Rant & Rave Friday

June 18, 2021

Who will go down next? That seems to be a broken record for this season. Hopefully, everyone gets healthy for the stretch run. Tonight, Trevor Bauer goes against the D-Bags in AZ. The Dodgers are 3rd in team ERA… within .06 of the Padres and .10 of the Mets. They are still #2 in starter ERA behind the Mets, but deGrom keeps breaking down (he’s older than Clayton) and it…

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June is Busting Out All Over

June 17, 2021

It was great to have AC’s minor league article on Tuesday. When he produces a column it is like MLB. That is,  Minor League Buffett. So much to digest. In his smorgasbord he did mention some young players I have been following. Today I am going to just highlight a few hitters who seem to be busting out in June after  a bit of a slow May. Today it is…

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Instant Stardom

June 16, 2021

Instant potatoes, instant coffee, instant whip, instant karma. Everything is instant and pitchers and all baseball players should also be instant. No waiting I tell you: INSTANT! David Price should instantly be a lockdown reliever Tony Gonsolin should instantly be an awesome #5 starter Trevor Bauer should instantly be an Ace and a 2.65 ERA is deplorable Cody Bellinger should have instantly hit several 8-run HRs Andrew Friedman should instantly…

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Players in the Hall who spent time with the Dodgers

June 15, 2021

I got to thinking about this when Albert joined the Dodgers. Just how many HOFer’s have spent time with the Dodgers in Brooklyn or LA. The answer right now is 46. Also 7 managers and coaches, 3 executives, and 4 broadcasters. The broadcasters are Scully, Red Barber, Jaime Jarrin, and Ernie Harwell, who did most of his work in Detroit. But he worked with Barber for a while. The execs…

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Impact of a Veteran Player

June 13, 2021

Not so long ago, the Dodgers signed Albert Pujols. At the time I thought, why? Pujols is way past his prime, and over his contract with the Angels came nowhere near being the player he was in St. Louis. Now a few weeks later, I see an invigorated Pujols being a factor in games he plays. He has 5 HR’s, as many as he had with the Angels, and 1…

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The Best is Yet to Come!

June 12, 2021

The Dodgers are one win away from the most wins in the NL and two wins away from the most win in all of baseball. They have scored the most runs and have the largest run differential … by a huge margin, and they still are missing their World Series MVP, who is ranked as one of the Top 2 or 3 SS in all of baseball. When he is…

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Here Come the Dodgers

June 11, 2021

The cream is rising to top the top. The Catman is back, albeit, quite rusty, but his velocity was fine. Phil Bickford is settling in as a nice piece in the bullpen. Cody Bellinger is trying to regain his stroke as is AJ Pollock, after stints on the DL. Zach McKinstry is back and making an impact. But maybe the biggest news is that Mookie Betts is coming out of…

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Keep an Eye on Braydon Fisher

June 10, 2021

Twenty-year-old Braydon Fisher was selected by the Dodgers in the fourth round of the 2018 First-Year Player draft out of Clear Falls High School in League City Texas. League City is in the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area with a population of just over 100,000. The 6’4”/180-pound right-hander was a stand out in high school.  In his senior season at Clear Falls, he was a bit of a strikeout machine, sending…

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Get Over it!

June 9, 2021

To me, that applies to a whole lot more than baseball. Lot’s of people could apply this in their everyday lives… but I digress. Last year’s season was a sprint in 60 games and the Dodgers broke out of the gate and never looked back and at the end of 60 games they had 8 more wins than this team. Of course, they had about 25% of the injuries this…

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The Hitting Coach

June 8, 2021

It might be hard for some to believe, but prior to 1977 the position of Hitting coach as such did not exist. The first hitting coach with that title was Jim Gilliam. There have been 18 since. Before that time, players did not have a specific person to go to. All of these guys had varying degrees of experience. Some, including Gilliam, Mattingly, McGwire. Wallack, Reggie Smith, Jack Clark, Mota,…

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