24 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
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,
A couple of weeks ago Jeff asked if I would do a brief write-up on two Dodger prospects Nick Robertson and James Outman. I had previously profiled Robertson so that one was easy with an update. Today I took a look at Outman and found there was not a lot of detail available on him. I do remember him quite well in his time with the Great Lakes Loons
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
In October of 2014, the ownership of the Dodgers decided to go in a new direction and named Andrew Friedman President of Baseball Operations. GM Ned Colletti was moved to another position in the organization and Friedman brought in Farhan Zaidi as the new GM. At the time, the only thing I knew about Friedman was that he had been running the Tampa Bay Rays. I knew they had gotten
CLAYTON KERSHAW GETS HIS RING!!! We can put the Kirk Gibson HR and the Orel Hershiser team celebration into the Smithsonian, because we have new LA Dodgers World Series heroes. It took the 3rd time in 4 years for the Dodgers to finally cross the Championship line. Mookie proves to be a difference maker not only for the game but for a World Series Championship team. Corey Seager ends a
What a difference a night makes. After last night’s game I commented that the Dodgers need to come out swinging in the 1st against Glasnow. Mookie Betts leads off with an 8 pitch double followed by a run-scoring Corey Seager single, two wild pitches and Seager gets to third. JT strikes out, Muncy walks, Smith K’s and Belli comes up and gets an infield single to score Seager. After a
Showdown between the Rays top pitcher, Charlie Morton (Joe Buck will tell you over and over again that he’s absolutely great!) and Walker Buehler. As in most games, the Dodgers had several objectives: 1. get off to a good start; 2. run up Morton’s pitch count; 3. Keep Buehler’s pitch count down; 4. Keep the Rays off the bases; and 5. Score more
In 2017, George Springer was 0-6 with a walk and 4 strikeouts before getting a one out double off KJ in the 9th inning in Game 2. A sleeping giant had awoken. In 2020 postseason, the Rays best hitter, Brandon Lowe was in a miserable slump, but that ended when he took Tony Gonsolin deep in the first inning. And he wasn’t done. Gonsolin gives up a walk to Margot
The Franchise opened the 2020 World Series and had a game fairly reminiscent of his 2017 Game 1 against the Assterisks. Back in his home town, Clayton Kershaw threw a non-stressful 6.0 innings, and left with an 8-1 lead. He allowed 1 run on 2 hits. He issued a one out walk to Randy Arozarena in the first, and then proceeded to sit down 13 consecutive batters before Kevin Kiermaier
For the third time in four years, the Los Angeles Dodgers are NL Pennant Winners and headed back to the World Series. Will 2020 be different? Like the Cubs in 2016 and the Nationals last year, I think the Dodgers are the team of destiny. I am sure Tampa Bay Rays fans feel the same way, but I am a Dodgers fan so who cares what Rays fans think. Corey
Elimination game, facing the Braves top pitcher, Max Fried, and the Dodgers, besides the obvious need to win, had several objectives: 1. get off to a good start; 2. run up Fried’s pitch count; 3. Keep Buehler’s pitch count down; 4. Keep the Braves off the bases; and 5. Score more runs than the Braves. The Dodgers were successful on four of the
Today, the Dodgers face off against the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the 2020 NLCS. The Dodgers have never faced the Braves for the pennant before. They have faced each other three times in Divisional Series play. 1996 NLDS – Dodgers lost to Atlanta 3 games to 0 2013 NLDS – Dodgers beat Atlanta 3 games to 1 2018 NLDS – Dodgers beat Atlanta 3 games to 1 Before
While I favor LAD farmhands and follow them closely, I am a fan of MiLB baseball period. I scour through the top publications to see what prospects the Dodgers might have some interest in, or in my opinion should have interest in. The top three baseball publications have all reported their top 100 prospects and the Dodgers are prominent in all three. Their least representative publication is MLB Pipeline (MLB)
Is there in fact collusion going on in MLB? With all of this backlash on the various trades, it is becoming more clear to me that if the MLBPA did not have Tony Clark as the union president, the union would clean the clock of MLB and it’s own lightweight, Rob Manfred. Boston is not hurting in revenue or operating income, and can certainly afford the salaries and resultant luxury
We are within 48 hours of the start of the Winter Meetings, and the rumors are that the Dodgers will be active. In the interim, I like to scour the rosters every Winter to see if there is any potential bullpen help out there that the Dodgers might find interesting. Last year I came up with the name Aaron Bummer and found out that AF really wanted him, but ChiSox
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
In a 401K portfolio, maybe you have only sufficient funds to NOT LOSE, but do not have that little bit extra to think about…what if. Or maybe you can invest your max in your 401K and want to keep that safe but have a little extra that you want to invest for something that may prove to be a very good return on your investment. Some of those investments will
Last week Mark kind of stole my thunder with his remarks about Raul Ibanez who is a Special Assistant now to Andrew Friedman. He had signed with the Dodgers in February of 2016 along with Greg Maddux. The reasons for my interest in Raul Ibanez was that first, it was recently rumored he had an opportunity to move to another organization and didn’t. Secondly, suggestions were made that others were deserting
There has been a lot of discussion on the state of free agency. Many consider the system broke. Very few teams can be considered as realistic in offering the likes of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. But the problem is that many of the non “generational” type players wait until the top players sign and then hope that those that miss out on the Harper’s and Machado’s may be in
On Tuesday it was announced that the Dodgers had acquired right-hander Jaime Schultz from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for 22-year-old right-hander Caleb Sampen who had been selected by the Dodgers in the 20th round of the 2018 First-Year Player Draft. On January 4 the Rays had designated Schultz for assignment after receiving right-hander Oliver Drake from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations. Drake had also
Make no mistake…this IS Andrew Friedman’s team. This is not to take anything away from the immense talents of Farhan Zaidi, Josh Byrnes, Alex Anthopoulos, Gabe Kapler, or Billy Gasparino. They help put Friedman’s vision into motion. The Dodgers caught a lot of flak from fans because of the high FO cost. But these are all outstanding baseball people, and why is it a problem having superior FO talent? It
