Author Archive: Phil Gurnee
Mitch White impresses Keith Law
A couple of notes on Mitch White and Julio Urias. Typically the Dodgers do poorly with second round picks but they may have gotten a gem this time. Keith Law chimed in on what he saw this week: White went with the 65th overall pick in that draft, but if teams redrafted today, he …
Dodgers renew Seager
According to Jon Heyman the LAD renewed their superstar shorstop for $575,000. They had an opportunity to reward Seager with the largest second-year renewal in baseball but decided to give Seager a modest raise. For some context, the Cubs gave Kris Bryant $625,000 after his 2015 season. Byrant had a great rookie season but he wasn’t a …
The Giving Tree
The children’s classic book “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein was probably a mainstay in every parent’s library/kindle or elementary school library for the past fifty years even though the meaning of the book has been hotly debated. I personally always thought the kid was a selfish prick who didn’t deserve the stump to sit on, …
Scoresheet LAD style
One of my favorite games during the summer is playing Scoresheet baseball. It is something akin to the old Strata-Matic game except an algorithm uses the actual stats for the week to determine how you did against your opponent. It only uses the raw data, so we are talking at-bats. hits, type of hits. No …
ha ha ha
If you are going to give up fourteen runs in a game, the best possible time to do it is in the 9th inning of a cactus league game when many of the sold out crowd were already heading home and with names like Istler, Griggs, Paredes, and Hooper. What a hitting parade by the …
Treasonist?
I’m enjoying the WBC but some of my fellow Americans might think I’m a tad unpatriotic because I simply can’t find it in me to root for the US team. Watching little countries bring down big countries has always made my heart smile. Of course, when a country like the DR has a lineup that …
McCarthy stamps while regulars rake
Last night Brandon McCarthy and the Dodgers expected to be part of the opening day lineup laid waste to the Rangers. McCarthy pitched the best three innings of the spring among those battling for a spot in the rotation. Granted he did it against an AAA Texas Ranger lineup but it still had encouraging signs. …
Petty grievances
I once heard/read that only petty people have petty grievances. Petty be me I find it amusing the things that somewhat intelligent people get their knickers in a twist about until I remember how twisted my knickers are. I almost never forgave Sandy Koufax when I was seven when my brother told me Koufax loved …
Upper cut
Travis Sawchik at Fangraphs recently put up an interview with JD Martinez that might change how you view baseball this year. Martinez was once a slap hitting outfielder who had failed to establish himself as a bonafide major league baseball player. He revamped his swing and has become one of the most potent hitters in …
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 