It s Not All About Bryce Harper

Now that is indeed a dope fiend move by the Phillies. I was hoping the FO would sign him but only with a larger AAV short term deal. Borasss played the west coast bent to his advantage and got the Phillies to extend the total number of years.

Bryce would have looked good in Dodger blue but now it’s time to focus on the guys we got and I’m hoping for a big Verdugo year.

They lost Realmuto to the phillies because tight with prospects. They lost Harper to phillies tight with money. Lost Stanton to Yankees. Lost chapman to cubs. List goes on and on. They do realize they will have to beat the phillies to get to the world series. So they cant Nolan anymore. Kershaw is hurt again. Dodgers ownership sucks with Tv deal and getting the Dodgers over the hump. But we signed a guy to a minor league contract today. Lost Greinke to the snakes too. I know everyone will have excuses. Tiresome to lose players.

Everyone Joe had a good question, can the Phillies afford Trout too?

I guess making a deal for Harper was a no-brainer after all, at least for A.F.

How do you not ask for opt outs in a 13 year contract, especially with a 13 year contract in Philadelphia where the fans can turn on you at a moment’s notice. Supposedly the contract is front loaded so he gets more money in the earlier years which is another reason to demand one or more opt outs (after you’ve gotten the big years paid to you). As far as the 13 year length is concerned, that was just Boras doing the Phils a favor. He told them they needed to beat the $325 mil Stanton contract so they asked for the extra 3 years to reduce the AAV. That helps the Phils much more than it does Harper.

Now I will enjoy watching Harper play at Dodger Stadium

Well that was fun! Congratulations to Bryce Harper and that big fat contract. I’m surprised that he took way less AAV than Nolan and Manny for extra years. I think that works in the Phillies favor with less of a CBT CAP hit. Like Albert, those years on the back end will be excruciating. Unlike Albert, at least they will get some productive years out of it.

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From a fan’s perspective, it would be great to get a difference make of Harper’s caliber. But, as fans, we don’t always know what’s best. Time will tell how this works out. It looked like he wanted to be a Dodger, but money got in the way and he had to make a decision between money, winning, and location. It looks like we have an idea about what’s most important to him.

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I gave up hope with the Phillies rumors about two weeks ago and got sucked back in with “the visit” in the beginning of the week. Now, the team looks settled again. Joc / Alex and the empty promises of less platoons. Pitching looked great until Kershaw broke yet again. The Padres and Rockies have larger payroll, but still not enough to seriously threaten us. The AL powerhouses Astros and Red Sox look a little weaker and the Yankees look a bit stronger. The Nats are very good, The Mets might surprise, The Braves and Cardinals improved on paper, but could take a step back. The Brewers are pretenders. The Phillies are still gonna suck.

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Ready for another Yankees v Dodgers World Series? I know I am.

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Kershaw reported feeling better after today’s 5 minutes of catch. So, there’s something positive.

I’ll re-visit today’s signing tomorrow. I just arrived at John Wayne to fly home with a prior stop and In n Out Burger.

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James talks about losing players – We did not lose Harper. Fans may have lost Harper, but like Greinke, Manny, Chapman and others, the Dodgers did not “lose” them. They chose not to pay what they wanted. That’s not a loss – it’s a gain.

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After 4 years of AF, some of you still do not get it. The only correlation between signing free agents to long term huge contracts is a correlation to being mediocre! Watch and learn…. after 4 years you should have already figured it out… but… there’s still hope.

Well my uncle took a message and he wrote it on the wall……

My last Harper comment is I bet we offered 3 years $135 mil.

No doubt that the Dodgers help bid up the price for Harper, forcing the Phillies owner to spend “stupid money” to get him. Taking a player out to his age 38 season is not advisable. No doubt, the amount of money spent in the later years of the contract will not seem as much then as it does now, but still it will be a significant amount in any case.

Boras reportedly said that Harper had an offer(s) for a shorter term worth a $45 million AAV. If so, and the Dodgers made such an offer, then it is reasonable to speculate that should an opportunity present itself during the coming season, the Dodgers will likely have the financial flexibility to take advantage.

My sons are 15….They will be 28 at end of Harper’s contract….I was a little upset that we did not “win” the auction but I am not sure 13/330 Mil is winning. At least he is not a Giant.

Are we going to be in on trout? Absolutely!! We will meet with his agent, we will talk about what a generational player he is, we will then offer 5 years at 20 million. If he doesn’t accept that dope fiend money then we will sign Jose Martinez right out from under the Cards! Maybe not he is not a free agent for another year so we might have to settle for a harder working puig! While we are at it if kershaw has tommy john we might extend him for another 3 years. Seriously, why are the players whining with this contract, machado, Corbin, kershaw, plenty of money has been spent on free agents. It was exciting but I am just glad Arenado went ahead and signed so we don’t have to follow the free agency. No, we will not be in on trout or any other long term free agent unless they are named seager or bellinger.

Looks like we have a new leadoff hitter

Pollock isn’t perfect in that role but I like having someone who isn’t platooned

I totally get and understand if the F.O. doesn’t think there is value is signing players to long free agent contracts. Certainly, Friedman & Co. have put together an extremely talented roster without compromising their principles.

I also think the best way to build a strong organization is through drafting, international signings, and player development. Philosophically, I’d much rather have a team of [mostly] homegrown players than a constantly rotating group of mercenaries plugged in to fill roster spots.

That said, there are times when you need to take a moon shot, to use the expression often ascribed to Elon Musk [someone once called him a “walking moonshot” due to his willingness to aim high]. I don’t think we quite did it with Yu Darvish; we pretty much did with Machado; and we certainly didn’t with Kershaw [post opt-out].

I believe we will continue to go year-to-year with our arb.-eligible players to help keep the team AAV down. I guess at some point we may be faced with the choice of whether to give a large contract to Seager/Bellinger/Buehler. When that time comes, we will have no advantage over other teams other than familiarity and a small window when only we can make an offer.

I trust that we know what we’re looking for in a player and we know what price we’re willing to spend. Obviously this process was played out this off-season and I’m sure Friedman & Co. are satisfied with the outcome.

As fans though, I think we collectively might be feeling a bit sold short. After two near-misses on a championship, the road just gets harder from here. There are no points given for getting close. We have the same hill to climb and now have to compete with a whole new set of competitors, some with more money to spend and some with even deeper farm systems.

All the pressure right now is on the players on the field, which is as it should be. I expect this team to be very good and come out of the gates very sharp. Roberts knows from last year you can’t just “activate” and make the playoffs. That honor will have to be earned.

Today is not a setback nor is it a wake-up call. It’s nothing more than a vote of confidence in the guys we have and the guys we have coming up behind them. All our solutions are currently in-house.

This sums up everything. A lot of fans dont care about being hamstrung by a contract. We want a title.

The 13-year length of Harper’s contract is insane. The $330-million value is crazy.

You know what’s also insane? The Dodgers collecting more than $8 billion on a television contract that essentially keeps the games out of the homes of the majority of Angelenos.

You know what’s also crazy? The Dodgers generally raising prices even though the team continually falls short of raising a championship flag. This year, for example, advance parking rates have increased from $15 to $17, with day-of-game parking still at $25.

You know how much general parking costs at an Angels game in Anaheim? Ten bucks.

According to Team Marketing Report, the cost of taking a family of four to a Dodgers game has jumped 31% since the first full year of Guggenheim’s ownership in 2013. That’s an increase of one-third with a championship payoff of zero.

The Dodgers blinked, and now you have to blink and realize the truth.

While Andrew Friedman and his crew have admirably built six consecutive West Division champions and two consecutive World Series teams, an organization with buckets of chips will not push them all in for a shot at one big pot.

In his five years here, Friedman has never spent more than $60 million for a free agent from outside the organization. Even when he has paid big money to retain the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner, he’s never paid out more than $91 million. Those are outrageous sums, of course, but in the high-priced world of baseball’s top free agents, that just doesn’t play.

Make no mistake, the Dodgers’ method of building from within and making a big splash at the trade deadline — Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Rich Hill — has worked. They are always playing in October. Once there, they always have legitimate title aspirations. They generally fight to the finish line. Two seasons ago they finished one win short. Last year, three wins short. It’s indeed tough to blame the lack of a big-time free agent for Darvish’s meltdown, Cody Bellinger’s swing or Hill’s departure in the seventh inning.

It’s worked, but it’s not worked well enough, and it’s tough to think they’re not doing everything they can to win that last series, that last game, that final pitch. In a star-driven town where the most popular franchise brings in LeBron James and actually celebrates the chance to spend more big money, it’s hard to swallow the notion that the Dodgers would forsake a chance at even one more win to watch their wallet.

One of baseball’s richest franchises pursuing a willing recruit like Harper and then losing him strictly over his salary demands just doesn’t equate. Harper almost certainly won’t be worth $330 million. He certainly wouldn’t have hurt, though, and it certainly would have been worth it to frustrated Dodger fans to find out.

The word is that the Dodgers might have gone as high as five years and $225 million for Harper. The guess here is that he would have taken less money to come to Los Angeles, considering it easily was his first choice. Couldn’t there have been a compromise in there somewhere?

Now Harper takes his talents to a place where some media and fans mercilessly ripped him earlier this week when it appeared they had lost him to the Dodgers. One talk show host tweeted that Harper “can go to hell.’’ A talk show caller said he wanted to spit on him.

Dodgers fans would have loved him, but the Dodgers won’t pay for him, so now they will prepare for the 2019 season without him, another solid team playing in a lousy division, probable West champions again, but beyond that?

There’s little buzz. There’s dwindling patience. A.J. Pollock is their big free-agent acquisition, but can the injury-prone outfielder stay on the field? Friedman probably will do something big again at midseason and make it work. But will it work well enough?

If it doesn’t work again, well, next winter they can always spend big on Colorado’s Nolan Arenado … nah, he just re-signed there. OK, then they can spend big on … ah, forget it.

Once again, when it comes to bringing a star to Hollywood, the Dodgers are more about raising prices than raising hopes.

Great effort PalmDale…

Now we get to business with the kids and vets we got… Sweet

Arty Moreno will sign Mike… It will mean more billboards for him..

AF was willing to pay Harper as much as he thought Harper was worth. The bottomline is AF thought Harper was worth less to the Dodgers than the the Phillies thought he was worth to them.

Bryce Harper thought what the Phillies had to offer was worth more to him then what the Dodgers were offering.

Pretty much the way it goes.

I’m giving Brad Miller a legit shot to make the team. Depending on a lot of things (who plays 2b, does Verdugo make the roster, is Seager healthy, do we carry 13 pitchers), he could very well be Freese’s counterpart as an IF bench piece. Taylor and Kikė are both great but they might be starting a lot. Miller could fit as a LH bat and additional utility player. Eager to see him.

Can we stop Harping and get back to meaningless spring training games?

Being reported by Morosi that the Dodgers offered Harper a 4-year deal for $180 million, a $45 million AAV. So really, it’s not so much money, as it is the Dodgers’ unwillingness to do long term deals.

I can’t believe some guys are actually bummed we didn’t get Harper. At the price the Phillies paid? Are you friggin’ kidding me?!?! Going to insert Marks go to phrase “DOPE FIEND MOVE!!!”. Phillies talked about spending “stupid” money, and that’s what they did. How in the HELL did Borass get 13 years out of them? When all the smoke has cleared and the rose colored glasses have worn out, you have overpaid for a good hitter not named Trout or Arenado and a very marginal defender who would be best served in left field. Like my son said today,”Harper makes playing right field look hard”. Mark my words, just like the D-Bags and Greinke, in about 4 years you will hear the Phillies front office bitching about limited financial flexibility because of Harpers contract, asking for someone to take the boat anchor off their chests. And if I hear the phrase “Generational talent” one more time about this guy, I’m gonna hurl. If Brooklyn Dodger is correct in quoting Morosi, I can sleep at night. Notice that we only offered 4 years? That’s because right around that time the contract starts going south (See Pujols and Greinke, and probably A-Rod with the Yankees). This shows me that all the Freidman bashers need to step back, he didn’t go “cheap”, he just didn’t want to screw his team for the next 10 years. I was kind of hoping the Giants would take the bait, but it looks like Farhan did the same thing Freidman did and walked away from the boat anchor. Totally at peace with this.

I would have taken the $45 AAV. What a dumb$h!t!

Harper took the Greinke route and chose the money. That is about 150 mil more than the Dodgers offered if true. Let’s say he had taken the Dodgers offer and at the age of thirty become a free agent again. He would have 9 years to make the 150 million more that the Phillies offered. That would have certainly been risky for him so he chose to go to a team it seems he really didn’t want to play for. I don’t know what I would have done but I can’t fault him for his decision. The Phillies have improved their team tremendously so far with Kimbrel still out there. For his sake I hope he performs or he will be treated roughly in philly. He should be in a position to win with the Phillies. As for the Dodgers, well they saved money and probably didn’t expect Harper to take their offer anyway. It was well documented that he was not going to take a short term deal. So why did the Dodgers bother? AF said they are always trying to improve so apparently he felt the Dodgers would be better with him than without. I happen to agree. So we are going to have to figure out how to win without the best players because we are not going to make any dope fiend moves. We have some very good players and sustained success but we havent done as much to improve as the Phillies, cards, and nationalsto name a few.. We have improved by eliminating attitude, adding Kelly, on paper a rh hitting pollock, re-signing ryu, getting urias healthy, 2nd year of buehler, a healthy seager a top 5 player, and I could go on. However, I think the biggest improvement will be not having a World Series hangover. We did last year. Roberts decided to slow walk and rest on the laurels of the year before, a turner injury, Jansen not ready, unsteady bullpen, loss of seager, and we were hanging on for dear life. But, this year I think we are recovering from an embarrassing World Series, have some new blood, more healthy, a year of experience in the bp, a better attitude, we have a few comeback players, and will get off to a better start with a little more feel of urgency and not complacency. The Dodgers could roll this year.

It’s only money but the following players make the ML minimum of $555K this year:

Cody

Buehler

Muncy

Barnes

Strip

Verdugo

Urias

Alexander

Shaggy

There’s more young players on the way too so the team had room and was willing to throw big $$ at Harper. $45M per year is 9 times all those players combined. I am glad he turned it down but surprised it was even offered.