It s Dumb to Use a Smartphone During a Baseball Game
Second base is up for grabs. About two-thirds of all teams in MLB would love to have Chris Taylor and we could sure do worse. However, is this the year Gavin Lux seizes the day and fulfills his promise? This could possibly play out and CT3 becomes the Swiss-Army Knife.
I’ll bet even Ray Charles can see that! I mean, why go to a baseball game and stay on your smartphone? You miss the action and could be killed unless your dad saves you from the dreaded bat. Duhhh! Pay attention!
I couldn’t resist posting that. I have only been hit once in a stadium by a foul ball. Never a foul bat! It was a screaming foul ball off the façade of the Pressbox at the Indianapolis Indians Stadium. I had a choice of the following:
- Ducking and spilling the beer in my hand;
- Trying to turn and catch it and spilling the beer in my hand; or
- Letting it hit me between the shoulder blades and not spilling my beer.
You know which one I took. The only logical choice: #3! It’s illegal to spill beer in 47 states! I drank EVERY drop! But seriously folks, as the winter winds down and pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report in just six days, what is there to talk about? I haven’t a clue. We have hashed and re-hashed everything… about 16 times! Now, that the Dodgers have Trevor Bauer, the NL is thinking about canceling the season and just anointing the Dodgers Champions.
Well, that sounds good, but we would hate it because we would never see those walk-off home runs. We would never see Mookie, Cody, and Corey battle for the 2021 MVP (I believe all three will be in the Top 10). We would never see the 2021 Dodger rotation go down in history as the best in the game. That can very likely happen IF everyone stays healthy. I think Tommy will prevail upon The Big Dodger in the Sky to give Dodger fans two in a row to atone for the cheating Asstericks!
Today’s Homework
Let’s talk about the Dodger lineup in 2021. What will the lineup look like? Here is my opinion and the rationale to back it up:
- Betts RF (R)
- Seager SS (L)
- Smith C (R)
- Bellinger CF (L)
- Turner 3B (R) he will be back
- Muncy 1B (L)
- Pollock LF (R)
- Lux/Taylor 2B (L-R)
OK, here’s my rationale: Will Smith has the best OB% on the Dodgers last year and I think he will get better. He has to hit #3. Cody will have an MVP-Type bounceback year so I have him at #4. When the returning JT is in the lineup, he hits #5. Not quite the threat he once was, Turner is still a solid hitter in that spot. When Rios plays, AJ moves up to #5 and Rios goes to the seven hole.
I also think Mad Max will bounce back and, while he is capable of hitting #4, he hits sixth due to the great depth of the Dodgers’ lineup. I have Pollock penciled in at #7 and he led the Dodgers in home runs last season. He will probably not put up more than 450 AB’s as he is now 33 years old. Someone will get a lot of AB’s in LF, probably one of the following: Raley, Reks, McKinstry, or Beaty.
Second base is up for grabs. About two-thirds of all teams in MLB would love to have Chris Taylor… and we could sure do worse. However, is this the year Gavin Lux seizes the day and fulfills his promise? This could possibly play out and CT3 becomes the “Swiss-Army Knife.”
I is going to be a fun Spring Training and I can’t wait… but I have to. It doesn’t start until six more days. Dang it!
The Toxic Airborne Event
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Discussion (85)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Probably neither – fills Kikes shoes. AF still got bullets in the chamber !
We’ve just traded Kolarek and Cody Thomas to the A’s for utility guy Sheldon Neuse and minor league righty Gus Varland.
Neuse can play all over the diamond including third base and he hits right handed. I wonder if this means JT is less likely to be returning or if we’re on the verge of trading CT3, or quite probably neither of the above.
I really do hope JT is back and agree with some of the other posters who said JT will probably miss some games due to injury so it behooves the Dodgers to have a plan in place to factor that in. Salary cap is not an issue if you have the team in place to go back to back WS wins.
Three Simple Rules for Dating Trevor Bauer
“I have three rules,” Bauer says. “One: no feelings.”
The headline of Ben Reiter’s new profile of Trevor Bauer really says it all: “Trevor Bauer Is More Concerned With Being Right Than Being Liked.”Bauer, the brash, outspoken Indians pitcher, might not care too much about being liked by the opposite sex, either.
While the story is primarily concerned with Bauer’s baseball life, one anecdote offers a fascinating glimpse into his personal life:
When Bauer meets a potential romantic partner, he outlines for her the parameters of any possible relationship on their very first date. “I have three rules,” he says. “One: no feelings. As soon as I sense you’re developing feelings, I’m going to cut it off, because I’m not interested in a relationship and I’m emotionally unavailable. Two: no social media posts about me while we’re together, because private life stays private. Three: I sleep with other people. I’m going to continue to sleep with other people. If you’re not O.K. with that, we won’t sleep together, and that’s perfectly fine. We can just be perfectly polite platonic friends.”
It’s his way of being considerate. “I imagine if I was married at this point, I would be a very bad husband,” he says. He does want a family in the future, when he can be as all in on it as he currently is on his career, maybe in a decade or so.
When most people describe their ideal first date they think dinner and a movie, or a nice drink at a quiet bar. For Bauer it’s laying out a series of policies for a relationship that doesn’t exist yet.
If that’s the way Bauer kicks off a first date, you have to wonder how many second dates there are.
Open on www.si.comhttps://www.si.com/mlb/2019/02/19/trevor-bauer-indians-first-date-rulesOpen on www.silive.comhttps://www.silive.com/mets/2021/02/mlb-rumors-trevor-bauer-already-having-trouble-with-dodgers-fans.htmlYears ago I noticed a lot of fans attending games at Dodger Stadium spent a lot of time on their cell phones.
But then, for whatever reason, people were not spending much time on the phones. Not sure what changed. Mostly people were just using them to take pics. Hopefully that trend continues.
One of the most interesting things that came out of yesterday’s press conference at Dodger Stadium was the question focused on the payroll and Andrew Friedman said it’s more or less a three to five year process. So many felt the Dodgers couldn’t or wouldn’t add a contract like Trevor Bauer, then turn around and continue to pursue a right handed bat, Justin Turner the main focus.
It’s just a different mindset. Goes to expect the unexpected approach. Like signing Mookie Betts to a massive long term contract in the midst of a pandemic. I recall many saying that Friedman would never do that — the biggest contract that he had ever offered was …
Maybe we’re getting a better look inside the Dodgers approach moving forward. Perhaps many of the certainties were not real. We were not just going to be Tampa Bay with a bigger budget. The Dodgers were going to be truly different. Opportunistic no doubt, not as concerned with caps and big contracts as was once thought.
Many analysts are now saying that if Corey Seager stays healthy and repeats his performance, he will get a long term, big contract moving forward and there will be plenty of money to extend Clayton Kershaw for another two or three years.
There is definitely something going on in LA and it has to be scaring the rest of baseball.
Good line-up, Mark.
AF should just go ahead and get Garrett Cooper. He could fill in for Pollock in left or Muncy at 1rst. He’s good insurance in case Pollock has one of his seasonal freak injuries or Muncy hits like he did during the regular season last year.
White Noise
MT, I love that lineup, but I think JT goes back to the three hole and if I were a betting man, I would wager that JT starts more in the 3 hole than anyone else. The lineup sure looks great, top to bottom. No worries here.
Do you think there will be daily changes to scramble the lineup as we’ve seen in the past, or more of a traditional set lineup like we’ve seen from Robert’s predecessors? We already know that the tree hole will have to be rotated in your proposal since catchers don’t really play full time. Pollock will most like get plenty of time off as you said and Lux mostly sat against left handers.
I’ve also been struck by a foul ball. It was on Opening Day in 1997 which was the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson and special Jackie Robinson baseballs were used. I ran into a buddy at the stadium, so I sat behind him in the early innings on the Loge level right behind home plate. A screamer was fouled straight back, everyone in front of me dodged it and it hit me on my inner thigh just inches away from the family jewels and wound up on the seat behind me where the fan sitting directly behind me reached down and snagged the souvenir. I later returned to my own seat and the buddy I was visiting wound up catching two other foul balls that were hit back into the same area. I love the randomness of baseball, even if I was a bit sore that day.
Hang in there Bear. It isn’t so cold over here in Huntington Beach and it sure seems like an early Spring is coming based on the very mild winter we’ve had so far in So Cal. I certainly can’t wait for the season to start. Sborz was an easy call. We’ll see if anyone picks him up.
Greetings and good morning from extremely cold Colorado. It is about 7 degrees outside right now. I also think JT will be back. And I think if they get 120 games out of him they will be lucky. JT played in 42 of the 60 regular season games, he had hammy problems, and all 18 of the playoffs and World Series. He played 135 games in 2019. He was only 2-18 in the first two rounds of the playoffs, but then got hot against the Braves and raked against the Rays. Pollock has not played in more than 113 games in the last 5 years, so if they get him for 120, that would be quite an accomplishment. And Pollock was their best hitter against lefty’s last season. I expect Mookie to be better this season. He knows the pitchers a little better, and is getting a hang for the way the ball plays at Dodger Stadium. Of course, he has yet to see the Central and East divisions except for Milwaukee and the Braves who they played in the playoffs. If Lux were to fail, which I do not think he will, Taylor is more than adequate at second. Barnes could also play there on occasion. I expect the Turner drama to be over by Tuesday of next week. The trucks left Dodger Stadium today on their way to Camelback with the equipment. Spring has almost sprung, although judging from the frigid temps here, you would not know it.