Most teams realize that the best and least cost approach to building a perennial winner is through draft and development. With a little more than 3 weeks before the June Amateur Draft, teams are very busy looking at who the next Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, or Aaron Judge may be. If it were an exact science all three would have been the overall #1 pick and yet they were not….
Up until April 15 Niko Hulsizer was a name with which many, or most Dodgers fans were not familiar. He was selected by the Dodgers in the 18th round of the 2018 First-Year Player Draft as a junior out of Morehead State University in Morehead Kentucky. He has now burst upon the scene with his three-home run game against the South Bend Cubs on Monday evening. For some his outburst…
The strength of the Farm system is unquestionably the pitching. It is not even close. The breakdown of the MLB Pipeline Top 30 prospects is: 12 – RHP 2 – LHP 4 – Catchers 5 – SS/2B 4 – 3B/1B 3 – OF Baseball America pretty much resembles MLB Pipeline’s prospect list except BA includes reliever Josh Sborz, and OF Carlos Rincon, replacing Braydon Fisher, Marshall Kasowski, and Leonel Valera….
Pundits can spin it anyway they want, but the DBacks suffered huge losses this offseason. Patrick Corbin signed a big 6 year $140MM contract with the Nationals, AJ Pollock signed a 5 year $60MM contract with LAD, and all-world 1B Paul Goldschmidt was traded to the Cards. So three teams that figured to be in contention anyway picked up the DBacks top 3 players. How does a team that won…
I listened to the Kyle Glazer (BA) podcast on the state of the Dodger prospects a couple of times last week. Besides some excellent information on few of the Dodger prospects (Lux, Ruiz, Smith, May, Verdugo…), he had some commentary on the 2016 draft by LAD. Recognizing where the Dodgers drafted he was more than complimentary on the draft and stated that it may be one of the very best…
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…
Because of the lack of player personnel movement, all of the national publications and national writers are creating the best of the remaining lists. Where will the top 10 remaining free agents land? How about where will the top 15 free agents and major trade personnel land? They all have opinions, and some of them are well thought out. However, while they have much better contacts, none of them no…
Well okay then. The Dodgers have finally spoken or more appropriately…ROARED. Once again Andrew & Co. has done the impossible and freed up a lot of cash and moved players who were reportedly upset with how they were being played. I will miss all three Dodgers, especially Alex Wood. I know others were very partial to Yasiel Puig and he will be missed. Matt Kemp’s homecoming was well worth it. …
I am sitting continuing to try to understand how the Board of Trustees and the AD at USC have chosen to retain perhaps the most over his head coach in all of NCAA Football, Clay Helton. Rudy mentioned that both Westwood and South Bend are cheering loudly, but my radar has all of the Pac 12 and South Bend laughing at this. Oh well, enough pity party for me. It’s…
By now everyone knows that the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes defeated the Visalia Rawhide 9-1 to claim the 2018 California League Advanced A League Championship. This was Drew Saylor’s first in his third year. RC last won a California League Championship in 2015 when Alex Verdugo and Cody Bellinger were on the roster. The Quakes won the first half with a 35-35 record but turned it on the second half with…