At one time, Kolten Wong was a very good second baseman. While never an All-Star, as a LH hitter, he has a career .742 OPS against RHP. He is exclusively a second baseman and plays Gold Glove defense at the position. He likely has no future in 2024 with the Dodgers, but he could have a future in October for them! In 2021, Eddie Rosario, who was a journeyman, was…
Who predicted the Rosario-Syndergaard trade? No one saw that coming! Of course, the Dodgers weren’t really looking to trade for Rosario, but somehow, they found a team that wanted Thor, and they took the bait. I would have never believed it. Over the winter, the Dodgers signed Syndergaard to take the spot Tyler Anderson left when he signed with the Angels (by the way, he has been almost as bad)….
That is what Andrew Friedman told us at the beginning of the season, and I (for one) believe it. This is a “transition” year. Clayton Kershaw, Noah Syndergaard, Julio Urias, David Peralta, Jake Marisnick, Max Muncy, Jason Heyward, and JD Martinez are all on one-year deals, meaning that the Dodgers have the ability to move on from each of them next year… if they want! The Dodgers have a half…
it is … at least for a while! Remember what I have always said, “Relief Pitchers are fickle?” Well, it has never been more true than this year. Phil Bickford has been bad (and he was not good last year but was great the year before); Yency Almonte had a 1.02 ERA last year – this year, he absolutely sucks with a 9.28 ERA; Alex Vesia has a 9.30 ERA…
You have to love fans. They are the original naysayers of doom. To read some of the posts and remarks by Dodger fans beginning when free agency started, you would think the Dodgers are doomed to finish 40 games out. As spring rolled on, and they lost Lux to injury, the moans grew louder that they should have signed one of the premier free agent shortstops in the winter. We…
So, I am writing this as I am digesting the news that I have to have back surgery for spinal stenosis and spondylolysis on April 24th. It’s pretty much what I had expected, but now it is real. Surgery is really easy… when it is performed on someone else! The surgery is called Lumbar Decompression and is the most common back surgery done by my surgeon. I saw three other…
By design, Bobby Miller has not pitched in a Major League Spring Training Game, and I do not think he has played in any minor league or B-Games either, as he allegedly had a “sore shoulder” when he arrived at Spring Training. Allegedly, it is OK now, but the Dodgers are ramping him up slowly. It seems unlikely that he will pitch in the Freeway Series as he did last…
You go back to 1958 when the Dodgers moved west, and I would bet without going to the Dodgers baseball reference page, few here could name their starting rotation, let alone the guys in the bullpen. And the same would be true of most of the pitching staffs going back, say, 15-25 years or more. For the record, they finished 7th that year, 21 games behind the pennant winners, the…
It appears that Andrew Friedman wasn’t not just posturing as I thought when he said he wasn’t worried about the CBT. After adding journeyman outfielder, David Peralta yesterday and another $6 or $7 Million onto the payroll, it’s clear Friedman is not concerned with re-setting the CBT. It’s not the last time I was wrong. I am, however, always looking for the rest of the story or for the other…
Never doubt statistics. This is especially true when looking at minor-league players. You can always predict for a certainty how a player will perform in Major League Baseball by looking at what they did in the minor leagues. We don’t need scouts, GMs, Baseball America, or MLB Pipeline, and we don’t need any stinking Keith Law.. All we need are statistics. Statistics are King – they are God-like. Statistics will…