Rant & Rave Wednesday

December 18, 2019

It turns out MadBum was just using the Dodgers to drive up his salary for the D-Bags… or maybe Friedman was driving up the salary the D-Bags had to pay the Bum… Oh nevermind, he is still a Bum! The D-Bags could be pretty good in 2020. They won’t win, but Mike Hazen has done a decent job. On the other hand, the Giants and the Rockies are a trainwreck,…

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Yeah, Follow Them Over the Cliff – That’s the Ticket!

December 10, 2019

Several years ago, when the Dodgers traded for Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez (among others), I called BS. I still do. Yeah, I know what Kasten and Colletti were trying to do, but that was not the only way. Five years ago, when the Dodgers hired Andrew Friedman they had the biggest payroll in baseball and had been bounced from the playoffs two straight years after missing them altogether the…

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What Minor Leaguers Will We See in 2020?

December 8, 2019

Last year, the Dodgers had Nine (count ’em, 9) rookies on the roster in total. I did a hurried comparison and I think only San Francisco had as many rookies as the Dodgers. I could be wrong … feel free to do the research and get back to me. But the point is: The Farm System is productive and still a TOP 3 system. In fact, if the Dodgers just…

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Execution is the Solution

December 6, 2019

What if Clayton Kershaw had gotten Soto and Rendon out as easily as he did Eaton? What if Joe Kelly was lights out in the second inning he pitched? It’s easy to blame Doc, but if Clayton had executed… and it’s not out of the question that he could have, Dave Roberts (actually… Clayton Kershaw) would have been the hero. I don’t like the results, but the players did not…

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Bullpen Options

December 3, 2019

Well, the horse is dead and I won’t beat it (very long), but I think Andrew Freidman made a mistake in letting Yimi Garcia walk when he could have been signed for about $1.1 million… and if he was going to let him go, why didn’t he do it two weeks ago and put Jordon Sheffield on the 40-man? I know that that AF is not perfect, but this move…

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The Joc Pederson Dilemma

November 30, 2019

Joc Pederson hit 36 HR’s in 2019. That’s a lot. In fact, it was the most of any player not named Bellinger for the Dodgers. Joc has 123 HR in his short career. Duke Snider, of course, holds the Los Angeles All-Time Home Run Record at 389, but in a season and a half, Joc should be in the Top 10 in LA Dodger All-Time Home Runs. That’s pretty dang…

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Let’s Talk Dodger Baseball

November 29, 2019

This is your forum. Pick what you want to talk about today. A good place to start is The Athletic’s Molly Knight who talks about how what the Astros did is different… and why pitchers are livid. This from MLB Trade Rumors.com: Relief pitching looks to be a clear need for the Nationals this offseason…or is it?  As Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post observes, the Nats’ early acquisitions of Trevor Rosenthal and Kyle Barraclough last winter ended…

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Happy Thanksgiving!

November 28, 2019

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real…

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Let the Judgement on the Asterisks be Quick, Decisive and Severe!

November 25, 2019

It’s is becoming pretty apparent that the Astros are a bunch of cheating, dirty-rotten scoundrels who stole the 2017 World Series from the LA Dodgers with their Criminal ways. In some aspects, this is worthy of a “Pete Rose-Type Ban” for the Players involved. The video evidence is mounting all over YouTube, compiled by amateurs. Rob Manfred and his Minions should have independent counsel or prosecutors investigating this and forcing…

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What Can the Dodgers Expect From Their Existing Bullpen?

November 23, 2019

If in response to the above question, you said “Not Much!” I will say you may or may not be right. See, indecision may or may not be part of my problem, and no one knows what a bullpen guy will do from year-to-year, but I will say that you cannot look at the past and predict what a bullpen pitcher will do in the future. You can guess… even…

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