So, here we are back at .500 (7 – 7), and predictably people are losing their minds. They only have one mind (well, some have half of one, but that is something I will leave alone), so that is sad. Here is the stuff we hear after losses and fourteen games: “Just like Grove, I’ve always thought of Jackson as a trade chip and nothing more.” – What a comment…
If you could pick just one player that you thought would help the Dodgers win another World Series, who would it be? For most Dodger fans I have talked to, and judging from the posts I have read, that player would be Shoei Ohtani. Ohtani is a front-line pitcher, and he is an MVP-caliber hitter. He would probably be the DH, but he also could play some outfield. I would…
The only question is where he has punched it to. So far, he has 31 ABs with nine hits in Spring Training. He has two doubles, two home runs, and 4 RBI. He is hitting .290 with a .389 OB%, a .578 SLG, and a .937 OPS. Of course, that is a small sampling, but he did nothing but improve his Prospect Value, which was already high. He can play…
I was traveling to San Francisco yesterday, so I was pretty out of the mix, although I did watch most of the game yesterday. I overdid it big time with my back – so much so that I am not able to fly to LA tomorrow. I walked over 5 miles and paid for it last night. It is slightly better today, but I am going to have to get…
At the time the Dodgers traded for Mookie Betts, there was a lot of conversation as to who was the best player in baseball – Mike Trout or Mookie Betts? Sadly for both players, we do not hear that much anymore as both have slipped… and it does not appear that either player will continue to get better as Trout is 31 and Mookie is 30. Both ended the 2022…
In 2008, Andrew Friedman took the Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series with a $51,000,000 Dollar Payroll. They didn’t win. The $112,000,000 Dollar Phillies did, but it was remarkable that the Rays made it that far on so little money spent. In 2021, the Dodgers did not even get to the World Series and their payroll was $262,000,000 Dollars. That’s more than 5X what AF paid in 2008. Of…
On August 12, 1994, the MLB Players walked off and the player strike began. The strike ended 232 days later on April 2, 1995, making it the longest such stoppage in MLB history. Who is hurting? The fans. The same people they (both sides) are trying to keep coming to games, parking, and buying concessions and souvenirs. It is hard to measure attendance due to the pandemic precautions from both…
On November 15, I started to write about the impatience some fans have with Gavin Lux, and it imploded into an overall generalization about many fans seeing MiLB stats and believing that those numbers will automatically translate to MLB numbers. And then when they do not, then many of those some fans want that player to suddenly drop to the bottom of the heap or at the very least banned…
On Tuesday, December 22, 2020, the Philadelphia Phillies hired Sam Fuld to be their General Manager, with no real experience in front office player personnel decision making. It is incredulous to me that an industry such as MLB can continue to operate in the manner they are currently operating. It is one thing to talk about Social Injustice as MLB continues to do, and then another thing to do something…
A little less than a year before the birth of our son Andrew, Harry Chapin put the finishing touches to a song that emanated from a poem penned by his wife. The song was Cat’s in the Cradle. As I did not grow from a happy childhood, the song did not initially appeal to me. But as my career was taking off, and Andy was about two, the song began…