Agony and anticipation. That is what the winter meetings have always felt like for me. I am pretty sure many others feel the same. It has been more that way since the advent of free agency. Back in the day when players got no more than a one year deal and were tied to their teams by the reserve clause. For you youngins, that means that the team that signed…
In October of 2014, the ownership of the Dodgers decided to go in a new direction and named Andrew Friedman President of Baseball Operations. GM Ned Colletti was moved to another position in the organization and Friedman brought in Farhan Zaidi as the new GM. At the time, the only thing I knew about Friedman was that he had been running the Tampa Bay Rays. I knew they had gotten…
When I coached youth baseball and at the high school level, travel baseball and specialized training weren’t as readily available as is it is today. We had materials and videos written by Tom House, including the “Winning Pitcher”, “Power Baseball”(written with Coop De Renne) and of course Nolan Ryan’s “Pitcher’s Bible”. For hitters, you had Charlie Lau’s “The Art of Hitting .300″ and“A Hitting Clinic: The Walt Hriniak Way”. Of…
There will only ever be one Clayton Kershaw but the Dodgers did sign another Clayton on January 17. They had previously selected left-hander Clayton Andrews in the 40th round of the 2017 First-Year Player Draft but he didn’t sign. He did so with the Brewers in 2018. The new Clayton on the block is 24-year-old infielder Clayton Daniel. He was acquired from the Cubs in a trade for right-hander Casey…
Bill Veeck, Charlie Finley, George Steinbrenner were examples of owners that were bigger than life and wanted nothing more than to win (and put on a show). Walter O’Malley was cut from the same cloth. Peter was more of a pragmatic businessman who knew he could not spend to stay in the game, and got out. None of those early owners would let MLB tell them how to spend their…
Since I started blogging, I have used this as a forum to give my own personal views about certain prospects. I think I have an eye for talent and I have not been shy about picking out certain players and predicting greatness for them. Right around the time I first started posting on Dodger blogs, I was in Vero Beach and became enamored with an 18-year-old prospect who played 3B….
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…
We may not know what we think we know and don’t know what we don’t know and I hope we know that we don’t know. Confused? I know… We know Justin Turner can walk – we don’t know if he can run. We will find out today. It seems that they are just being cautious and if this were the postseason he would be playing. We know that Dick Mountain…
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…
I’m very grateful to Mark T. for covering for me yesterday. I spent the last 4 days in Las Vegas at a Trial Lawyers Conference, attended by approximately 3,500 attorneys. Some people might think that being surrounded by this many attorneys is as close as you can possibly get to hell on earth but, alas, it’s my profession and I survived unscathed. As Willie Nelson sang in “Me and Paul”…