If you have not checked out www.TheAtheletic.com (it’s a pay site), you should. It’s got some great writing. As an example, Peter Gammons wrote a great piece yesterday: “Want a parade? The surest way to get one is to rebuild the right way. Here’s how it’s done” I can’t reproduce the whole article here, because of the paid content, but Gammons starts here: When baseball unraveled the draft and international…
On August 12, 2012, the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto for Ivan De Jesus, James Loney, Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa and Jerry Sands from the Boston Red Sox. Some Dodger fans call it the Nick Punto Trade, evidently because of his insignificance. When the trade went down, I immediately wrote “the Dodgers will rue the day they made this deal.” Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I wrote that for…
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… at least here in Indy. I got up to this as I let The Mighty Quinn out for his morning business. The snow is only a little over an inch, but it is snow. So here in Indy, it is a White Christmas. So, Merry Christmas from AC and I and we really appreciate what a group of Dodger fans we have…
Figures don’t lie, but liars figure… and sometimes they are not even liars – they are just using unreliable figures. There are several websites that keep track of teams salaries. In this instant case, I am speaking about the salary obligations of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2018 season. You would think stuff like this would be cut and dried, but it’s evidently not. Let’s look at a couple…
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of Matt Kemp, it is interesting to see the progression or degradation of his game – as his body increased in size, his production decreased in direct proportion. 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yXQekcdhxU 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2LFHJkgYQ – I can’t get link to work Most Dodger fans have strong opinions about Kemp… and many are not good. I have witnessed…
When the Dodgers traded for Matt Kemp, it was a salary dump, a bad attitude dump as well as the opportunity to acquire a young, power hitting catcher with mad framing skills. I embraced the trade for all the reasons it was made. While he could be charming, Matt Kemp was frequently a malcontent prima donna in the lockerroom. I felt he was a poison, so I was excited to…
There is a lot to unpackaged on the trade of Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy and Charlie Culberson for former Dodger darling, Matt Kemp. Whether Matt Kemp ever plays for the Dodgers again is in question. He could be flipped to an AL team in need of a DH. I think he has some value and I cannot just see him being released… unless his clubhouse demeanor is worse…
In case you have been living under a rock, you can appreciate (or maybe you don’t) that the Grand Old Game of Baseball is changing. Instant Replay has been implemented and will take an even more prominent role in the near future; You can’t kill the catcher or the guy at 2B anymore; Electronic Balls and Strikes are right around the corner; The Pitch Clock will speed up the pace…
Just because other teams make dope-fiend moves, doesn’t mean the Dodger have to. Look, they have been paying the luxury tax for too long and have paid about $300 million in penalties. It started with foolish, long-term deals to Kemp and Ethier and then came THE TRADE (Beckett, Gonzalez and Crawdad). The Dodgers owe Kemp $5.5 million over the next two year, but after next season, most of the obligations…
It was fun to dream: Ohtani, Stanton, Ozuna, Rivero, et al. – I did it to mask the pain from the loss of the World Series, but now I am sobered up and back to reality. Now I am going to tell you the truth: The Dodgers will be below $237 Million in salary… if only by $1.00. BET ON IT; The Dodgers will not sign anyone to a long-term…