“Thinking with your heart” generally means making decisions based upon your emotions and feelings rather than logic or reason. While it’s important to consider your emotions, relying solely on them can sometimes lead to impulsive or unwise choices. This is what has happened many times with Dodger fans. Some fans have called for the Dodgers to rid themselves of Max Muncy (across multiple successful seasons). Now, they are calling for Michael Conforto to be removed from the roster. He’s the current flavor of the week!
A few weeks ago, when I suggested that Austin Barnes, Chris Taylor, and Miguel Rojas’ time with the Dodgers might be time to be over, you would think I killed someone. But here we are, Barnsie and CT3 are gone. Rojas could be next! Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor will forever be Dodgers, but their time was up. Youth has to be served. Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim are revelations and a massive shot of youth into what is a young man’s game is. I look for Alex Freeland to be the next call-up, with Rojas moving to a front office or coaching role. I don’t think it will happen now, but rather in late June or July (if Freeland keeps improving).
This is the part of baseball that sucks: having to say Goodbye to an old friend. We did that with Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor, but if you don’t think Kim is better than Taylor and Rushing is better than Barnes, I can’t help you. The only constant is change. Think with your minds… not your hearts. Listen to what Andrew Friedman had to say:
It is not fun to have to cut a player who has been with the team for so long. In CT3’s case, they just released him. Procedurely, it means that the Dodgers have to pay him, and he can decide who he wants to play for, and I think he will have offers. Andrew said that Chris “has a chip on his shoulder,” meaning that he was not happy and that he wants to play several more years. We will see… but in the meantime, the Dodgers are a much better team with Kim and Rushing, sans Barnes and Taylor. I am just thinking with my mind and not my heart.
Dodger News & Notes
- At OKC, Bobby Miller went six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out seven. He did walk four, but that is huge progress. He threw 95 pitches. Maybe he’s not a lost cause!
- At Tulsa, Chris Campos had his worst outing of the year: 3.2 IP. 7 ER, 3 BB, 5 K.
- At Great Lakes, Mike Sirota was 3-5 with another HR and 4 RBI’s. He is batting .636 since his callup with 1.965 OPS. He might be ready for Tulsa. The last guy who jumped from A, to A+, to AA and AAA and ended up in LA the same year was Andrew Toles. Josue DePaula hit his 7th HR (.285/.928). Jake Gelof was 2-3 with a HR (.267/.943).
- At Rancho Cucamonga, Mairoshendfrick Martinus continues to rake, going 2-4 (.421/1.156).
- At The Complex, No games were played.
Transition week. Offense about to click.
Taylor, like Lux, will go somewhere say a Minnesota, DC, St. Louis and put up solid numbers if he plays everyday.
Look I understand the move and the Dodgers have people making decisions way smarter than me. I do think there is more in the tank for CT3.
Im thinking October, who would you prefer in a big spot in the game, CT3 or Kim or even Conforto?
Hopefully the moment is not too big for Kim. Hes had a solid start, and hopefully he can keep it going.
I wish Chris luck and hope he returns to the Dodgers when his playing days are over. This is strictly business.
I could see CT3 ending up with the Yankees.
Yeah maybe, they need someone that can play solid defense…
DODGER MINOR LEAGUE STANDINGS 5/19/25
Oklahoma City AAA 28-17 1st place 1 game ahead
Tulsa AA 18-21 last place 4 games behind
Great Lakes A+ 21-18 3rd place 5 games behind
Rancho Cucamongo A 28-11 1st place 11 games ahead
ACL Dodgers Rookie 7-4 2nd place 1.5 games behind
For more detailed recaps,stats,schedules, standings and box scores for Dodger minor league teams go to the top of this page and cIick on MINOR LEAGUE AFFLIATES.
Here is the Dodger’s Schedule fo the next 32 Days with 3 off days:
Snakes 3
OFF DAY
Mets 3
Guardians 3
OFF DAY
Yankees 3
Mets 4
Cards 3
Padres 3
OFF DAY
Giants 3
Padres 4
29 games in 32 days with 3 off days with all teams that have records over.500 and are all contenders. Where will the Dodgers be on Friday June 20th in the standings with this limited starting staff and overused bullpen?
First place, like they are now…
Hope you’re right. We’ll see and post the standings on June 20th.
And you know what, even if by some reason we aint in 1st place on 6/20 it doesn’t mean squat!!
Long game….
Most probably.
Tough but I like it that way.
Sunday scores
Round Rock 5, Oklahoma City 4 (10 innings)
Northwest Arkansas 8, Tulsa 1
Great Lakes 9, Lake County 1
Rancho Cucamonga 8, Inland Empire 0
Patrick Copen strikes out 11, Kendall George steals 6 bases for Great Lakes
The week ahead
Oklahoma City vs. Sacramento (Giants)
Tulsa vs. Springfield (Cardinals)
Great Lakes at West Michigan (Tigers)
Rancho Cucamonga at Stockton (A’s)
For more detailed recaps,stats,schedules, standings and box scores for Dodger minor league teams go to the top of this page and cIick on MINOR LEAGUE AFFLIATES.
I think that if there truly is a few more years success in Chris, being released WILL make him “click”. I hope so for his sake.
I’m enjoying Kim’s speed, versatility and overall abilities but it is way too early to proclaim him a new CT3 or Kiké. Those guys earned their stripes big time. Kim likely will too but let’s give him 100 games to see.
Liking seeing Rushing (wish he’d shave the mustache. It’s a good ‘stache but he’s so baby faced it looks like trying to play grown up). Come on Freeland, de Paula and ….who else is in the proverbial on deck circle?
Back in the day, everyone had stashes. This was mine 26 years ago:
Now he tries to rock his own stache, but since his mom is Filipino, he doesn’t do so well:
He has that baby face like Dalton!
Sirota, Ferris, et al.
Ah, yeah. I’d forgotten. Somewhere in the pipeline is Zyhir Hope – I’m pulling for him to succeed just for having a great baseball name! But I suspect he MAY be another Willy Calhoun- promising minor league hitter with no true position. I’d love the Dodgers to “pull a rabbit out of a hat” and remake Mike Sirota aka CT3! Wondering what will happen with Feduccia. Just depth I suppose.
I had a mustache too for many years – it’s like a rite of passage for us Mexican-American boys. Would have wanted a beard too but too much Indian in me to pull it off. I shaved it when my now-VP lawyer daughter was 7. She didn’t recognize me, cried and wouldn’t let me hold her!
Win it all or not, this is a transition year (aren’t they all?) and will be fun to watch.
I hope that Hope will be a good MLB player. He is currently playing all three outfield positions.
There are a lot of Ryan McMahon rumors flying around. He’s a 30-year-old LH 3B. If they get him, Max Muncy has to go, but I am very suspicious of his road splits – He is a career .206 hitter outside of Coors and hits half as many HR as on the road.
FYI:
Former Dodgers
Michael Busch – .255 BA/.818 OPS/7 HR/25 RBI
Miguel Vargas – .245 BA/.749 OPS/6 HR/21 RBI
Alex Verdugo – .264 BA/.662 OB%/0 HR/9 RBI
Gavin Lux – .291 BA/.778 OPS/1 HR/19 RBI
Keibert Ruiz – .280 BA/.690 OPS/2 HR/17 RBI
Yordon Alvarez – .210 BA/.641 OPS/3 HR/18 RBI
Only goes to show the Dodgers “cast-offs” are still solid big league players….for awhile.
Hell, Joc is fat now, JT is what….41? and still they have value as DH’s. Some teams would play JT in the field as needed. Though his range is reduced he can still catch the ball with the best of them.
The Dodgers are an extremely well run team and overall make good to excellent personnel decisions. People that claim the Dodgers just “spend” to make their roster really don’t know much about baseball.
JT has value as a clubhouse leader and that’s about it. It’s a stretch to say he has aany value as an actual hitter anymore. He currently has a -0.4 WAR, .169 BA, 0 HR, and a .476 OPS. He’s a bad hitter.
Duke, Jackie, Cey, Fernando, Orel, Andruw Jones. All our favorites had their day and eventually moved on.
LOL!
Andruw Jones!?
I was also sad to see the Jason Schmidt era come to an end.
There was a Jason Schmidt Era?
I must have missed it!
Travis D’Arnaud era definitely ONE to remember
Did he last one day?
I hope Conforto figures it out because I know CT3 could at least offer some defense and base running in the late innings. Right now Conforto is actually killer. CT3 had a lot of big moments for the Dodgers so I wish him the best.
Should say rally killer. lol.
I’D GUESS CONFORTO HAS UNTIL MID-JUNE!
If the Dodgers were to cut Rojas, would they really move Mookie in season again? And where too? RF? That is Teo’s spot. I think he stays at SS for the rest of this season at least.
So , is Max safe? is conforto safe? is Rojas safe? we found out that austin and chris weren’t safe! If they release Clayton , oh never mind they would never do that! It is a business as someone said. Right now Max and conforto aren’t very good business! i still maintain conforto will break out. If he doesn’t he will be gone! Max? it’s easy to root for him, and it’s easy to get so frustrated with him. The easy throw he sailed 3 feet over Freddies head! All the strikeouts. But a couple of dingers and we calm down. Max was always safer in the organization than barnes and taylor. He’s always in Doc’s ear. it will get interesting to watch . especially if max continues his struggles. Outman has as much chance as i do of being on that team in 2 weeks! Rojas? maybe he sticks around for a while longer. But. with Freeland coming on strong, good chance somebody else leaves besides outman . i wish Chris Taylor nothing but the best! AF said he had a chip on his shoulder. Maybe that chip helped create all the swing and miss!!! Seriously,hope he does well!
Max’s stats have improved significantly since getting eye glasses. Coincidence? Who cares!
Conforto will break out…..probably. But if he doesn’t it was still a good decision to get a veteran outfielder with a used-to-be- good bat on a one year contract. They didn’t know how Outman, Pages, Taylor, Hernandez x 2 were all going to do and they had aspirations of repeating with the solid core of Shohei, Mookie, Freddie, Yamamoto, May, Gonsolin & Kershaw returning. “Fans” need to stop fault finding when a player has a slump.
Amen.
As expected:
05/19/25 Los Angeles Dodgers activated RF Teoscar Hernández from the 10-day injured list.
05/19/25 Los Angeles Dodgers optioned CF James Outman to Oklahoma City Comets.
Letting CT3 go was the hard one, but it makes Conforto’s departure easy. Taylor leaves behind many fond memories of a talented player. I think the “chip” on his shoulder was just the enormous frustration at not performing up to his expectations.
AL Player of the Week: Miguel Vargas, Chicago White Sox
Contorted Conforto!
10:10 PM ET
Diamondbacks (25-22)
Dodgers (29-18)
SP Brandon Pfaadt R
6-3 3.73 ERA
SP Landon Knack R
2-1 5.89 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
DH S. Ohtani L
SS Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
RF T. Hernandez R
3B Max Muncy L
LF M. Conforto L
2B Tommy Edman S
CF Hyeseong Kim L
74° Wind 10 mph Out
Conforto Forever
… or June 20th… whichever comes first!
I think Pages is just getting a rest.
He will be back in CF tomorrow.
The only real good thing about Taylor for the past season and a half was you didn’t have to play him and sacrifice ABs for another player.
The team has said they want Rushing to play 2x per week.
They also have to find ABs for Kim, otherwise his development is stunted.
This means more rest for the others not named Rojas.
Just one inning in and they’re already losing again…. Every year there’s always a period in the season when they play terribly, when the team looks pathetic, boring… I think it’s time to give myself a couple of weeks off, no baseball until then. At least until the series against the SD faggots… Go Dodgers!
max!
the ability of Conforto to consistently ground out to second is quite impressive
@DodgerDad – hope you’re good.
Could you expand on the CT3?”Chip” comment from AF please? I’ve not seen it anywhere.
Think we have a growing problem here now, and can’t see an easy resolution.
The Pitching just isn’t there, both in performance and in numbers, and I just can’t see how we can move past this.
Glassnow, Snell and Sasaki are a way away. May and Kershaw may well not be as good as they once were. Yamamoto really needs to be used prudently because he is essential for post season play, and Knack is AAA standard.
I can’t see anyone in the minors ready to step up. Gonsolin has done well, but surely we don’t want to risk over use.
I just can’t see any Starting Pitching that is going to help. Then we have the Relievers. Treinen, Graterol, Grove, Kopech, Phillips, Henrique and now Yates are all missing with some a way away from returning if at all.
The cupboard is bare and we are down to the bones. Sheehan may be back soon I guess.
As I see it the problem is only gonna get worse with our Starters never getting past 5 innings and the stress being placed on the Relievers.
Added to this, we are definitely in the strongest division and this next run of games till June 21st is tough.
I just don’t see enough Pitching to get us through – especially Pitching that is gonna eat inning, get outs, and save the Pen.
Could AF trade for a couple of innings eaters (I’m thinking Lance Lynn types)?
Not gonna win many games like that though!
On the Position Player side things obviously look a lot better, I guess they must do if you’re DFA’ing players owed a lot of dollars. It’s been encouraging to see Pages, Rushing and Kim do do well.
Tough times – time for AF to earn his money.
in a statement released by AF , he said Chris was not happy about being released. And he had a “chip” on his shoulder and he said chris wanted to play several more years. I saw it on LA Dodgers bleacher report. Not my words, Friedman’s.
Woah, slow down and kick back a little. You’d think we were battling the Rockies for worst record. Would I like to see every pitch a strike, every swing a hit and every game a win? Actually NO, that would be boring. I enjoy the highs and shrug off the lows and move on. If we could play chess like AF, we wouldn’t say half the stuff we do.
The pitching is fine, the hitting is fine, Doc is fine , the FO is fine but some fans are never happy. It doesn’t matter if we play teams over 500 the rest of the year. Because we are the best. For me there is no anticipation about being in the playoffs. That’s a foregone conclusion. I will just enjoy the ride. I for one don’t pay attention to former Dodgers, I follow and root for the current team. CT3 is a former Dodger. Time to move on. We all have loved the game of baseball. But it is strictly a business to all in the organization. So I say root with your heart and be passionate and let Andrew use his brain. It’s a fabulous time to be a Dodger fan.
Book em