This year’s MLB Winter Meetings will be held December 10-14 in Ontario, Florida. On the final day of the MLB’s Winter Meetings, the annual Rule 5 draft takes place. Players eligible for selection must meet the following criteria: Not on the MLB team’s 40 man roster. 5th Year after signing initial contract is signed at 18 or younger, or; 4th year after signing initial contract is signed at 19 or…
Hot Stove Week
Unless AC posts (which he is welcome to do of course), I will likely not have much time this week, so I thought I’d throw bout a few talking points. Ronald Acuna, who is a TOP 5 MLB Prospect for the Atlanta Braves and likely a budding superstar, was named the AFL’s MVP. His line was 83 AB’s/5 DBL/7 HR/16 RBI/.325 BA/.414 OB%/1.053 OPS. Pretty impressive! However, even a novice…
Don’t Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater!
It seems to be the general conscientious among Dodger fans that Austin Barnes has been anointed as the Dodgers’ starting Catcher. Pretty much all through the playoffs, Austin Barnes was the Dodgers starting catcher. Yasmani Grandal hardly played. Grandal is bum. Barnes is superman. Get rid of the bum… but, maybe… just maybe, we have this all wrong! Follow this timeline: In 2012, Yasmani Grandal was a rookie and hit…
Dodger AFL Pitching Prospects
Yesterday, I discussed the Dodger hitters in the Arizona Fall League and of course Will Smith was the star of the team. Now, we focus on the Dodger pitchers, none of whom are really top prospects, but there are a couple are worth talking about. Of the Dodger hitting prospects, Will Smith was ranked #8, Yusniel Diaz was #5 and Matt Beaty was #30. Of the pitchers, none of them…
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
The Arizona Fall League Championship Game will be played on my birthday, November 18th, but of more importance is how certain Dodger Prospects are performing. Yusniel Diaz has played very well in the Fall League with a .303 Batting Average and a .356 OB%. To date, he has displayed excellent skills in all phases of the game… except power. That may or may not come, but the only question I…
Trading For Stanton as a Way to Cut Payroll
OK, that headline brands me as crazy, right? Well, that’s old news! Everyone knows that Gioncarlo Stanton is going to cost almost $30 million a year right? Maybe over the life of the contract, but next year, he might be FREE. Here’s a really important fact: The Dodgers don’t need to do anything, but if they do, it should be significant and it should reduce payroll. I think the Dodgers can…
Minor League Free Agents
There has been a lot of discussion about pending ML free agents, but there are 572 minor league free agents, including 23 Dodgers. To qualify for minor league free agency for 2018, a player would have signed a minor league Uniform Player’s Contract (UPC) in 2011 and not be released from the terms of that UPC. Teams can renew a player’s UPC six times before the player is declared a minor…
I Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident…
On Opening Day 2018, these positions in the lineup will be manned by the following players (barring injury): C – Austin Barnes – As good or better than Yasmani NOW. 1B – Cody Bellinger – Gold Glove and a Superstar 2B – Logan Forsythe – Look for a huge year from him SS – Corey Seager – The only concern is health. If healthy, he is a beast! 3B –…
6 Minutes
There’s a TV show called 60 Minutes, so that name was already taken and I don’t have much time… so this is called 6 Minutes. I’ll give you six minutes today and you can have something to chew on: The FBI, ATF, DEA, CIA, NAACP and AARP needs to start a complete investigation into how on earth did Jason Heyward ever beat Yasiel Puig out for a Gold Glove in…
Return on Investment – Risk vs. Reward
Many have posited (including me) that the depth the Dodgers have generated were critical in their march to 104 wins. I have also written that the depth needs to be pruned at times so that the organization will continue to grow by clearing the way for new prospects or ML 25 man roster help. That is why I had no problem with sending Jharel Cotton, Grant Holmes, and Frankie Montas…