Rule 5 Draft Preview

November 11, 2018

I was going to write about who I thought the three top potential GM candidates might be…Josh Byrnes, Kim Ng, and Chaim Bloom. My money was on Chaim Bloom, Rays Senior VP Baseball Operations. For those who may want to know a little more about Chaim; https://www.mlb.com/rays/team/front-office/chaim-bloom. However, I nixed that idea because Andrew has come out and said that Farhan’s duties could be assumed by existing personnel; himself, Josh…

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Financial Considerations

November 10, 2018

There are currently 38 Dodgers on the 40-man roster without consideration of either Yasmani Grandal or Hyun-jin Ryu accepting their respective QO.  With the current makeup, the Dodgers will have a salary total of nearly $179MM or approximately $27MM under the 2019 competitive balance tax threshold.  We will all know no later than Monday, November 8 at 2:00 PM PT if either accept.  Assuming they do not accept, below is…

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Hurry up and Wait!

November 9, 2018

The Dodgers Will Win The NL West a 7th Consecutive Season… and then what happens next depends upon what happens over the next few weeks. By early next week, we will find out if Yasmani Grandal takes the Qualifying Offer – my guess is he will not unless some personal circumstances dictate he stay in Southern California.  I think some other team (and there are lots of interested teams) will…

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What Comes Next?

November 8, 2018

Right about now, we have a few more days until we find out if Hyun-jin Ryu and Yasmani Grandal accept or reject the Dodgers Qualifying Offers.  I predict that Ryu will accept and Grandal will reject.  Then the fun begins… in the the measntime, the Dodgers have a few vacancies to fill throughout their organization.  They are in need of a third-base coach, hitting coach and, what else…..  Oh yeah……

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Use Your Vision… Not Your Sight!

November 6, 2018

In 2017, the Dodgers struck out 25.5% of the time and in 2018, it went up slightly as they struck out 25.7% of the time. They were not even close to being the worst in baseball in striking out, but they were in the bottom 30%.  In 2016, the Houston Astros almost led the AL in strikeouts.  Tampa Bay barely beat them. In 2017, the very next year, the Astros…

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One More on FAZ and My Final 2018 WS Autopsy

November 3, 2018

I hope you all bear with me. I would like to somewhat continue the FAZ discussion from yesterday.  And then to give one last autopsy report on the 2018 WS. As Mark indicated, FAZ took over a team that had a payroll in excess of $250MM. One would think that a team with that payroll would be loaded.  However when they arrived on the scene, the team had only 3…

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The Dodgers Are Alive and Well Thanks to Andrew Friedman

November 2, 2018

I was going to discus the State of the Pitching, but now I am going to wait until next week when we have a better idea what is happening with one Clayton Kershaw.  That can change everything. Also, what follows is something that I think needs to be discussed. As most of you know, the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988 as heavy underdogs, and then did not again…

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The State of the Dodger Position Players

November 1, 2018

Before We Start… At least we now know that Clayton Kershaw wants to stay with the Dodgers, if possible, AND the Dodgers want Clayton Kershaw to be a Dodger for life, if possible.  I think this is more than an “extension” – I think it may be a lifetime services contract. There’s a lot to discuss and decide.  The fact that both sides agreed to postpone the deadline shows that BOTH…

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Let’s Get One Thing Straight…

October 30, 2018

OK, let’s get a bunch of things straight! Not a bad finish for a team that “was just trying to get under the luxury tax.” Yep, I heard that all year. It wasn’t about winning, it was only about Tax Evasion.  Evidently, FAZ wasn’t too bad for guys who don’t care about winning.  But, I do and it was a bitter end to a tumultous season. The Dodgers were beaten…

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And Now On To 2019

October 29, 2018

This is far and away the hardest post I have ever had to write.  I chose to include a picture of Clayton Kershaw because win or lose he is a Dodger legend, and he is my co-favorite Dodger (equal to Corey Seager).  One of my grandsons wears a Kershaw jersey, while the other wears a Seager jersey.  If this was in fact Kershaw’s last game as a Dodger it will…

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