On Saturday, AC provided us with an amazing analysis of questions to be answered this spring. It prompted me to go back a few years and see what the pressing questions were in the spring for the past few seasons and how they were answered: Last year, the top questions facing the Dodgers heading into Spring training were: • Is Clayton Kershaw definitely in decline? I would feel safe to…
Time for Dodger Baseball. I like the sound of that as we begin Spring Training games today against the hated Giants. We all know ST games are meaningless in wins and losses, but I still want to see a win in every game. If you compete, compete to win. Before I get into ST, I want to offer my response to the apparent skepticism about the Dodger pitching. Are there…
While I favor LAD farmhands and follow them closely, I am a fan of MiLB baseball period. I scour through the top publications to see what prospects the Dodgers might have some interest in, or in my opinion should have interest in. The top three baseball publications have all reported their top 100 prospects and the Dodgers are prominent in all three. Their least representative publication is MLB Pipeline (MLB)…
AC made a very interesting comment In his Feb 5th article when he mentioned that Joe Kelly and Andrew Friedman most likely already had discussed the sign-stealing of the 2018 Alex Cora Boston Red Sox team. I have a hard time believing that the Dodgers would go forward with the Betts acquisition if they suspected a high level of malfeasance on his part. On the other hand, it makes me…
• Admittedly, the constant banter about trade speculation and the wait for free agents to sign can be very wearying for me . . . Frankly, I can’t wait for the winter meetings to start. My baseball life was so slow this week, that I actually found myself spending some rather depressing time thinking about the Dodger signing Andrew Jones, Jason Schmidt, and Darryl Strawberry. Oh my! Please, please, please,…
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…
The State of the Bullpen… and Dodger Pitching In the month of September of teams that are likely candidates to play the Dodgers in the 2019 Fall Classic, here is how they compare in bullpen ERA since September 1st: Dodgers – 3.28 Astros – 3.47 Yankees – 3.81 HR per 9 Innings Dodgers – .95 Astros – 1.52 Yankees – 1.59 BABIP – Batting Average Balls in-Play Dodgers – .242…
1. Kenley Jansen is Fixed False. With his 8th Blown Save last night, he again demonstrated that he was lacking command and in order to get a strike, he throws some very hittable pitches. I was against the re-signing of Kenley Jansen and this is why. Big contracts to relief pitchers seldom pan out, but here we are and the Dodgers have to make do with what they have… and…
So, if you listen to the Herm Edwards, you would always play to win the game. Well, that might be true in a 16 game football season, but I am going to suggest that while you don’t ever play to lose, in a baseball season that is 10 times longer than a football season, there are reasons you don’t always play to win the game. “Sometimes we need to lose…
After being the best team in baseball for quite some time, the Dodgers are now playing second fiddle to the Yankees and Astros who both have one more win than the Dodgers. The surging Braves are just three games behind the Dodgers for the best record in the NL, having won nine games in a row. In their last 10 games, the Dodgers are .500 while the Braves are 9-1,…