Well, I am not surrounded, but there are too many idiots, and I am weeding them out. I do not know what their motivation is. I don’t know what the thrill is for them to engage in the Sport of Disagreeing with Mark Timmons, but all I know is that I control them and I don’t want that much control. I just know that I am not going to do their stupid dance anymore.
EXAMPLE #1
Getting sick of this unnatural love for Vatgas and constant belittling of Outman and your not so hidden hope that Outman fails. Give it a rest. Please! These types of articles and your comments make me wish that Vatgas gets traded ASAP.
— Hondo
You write and respond like a nine year old. I find myself embarrassed for you. I originally thought you were a child writing from your parent’s basement.
I do enjoy the insight and comments from the readers. They keep me coming back.
Oh, and I’m glad you escaped injury during the production of the blog.
Yeah, I wish I were nine years old again. My question is, why do you come here if I write like a 9-year-old? Goodbye. I just shut you up forever!
Example #2
Mark makes a bit of hash explaning the difference between OBP and OPS. By now I think 98% of us understand that OPS is simply the on-base percentage and slugging percentage added together. (On-base Plus Slugging.) It’s a great stat in part because it exalts on-base percentage over batting average. It respects the adage, “a walk is as good as a hit.”
– Duke Not Snider
Then Mark writes: “So, would you rather have a player with a .664 OPS and a .353 OB% (James Outman) or a player with a .340 OB% but a .804 OPS (Max Muncy) against LHP?”
Say what?
I guess that Mark is trying to argue against my contention that it would make more sense to platoon Max than
Outman. Mark would have a good case if his data was correct.
He’s right about Outman’s stats in ’23.
But his stats for Max are way, way, way off the mark. Not sure where they come from, but they certainly don’t reflect Max’s performance in ’23.
Max’s OPS against lefties was not .804, but .641. His OBP was not .340, but .263. He still hit some homers but his production against lefties was not good at all. The good news is that he crushed righties with an OPS of .881 and OBP of .363. So these splits suggest that perhaps Taylor or Vargas should occasionally replace Max against lefties. (Taylor, I assume, would also provide better defense.) Taylor had a .795 OPS against lefties in ’23.
Or maybe Will Smith should get a chance to play 3B.
That’s an idea we used to kick around a lot.
This guy has become the bane of my existence because he wants to argue every single point, and frequently, his arguments are just flat wrong, and then we have to go back and forth some more. Specifically, I wrote this wrote this:
So, would you rather have a player with a .664 OPS and a .353 OB% (James Outman) or a player with a .career .340 OB% but a .804 OPS (Max Muncy) against LHP?
His response was:
He’s right about Outman’s stats in ’23.
But his stats for Max are way, way, way off the mark. Not sure where they come from, but they certainly don’t reflect Max’s performance in ’23.
Max’s OPS against lefties was not .804, but .641. His OBP was not .340, but .263. He still hit some homers but his production against lefties was not good at all. The good news is that he crushed righties with an OPS of .881 and OBP of .363.
Can you read? I said that Max Muncy has a career .340 OB% and .804 OPS against LHP, which is exactly what it is. Here’s the proof from Baseball-Reference. Try it, you might like it.
Both Duke and Hondo exist to try to make my life as miserable as possible, and they are really tough guys as they post under their fake names, for who knows what? I have one word for you both: GOODBYE! There are thousands of readers of this blog, and many are begging for some posters to be removed. I am starting with these two.
You can disagree with me but don’t make it your reason to exist. We all have opinions, and I respect your opinions… especially when they are backed up with a cogent argument. I don’t hate James Outman when I say he doesn’t hit most LHP, and I don’t love Miguel Vargas because I think he has a special “hit tool.” Grow the F____ up and Goodbye!
Michael Busch
I said that I would discuss Michael Busch today and that is precisely what I am going to do. Michael was a 1B when he was drafted #31 in the first round of the 2019 draft, but the Dodgers had Max Muncy and later Freddie Freeman, so he was converted to 2B. He only had 35 plate appearances in 2019 between Rookie Ball and Great Lakes, and then 2020 came and COVID-19 wiped out the season.
So, 2021 was his first MiLB Season which was at Tusa (AA). In 495 PA, he hit .267 with a .386 OB% and a .870 OPS. He also hit 27 doubles and 20 HR. In 2022, he started at Tulsa (AA) and ended up in OKC. In 641 PA, he hit .274 with a .365 OB% and a .881 OPS to go with 38 Doubles and 32 HR. He also had 108 RBIs. In 2023, he had 469 PAs for OKC with a .323 BA, a .431 OB%, and a 1.049 OPS. He also hit 26 Doubles, 4 Triples, and 27 HRs.
He did get a “cup of coffee” with the Dodgers in 2023, where he hit .167 with 2 HR for the Dodgers in 81 PAs. He is currently ranked the Dodgers’ #1 prospect as he passed Miguel Vargas last year and Vargas aged out. Also, Bobby Miller graduated, and Diego Cartaya had a bad season. Baseball America says this about him:
Track Record: One of eight children in his family, Busch starred as one of the best athletes in recent Minnesota prep history at Simley High. He led the Spartans football team to the state final as the quarterback, captained the hockey team and was a two-time all-state baseball player. He chose baseball as his path and started all three years at North Carolina, where he hit 32 career home runs and finished second in school history with 143 career walks. The Dodgers drafted him 31st overall in 2019 and signed him for $2.312 million. Injuries to his right hand hindered Busch his first two seasons, but he broke out with full health in 2022 and led the minor leagues in runs scored. He followed up with an even better season in 2023 at Triple-A Oklahoma City. Busch hit .323/.431/.618, all career highs, and finished second in the minors with a 1.049 OPS. He received three different callups to the majors with the Dodgers, won the Pacific Coast League MVP award and was named the Dodgers’ minor league player of the year.
Scouting Report: Busch is a polished, well-rounded offensive performer. He has a calm, controlled presence in the batter’s box and maintains elite strike-zone discipline. He recognizes pitches early and barrels both high-end velocity and quality secondary stuff with a balanced, powerful lefthanded stroke. He drives balls hard in the air from foul pole to foul pole and is a true all-fields hitter who can take what the pitcher gives him. He can be overly passive at times, but he has improved his approach to jump on hittable pitches and get the most from his natural strength, hand-eye coordination and plate discipline. He projects to be an at least above-average hitter who draws lots of walks and gets to his plus power in games. The Dodgers drafted Busch as a first baseman and attempted to turn him into a second baseman, but his lack of range makes him a liability without the help of a shift. He’s a below-average runner who lacks quickness and agility and is a below-average defender at the keystone. He began playing third base in 2023 and started most of his games there in Triple-A and the majors. He shows a good feel for body positioning and reading angles at the hot corner but is still a below-average defender learning the nuances of the position. Busch has also seen time in left field, but his best position remains first base. He has below-average arm strength.
The Future: Busch projects to be a middle-of-the-order force who gets on base and hits for power, but he is blocked at first base by Freddie Freeman and has to find a position to break into the Dodgers’ lineup. The Dodgers received multiple offers for Busch at the trade deadline but held onto him because of his offensive potential. He will try to improve his defense at third base enough to be the eventual successor to Max Muncy.
Scouting Grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 60 | Speed: 45 | Fielding: 40 | Arm: 40.
Personally, I am higher on Vargas than Busch because of his elite ability to barrel up pitches, but Busch could play LF at least as credibly as Rhys Hoskins or some other stiff. Phil Jones accurately describes LF as a place where you can hide a poor defender. Busch played 35 games in LF in college and 15 in the minors. The Dodgers could use a RH hitter more than a LH hitter, so Buisch is more likely to be traded, and the fact of the matter is that in many people’s eyes, he passed Miguel Vargas as a hitter last year.
Personally, I would hold on to both players through Spring Training. Both have options, and a trade can be made anytime. There is no rush. Let’s see what we have. So many trades have been made on the quick, and a year later, that player becomes a star… for another team. In 2020, the Cardinals felt they needed more pitching, so they traded Randy Arozarena with José Martínez and a 2020 supplemental first-round pick to the Tampa Bay Rays for Edgardo Rodriguez (minors), Matthew Liberatore, and a 2020 supplemental second-round pick. We know how that worked out. Sometimes, the best trades are the ones you do not make.
I would let Busch and Vargas try to make the roster in 2024. Stay young and lean. You can always make a trade later.
Mark you are not coming off good here. I would really think about what you are doing…don’t be one of those guys who bans people because their opinions are different than yours just ignore them! You coming off very childish here, I mean who takes the time to write a post like this this calling people out?? You’ve clearly been wrong about Outman and Vargas just deal with it like a big boy.
I can deal with it – no problem. My advice is to start your own blog if you don’t like it.
I ignore people who have opinions and are obviously ill-informed, but when you start calling me names, be prepared to get called out. That’s the long and short of it.
They started it and I finished it!
If you can’t tolerate it, you know what to do.
You’ve clearly been wrong about Outman and Vargas just deal with it like a big boy.
Really? One season where James Outman exceeded expectations? I am glad he did. I hope it continues, but I have been and still am of the opinion he will be a platoon player. Disagree all you want. Vargas had two major injuries for a hitter, so have I really been wrong… or do you just want to parrot that BS? One season does not a career make.
Well you picked the appropriate artist name!
I hope the Dodgers are moving away from the 3-outcome hitters and to the (hard) contact hitters. Max should stop swinging for the fence all the time. Also, too many walks. He’s not paid to walk. He’s paid to drive in runs. And he’s a detriment at third base.
Why?
“Also, too many walks. He’s not paid to walk. He’s paid to drive in runs.”
The Dodgers inked him to a new contract extension in large part because he walks. So, yes. He is paid to walk.
Soto will get a contract north of $400 million in large part because he walks a lot.
Driving in runs is great, but it’s how your actions at the plate contribute to overall run production that matter in the end.
This site reminds me of my days in Tennessee. Everybody had a porch. LA Dodger Talk is your porch. People would sit in their rocking chairs for hours chewing, spitting and arguing over this and that.
Logic and common sense didn’t really matter. The point was to argue. It was like a sport.
I don’t tend to do that. When I wrote a sports column and later a political column in newspapers, it was pretty straight forward. When I worked in government, I learned the art of finesse.
Not much finesse here. It’s basic, straight forward, sometimes raw and definitely opinionated posts designed to offer a point or defend a position. I read Bill James before he became somewhat famous just to understand how he thought. Honestly, it was really boring. Kind of took the charm and nostalgia out of the game. When Bear writes he tries to put all that back. Baseball is like Field of Dreams and everything James Earl Jones said so eloquently.
Today, the way people talk about baseball is in data points, this stat or that. Yes Moneyball had a big impact on how people think about the game, even though it kinds of skip over the fact the A’s had three pretty good pitchers when they made their run. All of I know is Paul DePodesta allowed Adrian Beltre to walk and spent more trying to replace him than it would taken to sign him.
That was my first real connection to data driven baseball analytics. Now Beltre is getting ready to enter the Hall of Fame.
So I don’t get overly excited as people argue data.
But what I do know about this site is that it takes a lot of work to create and manage it and Mark is greatly under appreciated for what he has been able to do. It Isn’t easy. It gives everyone a chance to express opinions, which is fine. But repeatedly arguing the same point or points leads to fatigue.
For many years, Andrew Friedman avoided long term, high end contracts like the plague in order to remain flexible. He did this so often that people became convinced that AF would never do this deal or that, it just wasn’t what he did.
Until … Mookie Betts. But it began with the Zack Greinke. The Dodgers did offer Zack a long term, high dollar deal until the DBacks blew it away. They even tried to make a trade with Arizona to get him back. That was an indication the Dodgers and Friedman weren’t locked into the four year contract for starting pitchers and some players they just valued more than others.
The point is what we think we know may not be relevant. Most people thought the Dodgers wouldn’t pursue Ohtani and outbid everyone else. Too much money. The Dodgers just wouldn’t do that. Once that was done there was no way the Dodgers would trade for a veteran starter and quickly lock him into a long term deal. Then the Dodgers stunned most everyone in baseball by landing the top pitcher on the market. When I asked Mark what he thought, he said something like all in.
Well, the Dodgers are all in … interesting and exciting times. The Dodgers, yes the Dodgers have won the winter. Let the games begin.
agree with ya sbuff – Mark does great job running site and post new article almost everyday-not easy. Appreciate Bear as well and the fine writing on this site .
Happy New Year to All – be safe !! Go Blue !!
Many on here have downplayed the Dodgers success over the last decade because we have only won 1 World Championship during that time. Some have even said those seasons are worthless because we didn’t end up winning the World Series and that is all that matters. We all want to win championships but that has become more difficult than ever before. I found it very satisfying to hear both Ohtani and Yamamoto state that one of the main reasons they ended up choosing to play for the Dodgers is because of their continued past success. Obviously the past decade wasn’t meaningless to them. I agree with them. I hope numerous World Championships are in the near future as Dodgers.
“Many on here downplayed the Dodgers success….”
Are you sure about this?
Also, I can only recall one or two who devalued the World Series win. And one is a blowhard dingbat, IMO.
We are never going to see the kind of run the Yankees had between 1976 and 2009 when they were simply able to outspend teams and went to 14 World Series, winning 7. If those numbers are not right, they are close. There are simply too many teams in it today, but I do expect a few more, especially in this decade. Two… maybe three!
These are not the good old days.
might not be the good old days, but baseball is still fun for me at every level! my grandson was given the great gift of throwing with billy wagner yesterday! he’s one heckuva human being! i pray he gets in the hall this year. it would be a travesty if he doesn’t! things might change in life and in the greatest game on earth. rules change, sometimes for the better but sometimes not so much! (ghost runner, and the 3 throw over rule). but baseball continues to thrive! evev through bad play by play people, bad umpires, streaming, prices, and platoons! just kidding about the platoons! we all have one thing in common, the LOS ANGELES DODGERS! as a 60+ year fan i feel comfortable stating my opinions and preferences . i’m not an expert but i love the game period! i’m hoping the roster isn’t a done deal! it’s not far from being a complete team . (in my opinion) i would like to have seen AF bring back Shelby Miller. 3 million , we couldn’t have matched that? well errand time , check in later. lets all play nice!
Phil and Mark made my point about Rhys Hoskins in LF “Phil Jones accurately describes LF as a place where you can hide a poor defender.”
The other day I layed out why it makes sense:
It’s better to build a team in the offseason than relying on the trade deadline. I gave the reason.
Hoskins has played LF in the past. Give him all of spring trining to get reacquainted with the position.
He doesn’t need to be platooned.
He’s a RHB with a lot of power. His career OPS is .846 vs a name I hear here Teoscar Hernandez at .802 and Hoskins has better splits against both RHB and LHB.
Getting Hoskins who is a free agent as opposed to making a trade allows AF to hold onto prospects including Busch and Vargas who have options and can be called up in case of injury(s).
MLBTR projects Hoskins to get a 2 year deal for 36 million total. Projections can be wrong though.
I don’t know what AF is going to do obviously. He might not even care about Hoskins. I’m just saying it makes sense to get Hoskins. The alternatives are make a trade for someone that probably won’t be much better offensively than Hoskins or not better, using prospect capital or putting Busch or Vargas in LF or platoon them in LF.
I don’t think Hoskins is a good option for the Dodgers, especially at $36 million.
He missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL. He will be 31 in March. He has not played OF since 2018, and he wasn’t a good OFer then. He is a DH and maybe 1B only.
The last year he played in 2022, he had an OPS of 794 overall, and 710 against RHP. He missed all of 2023, and he is coming off of a torn ACL this year which may affect his hitting.
Plus his agent is Boras which makes it doubtful he becomes a Dodger.
And he grew up in Sacramento playing at Jesuit high and Sac State which means he had good coaching, but was probably a Giants fan!
I would prefer to let Vargas, Busch and Taylor compete for the LF job than bring in Hoskins.
And IMO, with this roster, the Dodgers are a better team when Mookie plays RF, and they let Vargas, Busch, Taylor, Rojas, and Lux compete for 2B time. An OF of Betts/Outman/Heyward is very good.
I’ll give you 35 Million Reasons why Hoskins will not be a Dodger.
Busch and Vargas make a little over $1 Million a year!
Only about 30 of them are good ones though.
The last time Hoskins even played in the outfield, he was second to last in all of MLB in UZR/150. His career wRC+ is in the mid 120s. He’s projected to be 116 this year. He’s a decent offensive player, but I think the offensive ceiling of both Vargas and Busch is about equal to what he brings, and I don’t think either Busch or Vargas could be any worse defensively than he would be. He’s a horrible defender, which a team could possibly live with if he absolutely raked, but he doesn’t rake THAT much.
18 million AAV is ridiculously expensive when you have league minimum salary players who would give you roughly the same production.
No.
Anyone asserting that others are morons or idiots place themselves (ideas) as intellectually superior.
Your site is a good one, ideas appear well researched and for the most part interesting. The folks commenting appear to love the Dodgers as much as you do .
From childhood we learn that name calling can lead to some undesirable behavior in others how they respond is geared to their flight fight antecedent. It may shed some light on why others attack you. I hope we can do better collectively in the New Year and root the D-Men to a world series victory.
God Bless and happy New Year
Mark–I like you and respect your business hustle. I can relate. However, YOU are the one who started all the name-calling! You called me a moron within the first few comments I made. In the real world that shit wouldn’t happen and you know it. And your deputy sheriff Bear is showing his age so maybe chill a bit.
I usually do not call anyone a moron UNLESS they start it first. I don’t have time to research it, but odds are you said something off the wall.
You are capable. 😉
But you are still here!
I think you might want to review some of your posts.
I recollect that you have frequently suggested someone is an idiot, dumbass or moron, largely because they express an opinion that you disagree with.
I suspect several people here have incurred your insults for no good reason.
This behavior is what prompted me to turn the tables on you. If you’re going to dish it out, you better be willing to take it. Seems fair.
So, yes, I have credited you as the author of the Book of Moron, and happily point out some of your boneheaded claims.
Everyone and anyone can call me a moron!
What about commie? Can I call you that? (jokes, Bear. Jokes.)
It’s so comical.
What I like best is that both the extreme left these days, and the extreme right cite and use Marxian thought more than anyone could have ever believed or anticipated.
“The right wing was forced to adopt that language which set the “Discussion” inside a left wing paradigm.”
Is that what is called, “shifting the Overton Window?”
I was tempted to bring up the Frankfurt School and Critical Theory(and Gramsci before that), Foucault, Derrida, Kimberle Crenshaw and CRT, which spawned the currently ubiquitous DEI, which is at the root of the flap over the current Harvard president, etc., etc. I don’t even bother. It’s a baseball site, and Bluto is safely ensconced in his bubble.
Commie is just funny because it hasn’t been used unironically in about 50 years – although it might be making a comeback.
I was more partial to Maoism as my preferred Socialism, before I learned how nice a good salary was.
I think what’s driving that Sohrab and those Front Porch guys towards Marxism is kinda silly but there’s something there.
When I hear commie, I think of Ned, Elaine’s commie boyfriend in Seinfeld.
Fantastic episode.
When I was a little kid I remember watching re-runs of this animated show, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, which is bit of a precursor to The Simpsons, King of the Hill, etc. The protagonist had this paranoid right wing neighbor who was always going on about “the commies.”
YES. The socialist/commie angle in Hail Caesar is tremendous. It’s uneven as a Coen brother movie, but it (even Channing Tatum) is a wonderful look at film-making (my industry.)
So darn good in every aspect. How the movie industry serves to function capitalism (the name of the movie company is literally Capital Pictures). How writers have to work within the system to get their leftist message across. Also, how actors, directors, and agents (of Capitol Pictures) get their value/social capital by perpetuating the system.
“What if I name names?” Was even a line!
P.S. Reminder to take care of yourselves in these extra-depressing times, comrades!
A wise man once warned. “Beware of posing as a profound person.”
Did they say that on Twitter or on this board?
You’re a genius, Bluto.
The Oppenheimer of LADT.
Mark does a great job with the site, and it is his choice to remove participants.
I generally enjoyed the comments from Duke not Snider, even if I sometimes disagreed.
On the example Mark pointed out, Duke was correct also. He was using 2023 stats for Muncy while Mark was using career. Both are relevant, but I would tend to consider the 2023 performance more than career performance.
Hopefully, disagreement with the boss does not result in an automatic ban.
Duke was a good poster and this whole brouhaha is really dumb.
” I would tend to consider the 2023 performance more than career performance.”
That’s fine. It’s your opinion, and you did not besmirch me. I happen to have said “career stats,” and in most cases, I would take career over last year’s stats. The last year could be an up or down year, while the career stats (in Muncy’s case, several years) are a better representation of what to expect.
Muncy’s line vs lefties
2023 .155 .263 .378 .641
2022 .178 .315 .364 .679
2021 .276 .394 .567 .961
2020 .239 .363 .433 .796
2019 .268 .365 .529 .894
One bad year might not be a good predictor of future performance but two consecutive years of bad performance might be. Muncy’s defense has declined as well so there are warning signs that he might have become a platoon player at 3rd base.
Outman’s performance has nothing to do with Muncy. Both players will tell us who they are for 2024.
If Lux needs to rest his knee and only play 140 games, Rojas will be his backup. If Muncy winds up as a platoon player, Taylor might be his partner. Or the other way around. With 4 bench players, the Dodgers may not have enough players to platoon in 5 positions.
Good couple of posts, but if this Muncy/CT3 platoon scenario happens, who plays in left?
I prefer to use the “Career” average with players like Muncy because some of the last couple of years are skewed with injury, and he had a horrific injury on his elbow. He is finally healthy, and I believe a career stats is more accurate of his situation than a stat that could be skewed by his injury!
I wouldn’t put Max in a straight platoon–his power would be missed–but the Dodgers analytics team could probably figure out which lefties he should avoid.
What is very clear to me is that Outman doesn’t need to be platooned. He wasn’t platooned in ’23, and he had an excellent rookie campaign. The only he’ll improve against lefties is for him to play against lefties.
If either Vargas or Busch put up stats like Outman’s in ’23–a .790 OPS, a .353 OBP, 23 HRs, 86 runs scored–we’d consider it a big success.
I enjoy this site because of the wide ranging viewpoints. I do not enjoy reading posts that show no respect for the other writers. If an article is written for the express purpose of belittling another writer it should not be written. It will not bother me for those to be banned.
I give what I get.
Respect me and I’ll respect you.
I also don’t mind a jab at times.
Dodgerpatch said that I predicted Alex Verdugo would be Tony Gwynn. Well, that’s a jab because he know I said he “would be “Tony Gwynnesque… and win some batting titles.” But that is cool!
The fact that it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean that it won’t.
Alex had/has issues – he now has a fresh start with the Yanks. He ain’t chopped liver, but he’s not Tony Gwynn.
Alex does have a career BA of .281…. about 40 points below what I envisioned.
I have repeatedly said that I am not always right.
Gwynesque or not, I’m glad the Dodgers have Mookie and his ‘tude is someone else’s headache.
I have no problems with the trade.
Since NONE of us get to actually make player personnel decisions and merely opine to a lot of other people who also don’t get to make any decisions:
We are ALL morons and idiots!
You don’t understand. Winning an argument on the internet is REALLY important.
Actually I disagree with that
Dan,
I agree
Here’s the problem, both Busch and Vargas cannot make the 2024 Opening Day roster at the same time unless you trade Margot . There’s one spot for either one of them. Maybe one of them will be traded before them.
So much for the hot stove taking off once Ohtani and Yamamoto signed and set the market.
The problem here is Bear doesn’t like anyone’s comments unless they relate to his guys that he mentions. I recalled last year say the dodgers should get a particular shortstop from the Indians and he said no way he is not good. And then at trade deadline they got Ahmen Rosorio he was a decent pickup him and Keke Hernandez thank God we finnally had a second baseman that could hit. And Bear never said anything about that to me but I suggested it over Rojas. Now this year a player that Bear says no way the Dodgers will get here it goes watch for them to get Tommy Pham. Now watch Bear will say how stupid that is but watch when they sign him. He’s going to then take the credit for it. I dropped the mic Bradley Out! That’s how you roast somebody and then next time you argue again that’s what forums are for Too guess what’s going to happen if they were GM.
The Red Sox and right-hander Lucas Giolito are in agreement on a two-year, $38.5MM deal, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Giolito gone – got little more than I thought.
Thanks for pointing out the source of Max’s excellent career stats versus lefties.
But geez… touchy! touchy!
Of course, it would have helped if you had cited the source in the early post, and also if you had explained that it was a career number.
Outman’s career, of course, was essentially 2023, as well as his too-brief but spectacular debut in ’22.
So if we’re going to do an apples-to-apples comparison of Outman and Max, I think it’s fair to compare their ’23 stats.
I would further argue that Max’s recent performance (after his severe elbow injury) is much more relevant to the discussion of whether Outman or Max merits a platoon in ’24. It would be fantastic, of course, if Max gets back to hammering lefties. But he was TERRIBLE against southpaws i n ’23–while Outman had an OBP over .350 while playing much better defense than Max.
Patch asks who would play LF if Taylor platoons with Max at 3rd.
Right now, that would likely be Vargas–another righty bat. It’s also possible that Margot could play left if Heyward is not kept in a strict platoon. (While he may not hit as well, Heyward would still provide top-grade defense.)
It has puzzled me that Vargas, who played a lot of 3B in the minors, has played very little 3B in the majors. I assume that Taylor has a much better glove.
I still expect that either Busch or Vargas will be traded, possibly both. But with the current roster, a platoon of Busch and Vargas in LF could make sense–but I’d rather see if one of them could handle a full-time job. (Do they have pronounced splits? I don’t know.)
I don’t think AF is done. A lot of reports that the Dodgers are interested in Hader. The Dodgers have certainly thrown a lot of money around. Will they throw record contract at Hader? Will they add Imanaga? (At least we now know they won’t sign Giolito.)
From an aesthetic perspective, I’d preferto see some trades, in part because some Dodger prospects won’t get a fair shake unless they are dealt. Luzardo would be fun target. Lefty with ace potential and still three years of control. Might be a better fit than Burnes or Cease.
Duke!!
I thought you were DFA’D???
Guess you cleared Waivers…….
nobody wanted to assume his contract i guess
I overruled myself.