In 1988, the Dodgers won the World Series with a rag-tag bunch of bench players, junkyard dogs, and stuntmen, including Mickey Hatcher, Rick Dempsey, Mike Davis, Danny Heep, and Dave Anderson. The bench was important to the last world championship and I believe that this year’s bench is immensely better. Hey, these guys aren’t starters, but many of them would be starters on other teams. Due to arbitration and the…
All off-season I have hoped the Dodgers would go BOLD. Of course I was disappointed. I thought this would be the year. But unlike some here, I am not about to concede the WS to NYY (or LAA) this year or any time in the future. NYY CBT is already at $245,341,667 with holes still to fill. $2.5MM more in spending and they exceed the top penalty. The tax is…
Enjoying a Veterans Day weekend in Atascadero, CA celebrating my youngest grand daughter’s first birthday. Frankly, my thoughts are filled with her and not so much Dodger baseball. Trade proposals have been flying around this blog with renewed fervor over the past few weeks. I admit those discussions have a certain excitement to them, much like anticipating that new toy you want for Christmas, all the while knowing that most…
Frankly, I am a person who believes that conventional wisdom is usually wrong. That leads me to look at things some people don’t notice and see things that they don’t. It’s not a “science”… more of an “art” that has to be continually refined. When many investors are buying, I may be selling and when they are selling, I am looking to buy. Like anyone, I am not always right,…
The off-season is fully here yet, but the banter about the free-agents we should sign or acquire by trade has already begun in full-force. I thought I might join in on the speculation, and throw out some names that haven’t been mentioned before, or at least not recently. Keep in mind that I have not made any in-depth statistical analysis of these players, I don’t have any of their medical…
“The sky is falling!” “The Dodgers are doomed!” “Kershaw and Ryu are through!” “We can’t win with Jansen as the closer.” “Bellinger has regressed to the mean!” “I just hope that these die-hard Dodger “Homeys” are not fooled by all these wins, because the negatives will be more apparent as they get into the playoffs.” “I think that Colletti did just as good of job with way less money and…
I have lost my love for Football almost completely. The fact that it is a violent game that produces many devastating injuries is a big part of it. It started when my son was a Freshman in high school and won a State Championship. He was not a starter but was on the Scout Team and the seniors loved to beat on them like rented mules. He was 5′ 6′…
Kenley Jansen has blown six saves and broken Dodger fans’ hearts more than that this year. We can analyze until we are paralyzed but in essence, his problem has been the overuse of his cutter, which is still good, but maybe not as good as it used to be. It’s also likely that the advanced hitting coaches are helping hitters “key in” on what he is throwing. Most Dodger fans…
Playoffs? It’s been a long week and it’s only Thursday. Sunday Night my wife and I took my daughter and son-in-law out for their anniversary. They live 3 hours away but came to Indy because he had neck surgery scheduled the next morning. Monday Morning I got up at 4 AM to meet my daughter at the hospital and sat with her until my son-in-law got out of surgery at…
This is AF’s 5th full year, and hopefully he will continue for several more years. He is human so he is prone to making mistakes, but never has he made an error without a very good reason for making a change. Most of us may not have understood the decisions, but they were always made to help the team. And I recognize and appreciate that it was a rhetorical statement,…