Scouting the Dodgers – Angels Spring Breakout Game & Game Against Kiwoom Heroes

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1. Thanks for the summary of the prospects.
   Without you and others I would have no clue who these players were.
   Definitely appreciate all the effort you put into providing this blog for us.

2. Sorry Mark, a bit off topic here, but feel compelled to clear up one thing with Bluto.

   I realize that I referenced the 2nd lawsuit in my last statement, but should’ve been more clear about the initial case. Was talking about the criminal case, not the lawsuit; hence, the prosecution dropping charges against Bauer. Apologies for my lack in clarity.

   You bring up a good point though, we are not privy to evidence that MLB and the LAD had when they established the grounds of Bauer’s suspension, but what did they have that the prosecution didn’t have? Nevertheless, I agree with you, we will probably never know.

   However, what we can deduce is that MLB’s suspension was on shaky grounds once the DA decided not to file criminal charges; hence, the reason why his suspension was reduced to essentially time served.

   I stand by comment. IMO, both MLB and LAD originally caved to the court of public opinion; hence, cancel culture, and very likely laid judgement a bit premature.

   The fact that he has not latched on with a major league team is further proof, that MLB as an organized body continues to concede to the demands of a cancel culture.

   Will some team have the courage to challenge the status quo? We shall see.

   1. Whether he signs or not will likely tell us if there is an Unofficial Ban on him by Manfred.

   2. Can we end this?

      Because the reasoning that leads to deciding whether to bring a case to trial is MASSIVELY different from whether a baseball player should be suspended.

      And thus your fourth paragraph’s “deduction” is inane. IMO.

      This (mlb’s investigation, decision-making, and overall paradigm) was never, ever, ever related to the legal case. Equating the two gets us nowhere.

      1. In my mind, the only thing inane is your continued insistence – almost desperate obeisance – that an MLB investigation is somehow not influenced my myriad biases and agendas – even going so far as to erroneously describe it as “following the rule of LAW” (emphasis on “law” mine). As you just argued, correctly, the law is wholly separate from this MLB investigation and suspension. The MLB can do whatever it wants, and the suspension protocols and self-policing are designed primarily to safeguard the image and reputation of the league, not mete out fairness.

         The point Dodgfan and others is making is that the league has allowed other outside influences – namely politics and Bauer’s polarizing prior reputation and the feelings of the Molly Knights, the Dylan Hernandez’s and the Blutos of the world – to dictate an excessively harsh and possibly premature suspension that continues with his obvious blackballing by the league (I thought collusion among owners regarding signing players was a bad thing?)

         As evidence, people like Dodgfan cite the actual legal system, which is regarded as an institution of general objective fairness, which determined the case was too flimsy to pursue.

         As the evidence now pretty conclusively shows us, finally, it is now apparent that this Lindsay Hill person was a complete con artist, planned the whole setup and lied about it in order to extort money from Bauer. She ruined his reputation and his career. What she did was evil, and in retrospect based on what we now know, the suspension was a miscarriage of justice. Yet you still defend it … aggressively so, and with your characteristic tactics of dismissiveness and name calling.

         Why? It is so fucking weird.

         I changed my mind on the Bauer thing maybe five times. There was a time I thought he should be suspended and the Dodgers wash their hands of the whole thing. Now that I’ve seen the evidence – all of it – I now know I was wrong. Is your political allegiance THAT important to you?

         My suggestion, if the subject really triggers you – and it appears that it does – is that you simply not engage.

         1. Political allegiance is just as irrelevant as the legal case!

            The fact that the woman would be a poor witness if the case ever went to trial is my point in s nutshell! It’s irrelevant!

            The rule of law is very relevant because the law says the CBA is the only thing that matters! Not whether Bauer is guilt, not whether the woman has good intentions.

            I repeat again, because jt seems to have gone missing. Two (2) people who saw all thr evidence agreed that Bauer should be given the largest suspension ever. We have no evidence, but you are changing your mind constantly.

            1. Two whole people?! I guess that makes it a quorum then huh? Bauer came back into the story just last week, it is obviously a subject for discussion on a dodger baseball blog

            2. No, two people is not a quorum.

               But thanks for that comment!

            3. Yeah, our legal system grants pretty broad authority to individual businesses to manage the employment status of its employees provided they do not violate any civil rights laws (but they do anyway as evidenced by DEI practices). It’s technically correct, but a ridiculous stretch, to therefore argue that John, the owner of a small screen printing business is “following the rule of law” when he fires employee Paul because he likes a different sports team. It’s petty and stupid and unfair, but of course it’s legal. This is essentially your argument.

               You use the credibility that the “rule of law” implies to legitimize the decision. No one is arguing that MLB doesn’t have the legal right to suspend Bauer. Civilly it may be another matter (although that’s a long shot), and the end result of this whole decision is that his career has been unfairly ruined.

               “There were two people who saw the evidence at the time. They must have had a good reason to suspend him! They MUST HAVE!! We can’t make a judgement because we didn’t see what they saw!! Trust the authorities! TRUST THEM!! OBEY!!!”

               Yeah. I’m sure managing the PR fallout had NOTHING to do with it. GTFOH! LOL!

               They ruined his life to manage the PR. Legally they CAN.

               There was a recent judgment against Starbucks. A few years ago there were a couple of black men who went into a Starbucks simply to use the bathroom. The manager on duty (who was a black man) asked them to leave … because they weren’t customers. The men sued. The story went viral. It became a huge PR mess for Starbucks, and they subsequently fired, not manager who asked the men to leave, but the district manager (who happened to be white).

               She sued and just got 25 million. They terminated her and not the black manager to manage the PR … for the optics. “But Starbucks was ‘following the rule of law!'”

            4. Patch,

               This feels like a rant which you just wanted to get off your chest, but if it’s meant to continue discussion then I’m responding.

               I’m not sure about your Paul and John example, because nobody in this case was fired and nobody is claiming their civil rights were violated. This was just a matter of violating MLB’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy. Nothing more and definitely nothing less.

               You then extend your rant into a weird question of trusting or obeying (!?!??!) authority. I’m not really sure what is wrong with trusting credentialed people in cases where you are suppose to trust credentialed people. Manfred is a lawyer and he runs MLB, and the arbitrator is a lawyer and has arbitrated many such cases. Why shouldn’t we trust them? There’s no obeying here.

               I think PR plays a MASSIVE role here, especially in Manfred’s decision-making. Anyone who doesn’t is naive. That said, I don’t see the problem with PR impacting Manfred’s decision. His job, among other things, is to grow the sport, grow revenue and avoid discomfort for the owners/teams. PR issues would definitely impact those three (and probably other areas of his job portfolio.)

               “They” didn’t ruin Bauer’s life. Bauer did. Now, that said, this whole thread comes out of me saying it’s unfair that those who push for rehabilitation aren’t pushing for Bauer to have the opportunity to rehabililtate his career. I thought that was unfortunate, which is why I wrote what I did, and still do. But this is all Bauer’s fault at the core. Nobody forced him to engage in this kind of sex, and DEFINITELY nobody forced him to have such sex with a shady woman. Personal responsibility.

               I’m clueless about what that Starbucks anecdote has to do with this one, but I will point out that the aggreived party in that case had the chance to sue. Mark T has “claimed” many times that Bauer would sue. He hasn’t. You can read into that if you want.

3. Dodgers 14 Kiwoom 3. Mookie was 0-2 with a walk. Shohei 0-2 with 2 k’s. Freddie hit the only homer and was 3-6. Taylor had 2 hits, Heyward 3 and drove in 4. Lux was 2-6. Outman went 2-2. Feduccia had 2 hits and so did Miguel Rojas. Phillips and Brasier allowed the runs. The only error was made by Daniel Hudson who was added to the roster earlier in the day when Vargas was optioned to AAA and Lipcius was designated for assignment. Yasiel Puig signs with Aguilla De Veracruz

4. “In our DNA, we can never say ‘we’re done.’ Continue to have conversations, but we feel really good about this team, and not just the 26 guys but the depth behind it. That being said we’ll continue to explore avenues, and if there’s ways we can get better, then we won’t hesitate.”

   — Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman

   1. We are so lucky to be Dodger fans with this ownership group and AF in charge.

      1. Yes that’s very true. Especially when they are willing to spend good money on TOP superstars.

         The only problem I have is going with vets that are no better or not much better than prospects sometimes.

5. UPDATES ABOVE

6. Rams signed Jimmy Garoppolo to back up Stafford. Bears traded Josh Fields opening the door for them to draft Caleb Williams. Lakers lose to Warriors.

7. mark , it kinda looks like Lux might be much more calm and relaxed now. swung the bat very well yesterday. having that kind of hitter at the bottom of the lineup gives the boys in blue the 2nd best lineup (barely) in baseball! i still givve the braves a slight edge if Acunia is healthy. with opening day almost here , does Snell and montgomery maybe take a very large one year deal somewhere? if so could LA pounce? not advocating for either, but AF did say they are never done! boy would the giant and angel fans freak the f**** out!!

8. In the Angel Dodger Spring Breakout game yesterday, I was impressed with Zyhir Hope, who also came over from the Cubs with Ferris, followed up in center field for George, and singled twice in his two at-bats, and stole a base.

9. dodger organization is loaded! austin barnes is replaceable with an improvement! make him a coach please! lots of young baseball fans won’t get to watch ohtani s debut at 6 am . really would rather start season here! the nfl takes a home game away from season ticket holders now every year. now if lebron james plays all his games in australia, i’m good with that!

   1. Barnes is not going anywhere, especially this late in the spring. They would need to open up a roster spot to add Okey and Feduccia, who got two hits in the game against Kiwoom, has already been optioned to AAA. Barnes did drive in a run in the game, and Feduccia drove in two. Make no mistake, Barnes is on this team for his handling of pitchers and his defense. He is well liked, and pretty young to be turned into a coach. Even the Dodgers have no control over the schedule and where they will play. Joe and Orel let the cat out of the bag that there is a high probability the Dodgers will open one of the next two seasons in Tokyo. Lakers are not even going to make the playoffs, James should be an exe Laker very soon.

10. “The Dodgers were called out by St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas, with the right-hander saying that Los Angeles was playing “checkbook baseball” this offseason. There is irony in his comments since the Cardinals sit in 10th place in terms of payroll, while the Dodgers are in 9th”.

11. i know Bear! barnes is here forever. i know dodgers don’t make schedules , just believe season opener should be here! and i don’t watch nba anymore. horrible product!

12. Great column. Appreciate the detailed analysis on the prospects and love what you are doing with the Twitter embedded posts/highlights.

13. If you are judging Austin Barnes by his batting average, you are missing the point entirely. A team needs a backup catch for the purpose of solidifying the pitching staff when the starter is out. Barnes does that and more. The Dodgers would likely be a worse team without him.

14. agree to disagree on that one. and i agree with you 98% of the time!

    1. Unfortunately, he is right. Barnes is well respected and considered one of the best at framing pitches and calling a game. If there is a weakness in his and Smith’s games, it is that neither is very good at throwing out runners trying to steal. But a lot of that is on the pitchers who do not hold runners very well.

       1. Barnes has no arm

          1. You will find out why very soon!

15. It’s actually refreshing not to have to discuss Lux not being able to play SS and anything having to do with Miguel Vargas.

    1. They were both 800-pound Gorillas. You can’t ignore them for very different reasons.

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