From December 3rd to the 6th, baseball’s winter meetings will be held in Nashville, Tennessee. On Dec 5th, there will be a live broadcast on the MLB network of the newly installed draft lottery. MLB started this to deter tanking. It will give the top six spots in the draft to six of the following nine teams. Athletics, Royals, Rockies, Angels, White Sox, Cardinals, Mets, Guardians, Pirates. Teams that pay…
Some baseball fans have the erroneous belief that old-school managers like Bruce Bochy manage with their gut, use the eye test, and don’t rely on analytics. If you really think that… well, I am sorry… for your misconception. It simply ain’t true. It’s your own narrative, but you will find that a vast percentage of Bochy’s moves are what sabermetrics indicate. I have seen him take pitchers out too early…
Coming off of two straight epic post-season meltdowns, is this Freidman’s most important off-season since he took over? I get the impression from reading many baseball blogs and websites that the Dodgers fan base wants something really big and really dramatic. I get the impression that half-measures and signing fringe guys is not going to satisfy the average Dodger fan. I see a lot of no more Peralta’s and no more…
I don’t think any Dodger fan (me included) has any idea what kind of effort goes into prospect evaluation, player development, and everything involved with that. How much time do you spend each week on things related to the Los Angeles Dodgers? 40 hours? No way! 20 hours? What would your boss (wife) say? 10 Hours? Maybe… That might be what I spend each week… and that’s a lot! The…
Today is when the 40-man roster must be set. It is also the deadline for Free Agents to accept or reject the qualifying offers. Players with the requisite service time will be exposed to the Rule 5 Draft if not protected. There are five open roster spots: I would protect: Ryan Yarbrough is not a roster lock, and if the Dodgers have any inkling of keeping Feduccia, they would likely…
Change is coming, bank on it. Change in baseball is inevitable. There will be tweaks to the rules, from the looks of things, a lot of player movement, and somewhere down the road, expansion and maybe a team or two moving to a new city. Rosters change every year. Just how much in today’s game depends on the number of free agents a team might have, prospects ready…
Since 2019, the National League Pennant Winner (in a full season) has been the team with the Worst Record that was in the playoffs. Let that sink in for a minute. What does that mean? Let’s look back at the records: 2019 – Washington Nationals – 93-69 2020 – Dodgers won in the COVID Partial Season while playing the most rounds ever! 2021 – Atlanta Braves -88-73 2022– Philadelphia Phillies…
No one has ever seen a 30-year-old Shoehei Ohtani play because Shohei will not be 30 years old until July 5th, 2024. However, we did see a 29-year-old Ohtani play, and we saw him tear his UCL and then go on the IL with an oblique strain, which would have likely kept him out of the playoffs… had the Angels made it there. Shohei Ohtani is a generational talent, but…
OK, whether Chris Getz (President and GM or the Chicago White Sox) knows it or not, they need to rebuild… and I think they will come to that conclusion. They lost 100 games last year, and they need to do it for a couple of more years so as to bank some more top talent. The Dodgers have plenty of young talent to trade, and I think the Dodgers would…
For quite some time we have heard rumors that MLB wants to expand to 32 teams. It makes sense. Instead of uneven leagues, you would have 16 in each league, which would allow you to have four 4-team divisions. That also fixes some of the problems with the way the playoffs are set up now. Four division champs in each league. You could also if you liked, do some re-alignment….