Mark Timmons

Kike Hernandez and Edwin Diaz will be back next week (barring a setback). Alex Freeland will have to go back to OKC when that happens... or be traded. That…

Mark Timmons is London-bound and will be off the blog for about 10 days.

Winning two games of a three-game series in the Bronx is a good way to start the stretch run. I think you will see more urgency now.

We flipped the website to a new platform yesterday, and this is the first post. It currently feels like a foreign object to me. I will have to get used to it, and so will you. As I said... There will be glitches and changes. Be Patient!

I did this interview a couple of weeks ago with Chef Mike, who runs the Dodgers Food Trailer for the Great Lakes Loons. They are there for every home and road regular season and playoff game. They prepare three meals a day for approximately 50 people (players and coaches). Since games end late most evenings, they do not prepare breakfast. Many of their hotels have a complimentary breakfast anyway. However,…

It’s been a few days since I did this interview. We have evidently been working my son-in-law (the video guy) like a rented mule at US Water Systems. However, I am taking him to London with me in a few days, so maybe Watford will buy him a pint as a tip, but he’s a dang Red Sox fan, so there is that! I thought that it would be interesting…

The Dodgers are not exactly storming toward the finish line right now. They are sleepwalking. They have built an 11-game lead, turned the division race into a cakewalk, and seem to be playing with the urgency of a team waiting for October to arrive. The edge is missing. The intensity comes and goes. At times, they look less like a hungry championship club and more like a veteran team trying…

This version of LA Dodger Talk has been around for close to ten years. It’s time to retire it. In the next couple of weeks, the NEW & IMPROVED VERSION of LADT will appear. Hopefully, it will be free of glitches and downtime, but if you wake up some day and we are gone, be patient – we will be back. Here’s a sneak peek of it: Be patient, but…

I generally don’t have a “favorite” player… kind of like I don’t have a favorite kid… or grandkid. However, I am unashamed to say that Alex Freeland is now my favorite player, simply because of what he has had to overcome to get where he is. I admire his parents for what they did for him, and I admire his indomitable spirit. However, the time has come for Alex to…

This was written by Bumsrap. When we start the new site, his name will appear as the author, but it does not here. Rob: I heard it again after last night’s game. Dawn: “The Dodgers buy championships?” Rob: Every. Single. Time. Ethan: Well…the Dodgers do spend a lot of money. Rob: Exactly! Why does everybody act like that’s some kind of secret? Dawn: Because it’s easier than having a longer…

Yesterday, Dodgerpatch asked about a woman who posted here years ago. She is not forgotten. He wrote this: “Who was the former poster here who loved Sonny Gray. She was a female, and she always wanted the Dodgers to go out and get Sonny Gray when he was with Oakland. She also was very fond of Andrew Toles. She disappeared for a while, and Mark did a little sleuthing and…

We already know that the Dodgers are the class of MLB with some of the finest facilities and operations on the planet. The player development program is likely the finest in MLB. Andrew Friedman is the best at what he does. Prove me wrong! The manager will be in the Hall of Fame someday, and the coaches and front office personnel are Top Shelf. However, the Los Angeles Dodgers are…

I do this (Rants & Raves) when there isn’t a single subject I want to address… but a plethora of them. Reno Aces (Dbacks) 4 – OKC Comets 3 – 10 innings RHSP Landon Knack made his season debut. It could have gone better. He allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, 1 BB, and 2 K. In 1.2 IP, Knack allowed 2 runs on 5 hits,1 BB, 2 K. In…

A Dodgers fan conversation about prospects, trades, panic, patience, and the baseball gods. Written by Bumsrap (even though it says I am the author – I am not!) Rob: I’ve made a decision. Dawn: That usually means something regrettable is about to happen. Ethan: Let’s hear it. Rob: Trade them all. Dawn: All who? Rob: The prospects. Dawn: Every prospect in the organization? Rob: Every last one. Ethan: That’s an…

The Dodgers currently have four outfielders in the minor leagues who would likely be playing on several MLB teams if they were in another organization. Currently, they are not playing in the major leagues… or another organization for that matter! The BIG FOUR LIST includes: You could/should also add in Eduardo Quinaro, Zyhir Hope, Charles Davalan, Brendan Tunink, Ching-Hsien Ko, Kellen Lindsey (some think he may end up in CF),…

The WordPress platform that www.ladodgertalk.com is on is aging, unlike our writers! 😉 It is time for an upgrade… not a facelift, but rather, a “Full Body Transplant.” I have to tell you a story about my old developer. His name was Shawn, and when I hired him almost 22 years ago, he was living in his mother-in-law’s attic… living on unemployment. He was a tech nerd in every way,…

A good percentage of comments on this blog relate to “who bats where” in the batting order. … and on and on… Where should everyone hit? A better question is: “Does it matter?’ Modern sabermetric studies have found that batting order matters, but the difference between a good lineup and a perfectly optimized lineup is usually only about 10 to 20 runs over an entire season, which translates to roughly…

I grew up in Ohio and lived there until 1976, when I was 23 years old. I have been in Indiana for 50 years, so I consider myself a Hoosier. Now, I actually live 45 minutes from Bloomington, where the IU Hoosiers play. However, since I was nine years old, I have been a Dodger fan. You know the story! I have been absent from the blog a lot this…

NOTE: I wrote this BEFORE the Dodgers announced that Will Smith was going on the IL, Will Smith has been one of the best, if not THE best, catchers in baseball for the past few years. But Will Smith is not a big guy – he is on the smallish side, while Dalton Rushing is a little…

Some things are never meant to be spoken of again. Yesterday was one of those days. The Angels beat the Dodgers like rented mules. Erase it from your memory banks. Move on… Nothing to see here, Folks. The Dodgers got mauled by the Angels. This is unspeakable! One game means…

But… he gets it right more than most of us! I am not going to name names (OK, I’ll name one: Mark Timmons), but many Dodger fans have been extremely hard on Roki Sasaki, AND Andrew Friedman, and Brandon Gomes (by extension), saying that Roki needed to go to OKC to learn to…

What do you do when you don’t need to do anything? The Dodgers now have the 2nd best record in baseball… 2 games behind the Braves (whom I believe will soon fade). If Kyle Tucker is finally figuring it out (I am not saying he is… but I now have hope), and if Mookie Betts can be…

Dayton is an easy two-hour drive from Indy, but due to road construction, it took an extra half hour. I grew up near Dayton, and Dayton was never a nice city in my mind. Every big city has its bad areas, but Dayton seemed to have more than its share. I am happy to report that…

In all the years playing all kinds of sports (at an amateur level), I did not have a hamstring strain until I was 52 years old, and it was a doozy! Grade 3, which is the worst. My wife was making fun of me, saying, “Rub some dirt on it.” However, the next morning the whole back…

With this team, hitting is a group sport. When two are seeing it, four are. When two go cold, the whole lineup goes cold. It's the strangest offense I've watched in 40 years.

It is always beyond good to go into Milwaukee and take two out of three. The bullpen looked like the bullpen we were promised in February.

The Dodgers are about to face a very tough NL adversary in the Milwaukee Brewers. Records, pitching matchups, and what to watch for.

Yes, the deferred-money strategy is clever. Yes, the Ohtani contract is structurally brilliant. But the bill is going to come due, and the math gets uglier every year we extend a star.

Twenty-eight at-bats. Two hits. One run. That was the offense last night. There is no defending it and no analyzing it. Some nights you just no-show.

I remember a couple of years ago and again last year, when many Dodger fans wanted to get rid of Max Muncy and bring in Nolan Arenado. I remember that many thought Mookie Betts could not play SS, and after last season, Andy Pages was toast. Many also thought that Alex Freeland…