21 posts
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…
Earlier in the week, there was a little difference in opinion with respect to the Billy McKinney acquisition. I continue to read how porous LAD’s defense is, and with a gimpy Mookie Betts who may need late-inning defensive help to get him off his hip, a slowing AJ Pollock, questionable defense of Matt Beaty, and the need for CT3 to spend more time in the infield, AF went out and
Last week, Joc Pederson left the Dodgers as a free agent to join the Chicago Cubs, and prior to that, Kike’ Hernandez signed with the Red Sox. Both were very popular with Dodger fans. Kike’, the Banana Man to many, and a versatile player, had enthralled fans with his energy, and his sometimes flair for the dramatic. His best day as a Dodger was in game 5 of the 2017
Welcome to Super Bowl Sunday. I am a much bigger fan of college football, and since my Packers are out of it, the lure of the Super Bowl does not hold a huge interest for me. I will undoubtedly watch the game, and I have a lot of family in KC so I will have some allegiance to them. I am not against Tom Brady as much as many I
There has been a lot of chatter about the cool reception the current group of FA’s are receiving. DJLM got $90MM, but he is going to be spreading that over 6 years for a team favorable AAV. George Springer turned a small bidding war between the two teams that figured to spend (Mets and Jays) into a Toronto overspend of 5 years $150MM. That was about $25MM more than the
There has been a lot of talk by MLB fans in general how the Padres may have caught the Dodgers. On the East coast, most in NY and Atlanta believe they have better 26-man rosters. Dodger fans of course take offense at such a charge. None of the four teams are finished completing their rosters, but I thought I would take a more in depth look at a Dodgers/Padres comp,
There has been a lot of discussion as to what is the best way to develop a team; a team for sustained contending. Most LAD fans believe that AF builds his team for success from within. Others believe organizations can build a winning team by trading prospects for young controllable MLB stars. Others believe they need to sign affordable free agents. Most believe you need a bit of all the
Somebody made a point as to what the Padres transactions did for the psyche for the other teams. The Padres have now joined the Dodgers, Braves, probably Mets, and maybe the Nationals (with their pitching and Soto/Robles/Turner) to separate from the rest of the NL. Some team from the NL Central will get to the playoffs, because, well one of the teams has to. It is a rule. Because of
Editorial Comment This post was written prior to the Blake Snell acquisition by the Padres. The longer this offseason goes without much movement, the more likely AF is going to get involved. The number of teams that want to jettison payroll is growing and is undoubtedly going to pique the interest of teams like LAD. While it will stress out fans who continually want to see something happen to
The financing of a baseball season is going under the microscope this offseason and potentially into next season. There is no question that MLB lost several billion in revenues. According to Forbes’ estimates from 2019, as gathered by the University of Michigan sports economist Rodney Fort, MLB teams made a total of $9.9 billion as follows: REVENUE (IN BILLIONS) UNDER… CATEGORY NORMAL SEASON HALF-SEASON W/O FANS* Gate receipts $2.84B $0.00B
This is the time of year when we hear that teams will be listening on potential trades for Player A. However, most of the time those proclamations are simply rhetorical. The Brewers have said they are willing to listen to offers for Josh Hader. The Rays will be listening on offers for Blake Snell. The Reds will be listening on offers for Sonny Gray. The Cubs are listening on offers
Our Boys in Blue have clinched yet another NL West Championship. That streak has now reached 8, and is one behind 9 consecutive AL East Titles by NYY and 14 consecutive Divisional Titles by Atlanta. Out of the previous seven, the Dodgers have won two pennants, with no World Series Championships. NYY’s streak was from 1998 through 2006. The Yankees won five pennants and three consecutive World Series Championships for
Who the heck were those players wearing Dodger uniforms in the Rockies’ and D-backs’ series? Whoever they were, they certainly did not perform like a playoff caliber team. They struggled with pitching, struggled with hitting, and couldn’t play defense. My, my, my, that’s typically a recipe for baseball disaster!! Heaven forbid that team should have to play the mighty Padres in the playoffs. The Dodgers may as well go home
From the time they are “knee-high to a grasshopper”, young boys start day-dreaming about hitting that dramatic walk-off homer to win the game, playoffs or, even better yet, the World Series. If it isn’t the a homerun, it’s a Doug Flutie “Hail Mary” type pass to win the game in the last seconds, or hitting nothing but net from half-court as time runs out. We love the thought of being
May 14, 1998 started as a very special day in my household. It was my oldest son’s 18th birthday. We had some special plans to celebrate his birthday, once he finished with his school day. The big news of the day was that Frank Sinatra had died. Sad news certainly, but not anything that affected our family in any significant way. That afternoon, by the time I went to my
When MT posted his Remember When post, it got me to thinking about trades. I have been obnoxiously opinionated in my zeal for at least one lock down late inning reliever and would prefer two. But I also know that there are NO GUARANTEES. The Darvish and Machado trades did not result in a WS championship, and they were good trades for the Dodgers. If the Dodgers got both Felipe
First, I want to say how appreciative my wife and I were with the kind words, thoughts, and prayers that were written last week. I say my wife, because she read them all to me while I was waiting for the next doctor to poke and prod. Suffice to say, I had a scare that has dissipated since my Tuesday ER visit. I had my last follow ups on Thursday
Yesterday Mark commented, “The fact that the Yankees went over the Luxury Tax Threshold does not mean the Dodgers should do the same. That, and the Yankees have no outside shareholders to revolt. Hopefully you can understand that.” Maybe it was or maybe it wasn’t, but I assumed that is directed at me since I brought up NYY exceeding the CBT threshold. I want to be clear. I never said
Editorial Note – This was written before the massive Russell Martin deal went down, and I did not want to consider this post to be like Kemp, Puig, Wood, and Farmer and just dump it. The written word is a strange thing. One reader will read comments one way and another reader another way, and yet the writer had a totally different reason for the comment. The most recent
So far, this year is beginning to mimic last year a bit. There has been some movement, but it is for the lesser thought of FA or in one case a player who wants a bigger pay day next year (Josh Donaldson). It seems that a lot of teams are looking for the trade route first before even considering a high cost FA. Look for Harper and Machado to
There have been a lot of speculative discussions on a potential trade for Baltimore SS Manny Machado. Bumsrap referred to a May 4, 2018 article from an Orioles fan’s point of view. If I am going to trade for a rental, it can only include players that are replaceable by others in the organization. Alex Verdugo, Mitchell White, and Jeren Kendall are all replaceable, but not Gavin Lux. If the Orioles
