41 posts
Pinkie Problems The first casualty of Spring Training occurred a few days ago when Miguel Vargas took a bad hop to his right pinky finger, which caused a hairline fracture. Since he is a RH hitter, his right hand is not his bottom hand, and he would likely play if it were the…
Tonight’s game against the Giants could likely prove to be one of the most important… if not THE MOST IMPORTANT START of the season for a Dodger pitcher. Why? Simply because in his last start, Mitch White gave up ten Hits and six Earned Runs, raising his ERA from 3.38 to 4.20…
I continue to read about the sensational LAD prospects. Mark has the Dodgers as a top 10 MiLB organization while no major publication does. After the loss of Keibert Ruiz and Jo Jo Gray, the publications dropped them to mid-level (around 15). Certainly not bad, but also not…
With Mark on the 10-day inactive list to attend to family business in Las Vegas (ever notice how these trips are never to Des Moines, Iowa or Wichita, Kansas?), Jeff (AC) was desperate for some assistance on the LADT writers roster. With his options limited, he had to resort to adding someone from the alternate training site, and had no choice but to call on me, the Zack Reks/Edwin Uceta
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
Yesterday Singing The Blue asked who Clayton McCullough the Dodgers new first base coach is and seemed to find the hiring out of the blue. Within the Dodgers coaching ranks it isn’t out of the blue and most likely is overdue as he marches toward becoming an MLB manager. This is an article I pulled out of the archives from April 23, 2016. The article has not been
It is time for a little Devil’s Advocacy. I have been an unapologetic fan of Andrew Friedman and what he has accomplished, and just as critical as to what he has NOT accomplished. I was critical when AF did not beat out the Astros offer for Gerrit Cole before the 2018 season. The Astros traded a #5 SP in Joe Musgrove, a decent but unceremonious 3B, Colin Moran, a RHRP
BRAVES AND THE PEN: Braves have now signed 3 pitchers who will serve as late inning high leverage relievers. On Monday they signed Chris Martin to a two year $14MM contract after signing Will Smith to a three year $40MM deal. Earlier this month, they signed Darren O’Day to a one year $2.25MM contract. They also have Mark Melancon in the final year of his four year $62MM contract. Thus
This is AF’s 5th full year, and hopefully he will continue for several more years. He is human so he is prone to making mistakes, but never has he made an error without a very good reason for making a change. Most of us may not have understood the decisions, but they were always made to help the team. And I recognize and appreciate that it was a rhetorical statement,
I have been working on about ten different ideas for what to write, and none of them came to a cohesive blog post. Maybe this one will not as well. There has been a lot of speculation as to who the Dodgers may trade for and who they may be required to include in a trade. It is a huge climb from AAA to MLB, and yet we are ready
Where or where would the Dodgers be without Cody Bellinger? The last time the Dodgers were north of .500 after April was 2017 and was LARGELY due to Justin Turner and his .404/.465/.562/1.026 April metrics. Although, JT only had 1 April HR, he hit 20 from May on, so there is hope for JT’s power to resume when the weather warms up. Those of us who believe that the Dodgers
Mark uses “Rants and Raves” so I will use “Bites and Bits” to avoid any copyright infringement with Mark or Bits and Bites Snack Mix. Actually I have little to rant and rave about but have some small pieces of somewhat innocuous “stuff” that I will post. Some things that just popped into my head during the past few days or that I stumbled upon. Some of it might be
I am sitting continuing to try to understand how the Board of Trustees and the AD at USC have chosen to retain perhaps the most over his head coach in all of NCAA Football, Clay Helton. Rudy mentioned that both Westwood and South Bend are cheering loudly, but my radar has all of the Pac 12 and South Bend laughing at this. Oh well, enough pity party for me. It’s
I hope you all bear with me. I would like to somewhat continue the FAZ discussion from yesterday. And then to give one last autopsy report on the 2018 WS. As Mark indicated, FAZ took over a team that had a payroll in excess of $250MM. One would think that a team with that…
The top prospects on the Tulsa roster at the beginning of the season were Mitchell White, Yadier Alvarez, DJ Peters, Yusniel Diaz, Will Smith, and Keibert Ruiz. Mitchell White was injured in the beginning and did not seem to get back on track until the end of the season. Yusniel Diaz was traded to Baltimore in the Manny Machado trade. Will Smith was promoted to AAA on August 1. Yadier
MLB Pipeline came out with their top 100 MLB prospects, and a new Top 30 for each team. The MLB Pipeline prospect list is put together by Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo, two excellent minor league and amateur talent evaluators. Padres – 4 Top 25; 1 top 26-50; 2 top 51 to 75; 1 top 76 to 100 Top 100 = 8 Braves – 2 Top
There has been a lot of discussion about the state of the game with respect to Home Runs and Strikeouts. Many of us remember when hitting wasn’t so much hit or miss as it is today, and for many of us remember the game was more enjoyable when teams were “producing” runs. But the HR has always been the attention grabber. The first and arguably the most prodigious HR hitter
Well, I ll be damned! I never thought it would happen and it hasn t actually happened, partially because the Baltimore Orioles medical staff is legendary for killing deals due to medical reports or actual physicals. It s possible it could still unravel remember Peter Angelos is the owner of one of the worst-run franchises in baseball. Hopefully it is finalized soon, so we can get on with it. When the Dodgers traded
The Dodgers are at somewhat of a crossroads at the break. They are in 1st place in the NL West and are 3.5 games behind the Cubs for supremacy in the NL. They are 1.0 game behind the Brewers, .5 game behind the Phillies, and are virtually tied with the Braves in the very tight NL race. There are 11 teams within 5.5 games of the Wild Card. The AL
Three weeks for the trade deadline and rumors without knowledge continue to excite or anger baseball fans across the country. It is fun to read other fans takes on their teams and how their prospects line up with others. I was really enjoying Brewers’ fans takes that Keston Hiura should not be included in any trade for Manny Machado, but the Dodgers are silly for not including Verdugo or Ruiz
Just to clarify yesterday I did not say that Stripling was the Dodger s Ace yet! Just that he could be by the end of the season and a lot of that depends upon how he pitches the rest of the way. Unlike Alex Wood who was often hitting 97 MPH early in the season last year, which was totally unsustainable for him, Strip is usually 92-94 MPH with an
Currently, AA is where most of the top prospects reside. Although still relatively young, some of the current roster will absolutely play at the ML level, but outside of Keibert Ruiz, none project to be perennial AS. There could be some AS performances from some of the higher rated players, but they all have questions that will need to be answered. Keibert Ruiz The second of two likely
The Dodgers minor league system is filled with “depth” pieces. As therealten pointed out, perennially competing for the playoffs and a potential WS takes a toll on the Dodgers draft slot. The last time the Dodgers had a top ten draft slot, they did very well with a HS pitcher from University Park, Texas…Clayton Kershaw. In 2016, the Dodgers had the #20 selection and drafted HS SS, Gavin Lux. In
What do the Dodgers do now? Personnel wise – NOTHING . FAZ needs rely on what they have developed. They have shortstops that can play at the ML level, although certainly not at the Corey Seager level. Other than Francisco Lindor or Carlos Correa, there is no other comparable SS. There is absolutely no reason to make a trade for a rental like Manny Machado. But let’s be realistic .
This will be somewhat unusual for me, as generally I am an extremely unapologetic pro-FAZ supporter, and I still am. But to critically examine any operation, personal biases need to be thrown out, even when it comes to the Dodgers. Sports team owners do not get into the game for short term profits. The big profits come when the team is sold. For the Dodgers, the ownership group has
We have bandied about a potential LAD 25 man roster, so now I want to take a shot at a possible 25 man roster at OKC and Tulsa. One thing we have learned is that FAZ really wants players who can conceivably be called to LA if needed at AAA. At times there may be a player that has advanced quick enough to move to OKC without a real opportunity
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support, refute, or validate a hypothesis. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Make no mistake, the Dodgers are going to carry out the Matt Kemp Experiment and it is truly an EXPERIMENT. We did a few experiments in high school chemistry class, some of which caused violent explosions, but some were pretty
AC provided an Always Complete list of the Top 30 Dodger rookies and it s not hard to see why the Dodgers still have a Top 5 Farm System. The Dodgers have the most depth at catcher of any team in baseball and have a glut of outfielders to go with a plethora of live arms. Middle infield is the only positions where they have a lack, but a trade of
The New MLB Pipeline Dodger Top 30 prospeccts have been published. Jim Callis is a premier minor league talent evaluator. He is not the typical sabermetrics talent evaluator. He uses the eye test as well. If he has not seen the player live, he has studied hours of tape. Some people prefer Eric Logenhagen of Fangraphs or Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser, but I am partial to Jim Callis. The
Mark referenced a site, https://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-los-angeles-dodgers/ , that I have studied for some time. I went back to look at my notes and do have some observations: There is no way the bench will be comprised of 4 RH hitters and 1 switch hitter. I do not see Segedin or Thompson on the 25 man coming out of Spring. I would project Toles and one of Peter/Muncy/Locastro to replace Segedin
