Hindsight is 20/20 Vision is Rare Foresight is often just luck After last night’s bullpen meltdown, everyone is calling for the Dodgers to trade for an entirely new bullpen and gut the farm system to get Will Smith, Brad Hand, Filipe Vazquez, and Jose Leclerc… for starters. I will tell you right now that the odds of getting two of those relievers are none and getting one is slim. So,…
Play in the rookie level Arizona League began on Monday, June 17. The league now has 21 teams in three divisions. They play a 56-game schedule in and around the Phoenix area at the spring training facilities of their parent major league clubs. The AZL Dodgers play their home games at the Camelback Ranch complex shared by the parent Dodgers and Chicago White Sox. The Dodgers for the first time…
The Ogden Raptors are the Dodgers Rookie League team in the Pioneer League. They are an advanced rookie team that became affiliated with the Dodgers in 2003. Prior to that, the Ogden team was an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. Ogden, with a population of about 83,000, claims to be the oldest settlement in Utah dating back to 1845 and has a long history with minor league baseball of over…
Some people evidently think I hate Joc, so I went with that catchy headline. In reality, I am not a hater. I don’t hate Joc Pederson and I don’t even hate the Giants. I don’t like the Giants but I don’t hate them. I love the Dodgers, but the opposite of LOVE is not HATE. It’s ambivalence. When you hate something, it controls you. If you are ambivalent about it,…
Last year when Corey Seager went down with Tommy John Surgery, it was immediately known that he would miss the rest of the season. Thus, the Manny Machado trade. It now appears that Corey will be out a month… maybe less, so there is absolutely NO WAY the Dodgers are going to trade for ANY shortstop, let alone anyone named Lindor. It ain’t happening! Comparing last season to this season…
Losing Corey Seager just when he was rounding back into form was/is a big blow, but unless you are just resigned to failure, sometimes bad news can be good news. I always say that problems are opportunities in drag. The fact that Corey is out means that Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez are probably going to get almost “regular” playing time. Of course, that could also be bad… if they…
Sorry I can’t offer much advice on what the Dodgers should do about the pen so during the past week I jotted down some minor league happenings, much of it with the Loons. Brett de Geus Pitcher Brett de Geus became the 7th player from the Loons to be added to the East roster for next week’s MWL All-Star Game on June 18 in South Bend, Indiana. He takes the…
Usually when change is involved, things get worse before they get better. That’s true in just about everything: life, business and sports. Since this is a Dodger Blog, you might be wondering what that has to do with the Dodgers. So, I am talking about three pitchers in general: Joe Kelly, Kenley Jansen and Clayton Kershaw. I think that before Spring Training, the Dodgers had a plan with each pitcher….
Max Muncy, aka “Mad Max” just cemented his place in Legendary Dodger Lore after jacking a massive home run into McCovey Cove off of Madison Baumgarner. MadBum allegedly took umbrage when Max blasted the 424 foot home run and enjoyed watching it as it left his bat. I mean, what is wrong with that? However, MadBum yelled at Muncy to stop watching the ball and start running, to which MadMax…
I am not sure that an Andrew Friedman will ever have a “set” lineup, but if he did, Mad Max should be in it… and second base seems as good a place as any. I suggested early in Spring Training that second base was a position Max could play, but most fans disagreed. That’s how I know I am on the right track sometimes: when people disagree with me and…