I am sitting continuing to try to understand how the Board of Trustees and the AD at USC have chosen to retain perhaps the most over his head coach in all of NCAA Football, Clay Helton. Rudy mentioned that both Westwood and South Bend are cheering loudly, but my radar has all of the Pac 12 and South Bend laughing at this. Oh well, enough pity party for me. It’s…
The New MLB Pipeline Dodger Top 30 prospeccts have been published. Jim Callis is a premier minor league talent evaluator. He is not the typical sabermetrics talent evaluator. He uses the eye test as well. If he has not seen the player live, he has studied hours of tape. Some people prefer Eric Logenhagen of Fangraphs or Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser, but I am partial to Jim Callis. The…
Many have posited (including me) that the depth the Dodgers have generated were critical in their march to 104 wins. I have also written that the depth needs to be pruned at times so that the organization will continue to grow by clearing the way for new prospects or ML 25 man roster help. That is why I had no problem with sending Jharel Cotton, Grant Holmes, and Frankie Montas…
Would it surprise you to know that for the past 365 days, Pedro Baez’s ERA is 1.62? Would you be shocked to discover that with RISP, hitters are batting .104 against Pedro? Would you believe that Pedro Baez is much better in a high leverage situation that a low leverage situation? All of that is true. Look at the stats (all from Baseball-Reference): Low Leverage Situations: BA – .271 Medium…
Make no mistake…this IS Andrew Friedman’s team. This is not to take anything away from the immense talents of Farhan Zaidi, Josh Byrnes, Alex Anthopoulos, Gabe Kapler, or Billy Gasparino. They help put Friedman’s vision into motion. The Dodgers caught a lot of flak from fans because of the high FO cost. But these are all outstanding baseball people, and why is it a problem having superior FO talent? It…
… and the next men are Trevor Oaks, Brock Stewart and Walker Buehler. Oaks is a back-of-the-rotation starter who is likely ready now while Buehler is a top-of-the-rotation guy who might be ready in 2018, but won’t ever be a workhorse (welcome to the new MLB). Stewart could be a a middle-to-back of the rotation guy or an elite reliever. Time will tell. Mitch White and Yadier Alvarez are due…
Have you noticed that a few certain fans like to bang on Friedman and Company about trading away Cotton, Montas, Holmes, De Leon, Peraza and Schebler but fail to mention anything of value FAZ has done? ME: “Wow, Alex Wood is doing great!” FAZ-BASHER: “Squirrel! That Rich Hill really sucks, even he says so. FAZ is an idiot!” Schebler (.252) and Peraza (.258) are playing OK in a hitter’s ballpark,…
I was listening to an interview about how the Cubs were built on MLB Radio a few days ago and heard a story about how Kyle Hendricks was acquired. First of all, I have the greatest respect for Theo Epstein and do not want to denigrate him in any way, but the story shows how sometimes it’s better to be lucky that good. As the Cubs were being blown up, Theo…
It’s not “Does Chris Taylor deserve to start over Chase Utley?” That’s not even a question. The real question is “Does Logan Forsythe have a starting job when he comes back?” Chris Taylor is an animal. I have always said that FAZ likes to trade for guys before they become THOSE GUYS! They might have done just that with both Toles and Taylor! I really, really liked last night’s lineup,…
I thought it might be time to play a little Ketchup… ‘er catch up! I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Make no mistake about it, Julio Urias is the real deal. The Dodgers will continue to use him sparingly at OKC and likely call him up in early May – they are neither confirm nor deny that, but I am pretty sure that’s what will happen….