Author Archive: Phil Gurnee
Too much patience or too little?
Baseball writer Craig Minami made the following comment in a TrueBlueLa comment section last night. It is the mantra of the common sense baseball fan who can look at a team from afar and realize that team building takes place over twelve months with no offseason. The team you see in December is not the …
Look back at the Russell Martin Dodger career via TRUEBLUELA archives
The rise and fall of Russell Martin’s Dodger career came just as Dodger blog http://www.truebluela was beginning to ascend into relevancy. Andrew Grant headed the blog when Russell Martin became the starting catcher in May of 2006 but the first article he wrote about Martin didn’t come until Aug 25th, 2006. Andrew Grant – Aug …
Trouble with the curve
Wasn’t much of a baseball movie but it could be the title of Russell Martin’s 2018 season. Eddy Almaguer of a http://www.propsectslive reviewed the trade last week that brought Russell Martin back to Los Angeles in exchange for Ronny Brito and Andrew Sopko. Eddy broke down the Martin 2018 season and found that the reason for …
Dodgers 2015/2016 IFA class has been trade fodder
Working off this tweet from @futuredodgers From the Dodgers’ huge 2015-16 IFA class: Yadier Alvarez (16MM) **Yusniel Diaz (15.5MM) Omar Estevez (6MM) Starling Heredia (2.6MM) **Yordan Alvarez (2MM) **Ronny Brito (2MM) **Oneil Cruz (950K) **Christopher Arias (500K) Carlos Rincon (350K) **No longer in the organization — Future Dodgers (@FutureDodgers) January 11, 2019 None of those …
June 20th is the date to remember
I can’t get hung up on Austin Barnes as the starting catcher. Barnes will either grow into the role and be more than adequate, or the Dodgers replace him externally or internally. I’m betting on internally. HOF Pudge Rodriguez was twenty years old on June 20th, 1991 when he started his major league career. It …
No Harper, Kluber, Realmuto, Grandal, Wood, Puig, or Kemp
Which means that right now, Alex Verdugo is your starting right fielder, and Austin Barnes is your starting catcher. I don’t think Dodger fans were expecting that when news broke that the Dodgers had traded solid rotation piece Alex Wood, fan favorite Yasiel Puig and prodigal son Matt Kemp for prospects and flexibility but a …
The day Willie Ellison ran wild
The different iterations of the Rams have had their share of fantastic running backs, but the guy who still holds the single-game record for rushing is probably an unknown to anyone under the age of 50. Only one Ram running back has ever rushed for more than 240 yards from scrimmage and his name is …
Why does Joc get so little love?
I didn’t expect much from Joc when he came up in 2015 but he surprised me with how he played CF, and of course, his first few months were Puig like which may have set the expectations at an unreasonable level. By May 1st, 2015, Joc had an OPS of 1.096 while playing some of …
Fangraphs Crowdsource HOF Ballot
Can I have a do-over? Jay Jaffe reminded fangraphs members that today was the last day to submit their 2019 HOF vote in their HOF Crowdsource ballot. I used to be a big HOF debate person as I watched solid HOF candidates get zero traction and disappear off the ballot before a groundswell of support …
Lou Williams gives sellers remorse over and over
Watching Lou Williams once again decimate the Lakers on Friday Night, I got to thinking that every team that has traded him, has to be suffering from sellers remorse and he’s been traded three times in five years. Lou Williams was traded by the Hawks in the summer of 2014 for John Salmons. Lou would …
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 