1. Dodgerpatch indicated that I was taking the criticism of Austin Barnes too personally. Not true. I would never take criticism alone personally. What I take personally is the name calling. A week ago I stated that Barnes had option(s) remaining and that he should be considered to be optioned to OKC, and bring up Will Smith to get better acclimated to the pitchers. When the name calling started, I…
It’s that time of again. Many of the mid-year prospect updates are in. My top three favorite sources of prospect lists are Baseball America, FanGraphs, and MLB Pipeline (in no particular order). Baseball America came out in early July with their update, now including the 2019 draft picks. FanGraphs came out with their update and also included current year draftees and IFA. Future Dodgers updated their Top 101 Dodger prospect…
I have been working on about ten different ideas for what to write, and none of them came to a cohesive blog post. Maybe this one will not as well. There has been a lot of speculation as to who the Dodgers may trade for and who they may be required to include in a trade. It is a huge climb from AAA to MLB, and yet we are ready…
It has been four years since that massive International Free Agent (IFA) class, that has turned out to be something other than successful. They signed 13 players for a total of $46,374,500 led by Yadier Alvarez ($16MM), Yusniel Diaz ($15MM), Omar Estevez ($6MM), Starling Heredia ($2.6MM), Yordan Alvarez ($2MM), and Ronny Brito ($2MM). Oneil Cruz was also in that class with a $950K bonus. Not only did those 13 players…
A few weeks back there was a recommendation that we provide our opinion on the risers and fallers this year in the LAD Minor League system, and suggested that the AS break would be a good time. DC offered his input a week or so ago, and now I would like to provide my admittedly myopic (and shortsighted?) insight. I apologize for the length, but it is hard for me…
When MT posted his Remember When post, it got me to thinking about trades. I have been obnoxiously opinionated in my zeal for at least one lock down late inning reliever and would prefer two. But I also know that there are NO GUARANTEES. The Darvish and Machado trades did not result in a WS championship, and they were good trades for the Dodgers. If the Dodgers got both Felipe…
In a 401K portfolio, maybe you have only sufficient funds to NOT LOSE, but do not have that little bit extra to think about…what if. Or maybe you can invest your max in your 401K and want to keep that safe but have a little extra that you want to invest for something that may prove to be a very good return on your investment. Some of those investments will…
A few days ago, Bluto posed the following: “I mean if you are evaluating players from a far then you have to be down on prospects when they fare poorly. But what’s the difference between being down and writing off? And what does writing off mean? Does it mean moving down in the prospect list? Or removing altogether?” I am sure that my opinion of “being down” vs. writing off…
Mark and I don’t always agree on everything Blue, although I think we are pretty consistent from a Macro view. But when it comes to the bullpen, Mark and I just do not see eye to eye. I have been a relief pitcher wonk since 1959 and Larry Sherry. Clem Labine would have been my favorite Dodger in the mid 50’s. I am not going to go through the history…
Let’s go back and revisit the 2006 MLB First Year Player Draft. We Dodger fans remember all too well that Clayton Kershaw was selected as the #7 overall pick that year. But that draft had some other players selected that have gone on and had good ML careers, and potentially another potential HOF pitcher to go with Kersh. 1 – Luke Hochevar 3 – Evan Longoria 5 – Brandon Morrow…