The News Gets Worse for MLB

Ohtani’s WAR is 3.5 as a DH–JDM’s is 1.9. Apples to apples. Blake Snell’s WAR is 4.1 and he can pitch next year.

Watford thanks for your kind words. Everybody keeps whistling past the graveyard. I’ll post more if you will too!

Bear if the Dodgers sign Ohtani because they need to sell more jerseys as opposed to fielding the best team then we need new ownership. And they certainly don’t need him to put butts in the seats. They have the highest yearly attendance in MLB by miles and couldn’t fit another 10,,000 people in Dodger Stadium let alone the parking lots!

I can’t conceive that the Dodgers would commit $400MM+ for a player having his second Tommy John surgery. If he can’t pitch you have the most expensive DH in the history of the game. Sign JDM and save the organization $375MM.

Monday, November 6th is the day the Qualifying Offer has to be extended to players.

I am interested in what the Dodgers do with JDM… and what some other teams do.

Very astute!

One thing I see fans continually complaining about is that it is all about the money. Well kiddos, that has been the case, at least for the owners, from the very beginnings of the game. You think O’Malley moved to LA because he liked the climate? The man was a native New Yorker, and those people are notoriously loyal to the city. He moved because Ebbets Field was a disaster and falling apart.

The team was not drawing that well and when he proposed a new site in Brooklyn for the team, they wanted him to build it where Shea Stadium was later located, in Queens. O’Malley did the fiscally sound thing; he bought the Cubs PCL franchise thus gaining rights to the city of Los Angeles. When Robert Moses, who disliked O’Malley immensely because he was Catholic, blocked all his ideas, he made the deal and moved the team west, convincing Giants owner, Horace Stonham, to move to San Francisco so it would make approving the move more attractive to NL owners.

Moving west did a couple of things, first, it opened up the major league market to the west, and it also made air travel pretty much mandatory. No more train trips except on short hops. The Dodgers then bought their own plane. But O’Malley wasn’t in it because he loved the game. He was in it, as all owners are, to make money. That is why the reserve clause binding a player to a team for as long as they wanted him was in effect for so long. It kept salaries down and until the MLBPA came along, it kept salaries low.

Players had to work in the off season, or like Roy Campanella, they owned their own businesses. When you pay 2 billion dollars for a sports franchise, you don’t do it to lose money. The Dodgers are since McCourt was deposed, a cash cow. No matter what some publication might say, the team makes money. And they have a huge local TV deal. So, when a guy like Corey Seager, or Trea Turner leaves for an obscene amount of money, it is just the way it is now.

One poster asked, how can a guy who doesn’t play the field be worth 400 million, or more, over a 10-year period. In Ohtani’s case, it is because at this point in his career, he is one of a kind. Ohtani ranks second to Acuna in jersey sales, and he plays for a losing team. Imagine if he was in Dodger blue. Four of the top 20 jersey sellers are Braves, Acuna, Olson, Riley and Albies. Three Dodgers are on the list, Betts, Freeman and Kershaw. And of course, two Angels, Ohtani and Trout. Jersey sales alone would be in the millions.

Ohtani bobblehead night would be sold out probably. Fiscally, it might not make sense to you, but on the field and in the cash register, it makes a whole lot of sense. Valenzuela put 10,000 extra fans in the seats when he pitched. Ohtani would be doing close to that each time he played. And if he does come back and pitch, even more would come and watch. Plus, the center of the Japanese media would focus on LA. LA has never had that kind of presence from a foreign media even when they had Nomo. They have never had a Japanese offensive player as a star on the team.

Dodgers declined the option on Lance Lynn. No surprise there. Liam Hendricks wins the comeback player of the year award in the AL and the White Sox declined his option and cut him loose. Trayce Thompson and Mike Clevinger are also free agents now. One very intriguing name now a free agent, Domingo German, the Yankees starting pitcher who threw a no-hitter. Kersh will be out until mid-season at least.

1. For some of you, every season that does not end in a World Series title for the Dodgers is a disappointment and either the manager or GM needs to pay the price. No need to go through the reasons they did not win this year but I do wonder if the Braves fans are clamoring for Snitker to be fired or for Anthopoulos to be kicked to the curb after two straight first round flame outs. With a better roster than the Dodgers had this year. It is competitive sports – at the end, there is one winner. The numbers don’t lie. The best team(s) in baseball fail to win the title way more frequently than in the NBA or NFL.

2. Glad Kershaw got shoulder surgery. Admirable that he pitched through that the last six weeks.

3. I agree wholeheartedly with Bear and others who have said enough with signing older veterans. The Cardinal third baseman I would like for Dodgers to get is Nolan Gorman, who is blocked by Arenado. Cardinals need young starting pitching. I would not trade for Adames from the Brewers but I would trade for one of their young outfielders like Sal Frelich and put him in center field.

4. I think the Dodgers may be going through a transition in both personnel and even philosophy. More contact and bat to ball skills, more athletic players, emphasis on speed and stolen bases, defensive range, etc. . Their draft this year, on the surface, seemed to have a different emphasis than past drafts.

Infielder Justin Turner has declined his $13.4M player option in favor of a $6.7M buyout.

Hummm…

Could there be a re-union?

1981 and 2020 were both truncated and shortened seasons. But the wins there are no less legitimate than a full season. Should we discount all of the Champions during WWII because all of the best players were in the service? Stars left during WWI too. All the teams played under the same rules. All the teams had the same chance to win. Only the fans bring up the legitimacy of the titles, not the franchises. And it pisses people who hate the Dodgers off because in both of those years, they prevailed. And in both years, the Dodgers had to do something no other team had ever done. In 81, they had to beat the 2nd half champion Astros in a 5-game series. They did, 3-2. Then they had to beat the East Champion in the NLCS, which they did in dramatic fashion 3 games to 2. Mondays 8th inning homer off of Steve Rogers won it. Then they played the Yankees and won in 6 games. In 2020, they had to play 3 series before they even got to the World Series. They played the entire season and the first two postseason series with no fans in the stands. Hard to get motivated by piped in fan noise. Then they played the NLCS in a neutral stadium with 12,000 fans allowed in and were down 3-1 and came back to win. Then they played the World Series in the same ballpark with limited fans and won a 6-game series for the Championship. Is it their fault that Covid hit? They all played under the same rules both years. If anyone should be pissed about 81, it would be the Reds. They actually won the most games in the NL and did not get to the playoffs. Simply because they did not win their division in either half. Reds lost the first half to the Dodgers by half a game. They finished second to the Astros in the second half by one and a half games. But the Reds won 66 games. Dodgers, 63, Astros, 61. By all accounts, they should have let the teams with the two best records play for the West. Montreal led all the East teams with 60 wins. But they decided to do it like the minors do and have split half champs.

Stevie D

Don’t wait another 79 years to post

You SO understand it

Stone and Busch are technically the only ones who still have rookie Status.

I had not looked at the calculations.

My mistake, I will remove the ones who are no longer eligible.

Thank You!

Queston:

Out of these names, who are still considered prospects?

Sheehan, Pepiot, Stone, Busch, DeLuca.

Because I looked at the top 30 prospects list on the Dodgers website and only Stone and Busch are there.

I’m never worried about spending other people’s money! How can you say not gonna happen when you had him in your 24 lineup earlier?

To Buffalo Dodger – plain and simple you are a jacka—!!

This in response to your comment the other day about Bear.

Did it make you feel good?

Are you such big a loser you needed to say what you did?

I do know there isn’t a chance you are a decent person who has any empathy.

Nobody forced you to come to this site and read the posts.

It is people like you that probably makes Bear and Mark wonder why they put up with some of the s—t.

I have no idea how often you post, but if this blog was mine – it would be 1-strike and you are out!

If the Dodgers sign Ohtani and others and payroll gets to 280-290 mil in 24 what would be the penalty? They’d have to be in the highest penalty bracket.

Discrediting the Dodgers WS title due to a 60 vs 162 game regular season makes as much sense as discrediting wild card teams like the Rangers, who likely depended on a dominant 60 game stretch, or less, to eke into the playoffs. As LAD fans are well aware of, WS titles are not won in the regular season. Titles are won in the playoffs. Like the Rangers this year, the Dodgers won their title with their performance during the playoffs.

What is becoming evident is that teams no longer need to build dominant teams to dominate over a 162 game season. The goal should be to build teams, in particular pitching staffs, who possess the ability to dominate over the short term.

This may not go down well for many of my Dodger brothers here, but i try to shoot straight in my thinking.

I’m glad there is an asterisk next to our WS win several years ago. I believe there should be because after all, it was only a 60 game season. Our pitchers didn’t have enough time to break down like they usually do over 162 games. I’m still waiting to see us win a “normal” World Series but I think maybe we should make it our goal to come in 2nd place in the West.

Until we win the WS in a 162 game season I do feel that win is somewhat tainted and not really worthy of me thumping my chest over. What Texas just did ….now that is something to be proud of and to thump one’s chest over. (Love you Corey Seager)

Okay, let me have it.

He’s coming back to Dodgers! And Mark, your lineup needs a bigger RH bat than Deluca on the bench. That’s a lot of lefties in that lineup and a lot of question marks. But I’d love to give Vargas and Busch a real shot next year. Ohtani and two good starters. And I’m moving on from Barnes!

I’m utterly shocked about Kershaw’s surgery.

Next, somebody is going to tell me congress can’t agree on anything.

Jokes aside, it’s obvious Kershaw wants to play again next year. Question is, with the Dodgers? Or the defending Word Champs?

Mark

My question is why is Hader a clubhouse cancer?

I googled it and all I found is that he refused to enter the 8th inning more than once.

Forget the money aspect.

Since the Dodgers have Phillips, Brazier, Graterol under contract and I think they should keep S. Miller and all of them were dominant this season, those guys can handle the innings leading up to the 9th inning and then Hader.

Forgive me for my philosophy of having as many shutdown guys in the bullpen as possible so you pretty much know that you’ll win if you can get the lead by a certain inning depending on how many shutdown relievers you have. I love that philosophy.

The hitters and starting pitchers work their ass off to get a lead by the 6th inning lets say and then turn it over to your dominant relievers. What it also does is save innings on your starting pitchers.

Kershaw just announced that he had shoulder surgery.

The thing about Otani that no one’s talking about – he’s having his 2nd Tommy John surgery. The track record of starting pitchers who have had two isn’t very good. He’s not exactly a sure thing to come back as a pitcher.

https://apnews.com/article/ohtani-tommy-john-surgery-c608cd334a5aaadc48ff105cf95b0f39

Kershaw announces on his Instagram account that he has undergone shoulder surgery, a repair of the gleno-humeral ligaments and capsule. He hopes to return to pitching next summer.

I’m sure this has been in the works for some time and I’d be willing to bet that if he comes back it will be in a Dodger uniform rather than the Rangers. I think his last performance left a really bad taste in his mouth and he feels he has unfinished work here.

yes, but only one costs $400MM+

Clayton had shoulder surgery.

Bluto, the key word, as always, is “if”. That’s a ton of money for “if”!

I’m really dense. Can someone explain to me why we would want to shell out $400MM+ for someone who can’t play defense. can’t pitch next year for sure and maybe never again and may hit alot of homeruns? We have plenty of all of those already and they don’t cost $400MM+

With the Muncy signing, just don’t see an opportunity for both Vargas and Busch next year. One of them will get traded

Lot to take in here.

Is baseball dying a slow death? We base that on TV ratings, right. Well, baseball is a regional sport. Fans in those respective areas care, but does the rest of the country? Probably not. It’s not like football, which is once a week, leading up to a single game championship, the Super Bowl. Gather everyone, have a party and watch the game.

But baseball may go seven games. Yes, the games are stretched out in the playoffs, they play this day and not that day. It should be played like the regular season. Part of that is about television and the money. Always about the money. That’s why the PAC 12 will cease to exist next year.

Plus no one network has the games. You have to search for them. Some people may not even have those channels, depending on your cable or satellite package. Many have basic packages, the network channels. How long has it been since a major network broadcast the World Series?

Plus look at all of the other sports. Soccer, hockey, basketball, golf (both men’s and women’s) not to mention the growth of college sports on TV. You also have other entertainment options including all kinds of movies and series on paid TV services. Lot to choose from.

Honestly, I mostly don’t care about the World Series, unless the Dodgers are playing. I watched some this year because Corey Seager was playing and I like Seager.

For the most part, baseball’s biggest stars weren’t playing. No Judge, no Ohtani, no Trout, no Acuna. Quick, who is the superstar on Arizona? They didn’t have one. Does baseball do a good job selling star power? No, probably not. Besides in baseball, it’s all about the big contract, not stats or personality. Watch the winter meetings, pretty much the talk is about money, the size and length of the contract. Scott Boras even holds court, surrounded by media

So why would anybody be surprised. We live in a different world today. More competition for viewers, more things to do and less recognizable teams making it on the big stage.

Ohtani is the biggest thing to hit baseball in ages, but the Angels never made the playoffs. Trout isn’t particularly interested in promotion and now he has trouble staying on the field. He plays for the Angels, no World Series in his future.

But give some credit to baseball too. The players are more accessible and cities like LA draw huge crowds.

Baseball has made a big effort to bring minorities into the sport, but just look at high school. Football and basketball are the big sports, draw the crowds and excitement. Go to a prep baseball game and you might see 50 or a hundred people there.

As to the World Series, is anybody still talking about it, other than the playoff format and why the big winners weren’t in the Fall Classic.

So where is the buzz. It’s centered on Ohtani. Big story in the Times today. Will the Dodgers sign Ohtani?

2020 is way more legitimate than 2017! played more playoff games and didn’t cheat to win it! that said, it looks pretty much like the Dodgers could (a) sign Ohtani and leave Muncy at third, or (b) go after a 3rd baseman and let Max DH. I know Bear you think Arenado isn’t available, but there’s a lot of buzz on internet he could be. if, and I say if that’s true could Dodgers sign Ohtani and move Max in a deal? just asking. I wouldn’t mind that especially if they have any idea of playing Max at 2nd. Read this morning they might kick the tires on Kyle Hendricks, why? They have Miller, Pepiot, Buehler (if healthy), Sheehan. they would need a left-hand starter (if Clayton leaves). I don’t believe the starting pitching is in as dire straits as some do. shore up the pen and strengthen the outfield. would Friedman change his mind about Tommy Pham? guy wanted to come to LA. do they bring Peralta back(no). I don’t know how the infield defense looks with Max and Lux on the left side of the infield. if they did bring Arenado in, they could let Lux play 2nd and give Rojas majority of starts at shortstop with Mookie staying in right. Max at DH and possible platoon in left. Outman in center. the Ohtani thing is fascinating! If I were placing a major bet in Las Vegas my money would be on the Dodgers passing on Ohtani now that Max has been extended. call me a redundant moron, but I believe Arenado is more likely to be a Dodger than Ohtani. lot of buzz around Glassnow and Burnes. if healthy, Glassnow would be a hell of 1-2 with Miller!

Yes dodger fans are definitely spoiled for wanting their first full season championship in 35 years and how dare them for being upset over getting completely embarrassed last two years

Mookie Betts lowered his asking price for his Encino mansion to 8.4 million dollars. He bought it from Chip Kelly for 6.4 million in 2020. Cody Bellinger won the NL Comeback player of the year award.

What the LAD need is for their starting pitchers to stay healthy and/or stop beating their wives.

The Dodgers only shoot crap in October

We just need to suck less in the postseason.

When your team scores 6 runs in 3 games you better have a bunch of Koufax clones pitching.

I think we all understand it is not that easy to win Championships. I have said this several times over the last few months, Dodger fans are spoiled. They expect to win, and those high expectations don’t mean results. I think most of us were surprised this team did as well as it did with all the injuries and basically a rotation full of question marks. I for one was proud they even got where they did. At my age, I learned a long time ago that the game tosses you a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs, and sometimes, daily surprises. For one, I thought for sure after his struggles in May and June that Outman was going to be sent down. After all, he struck out 60 times in that period over 146 at bats and had 2 homers. But he turned it around in June, hit about .280 over the next two months with 8 homers and 24 driven in, and cut his K’s down by 7. He slumped in September and October but hit 6 more homers. His finishing with a .248/23/70 line and an OPS at .790 was not expected.

What killed the Dodgers in the postseason in my eyes was them not getting a top of the line starting pitcher to go along with their talented kids. Lynn did ok, but he is too homer prone.

Bruce Bochy has won 15 of 16 playoff series. His playoff record is 49-21. That’s a .700 winning percentage. He is 6-0 in elimination games. I may be out of my rabbit-ass mind but you refuse to look at his results. If the playoffs are a “crap shoot” then Bochy ought to move to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, over the past 11 seasons the Dodgers are 48-45 in playoff games and have won 14 series and lost 12. That’s a far cry from their regular season results.

You can keep coming up with excuses but you can’t change the factual history. Remember the definition of insanity!

Mark

From your writing up top yesterday it was obvious that you were talking about me because you have told me several times that I only look at stats.

From your 2nd paragraph yesterday “I never called you a moron, but if you identify as one. I can’t stop you.”

What? You have called me a moron plenty of times. So that’s a lie.

From your 2nd paragraph yesterday “why is Cartaya in the Top 30”

He’s in there because the experts or whatever you called them put him there. And as I said yesterday I will have him either barely in my top 10 or barely out of my top 10 list when I make a new one.

From your 3rd paragraph “I never called you a moron, but if you identify as one by only using statistics, that is on you!”

There’s moron again and there you go again telling me I only use statistics and that makes it obvious that you were talking about me in your writing up top yesterday.

By the way, I take in consideration from the experts and I also rely heavily on stats.

Mark, you closed the comments for the prior post but in answer to your comment, I was not comparing the last two years to anything–I was just saying that the Dodgers performance over the last 11 years has been much worse than their regular season record. That doesn’t have anything to do with Manfred or the playoff format. Or, for that matter, the Astros cheating, or the “crap shoot” theory, They are all just excuses.

You guys keep coming up with all sorts of bogus reasons to avoid facing the fact that the Dodgers have sucked in the playoffs.