For years, Dodgers blogs have been a sacred place where Dodger fans went to lament their fate, cry in their beer, pontificate how bad the team, coaches, managers, general managers, and owners were, and generally write about how they could do a better job than whoever happened to be in charge. When Andrew Friedman was hired by the Dodgers as President of Baseball Operations, he was greeted with jeers, smears,…
I have been away for a bit due to some unexpected personal family matters, but I have continued to read the blog everyday. Last week when Mark proclaimed, “This could not only be the best Dodger bullpen of All-Time, but it could also be one of the best in the game… maybe ever!”, many unsurprisingly jumped on that testament. I have been a huge critic of the bullpen makeup, and…
Ninety-Three! That’s all you need to know. Clayton Kershaw was clocked at 93 MPH in yesterday’s game. The last time he did that was over 2 years ago! This was his first Spring Game and he was giddy after it… because he knows there is more left in the tank. 94? 95? Maybe… but every MPH of separation between his fastball and slider is HUGE! He sat at 91-92 most…
Bleacher Report ranked all 30 MLB teams playoff odds and of course, the Dodgers were #1 with a 95% chance of making the playoffs. The Twins were second with a 90% chance and the Yankees were tied for third with an 85% chance (of course they pay in a tougher division). Surprisingly, the Tampa Bay Rays were only given a 60% chance. The Asstericks were also tied for third with…
Tradewinds Are Brewing… This Dodger team for 2020 is the deepest in major league history and has no obvious holes. Cut to the chase: I think it’s time to make another trade like the “Salary Dump” to the Reds whereby the Dodgers ended up with Jo Jo Gray, Mookie Bettes and David Price. Well, that wasn’t “exactly” the trade, but it was effectively the trade as Jeter Downs was a…
Count this as my latest of the “Dodger Codger” series. The older I get, the more I look at myself and realize that I sound like an old man. And then I realize, “I am an old man.” I’m nearing 60. I have followed the Dodgers for 55 years., and I could cite to you incidents from every Dodger season back to my years as a young child. We are…
On Saturday, AC provided us with an amazing analysis of questions to be answered this spring. It prompted me to go back a few years and see what the pressing questions were in the spring for the past few seasons and how they were answered: Last year, the top questions facing the Dodgers heading into Spring training were: • Is Clayton Kershaw definitely in decline? I would feel safe to…
While you can’t place a lot of stock in preseason games… especially the first one, you can see that the Boys in Blue are motivated and eager to get this show on the road. This team as constructed is good enough to win the World Series, but you have to play the games to decide that. Some players will continue to grow, some will regress and some will stay the…
Time for Dodger Baseball. I like the sound of that as we begin Spring Training games today against the hated Giants. We all know ST games are meaningless in wins and losses, but I still want to see a win in every game. If you compete, compete to win. Before I get into ST, I want to offer my response to the apparent skepticism about the Dodger pitching. Are there…
My grandkids enjoy playing “Where’s Waldo” That is until they don’t. You see, while you think it would be easy finding a nerdy-looking bespeckled man, dressed in a bold red and white striped shirt, wearing a red and white beany, the artist has made a career out of crafting immense visual puzzles, complete with mammoth oceans of people, spiraling buildings, and mythical beasts that make spotting the elusive Waldo an…