will be.  I guess you never know, but it makes sense. Andrew Toles has been his own worst enemy in the past with getting kicked off teams, etc. Is this what is happening again or is it really something…

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What Will Be…

February 18, 2019

There are about a 100 Free Agents who are not signed. That seems like a large number, but less than ten are really top players. The rest are likely minor league contract players. This is the list I have: Bryce Harper Manny Machado Dallas Keuchel Marwin Gonzalez Gio Gonzalez Josh Harrison Clay Buchholz Ervin Santana Evan Gattis Certainly, not all are even starters, in fact, I could make the argument…

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2016 Dodgers Draft Status

February 17, 2019

I listened to the Kyle Glazer (BA) podcast on the state of the Dodger prospects a couple of times last week.  Besides some excellent information on few of the Dodger prospects (Lux, Ruiz, Smith, May, Verdugo…), he had some commentary on the 2016 draft by LAD.  Recognizing where the Dodgers drafted he was more than complimentary on the draft and stated that it may be one of the very best…

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Houston, You Have a Problem…

February 12, 2019

Houston Mitchell is a writer for The LA Times and covers the Dodgers. Yesterday he stated that he was trying to make sense of the Dodgers’ off-season. Houston is a wonderful writer, but he has papers to sell and he knows that many Dodger fans are not sophisticated enough to understand how a successful team is built. He and The Times understand that the average fan is underwhelmed at what…

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Being a Dodger

February 10, 2019

Per JT on the Suits: “We trust them,” said the third baseman and team leader. “The front office has done a great job. They build a 40-man roster, not a 25-man roster, and that’s the biggest difference between the Dodgers and other teams.” I have been saying that for 4 years running.  AF is a master at building the 40-man roster to play in a 162-game season.  The Dodgers should…

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12 Seconds

February 9, 2019

I was listening to MLB.RADIO yesterday morning and one of the commentators was talking about when he worked as an intern for the Pirates under Syd Thrift. Allegedly, Thrift commissioned a study to determine how long the human brain took to “re-set” or adjust after seeing a 97 MPH fastball followed by a 89 MPH slider. Well, not actually that exact pitch sequence, but he wanted to determine how long…

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Change Is In The Air… And It’s About Time!

February 7, 2019

I told you all about 6 months ago that the DH was coming to the NL. As usual, that was met with a lot of skepticism (maybe some mocking as well), and I have to confess that since there was nothing mentioned about it this offseason (until yesterday), I thought that maybe it was a dead deal. Well, it still may not happen THIS YEAR, but it turns out that…

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So How Was Your Hot Stove League?

January 27, 2019

Well now that the Dodgers have signed AJ Pollock, what comes next?  Maybe something.  Maybe nothing.  Is JT Realmuto on the horizon.  Apparently, the Pads are very much in on JTR, but they are insisting on extension talks before they consummate the deal.  Obviously, either Francisco Mejia or Austin Hedges will be going back in a package.  The Pads have ML OF’s available as well a bucket load of high-level…

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