Where or where would the Dodgers be without Cody Bellinger? The last time the Dodgers were north of .500 after April was 2017 and was LARGELY due to Justin Turner and his .404/.465/.562/1.026 April metrics. Although, JT only had 1 April HR, he hit 20 from May on, so there is hope for JT’s power to resume when the weather warms up. Those of us who believe that the Dodgers…
I know many of you out there in LADT land have been “calmly” discussing your varied opinions on AF. Some think he is the best President Baseball Operations/GM in the history of baseball, while others believe he is very much overrated. I do not know what is wrong with the latter group. Aren’t those of you who are in that group just glad to be the 2nd best team in…
I wanted Chris Sale at the 2016 trade deadline when he was burning bridges with the ChiSox. I cannot fault management because he was not traded until the Winter, and I have no idea as to who Chicago was demanding. We can speculate all we want, but nobody here knows. I was a strong advocate for Justin Verlander at the 2017 trade deadline, but understood why the Dodgers did not…
Mark goes with Rants and Raves, and DC now has his Bites and Bits, so I might as well come up with my own…Random Thoughts. I cannot get too excited about the last two losses. It really was to be expected in April, at least by me. Admittedly, I am having a tough time getting excited about this early part of the season. It is going better than I thought…
The Midwest League has a strong reputation for being a pitcher’s league. It is easy to get frustrated with lower batting averages in players. Gavin Lux is a great example of a player who could not get untracked in the Midwest League, but has been unstoppable since ”graduating” from low level A Ball. This is generally the first full season experience a player will get, and it is a tough…
I wrote a post on slow starts by the Dodgers, and while I did not predict there would be a slow start, history tells us to expect it. When the team got off to such a fast start (8-2), comments like “What slow start” were readily made. I indicated that I was happy with the fast first 10 games, but I also cautioned that it could not last because: a)…
I wrote about the possibility of a slow start for the Dodgers but did not predict one. I know Mark liked to chide me with that after the first two series. But 5-2 against arguably two of the worst 3 teams in the NL was nothing to brag about. The Padres played the same two teams and went 4-3. And now LAD gets to face the Rockies without having to…
The strength of the Farm system is unquestionably the pitching. It is not even close. The breakdown of the MLB Pipeline Top 30 prospects is: 12 – RHP 2 – LHP 4 – Catchers 5 – SS/2B 4 – 3B/1B 3 – OF Baseball America pretty much resembles MLB Pipeline’s prospect list except BA includes reliever Josh Sborz, and OF Carlos Rincon, replacing Braydon Fisher, Marshall Kasowski, and Leonel Valera….
It must have been painful for some of these free agents going through contract negotiations the last couple of years. Led by AF, most teams are not all that keen on signing over age players/pitchers to long term $100MM + deals, and the players’ agents are having a rough time talking their clientele into accepting a deal much less than what they originally believed would be available, but probably closer…
I drove down to LA this weekend to visit a very close family friend and sharing in his surprise 75th birthday. At the hotel, I turned on the TV only to see SportsNet LA and watched Access Dodgers. I do miss LA for Dodger TV and Dodger Talk Radio. One comment I heard from Pedro Moura was that the Dodgers are not flashy and have a ton of depth but…