30 posts
With Mark on the 10-day inactive list to attend to family business in Las Vegas (ever notice how these trips are never to Des Moines, Iowa or Wichita, Kansas?), Jeff (AC) was desperate for some assistance on the LADT writers roster. With his options limited, he had to resort to adding someone from the alternate training site, and had no choice but to call on me, the Zack Reks/Edwin Uceta
By now, everyone knows that Kike Hernandez will not be back in Dodger blue. Some fans are very saddened by his departure. I go on Twitter a lot because guys like Rosenthal and Passan, and even Heyman, post there quite often, and even break the news of signings there. I know some here subscribe to The Athletic, but I just cannot afford something like that so I get my news
I have lost count of the number of times I have read that Kody Hoese is expected to have a big impact for the Dodgers in 2021. I find myself smh and disagreeing. But to some, it comes across as me denigrating the talent of Kody Hoese. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have not seen enough of Kody Hoese to know whether he is going to be
Somebody made a point as to what the Padres transactions did for the psyche for the other teams. The Padres have now joined the Dodgers, Braves, probably Mets, and maybe the Nationals (with their pitching and Soto/Robles/Turner) to separate from the rest of the NL. Some team from the NL Central will get to the playoffs, because, well one of the teams has to. It is a rule. Because of
Editorial Comment This post was written prior to the Blake Snell acquisition by the Padres. The longer this offseason goes without much movement, the more likely AF is going to get involved. The number of teams that want to jettison payroll is growing and is undoubtedly going to pique the interest of teams like LAD. While it will stress out fans who continually want to see something happen to
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
This is the time of year when we hear that teams will be listening on potential trades for Player A. However, most of the time those proclamations are simply rhetorical. The Brewers have said they are willing to listen to offers for Josh Hader. The Rays will be listening on offers for Blake Snell. The Reds will be listening on offers for Sonny Gray. The Cubs are listening on offers
Back again with my second installment about the 10 men in the hall who were umpires. Looking back and remembering some of the umps I do, I cannot help but wonder what has kept guys like Augie Donatelli and Shag Crawford out of the hall. Only the Vets committee knows for sure. But today s story profiles a couple of pretty good umps and one really versatile one who excelled in
For the third time in four years, the Los Angeles Dodgers are NL Pennant Winners and headed back to the World Series. Will 2020 be different? Like the Cubs in 2016 and the Nationals last year, I think the Dodgers are the team of destiny. I am sure Tampa Bay Rays fans feel the same way, but I am a Dodgers fan so who cares what Rays fans think. Corey
Our Boys in Blue have clinched yet another NL West Championship. That streak has now reached 8, and is one behind 9 consecutive AL East Titles by NYY and 14 consecutive Divisional Titles by Atlanta. Out of the previous seven, the Dodgers have won two pennants, with no World Series Championships. NYY’s streak was from 1998 through 2006. The Yankees won five pennants and three consecutive World Series Championships for
Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. I already had my article queued up and ready for publish before last night s come from behind walk off win. Zac Gallen is going to be a superstar in this game and he just shut the Dodgers down. But the 2020 Dodgers are relentless and have no quit. I think that is a tribute to Mookie, just as 1988 was a tribute
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
Well the first domino fell on Thursday when Atlanta signed LHRP Will Smith for 3 years and $40MM. It is a little less than Craig Kimbrel $$$, but not much. The Braves are in a position to sign multiple FA and still be well south of the CBT threshold. I expect them to make a run at MadBum and Yasmani Grandal, and maybe Josh Donaldson. Some prognosticators have suggested with
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
I was doing some research for a post I was trying to put together when I encountered one of my All-Time favorite Dodger pitchers, Burt “Happy” Hooten. I have no idea why, but I seem to favor pitchers from University of Texas, and pitchers from Texas in general. Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Ross Stripling, Howie Reed, Huston Street, Brooks Kieschnick, Ryan Pressly, Greg Swindell, Shawn Tolleson,
I have been working on about ten different ideas for what to write, and none of them came to a cohesive blog post. Maybe this one will not as well. There has been a lot of speculation as to who the Dodgers may trade for and who they may be required to include in a trade. It is a huge climb from AAA to MLB, and yet we are ready
In a 401K portfolio, maybe you have only sufficient funds to NOT LOSE, but do not have that little bit extra to think about…what if. Or maybe you can invest your max in your 401K and want to keep that safe but have a little extra that you want to invest for something that may prove to be a very good return on your investment. Some of those investments will
Mark and I don’t always agree on everything Blue, although I think we are pretty consistent from a Macro view. But when it comes to the bullpen, Mark and I just do not see eye to eye. I have been a relief pitcher wonk since 1959 and Larry Sherry. Clem Labine would have been my favorite Dodger in the mid 50’s. I am not going to go through the history
Last week Mark kind of stole my thunder with his remarks about Raul Ibanez who is a Special Assistant now to Andrew Friedman. He had signed with the Dodgers in February of 2016 along with Greg Maddux. The reasons for my interest in Raul Ibanez was that first, it was recently rumored he had an opportunity to move to another organization and didn’t. Secondly, suggestions were made that others were deserting
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
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
If you were asked who is the oldest living Dodger, who would you guess? It is easy to guess Tommy Lasorda, Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine for us oldtimers and probably Tommy and Newk for the younger set. It turns out there are 18 players living who put on a Brooklyn Dodger uniform so most of us would be stumped in trying to pinpoint the oldest living Dodger. I
I love this site. Without a lot going on in this so-called hot-stove league period, it is difficult to come up with topics that generate any interest. But then Dodgerrick provides an article that piqued my interest anyway. I have been harping that the Dodgers are in a cost control mode, meaning keeping payroll below the CBT threshold for reasons outside of the Dodgers operations. The article may give fans
We all know that the one thing that the Dodgers must do is to find another catcher. The Dodgers gambled that Yasmani Grandal would not accept the QO, and won this time. They will get a supplemental pick between the 2nd and 3rd round, somewhere in the 80’s. That will be 4 picks before the third round. At the very least, they should get enough pool funds to be able
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
I am not sure why there is such an affinity by so many Dodgers fans to trade Joc Pederson, or for some to simply dump him. He is a 26 year old immature little kid who still thinks he is playing little league for fun. He loves the game. Maybe it is because of his brother Champ that he does not take the game as seriously as some would like.
This was a great series. Sure some can point out the RISP issues, but I contend that Zack Godley, Robbie Ray, and Zack Greinke had something to do with that. They are all good pitchers who have battled through problems all year. The DBacks had the 3rd best ERA and 7th best WHIP in all of MLB. They have an outstanding pitching staff. The DBacks won 93 games, tied with
Ryu gets tattooed and now there is a problem with the starting pitching? I do not consider Ryu anything more than a #7 on this team. I have no idea whether Ryu would have pitched better with regular rest or extended. Maybe his curve just does not work in Colorado. I have no delusions that Ryu will be anywhere close to the pitcher he was before his shoulder problems.
Well the Freeway Series has started and this gives FAZ one more chance to scout and decide if they want to pull the trigger on a Caleb Ferguson/Mitchell Hanson trade for Mike Trout. Sure it is silly and extreme, but it is only slightly more silly than some of the Cole Hamels trade proposals I read. It’s easy to sit back and look at results and say that was a
While I love to read Dodgerrick’s comments, I think that he and I look at the state of the Dodgers in different prisms, but he asked some questions earlier that got me to thinking. While I may have initially taken exception to the tone (my perception, not his intent) of the questions, they are nonetheless legitimate and fair. Anyone betting on which starting pitcher goes on the DL 1st? Now
