Willie Calhoun is a very polarizing figure – you meet him you immediately like him! You watch him hit – you love him. You watch him run and you wonder, and you watch him field and you become nauseous. Any manager would love to have his bat but very few could tolerate his fielding. Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi have shown repeatedly that they value defense. I challenge any sane…
The 2017 version of the LA Dodgers has nearly 40 players who have shown that they deserve to be on the Opening Day Roster, but many won’t. I am not going to include Willie Calhoun, Alex Verdugo or Cody Bellinger because they will be ready soon enough, but I am talking about players who have demonstrated that they belong on the big league roster. I am not even considering Charlie…
Jokers to the right; Here I am – stuck in the middle with you. Clowns: Scott Kazmir threw a 5-inning simulated game on Thursday and said he felt better. The only problem was that his fastball was at 82-84 which is 10 to 12 MPH off of what it should be. Of course, if he is pitching in pony league, he should do well. I don’t think he’s going to…
It’s March 16th and Adrian Gonzalez will never play in the WBC again… so there is that. He says Little League is ran better and he would be right – it’s mostly a joke! Julio Urias is pissed he’s going to extended Spring Training… and the Dodgers have more good players than they have positions. Life is good! Just to be clear, Urias is not going to the pen or…
Saturday was an eventful day for the Dodgers as Hyun-Jin Ryu and Trayce Thompson made their first official appearances of the season. Ryu is coming back from elbow and shoulder surgeries on his chicken wing and Thompson is only overcoming a broken back. I have to believe that Trayce will start the season at AAA, along with Andrew Toles – it won’t hurt either of them to play every day…
Every Dodger fan knows that Zack Greinke signed with the D-Backs after the 2015 season for $200+ million. On Thursday, The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro wrote this about Zack Greinke: After his first pitch of the day on Wednesday afternoon – a fastball on the outer half for a called strike – Zack Greinke stole a glance at the video board at Salt River Fields: pitch speed, 88 mph. For the second…
I told a buddy of mine yesterday that Scott Kazmir’s hip tightness was probably going to keep him out all season. He said “That’s negative – you have to think positive.” So, let me try to get over this negativity: “I am Positive that Scott Kazmir’s hip tightness is probably going to keep him out all season.” How’s that? This is the same problem he had last year which led to other…
Just so everyone is clear, I am a Willie Calhoun fan – I would love to see him overcome the odds of being a slow runner and a bad fielder and become the opposite. I do not denigrate him because of his stature – that is irrelevant! It’s his fielding and running, and when I say he has “tree-trunk legs,” it means that they are huge and stay in one…
The Dodgers were ranked #14 in Organizational Ratings in 2014. In 2015, Andrew Friedman was hired and they climbed to #3 and in 2016 they were #1. Now, they are rated #4 by BA. Of course, the FAZ-O-PHOBES will try and say that Colletti’s Front Office was largely responsible and that Friedman did not deserve the credit and then they say “Look, they traded away 4 pitchers and are now #4….
I watched the Brewers feed yesterday. I sometimes do that just to hear what other baseball people have to say about the team and certain players. On e of the Brewers announcers said this: “The Dodgers have 10 legitimate Major League Quality Starting Pitchers.” “This is a team with a great deal of depth. They are built for the long haul.” I actually think it’s more than 10, because at…