Never forget. —– Baseball Prospectus: Matt Kemp has struggled to start the year, but his poor Spring Training probably has little to do with it. His career line in 561 plate appearances? .252/.291/.448/.739. True Blue LA: The Opening Day payroll for the Dodgers is over $240 million. Baseball America: Draft bonus pools for the 2013 MLB Draft will rise 8.2 ... Read More »
Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Arguing for patience and perspective regarding Yasiel Puig. I know he looks awfully impressive (dude looks like he could be on your fantasy football team), and I’ve liked what I’ve seen as well, but I really do believe people are getting way ahead of themselves. Baseball Prospectus: The Dodgers might have a platoon partner for Andre ... Read More »
MLB.com: The Dodgers are making extensive upgrades to Dodger Stadium, and I have to say that it all sounds awesome. The most obvious upgrade — and the one senior vice president of planning and development Janet Marie Smith mentioned first — is the replacement of the scoreboards located above the right- and left-field pavilions with larger, 1080 high-definition LED boards, ... Read More »
Grantland: Jonah Keri on the riches of the Dodgers and the curse that comes along with it. That, in a nutshell, is The Curse of Plenty. The Dodgers have more money to spend than anyone, without enough top players to go after. They’ve clogged their roster with merely decent talent at multiple positions because their general manager is impulsive and ... Read More »
“If you are what you say you are…” —– Dodgers Now: Bill Shaikin reveals that the Dodgers are no longer exclusively talking with Fox, as they’ve met with Time Warner now. The Dodgers and Time Warner Cable have met to discuss a potential deal for the team’s television rights, according to two people familiar with the talks but not authorized ... Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
True Blue LA: Eric Stephen looks at the available free agent starting pitchers and concludes that it’s Zack Greinke or bust. When it comes down to it, if the Dodgers are hellbent on adding a starting pitcher they should only add a difference-maker. Dempster is a fall back, while Sanchez (money) and Kuroda (draft pick, age) seem overly expensive and ... Read More »
Baseball America: Dodgers have hired Patrick Guerrero as their Latin American Coordinator. Guerrero, who lives in the Dominican Republic, will run the organization’s scouting throughout Latin America. The Mariners had fired Guerrero as their Latin American coordinator earlier this month at the same time they announced that Bob Engle, their vice president of international scouting, had decided to leave the ... Read More »
LAist: In what I had not seen reported anywhere else, oddly enough, Dodger Stadium is scheduled for renovations. ESPN Los Angeles: Jamie McCourt is suing Frank McCourt for fraud. I’m sure we could fill the Grand Canyon with the amount of shits you all give. —– Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello says that the people already declaring the Adrian ... Read More »
Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Even though he’s away from home right now, I think Mike Petriello comes away from the trade with the right approach. So how am I feeling about it today? I think Gonzalez is going to be an incredible fit in LA, especially considering that reports of his demise in Boston seem overblown (he was outstanding last ... Read More »
Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello asks whether we should start worrying about Andre Ethier. Go over and read the whole thing, but he brings up points I wanted to address: The obvious answer is that it’s yet another injury, but I’m not sure it’s that simple. Yes, he strained his oblique in San Francisco at the end of June ... Read More »
Hanley Ramirez‘s agent Adam Katz told Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports that his client is thrilled: Hanley agent Adam Katz:”If he was going to be moved then this was his first choice. He can’t wait to get here, compete, do what’s asked.” — Tim Brown (@TBrownYahoo) July 25, 2012 Well, at least the most important guy likes the trade. Mike ... Read More »
Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello gave his mid-season grades for the offense. Thought he was a bit friendly to Bobby Abreu given that most of his production wasn’t so much skill-based as luck-based. Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello gave his mid-season grades for the pitchers. I don’t quite understand why Chris Capuano gets an A basically for his ... Read More »
Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting