59 posts
If you could pick just one player that you thought would help the Dodgers win another World Series, who would it be? For most Dodger fans I have talked to, and judging from the posts I have read, that player would be Shoei Ohtani. Ohtani is a front-line pitcher, and he is an…
On August 12, 1994, the MLB Players walked off and the player strike began. The strike ended 232 days later on April 2, 1995, making it the longest such stoppage in MLB history. Who is hurting? The fans. The same people they (both sides) are trying to keep coming to games…
Earlier in the week I had a dialogue with MT and Bluto regarding the lack of confidence I have in RVS as a competent MLB Team Batting Coach. I have no doubts that his methodology can and does work for some, but each batter is different and needs a different approach. At least…
The financing of a baseball season is going under the microscope this offseason and potentially into next season. There is no question that MLB lost several billion in revenues. According to Forbes’ estimates from 2019, as gathered by the University of Michigan sports economist Rodney Fort, MLB teams made a total of $9.9 billion as follows: REVENUE (IN BILLIONS) UNDER… CATEGORY NORMAL SEASON HALF-SEASON W/O FANS* Gate receipts $2.84B $0.00B
First of all, I received multiple emails wishing me good health and prayers, and for that I will be forever grateful. I do not get sick very often, but when I do, I do it right. The illness occurs once every 5-6 years, and lasts a couple of weeks. And it is almost always the same. I start out with a head cold, with a severe sore throat, and it
A little less than a year before the birth of our son Andrew, Harry Chapin put the finishing touches to a song that emanated from a poem penned by his wife. The song was Cat’s in the Cradle. As I did not grow from a happy childhood, the song did not initially appeal to me. But as my career was taking off, and Andy was about two, the song began
On October 14th, 2014, the Dodgers announced the hiring of Andrew Friedman. Former Tampa Bay GM and Vice President of baseball operations as President of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers. His contract was for 5 years and 35 million dollars. Friedman was born in Houston Texas and attended Tulane University on a baseball scholarship. His college career was derailed by a couple of injuries. He earned a B.A .
So I wrote and submitted this article to Jeff on July 22nd in the a.m. He then let me know he had a couple of other articles lined up and that it might be posted later this week. Then, the Dodgers go and sign Mookie Betts. Wow! I decided to leave the article intact with a few adjustments. ● I’m glad that I was proven wrong. I did not
Is there in fact collusion going on in MLB? With all of this backlash on the various trades, it is becoming more clear to me that if the MLBPA did not have Tony Clark as the union president, the union would clean the clock of MLB and it’s own lightweight, Rob Manfred. Boston is not hurting in revenue or operating income, and can certainly afford the salaries and resultant luxury
I know that many are afraid of a Betts/Price trade because of the financial concerns for David Price, and I can understand that. So I went back and looked at the Nick Punto trade (I know Mark’s favorite subject); a previous time when the Dodgers assumed a huge financial obligation for a perceived benefit. I pulled the below article: https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2018/3/29/17104518/gonzalez-beckett-crawford-red-sox-dodgers-trade-retrospective One of the lines that caught my eye was when
●Mercifully, the winter meetings are over. Lot’s of questions unanswered, but the main one for me is: Now what? As I wrote few weeks back, keep her steady as she goes. Also, remember, it was December 21, 2018, when the Dodgers surprised us with the Kyle Farmer trade. There’s lots of time between now and the start of spring training. ● It looks like Pedro Moura, of the Athletic, was
As we are getting ready to see who the Dodgers first opponent will be in the post season, it is extremely difficult for me to consume any negativity ascribed to the Dodgers after this season. No conditional statements…they were great. The best team in LA Dodgers history. I say LA Dodgers because the 1953 team that 105, did so with 8 less games. I still read from some how bad
When MT posted his Remember When post, it got me to thinking about trades. I have been obnoxiously opinionated in my zeal for at least one lock down late inning reliever and would prefer two. But I also know that there are NO GUARANTEES. The Darvish and Machado trades did not result in a WS championship, and they were good trades for the Dodgers. If the Dodgers got both Felipe
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
Last weekend Mark posed the hypothetical…”OK, the deal with the Devil is this: Dodgers win in 2019, but have a losing record and are like KC, TB or MIAMI for the next 10 years… big time suck!” I apologize, but I just could not let it go. So please ignore if you so desire. I do not accept that as a plausible hypothetical. There is no way the Dodgers are
Well, I was going to continue with my analysis of the NL West competition, but I thought that I would comment on the this past week and what the future may hold. Most Dodger fans got caught up in all of the Bryce Harper sweepstakes (including me), but as many of us said at the beginning of the Hot Stove League, a long term deal for Bryce Harper is not
For a while, I have refrained from saying anything bad about Bryce Harper because I knew there was a possibility he could be a Dodger. I knew the Giants would make a run at him, but I could not see the Dodgers letting him sign there. Evidently, Friedman offered 4 years/$180 million to Harper. The Dodgers pitch to Harper was to make him the highest paid player by a mile .
Have you ever been to an auction where one party was hell-bent-for-leather to win whatever the auction target was. The guy who wants to win at all costs is not called a winner where I am from. He usually overpays and regrets it later. My wife has won auctions costing thousands of dollars, only to regret it later. The winner of an auction is often really The Loser. Winning an
The real question is Does he want to be a Dodger? The Dodgers will want him if he truly wants that. I am not sure what a deal looks like, but between Borasssss and Friedman, they can figure it out. While I am not a big Bryce Harper fan, I believe that Bryce Harper could go down in history as one of the All-Time Great Dodgers if not THE All-Time
RVS gets all the glory (10 runs a game average) at least until tomorrow. The Dodgers are undefeated! Print the tickets! If you listened to the Andrew Friedman interview, you should never say the Dodgers want to be an all or nothing team. Why no MRI on Kershaw? Because you don t want to know La, La, La, La, La, La, La fingers in ears> DJ Peters has added bulk and
Yesterday I wrote about the Padres because of the late signing of Manny Machado. The Padres have suffered mightily for many years, but appear to be on the verge of not only being respectable, but also a contender in a year or two, depending on their pitching progress. Today I suffer because I am writing about the hated Giants. The best thing about the Giants is that they are projected
There are about a 100 Free Agents who are not signed. That seems like a large number, but less than ten are really top players. The rest are likely minor league contract players. This is the list I have: Bryce Harper Manny Machado Dallas Keuchel Marwin Gonzalez Gio Gonzalez Josh Harrison Clay Buchholz Ervin Santana Evan Gattis Certainly, not all are even starters, in fact, I could make the argument
Houston Mitchell is a writer for The LA Times and covers the Dodgers. Yesterday he stated that he was trying to make sense of the Dodgers off-season. Houston is a wonderful writer, but he has papers to sell and he knows that many Dodger fans are not sophisticated enough to understand how a successful team is built. He and The Times understand that the average fan is underwhelmed at what
Per JT on the Suits: We trust them, said the third baseman and team leader. The front office has done a great job. They build a 40-man roster, not a 25-man roster, and that s the biggest difference between the Dodgers and other teams. I have been saying that for 4 years running. AF is a master at building the 40-man roster to play in a 162-game season. The Dodgers should
There is so little movement in the Hot Stove and yet, so much to talk about, so here goes: TOP FARM SYSTEMS Someone here a few days ago opined that they wanted Logan White back as the GM. Of course, Logan was never GM for the Dodgers before he was Director of Amateur Scouting, and while I love Logan White, I cannot remember when the Dodgers Farm system was
As we are winding down to less than 2 weeks before pitchers and catchers report, I was having a tough time trying to find a single topic to write a novel on. So I am going to just give some of my thoughts on a few topics. 1. Yes, Stan Kasten stuck his massive foot square in his mouth at the FanFest, and for no good reason. I am by
So many Dodger fans and Dodger Bloggers and Dodger Journalists are saying that the Dodgers are cheap and ran like the Tampa Bay Rays because they won t go out and trade bushels of top prospects for Kluber or Realmuto or that they won t sign Bryce Harper to a 14 year/$420 million dollar contract. Look, there is no dumbass vaccine and I am convinced that fans who want that are mentally
Well now that the Dodgers have signed AJ Pollock, what comes next? Maybe something. Maybe nothing. Is JT Realmuto on the horizon. Apparently, the Pads are very much in on JTR, but they are insisting on extension talks before they consummate the deal. Obviously, either Francisco Mejia or Austin Hedges will be going back in a package. The Pads have ML OF’s available as well a bucket load of high-level
If were are under the illusion that Bryce Harper was coming to the Dodgers, then you are likely to be asking that question and it s possible anything I say will not satisfy you. I was not a fan of getting AJ Pollock and really wanted Nick Castellanos, but Castellanos was going to cost several players I have no clue exactly who. It s not that Friedman won t trade prospects
Yesterday Mark commented, “The fact that the Yankees went over the Luxury Tax Threshold does not mean the Dodgers should do the same. That, and the Yankees have no outside shareholders to revolt. Hopefully you can understand that.” Maybe it was or maybe it wasn’t, but I assumed that is directed at me since I brought up NYY exceeding the CBT threshold. I want to be clear. I never said
