Heartbreak & Hairballs at Petco

May 6, 2019

If the Dodgers had beat the Padres on Sunday, that would have likely crushed the Padres… maybe even ruined their season…and the win was within reach until Kenley Jansen snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If you are a Padre fan, it was like Kirk Gibson hitting the home run in the 1988 World Series, but if you are a Dodger fan it was worse than death itself! That…

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Random Thoughts

April 25, 2019

Mark goes with Rants and Raves, and DC now has his Bites and Bits, so I might as well come up with my own…Random Thoughts. I cannot get too excited about the last two losses. It really was to be expected in April, at least by me. Admittedly, I am having a tough time getting excited about this early part of the season. It is going better than I thought…

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Potpourri and Minor League Report

April 7, 2019

I wrote about the possibility of a slow start for the Dodgers but did not predict one. I know Mark liked to chide me with that after the first two series. But 5-2 against arguably two of the worst 3 teams in the NL was nothing to brag about. The Padres played the same two teams and went 4-3. And now LAD gets to face the Rockies without having to…

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Positional Gaps in the Organization

April 6, 2019

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….

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NL West First Look – Padres

February 23, 2019

Finally, ST has arrived, and the first ST game is today against the ChiSox.  The 7-man scheduled pitching rotation for Saturday’s game is Daniel Corcino, Jaime Schultz, Kevin Quackenbush, Josh Sborz, Stetson Allie, Josh Smoker and Joe Broussard. Sunday’s game 7 man scheduled rotation will be Hyun-Jin Ryu, Brock Stewart, Dennis Santana, Adam McCreery, Tony Gonsolin, Mitchell White, and Dustin May. I had already written a lengthy response to Mark’s…

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The Art of the Pitch

February 1, 2019

As I mentioned yesterday, the Dodgers have been #1 in MLB in ERA and WHIP over the past two years. I see no reason why that trend won’t continue. In fact, I agree with Rick Honeycutt that the pitching can get even better in 2019. First of all, the Dodgers have a glut of starting pitchers, but two of them will likely be gone after this season, namely Rich Hill…

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

December 28, 2018

With apologies to the late great David Bowie.  I continue to read about all the possible changes coming to the Dodgers, and I have zero comfort that any one of them will ever transpire more than another.  I do believe that there will be at least one significant change, maybe more, which is why the negative comments on the Reds trade are curious, unless it gives those who just do…

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Review of the Non-Tenders

December 3, 2018

Well we are now in December, less than one week away from the Winter Meeting, and the Dodgers have Kevin Quackenbush and Adam McCreery.  So, I guess the Dodgers are all set.  Andrew & Co. addressed the bullpen, what else can anyone else want?   I have been scouring the internet to catch word that the Dodgers pulled off a trade for JT Realmuto or Corey Kluber.  Or if Andrew…

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State of the Farm

November 26, 2018

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…

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Rule 5 Draft Preview

November 11, 2018

I was going to write about who I thought the three top potential GM candidates might be…Josh Byrnes, Kim Ng, and Chaim Bloom. My money was on Chaim Bloom, Rays Senior VP Baseball Operations. For those who may want to know a little more about Chaim; https://www.mlb.com/rays/team/front-office/chaim-bloom. However, I nixed that idea because Andrew has come out and said that Farhan’s duties could be assumed by existing personnel; himself, Josh…

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