This is the fourth straight Spring Training where Gavin Lux has an opportunity to win the 2B job and for the 4th straight season, Gavin Lux has failed to seize the day. In Spring Training of 2018, Gavin had no chance at winning a job, and he had only 4 ABs but he did have 2 hits. In 2019, he would have been a longshot to win a spot, but…
Dodger fans have watched Cody Bellinger for the past couple of seasons now and many have concluded that “he doesn’t listen to his coaches,” “he is not coachable,” “he is stubborn,” and many other superlatives that may come to mind. After less than 30 at-bats, they have condemned Cody Bellinger to the baseball bone pile. The same is true with Andrew Heaney – he is already being counted upon to…
Let me start this by saying “You can NEVER have enough starting pitching”. That much is true, simply because you never do have enough starting pitching. There will always come a day when you could use another one. That is because of injury, especially issues related to repetitive stress injuries and just the dangers and problems associated with throwing a baseball. I just ain’t natural, I tell you. Do the…
Squat, Zilch, Nada. For guys like Tomas Tellis, Andy Burns, Eddy Alvarez, Jason Martin, and Stefan Romero, this is like a playoff game. They know that they have no chance… but who knows – it feels like it might (this is their thinking), so they are all in. In reality, they are “organizational depth.” They will be parked at AAA, just in case of a disaster. These are “salt of…
I can give you a definite “maybe” or “maybe not.” Who knows what Andrew Friedman will do? I would have thought that he would have signed Kenley Jansen for $16 million rather than sign Tyler Anderson for $8 million. For the sake of this conversation, I am leaving Trevor Bauer out of the conversation, but why do the Dodgers need another #5 starter? Assuming Buehler, Urias and Kershaw are #1,…
Before I answer with my position, let me do my best to lay out some of the factors assuredly being discussed in the Dodger “war rooms”. Max Scherzer is a HOF pitcher who can still bring it at 37. He would be a front of the rotation pitcher even with the Dodgers. This year he is 7-4 with a 2.83 ERA and an exceptional WHIP of 0.886 in 105 IP. …
First, to Badger. I love trade scenarios. I do not care how outlandish they are or how realistic they may be. I enjoy reading Bums trade proposals. I am not sure that I ever read one that was realistic, but they are fun. Bluto sometimes gives us scenarios from the baseballtradevalues.com site. They are fun for me. That is what blogs are for. Throw out ideas. To the best of…
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…
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…
Halfway through the year and some things are clear, while others, not so much. The Dodgers are clearly the class of the NL if not all of MLB. The Dodgers are 3.5 games better than the Cubs and 4.0 games better than the Padres. If the season were to end today, the three division champions would be: Dodgers Cubs Braves 2nd Place Teams would be: Padres Cardinals Marlins Current Wild…