The Dodgers will offer Zack Greinke the most money to sign, according to Jon Heyman, because they have no concept of a budget. The Dodgers have an interesting strategy that’s been employed only rarely: Sign the best, no matter the cost. “They are like theSteinrenner Yankees of the ’70s,” one competing GM said. Rival executives are beginning to wonder of ... Read More »
Author Archives: Chad Moriyama
Feed Subscription2012 Winter Meetings: Shohei Otani’s Second Thoughts, Dee Gordon Shopped, James Loney Signs
Shohei Otani, who once declared definitively that he was headed to America, is having second thoughts about that decision after meeting with the Nippon Ham Fighters, which was the thing I feared the most at the time of the announcement. Shohei Otani, 18, who had vowed to sign in MLB, might now lean to staying in Japan, per Japanese media. ... Read More »
Rumor Mill: The Calm Before The Storm – Greinke Contenders, No Wilson, Shopping Dee
As most everybody knows by now, the Dodgers are in on Zack Greinke and desperately want him to be a part of the club. Dodgers executives met with Zack Greinke in Los Angeles yesterday, Yahoo’s Tim Brown reported last night. The Dodgers view Greinke as critical to their pitching staff, Brown reports. Greinke is believed to have enjoyed pitching for ... Read More »
Around The Web: Player Trade Value, TV Revenue, Stolen Base Value, NPB/MLB Fight
Grantland: Part 1 of Jonah Keri ranking the 50 best players in terms of trade value. No Dodgers here yet, but Carlos Santana finds a spot at #43. The other two catcher rankings are the ones likely to elicit the most hate mail. In the first draft of this list, I had Santana considerably higher. Twenty-six-year-old switch-hitting catcher, career .806 ... Read More »
Rumor Mill: Zack Greinke either is or isn’t going to be a Dodger + Brian Wilson + Kyle … Lohse?
The Rangers are favorites to land Zack Greinke, according to Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register. For what it’s worth, I was told today the #Rangers are the favorites for Greinke. It could all just be posturing now. Wait and see. That goes against what Jim Bowden of ESPN said though. Los Angeles Dodgers are considered the front runner ... Read More »
Around The Web: Steven Cohen, Draft Auction, HOF Vote, NCAA & Amateurism
Los Angeles Times: Steven Cohen has been implicated in an insider trading scheme. Tuesday the Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had been implicated in a massive $276-million insider trading scheme. Remember him? The guy who was once the front-runner for the Dodgers? Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd that’s why some of us didn’t want him as owner. —– The Book: Tom Tango argues ... Read More »
Dodgers TV rights close to being awarded to FOX for $6 billion to $7 billion over 25 years
The Dodgers television contract will total between $6 billion and $7 billion over a 25-year span, thus potentially tripling the sale price of the team, according to Deadline‘s Nikki Finke. Insiders tell me that Fox Sports is close to clinching the exclusive TV rights for the Los Angeles Dodgers by paying between $6 billion and $7 billion over 25 years ... Read More »
Rumor Mill: Fujikawa Down To Five, Otani Meeting With Fighters, Kuroda Off The Market
Didn’t realize it until I was done typing it up, but this is an exclusively Japanese player rumor update. Anyway, Kyuji Fujikawa is reportedly down to five teams, with one of them being the Dodgers. Fujikawa has reportedly met with the Dodgers, Angels, Orioles, Cubs and Diamondbacks. The Rangers are also said to have interest in the 32-year-old, who has ... Read More »
Around The Web: 40-Man Roster Decisions + IBWAA Votes + PR Moves
Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello has a list of the players up for the Rule 5 Draft along with who he thinks will be protected on the 40-man roster. True Blue LA: Brandon Lennox has basically the same thing but from his perspective. Both are interesting reads, and I was considering doing one myself, but this off-season has been/will ... Read More »
Rumor Mill: Zack Greinke & Hiroki Kuroda front-runners + Kevin Youkilis & Kyuji Fujikawa interest
The Dodgers are the favorite to win the Zack Greinke sweepstakes, according to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald. According to an industry insider, the Dodgers are the favorites to wind up with top free agent starter Zack Greinke, with the Angels and Rangers on the outside looking in. And no starting pitcher on the market is going to be ... Read More »
Interview With Chris Reed: Mechanical & Mental Adjustments, Pitch Confidence, And Change
I had the opportunity to speak with Chris Reed before his Nov. 8 Arizona Fall League game. Edited for sanity, because nobody wants to read “uh” and “um” and laughs and transitions and crap. —– Pitching in the AFL is always difficult, so are you making any conscious adjustments to that or is it just specifically working on things beyond ... Read More »
Interview With Joc Pederson: Mechanical Changes, Mental Approach, And Fatigue
I had the opportunity to speak with Joc Pederson before his Nov. 8 Arizona Fall League game. Edited for sanity, because nobody wants to read “uh” and “um” and laughs and transitions and crap. —– You admitted that you scuffled to start 2011, but that you made adjustments that helped shape your breakout in 2012, specifically what mechanical changes were ... Read More »
Rumor Mill: Shohei Otani & Hyun Jin Ryu Updates, Out On Torii Hunter, Scout Signings
So a popular question lately has been: “What the hell happened to Shohei Otani?” In short? Nothing, because despite whatever speculation there had been about MLB teams technically having no need to respect NPB exclusivity rights, like I said in a previous post about the situation, I see no upside for an MLB team to just barge in and violate ... Read More »
Interview With Onelki Garcia: His Status, His Bicep & Oblique Injuries, And All Of His Pitches
I had the opportunity to speak with Onelki Garcia before his Nov. 8 Arizona Fall League game, a conversation that was translated by Rodney Linares, manager of the Mesa Solar Sox and a manager in the Houston Astros system. Edited for sanity, because nobody wants to read “uh” and “um” and laughs and transitions and crap. —– After all the ... Read More »
2012 IBWAA Awards Results + My Ballot
I joined the IBWAA and participated in the IBWAA Awards vote in 2012, the results of which you can see in the picture above. So did they match what I voted for? Sort of. I think everything I voted on is self-explanatory, though there’s room for quibbling here and there. Thoughts? Read More »
Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting