So, I hear that some people are saying that trading Chase De Jong was really stupid – that’s the word they used: STUPID! Of course, most of these people have an “end game.” They are FAZaphobes! They hate Andrew Friedman for reasons they can’t explain (or care to explain in public) and they prefer to wallow in their negativity.
So it was stupid to trade a guy who was like Number 11 or 12 on the depth chart for starting pitchers? That’s this year. Next year, he would probably be like #15 or 16. Stupid? Yeah, he was going to be valuable… Yeah, and I’m Albert Einstein! Those guys kill me. No matter what FAZ does, “it’s strange, it’s bad, it’s stupid!” Never mind that FAZ has won the division in their two years in power. Never mind that they have built the farm system to one of the best in the game. Never mind that they are one of the favorites to win it all this year. It’s always a complaint! Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!
Frankly, I am sick of it and if I offend anyone – just leave. Never come back! We are better without you! You know, if they could articulate a real reason, I could respect that, but I just can’t respect Anti-FAZ-ism just because someone is so biased they can’t see the forest for the trees.
Look, I liked Chase De Jong, but he was buried here! He was a fringy, gutsy itcher without any real good tools – kind of a RH Eric Stults. Sure, we rooted for him, but he had no chance. If you think he did, you are just delusional. There were too many pitchers ahead of him. WAY TOO MANY. So FAZ traded him for two pieces that could be valuable in the future. You never know – maybe they will – maybe they won’t! That’s the risk you take – that’s baseball! I know this: You don’t coach triple digits and Zabala has a tool few pitchers have. Only time will tell if he can harness that, but it’s worth while.
I also like Adrian Gonzalez. He is a class act. However, paying him $43 million this year is stupid! THE TRADE was stupid. I can like A-Gon but still think THE TRADE was stupid, can’t I? Some people think that because I dislike THE TRADE that I dislike A-Gon. Yes, he’s in decline, but he’s good dude! I’m glad he’s on our team! We can’t go back, but I can denounce THE TRADE because it was stupid! That’s why Ned Colletti was broadcasting the game today. OK, Ned is not a bad guy, but we live in different times.
I am just sick of hearing that crap about FAZ.. That’s why I left another site and started this one back up. Every comment was for the purpose of bashing FAZ. If FAZ helped a little old lady cross the street, they would be bashed and if they didn’t, they would be bashed.
You could say: “I think Chase De Jong is just realizing his potential and will be a solid #3 or #4 based upon what he did last year,” and I can respect that… even though that would be wrong! Just don’t play that card too many times… because it’ weak! Let me remind you , that is the last year, FAZ has traded the following pitchers:
- Zach Lee
- Carlos Frias
- Frankie Montas
- Jharel Cotton
- Grant Holmes
- Jose De Leon
- Chase De Jong
There’s probably more, but I didn’t look too hard… and the system is still full of pitchers. We still have too many… and that’s a really good thing.
This is not a site where we just sing Kumbaya and praise FAZ, but frankly right about now, there isn’t a lot to be negative about. I can respect realistic analysis but taking the opposite side just because you are a miserable, negative human being is hard for me to accept! You choose that, I didn’t! If everything you post is negative, you need to check yourself, before you wreck yourself.
I am all for spirited debate and when I am wrong you don’t have to sugar-coat it. A few days ago, Hawkeye Dodger gently reminded me that I predicted the Dodgers would not re-sign Turner and Jansen. He said I was a “bit wrong.” No, I was a lot wrong! No need to be gentile (although I appreciated it). I did not think FAZ would re-sign them and I am glad I was wrong! I WAS TOTALLY WRONG! There, I said it! I own it. Feel free to remind me.
This could be a magical year and I have a hard time with stupid stuff. Tell me I’m wrong and back it up. I can take criticism and I can admit I am wrong! Just don’t say stuff based upon illogical hate of somebody. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:
Rants & Raves
- The Dodgers are 5-1 – Spring Training games mean nothing! What is the deal?
- Grandal and Turner are ready to go.
- Kershaw was perfect, Wood was good, Romo was lights out and Hatcher didn’t give up a HR (that’s how you gauge how good he is).
- Morrow evidently pitched well.
- It’s hard when the game is not televised. What’s up with that. Isn’t this the 21st Century!
- Kenley Jansen developing a slider? If it’s a good one, he’s going to be even better!
- TrueBlueLA has all the relevant news
- Rich Hill starts today against KC.
I had to post this video for two reasons:
- So that we don;t forget how good of a RF Yasiel Puig is; and
- The great call made by our new play-by-play guy! Joe Davis is going to be great!
Today’s Music
Discussion (48)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Hey Mark, you made a great point earlier about Friedman trying to win a World Series and build a farm system monster, at the same time, one of THE most difficult things to do in this day and age in baseball. Some of the FAZ haters out there are not doing the research or looking back about 5 or 6 years ago about the state of the farm system and the franchise as a whole. I plead guilty, I was not a FAZ fan for most of the last couple of years, especially when they hired Roberts. I was a Donnie Baseball guy, and I thought they kicked him to the curb through all the smoke and mirrors. But doing some serious soul searching myself, it is still seared into my mind the Mets play-off series, when they got up on us early in the that last game and you could just see the air come out of the dugout. Let’s not forget Ethier getting pissed off at Mattingley in the dug out and in front of the TV cameras telling Donnie to “Just manage the Fu$@#ing game” or something like that. That would NEVER happen on Roberts watch, which is why I was totally wrong about him. Roberts is the real deal, and FAZ made that call. Also, amongst all the bitchin and crying by some of the bloggers, the Dodgers have quietly built a future powerhouse through their farm system for years to come. I live amongst a bunch of Giant fans up here in Paso Robles, and they are real quiet this year, they know the Dodgers are loaded with a bunch of young guns coming up, I am on the FAZ team, and even though they will whiff on some deals now and then, the body of work the last couple of years, plus the total coup of signing Dave Roberts is hard to argue with. We are in good hands,
Great info out there yesterday and today on chats:
First Keith Law:
Cedric: Any thoughts on the DeJong/Zabala trade?
Klaw: I answered this on Twitter by linking to my Mariners report. Zabala is the only real prospect in the deal.
Then Jim Callis of Baseball America had a Q&A on Twitter, he wrote:
Alvarez will be a starter. Cy Young Award ceiling. Great stuff, more advanced than expected. @Dodgers #top30prospects
The @Dodgers are very excited about Mitchell White. Could move very quickly. Will there be room in rotation when he gets to LA? We’ll see.
Two prospects who may make the biggest jump in the LAD system are RHP A.J. Alexy or LHP Caleb Ferguson. @Dodgers #top30prospects
I think Calhoun has little chance to stick at 2B & winds up in OF. Omar Estevez is @Dodgers 2B of future. I haven’t talked to a scout outside org who thinks Calhoun can play 2B. Calhoun in prime (this is best guess, not ceiling): 25 HR, 0 SB, 350 OBP. @Dodgers #top30prospects
Ariel Sandoval has some interesting power potential, not sure he’ll hit enough to tap into it. @Dodgers
And finally, Jeff Sullivan had a chat on Fan Graphs
9:59
Dave Kingman: Will having Logan Forsythe at the top of the Dodgers lineup be better for Seager than Utley/Kendrick of last year?
9:59
Jeff Sullivan: Last year’s Dodgers leadoff hitters batted .259/.332/.398. Logan Forsythe is better than those statistics
Per Houston Mitchell, LA Times:
“I can already see some of the emails I will be getting: “You are just a Dodgers apologist!” No, believe me, if I were, they would actually allow me to do a reader Q&A with Andrew Friedman instead of denying the interview because what I write hurts their feelings sometimes. I am just a Dodgers fan who would love to see his favorite team on TV every night.”
So what – does Friedman control media access and only grant interviews to homers?
Just watched Mike Ahmed younger brother of Nick, hit a triple and then score a run, against his brother’s team.
Didn’t even know he was in our system!
I still think that MLB has fallen in love with the fastball. You don’t have to throw 100MPH to be effective. I have no idea whether DeJong is all that or whether he will ever be, but I’m pretty sure that Randy Jones won a Cy Young Award throwing a 77 MPH fastball, so the fact that DeJong throws 88-90 doesn’t turn me off by itself. Whether Zabala, who can throw 100 but can’t throw strikes, will ever be any good – no one knows that either. I don’t have a dog in this particular hunt. It sounds to me that 3 guys who will probably never make an impact in MLB were traded so I really don’t know what the big deal is.
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I saw McCarthy pitch briefly. He was only throwing 88-90 which is only a big deal because he usually throws harder than that, but it was only his 1st spring start. On the other hand it didn’t look to me that he was finishing his pitches and he gave up n HR on an up fastball to Dodgerkiller Goldschmidt. I hope the yips aren’t coming back.
I’m watching one game and have the other on Gameday. Hill gave up 3 runs AND GOT LIFTED MID-INNING. That doesn’t sound good.
Good to see Brandon McCarthy in Mid-Season form!
I think Bobbie’s main point, was this.
We have veteran pitchers, that are injury prone, that other teams, just don’t want.
And because of this, they seem to be blocking some of our young pitchers, and taking up roster space, that would be better served, for our young pitchers, or players.
And that is frustrating, for some.
There are certainly reasons to think that Chase De Jong was undervalued. His ceiling is a back of the rotation and could be considered an innings-eater, which is exactly what you hope for from a #5. Every team needs a #5. But he was never going to be a top of the rotation for a contender. That does not make him a bad pitcher, it just does not separate him from a larger pool of RHSP. He is also a fan favorite, but that should have zero impact on whether he is traded.
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Chase had a great AA campaign at Tulsa, earning Texas League Pitcher of the Year, but he is still rated the fifth best RHSP in the M’s prospect pipeline. Andrew Moore, Max Povse, and Rob Whalen are all rated higher than Chase, each with a ceiling of #4, and very closely approximate De Jong’s age. Whalen has ML experience (2016). Nick Neidert is the highest rated, but he is only 20 and has a ways to go (also with a ceiling projection of #4).
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Per MLBPipeline scouting report:
“De Jong’s results are more impressive than his pure stuff, headlined by a downer curveball that’s his lone above-average pitch. His four-seam fastball has below-average velocity at 88-92 mph, yet it plays better than that as hitters haven’t been able to barrel it consistently. He also mixes in a fringy cutter and changeup.
DeJong’s delivery creates some deception without detracting from his ability to throw strikes. He’s an extreme flyball pitcher with little margin for error, so he’s vulnerable to home runs. While he doesn’t have a high ceiling, he has performed well in the Minors and will get a chance to prove himself in Triple-A this year.” They do not even rate his ceiling, only that it is not high.
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Who can replace De Jong? Trevor Oaks/Josh Sborz/Andrew Sopko. Steamer projects them all just about equal. Oaks has performed well at AAA, so his value would be higher, and Sopko and Sborz were summer promotions to Tulsa after very good early months at Rancho, so not as high as Chase. They are all projected to be innings-eaters back of the rotation types. Although Sborz could very well return to be a high leverage late innings reliever. This excludes Brock Stewart and Ross Stripling, both of whom may start the year at OKC. I hope that Chase De Jong has a long and stellar career in Seatlle, but he was not going to have one in LA.
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I have no idea whether Drew Jackson will ever be a ML player. He certainly was not acquired to play SS in LA. But Tulsa has no SS, and neither Gavin Lux nor Brendan Davis are anywhere close to being ready. He is a player for a position of need. Maybe he develops into an average ML hitter, maybe not. He does have better defensive potential and base-running skills than Kike’/Taylor/Culberson. Just as a #5 SP is needed, so is a quality utility player who can play SS.
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Zabala is the real unknown, Keith Law (some like him, some do not) says he is the only true prospect in the deal. The Dodgers organization has very good pitching instructors. I followed Great Lakes a lot last year, and their pitchers became very good with K/BB ratios. Maybe Bobby Cuellar can work some magic with Zabala. His ceiling is as a closer, but who knows if he will ever make it, as he has yet to pitch above rookie league.
I thought we were trying to win a World Series, not be champions of the prospect league. All I can see is that we traded a bona fide, high end STARTING PITCHER for a middle infielder from Stanford (who cares?)who will probably be ok for Tampa Bay in the next trade and who the team has absolutely no need for. Along with another of those Chapman wanna bees, who can’t find the plate,when we have our closer under contract for a long time. There is no such thing as a pitcher being “stuck in the system.” De Jong earned a shot with the big team, and now he will get it. In Seattle. He will join that decrepit Iwakuma, who was so injured that we cut him loose after signing him and who won, I think, 14+ games for the Mariners last year. Starting pitchers in the big leagues don’t grow on trees, but these suits seem to think they do. Except for Urias, of course, who is so much better than everyone else that they are afraid to pitch him. A lot of these moves have to do with the team being stuck with big contracts for veteran starters, who are injury risks and who no one else wants. Who is responsible for that? With that, I’m moving on from the most recent trade and won’t comment more on it.
TODAY’S GAME IS TELEVISED ONLINE ON MLB.COM
Bum… There will be no moratorium on the TRADE… This is MT’s Tourette syndrome…
Even with the error yesterday, I still can’t remember a Blue IF with softer hands than Taylor…
New Video Update ABOVE
But, but, FAZ is some small town yokels who fell off a turnip truck! Aren’t they???? C’mon, they don’t know they are now in LA, and not the small markets they came from! Yeah, that is what some say!
You didn’t mention how FAZ acquired DeJong.
Jul 2, 2015: The Dodgers utilized their vast financial resources to essentially buy two prospects from the Blue Jays on Thursday, acquiring pitcher Chase DeJong and infielder Tim Locastro from Toronto for three international bonus pool slots.
The Dodgers traded international slots No. 27 ($545,900), No. 57 ($368,700) and No. 117 ($156,700), worth a total of $1,071,300 in bonus pool money, which allows the Blue Jays a larger limit. For the Dodgers, who have already blown past their limit with at least five reported signings on the first day of the international signing period, this just means they will pay an extra $1,071,300 in overage tax.
I really don’t want to talk about the TRADE anymore mostly because the argument was mostly black and white instead of identifying the alternatives and letting history tell us how well those alternatives would have worked out. The Dodgers probably would have signed Tanaka if the Trade hadn’t been made and maybe Hanley Ramirez would have played first base and still be there.
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I have never liked a pitcher that threw hard without control. Hitters have to survive the lower minor leagues because that is where those kind of pitchers exist. When those throwers develop command and control then and only then will I like them. I have already said a couple of times that I liked the most recent trade so I won’t say more here.
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I always like to have players that are in the organization that intrigue me but haven’t proven themselves yet. Jackson and Taylor intrigue me. If they wind up with plus OBP and have a knack for delivering a clutch hit like Bill Russel, they could be the near future middle infielders for the Dodgers. Add Will Smith at catcher, Bellinger at first, Toles in LF, move Seager to third, and keep Joc and Puig in CF and RF and the Dodgers will have speed throughout their lineup.